| Today the Samaritans are the smallest religio-ethnic group in existence. The Samaritans are the losers and have been forgotten. Moreover, the Samaritan materials even has not been focused for the background of the early Christianity. However, it is true that the Samaritans were a large and important group of people in Roman Palestine.;In order to substantiate the identity of Samaritan Christianity, this study examines the origins, the historical situation and the theology of the Samaritans. The Samaritans who converted to a new religious movement, according to their tradition, developed some unique theology which is evidenced in the early Christian materials: Christology, ecclesiology, God and eschatology. Samaritan Christianity could not survive the competition with the other Christian groups. Its own unique theology made Samaritan Christianity to vanish from sight. However, it is certain that Samaritan Christianity contributed in many ways to a hitherto Galilean interpretation of the significance of Jesus.;Our interest in the Samaritans leads to come to focus on the question of Samaritan Christianity. It seems that the Samaritan Christianity in the first century was not a small group and existed as a large group. It is evident that the Samaritans who did become Christians were on the same level of religious background as the Jews. It is possible to say that the Samaritans, being unencumbered with deep seated religious prejudices, received the gospel in a simpler and more natural fashion than their neighbors. The existence of the Samaritan Christians can be found from the New Testament and can be deduced from the frequent references to the Samaritan heresiarchs in the patristic writings. However, although it has been aware of the existence of Samaritan Christianity from the New Testament and other sources, it is acknowledged that virtually nothing beyond that is known about them. Because of limited available sources, it is hard to reconstruct the whole system of Samaritan Christianity. |
