Samaritan Hebrew is a reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch, in contrast to Tiberian Hebrew among the Jewish people.
Detail of the Nabul Samaritan Pentateuch in Samaritan Hebrew
Samaritan Mezuzah, Mount Gerizim
Samaritan Torah Scroll
The Samaritans, also known as Israelite Samaritans, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of ancient Israel and Judah that comprises the northern half of today's West Bank. They are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion that developed alongside Judaism.
Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim, near modern Nablus and ancient Shechem, 2006
Foreigners eaten by lions in Samaria, illustration by Gustave Doré from the 1866 La Sainte Bible, The Holy Bible
Ancient inscription in Samaritan Hebrew. From a photo c. 1900 by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Ruins of a 4th-century Samaritan synagogue likely abandoned after the Samaritan Revolts, Khirbet Samara