"Samaritan, member of a community of Jews, now nearly extinct, that claims to be related by blood to those Jews of ancient Samaria who were not deported by the Assyrian conquerors of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. The Samaritans call themselves Bene-Yisrael (“Children of Israel”), or Shamerim (“Observant Ones”), for their sole norm of religious observance is the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament). Other Jews call them simply Shomronim (Samaritans); in the Talmud (rabbinical compendium of law, lore, and commentary), they are called Kutim, suggesting that they are rather descendants of Mesopotamian Cuthaeans, who settled in Samaria after the Assyrian conquest." From Britannica.com
Note: the Roman Government, in the early centuries A.D., put out a series of coins commemorating Mt. Gerizim and the temple located on it. The Samaritans consider the temple on Mt Gerizim to be the true temple and not the one in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority states, "Today we can state with certainty that the first phase of the temple on Mount Gerizim was erected in the middle of the fifth century BCE by Sanballat the Horonite, a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, who lived more than one hundred years before the Sanballat that is mentioned by Josephus. Sanballat from the time of Nehemiah was probably a resident of Hawara (Horon), located at the foot of Mount Gerizim, and was a descendant of the last Israelites who remained in Samaria after the destruction of the city by the Assyrians."
http://www.antiquities.org.il/Article
Note: the Roman Government, in the early centuries A.D., put out a series of coins commemorating Mt. Gerizim and the temple located on it. The Samaritans consider the temple on Mt Gerizim to be the true temple and not the one in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority states, "Today we can state with certainty that the first phase of the temple on Mount Gerizim was erected in the middle of the fifth century BCE by Sanballat the Horonite, a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, who lived more than one hundred years before the Sanballat that is mentioned by Josephus. Sanballat from the time of Nehemiah was probably a resident of Hawara (Horon), located at the foot of Mount Gerizim, and was a descendant of the last Israelites who remained in Samaria after the destruction of the city by the Assyrians."
http://www.antiquities.org.il/Article
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