Sunday, June 14, 2009
Traditional polemical epithets used by Samaritans (against the Jews)
There is not much. The usual one --- which is not common anyway --- is “those with the wrong text of the Torah”. The Jerusalem Temple is usually called by the neutral name Bit Makdash (Masoretic Bet Mikdash) which is the standard Jewish name. Occasionally it is called Bit Maktash (Masoretic Bet Makhtesh), a name which means “the Acropolis Building”, an accurate description of the way the area has been artificially extended. I suppose indirectly this name calls attention to it not being on a real mountain, but I have never seen this possibility developed. It resembles the other name while avoiding the word Mikdash meaning sanctuary, but in itself it is neutral. Attempts at finding some meaning of “leprosy” in this name are far-fetched, due to unskilful reading of dictionaries combined with the everpresent Jewish paranoia. This has as one of its purposes the fuelling of an illusion of importance.
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