Samaritans and Karaites
in the Eyes of Christian Hebraists

Several False Gods Worshipped by the Samaritans
From An Historical, Critical, Geographical, Chronological, and Etymological Dictionary of the Holy Bible
Augustin Calmet
London: J. J. and P. Knapton et al., 1732
BS440.C272 1732

The theological ferment that led to the Protestant Reformation in Europe also brought about a surge of Christian interest in Judaism and Hebrew studies. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian Hebraists interested in the history of biblical religions and Jewish sectarianism began to establish contact with the Karaites of Central and Eastern Europe and the Samaritans of the Near East. In these Jewish "sects," many found inspiration for their own reformist efforts.

Many Christian Hebraists furthermore found in Samaritanism and Karaism what they saw as more "authentic" varieties of Judaism, uncorrupted by layers of post-biblical accretion. The Protestant preconceptions they imposed onto their subjects would influence the fields of Samaritan and Karaite studies well into the twentieth century. According to their view, the Samaritans were biblical relics whose religion had been practiced without alteration since the seventh century BCE. The Karaites, for their part, appeared to be Jewish Protestants who had thrown off the yoke of rabbinic authority and returned to the Bible, which they interpreted without the mediation of the "clergy." Both pictures were, of course, distorted by contemporary Christian concerns.

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