worship.4 These three criteria will define “Samaritan” as a member of a religious sect and not primarily as a resident of a geographic region or participant in a political ideology. Using these three proofs to mark the beginning of the religious sect, it is reasonable to identify the Hasmonean period (168–123 B.C.E.) as the stage at which the Samaritan sect clearly emerges on the historical horizon (described in chapter three under the heading “Hellenistic Period”). As it affects the Samaritans,