Editing Samaritans (section)

=== Samaritan version ===
The Samaritan traditions of their history are contained in the ''Kitab al-Ta'rikh'' compiled by [[Abu'l-Fath]] in 1355.{{sfn|Kartveit|2019|p=2}} According to this, a text which Magnar Kartveit identifies as a "fictional" [[apologia]] drawn from earlier sources (including Josephus but perhaps also from ancient traditions){{sfn|Kartveit|2019|p=3}} a civil war erupted among the Israelites when Eli, son of Yafni, the treasurer of the sons of Israel, sought to usurp the [[Kohen|High Priesthood]] of Israel from the heirs of [[Phinehas]]. Gathering disciples and binding them by an oath of loyalty, he sacrificed on the stone altar without using salt, a rite which made High Priest Ozzi rebuke and disown him. Eli and his acolytes revolted and shifted to Shiloh, where he built an alternative temple and an altar, a replica of the original on Mt. Gerizim. Eli's sons [[Hophni and Phinehas]] had intercourse with women and feasted on the meats of the sacrifice inside the [[Tabernacle]]. Thereafter Israel was split into three factions: the original Mt. Gerizim community of loyalists, the breakaway group under Eli, and heretics worshipping idols associated with Hophni and Phinehas. [[Judaism]] emerged later with those who followed the example of Eli.{{sfn|Kartveit|2019|pp=2–3}}{{sfn|Kartveit|2009|p=38}}{{efn|"A terrible civil war broke out between Eli son of Yafni, of the line of Ithamar, and the sons of Pincus ([[Phinehas]]), because Eli son of Yafni resolved to usurp the High Priesthood from the descendants of Pincus. He used to offer sacrifices on an altar of stones. He was 50 years old, endowed with wealth and in charge of the treasury of the Children of Israel. ...He offered a sacrifice on the altar, but without salt, as if he were inattentive. When the Great High Priest Ozzi learned of this, and found the sacrifice was not accepted, he thoroughly disowned him; and it is (even) said that he rebuked him. Thereupon he and the group that sympathized with him, rose in revolt and at once he and his followers and his beasts set off for Shiloh. Thus Israel split in factions. He sent to their leaders saying to them, 'Anyone who would like to see wonderful things, let him come to me.' Then he assembled a large group around him in Shiloh, and built a Temple for himself there; he constructed a place like the Temple (on Mount Gerizim). He built an altar, omitting no detail—it all corresponded to the original, piece by piece. At this time the Children of Israel split into three factions. A loyal faction on Mount Gerizim; a heretical faction that followed false gods; and the faction that followed Eli son of Yafni in Shiloh." {{harv|Anderson|Giles|2001|pp=11–12}}}}

Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that [[Joshua]] conquered [[Canaan]] and the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel|tribes of Israel]] settled the land. The reference to Mount Gerizim derives from the biblical story of [[Moses]] ordering Joshua to take the Twelve Tribes of Israel to the mountains by Shechem ([[Nablus]]) and place half of the tribes, six in number, on Mount Gerizim—the Mount of the Blessing—and the other half on [[Mount Ebal]]—the Mount of the Curse.