Judah and Samaria after the Babylonian Exile: Between Myth and History

Abstract

The article analyzes historical data regarding the fall of Samaria, and ten archaeological research that excludes the complete depopulation if this region and its deprivation of its Israeli identity. Samaria remained ethnically and religiously Israelite and this situation persisted until the Persian times. At that time – after the Babylonian exile – it was better suited as an administrative center for the new government that Judea, which was destroyed and depopulated. Modern research on the origins of the Torah suggests that it was in Samaria, not in Judea, that the process of compiling the identity traditions began (patriarchs, ancient sanctuaries, exodus), and thanks to the cooperation of the elites from the north and south, it was possible to create a version of this work acceptable to both communities (pre-samaritan Pentateuch), which survived until the two communities separated (second half of thr 2^nd century BC).