Did the Samaritans only believe in the first five books of the Old Testament?

Answer 1

A:Yes. King Josiah of Judea invaded Samaria in the seventh century BCE, introducing some of the Pentateuch material and seeking to enforce monotheistic beliefs in a land where Yahweh was already one of the gods worshipped and many of the Genesis traditions were already strongly accepted, and further conquests by the Maccabees would have updated the Samaritan beliefs and achieved adherence to monotheism. Many of the later books are written from a Judahite point of view and would have been seen by Samaritans as biased against their own history and traditions, and the conquering Jews were unable to get the Samaritans to accept these overtly Jewish books. The Maccabean conquests of Galilee and Idumea were more successful, with the Jewish religion taking hold and all its scriptures accepted as inspired.