The Evolution of Samaritan Eschatological Exegesis in the 11th — 19th Centuries

Abstract

The article for the first time considers the development of the Arabic-speaking Samaritan eschatology, which crystallized in the form of comments on Samaritan Pentateuch in the 11^th — 19^th centuries. The author points out the quantitative and qualitative growth of textual evidence attracted by three authoritative Samaritan authors (ʾAbū al-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī, Ibrāhīm al-ʿAyyah and Izḥāq ibn ʿAmram). An assumption is made about the gradual nature of the legalization of the doctrine of the soul immortality and posthumous retribution in Samaritan theological discourse, which developed completely at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The analysis of manuscript sources is preceded by a brief review of Rabbinical and early Christian treatises, which allow us to conclude about the «eschatological nihilism» of the Hellenistic era Samaritans and to designate the terminus post quem of their descendants’ theology about the afterlife.