Did Wikipedia remove the word "settler" from the Samaritanism article?

Yes. "settler" appeared 4 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today it appears nowhere in the article, references included. We saved the article's opening paragraph at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025, and the counts come from those saved copies.

When did the Samaritanism article stop using the word "settler"?

The word appeared 4 times in the opening at its peak in 2005. It appears nowhere in the article today, checked against the live article on 2026-08-02.

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What did Wikipedia remove from the Samaritanism article?

The opening as it read in 2005

Samaritanism is a religion related to Judaism in that it accepts the Torah as its holy book, though there are differences in the version accepted. Samaritanists consider Jewish thinkers after the Torah as having been led astray while they themselves stayed to the true religion. Their temple was at Mount Gerizim , not Jerusalem . Very few followers remain today: about 500 living near Mt. One theory states that when the Babylonian Empire conquered ancient Israel , it deported the middle and upper classes of the Jews to Babylonia , replacing them with settlers from other parts of the Babylonian Empire. The lower classes and the settlers intermarried and merged into one community . Some modern scholars think that the influence of the non- Israelite settlers was exaggerated in the Bible for propaganda reasons, namely to be able to consider the Samaritans as heathens with good conscience. Decades later, the descendants of those Jews exiled in Babylon were permitted to return, and many did. The Jews who had returned to Israel refused to recognize the descendants of the lower class Israelites who had remained as legitimate Jews, (officially) due to their intermarriage and merger with pagan settlers, even though they largely followed the same religion that the Jews had followed before the exile, but which would have seen considerable reforms during the exile. It is believed that these descendants are the ancestors of the Samaritans . This theory is problematic because then the Hebrew people remaining at the land of Israel would vastly outnumber those who returned, and there are no indications of this in either the Bible or in secular history. The biblical story hardly seems more probable, given the logistical issue of deporting entire tribes and a unified return as a single event.¹

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The opening as it stood in 2020 12 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

National religion of the Samaritans This article contains special characters . Without proper rendering support , you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols . The Samaritan religion , also known as Samaritanism , is the national religion of the Samaritans . The Samaritans adhere to the Samaritan Torah , which they believe is the original, unchanged Torah, as opposed to the Torah used by Jews . In addition to the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans also revere their version of the Book of Joshua and recognize some Biblical figures, such as Eli . Samaritanism is internally described as the religion that began with Moses , unchanged over the millennia that have since passed. Samaritans believe Judaism and the Jewish Torah have been corrupted by time and no longer serve the duties God mandated on Mount Sinai . Jews view the Temple Mount as the most sacred location in their faith, but Samaritans regard Mount Gerizim as their holiest site. Samaritans and Jews: the origins of Samaritanism reconsidered . Saint Epiphanius (Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus) (1 January 1987). The Panarion of Ephiphanius of Salamis: Book I (sects 1–46) . Die chronik des Eusebius in der syrischen ueberlieferung (auszug) . The Text Rev. with a Critical Introd. & Indices . The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah .

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The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 12 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Ethnic religion of the Samaritan people This article is about the Samaritan religion. Without proper rendering support , you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols . Samaritanism is the Abrahamic , monotheistic , ethnic religion of the Samaritan people , an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites . Its central holy text is the Samaritan Pentateuch (or Torah), which Samaritans believe is the original, unchanged version of the Torah . Samaritans describe their religion as the holy faith that began with Moses , unchanged over the millennia that have since passed. The holiest site for Samaritans in their faith is Mount Gerizim near Nablus .

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The opening as it stood in 2025 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion This article contains special characters . Without proper rendering support , you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols . Samaritanism ( Hebrew : הַדָּת הַשּׁוֹמְרוֹנִית ‎ ; Arabic : السامرية ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion . It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Samaritan people , who originate from the Hebrews and Israelites and began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age . Central to the faith is the Samaritan Pentateuch , which Samaritans believe is the original and unchanged version of the Torah . Although it developed alongside and is closely related to Judaism , Samaritanism asserts itself as the truly preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites adopted under Moses . Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites' original holy site was Mount Gerizim , near Nablus , and that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli to the city of Shiloh ; the Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Israel, whereas the Israelites who left would become the Jews in the Kingdom of Judah . Mount Gerizim is likewise revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac took place, in contrast to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem's Temple Mount . Today there are only about 800 to 900 followers, which makes Samaritanism one of the smallest religions globally. According to one source, there were millions of followers in ancient times. Tsedaka 2013 , p. xxi. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFTsedaka2013 ( help ) UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

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