- Of Jewish origin, but it depends further on whom you ask. The Old Testament Jews mostly believed they were a mix of the Jews taken into captivity who blended with the Assyrians and other groups. The Samaritans taught that they were pure descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh and that only some of the tribes were carried off into captivity. I recommend doing a search starting with the Factbook and then read further in some of the Bible dictionaries for more explanations.
- {Headword Samaritan} search in All Resources => https://ref.ly/logos4/Search?kind=BasicSearch&q=%7bHeadword+Samaritan%7d&match=stem&in=raw%3aAll%7cTitle%3dAll%2520Resources finds Dictionary & Encyclopedia entries