The famous “Witness Claim” is deeply rooted in the Orthodox Judaism. It states that according to the Old Testament – millions of witnesses were present at the divine revelation at Mount Sinai. Hence, millions of people in any generation after, could not be convinced to believe in the existence of such a public event if the event did not actually occur.

Now let’s discuss the Samaritans.

The Samaritans have their own religious rituals, which are very close to Judaism. Yet they have their own version of the “Torah”, with many differences from the version accepted today. However, their version is somewhat closer to ancient versions of the Torah that have been found. Even their Hebrew name comes from the Hebrew word “to preserve” (in the sense of preserving tradition). According to their own tradition, they are descendants of some of the ancient Hebrew tribes that were not exiled.

Anyone who believes in the “Witness Claim” must therefore similarly accept the Samaritans’ tradition. It describes the same event and passes it on devoutly from generation to generation… only with certain significant differences. For example, the central place of worship chosen for the people is not Jerusalem but rather Mount Gerizim, near the modern-day city of Nablus.

It is not surprising that the Jewish content attached to the Samaritans a story of “foreign settlers”, who learned the Jewish tradition and changed it. After all, you would not expect a religion to recognize such major differences from its content – as if they were more original.