On the Samaritan Chronology

All of the existing mss. of the Tulida have serious omissions of names of High
Priests in the centuries between the wars of the Jews against the Romans and the
coming of Muhammad. Look at the list in Abul-Fataḥ. His list is complete. Try
adding up the length of years of each High Priest in the Tulida and this becomes
obvious. If you add all the High Priests from the death of Alexander in 323 BC
(just before the death of the High Priest Azqayya) till the surrender of
Palestine to the Islamic forces in 625 AD the number of years listed in the
Tulida is not enough.

If you add the years from the Jewish wars against Rome up to Muhammad, you see
that is where names have been lost. Adding the years up from Alexander or
Hadrian gives a date of about 450 AD for Muhammad! Someone has seen this, so
they have counted backwards from Muhammad. This puts the start of the period of
Baba Rabba in about 320 AD. If you keep counting backwards you see it puts Jesus
in about 200 AD!

This confusion must have occurred very early. Although Abul-Fataḥ has a complete
list of names, he still had to put events into two (sometimes three) sets of
narrative. Dositheos appears twice [Actually thrice. Look carefully at the long
section on Dositheos and notice how he is first mentioned as some unknown person
fleeing from Judaea, then he is suddenly the son of the High Priest].

[This is irrelevant but it needs to be known. The name of the woman at whose
house Dositheos stayed, Amanto, is Greek. The suffix [-o] is a femiminine
diminutive suffix in Greek. The name is probably short for adamantia or
adamantina meaning diamondlike, translating the Hebrew yahalom. This is
irrelevant too. Has benny noticed that his computer’s Hebrew spell-checker
always changes the surname of Ingrid Hjelm from HYLM to YHLM meaning diamond?]

After Dositheos three times there are the categories of Dositheans, but with
Jesus and Philo in between. So he goes forward from the sects of the Dositheans
then Jesus, Philo of Alexandria etc. to Commodus and then briefly mentions
Dositheos A FOURTH TIME and then the notable deed of Garmon. Then he stops his
narrative and gives a list of High Priests up to that point. Then he goes back
in time and starts again with Jesus etc. then various events up to Muhammad.

Approximate correct dates are these: (a) End of the time of Baba Rabba (or more
exactly the start of his captivity) 180 AD. This was when the policies of
Commodus took effect in Syria-Palestine. Adding years puts Garmon (Germanos) in
about 202 AD. This must have been the same Germanos that was at the Council of
Nicaea in 325 AD.

There is no direct historical evidence for the date of Marqe. Tulida 9a, p. 90
in Florentin’s edition. “and the Priest with him was ‘Amram ban Sârad. This
‘Amram was T.ut.e the father of Marqe the originator [or creator] of wisdom, may
his spirit be at rest, Amen”. The note in the Tulida is correct but in the
wrong place. If Marqe and his son Ninna had lived in the time of Baba Rabba,
then there would have been a lot of information about them. The fact is that all
knowledge on this subject has been lost. My personal opinion is that the note is
correct in saying T.ut.e was called ‘Amram. I think this is in fact ‘Amram Dare.
[The reason for saying this is that the name Marqe is a substitute for Mushi. ‘
Amram for his father is conventional. Amram is Moses’s father. It is like the
name of the author of the book on inheritance Abu Ish.âq Ibrahim. The epithet
Dare would then mean elder in relation to Marqe]. But I see no evidence for
putting them in the time of Baba Rabba. As said, the lists of High Priests in
the Tulida is incomplete. Also, the Aramaic used by Marqe is very early. This is
aside from the mistake of putting Baba 170 years too late. A date of Marqe in
about 320 AD is just impossible. The Durran might perhaps be from the time of
Baba. I say this because several of the hymns speak of repentance for the errors
of the very recent past. [See H. G. Kippenberg, article Ein Gebetbuch für den
samaritanischen Synagogengottesdienst aus dem 2. Jh. N. Chr.]. If Marqe and
‘Amram and Ninna are before this, then the latest possible date must be before
140 AD. An earlier date is possible.

I agree that Baba Rabba was held in custody by the Romans, but it was not in
Constantinople. I know Constantinople is mentioned, but that is an adjustment of
the name of the place to its later name. If I say the grave of Joseph is near
Nablus (instead of Shechem), I don’t mean Joseph lived after the coming of
Islam! As for the stupid stupid stupid stories about the tricks played by Baba
on the forces of Constantinople, how he tricked them into thinking the dead were
fighting for him, and all the rest, I agree with Abul-Fataḥ, who said he only
mentioned them so no-one would think he did not know about them.

The dates in the Arabic book the Comprehensive History At-Târîkh ash-Shâmil by
Finaas ban Yeṣaaq or Khaḍir bin Isḥâq are not tradition. They are modern new
calculations. This book by Finaas is wonderful. It is indispensable. I use it
constantly. BUT the author and his associates tried to do what could not be done
with the information available at the time. As an eample, his list of names and
periods of the Kings of the Time of Favour is mostly taken from the Jewish Book
of Judges. His date for the birth of Samson (Shamshom) is a guess. In the same
way, his list of High Priests follows the Tulida, without noticing that the text
is incomplete. Thus his chronology is wrong. [Chronicle Adler, which is a short
Hebrew version of the book by Finaas, has the same mistake]. Notice that
Samaritans stopped using his chronology in about 1950.