Andronicus ben Meshullam, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

scholar of the 2nd century BCE. According to

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

( ''Ant.'' xiii. 3, § 4), he was the representative of the Jews in their religious dispute with the Samaritans, which was held before King

Ptolemy VI Ptolemy VI Philometor ( gr, Πτολεμαῖος Φιλομήτωρ, ''Ptolemaĩos Philomḗtōr'';"Ptolemy, lover of his Mother". 186–145 BC) was a Greek king of Ptolemaic Egypt who reigned from 180 to 164 BC and from 163 to 145 BC. Ptolemy ...

Philometor, about the year 150 BCE. Andronicus was said to have proved from the

Scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

the historic continuity of the Jewish high priests; and from the great respect which was accorded the

Temple of Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...

even by the non-Jewish kings of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, he argued that the claim of the Samaritans that Mount Gerizim was the sacred place of worship for the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

was unjustified. Andronicus is said to have argued his case so successfully that the king ordered the execution of Sabbeus and Theodosius, the two champions of the Samaritans, this being the penalty agreed upon beforehand for the losing party.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meshullam, Andronicus Ben Samaritan culture and history Ptolemaic Jews 2nd-century BC people