GERIZIM - A mountain which with Ebal encloses the valley in which is built the town of Nablus (Shechem). The Samaritan sect regard it as holy, it being to them what Jerusalem and Mount Zion are to the Jew. According to Samaritan tradition the sacrifice of Isaac took place there. From Gerizim were pronounced the blessings attached to observance of the Law (Jos.8.33), when the Israelites formally took possession of the country. Here Jotham spoke his parable to the elders of Shechem (Jg.9.7).
The acoustic properties of the valley are said to be remarkable, and experiment has shown that from some parts of the mountain it is possible with very little effort to make the voice carry over a very considerable area. A ledge of rock half-way up the hill is still often called 'Jotham's pulpit.' Gerizim probably had been a sacred mountain long before the time of the Samaritans (the emergence of whom as a separate sect must be post-exilic), or indeed before the entry of the Israelites.
On this mountain was erected, probably at the beginning of the 4th cent. BC, a Samaritan Temple, which was destroyed in 126 BC by Hyrcanus. Its site is pointed out on a small level plateau, under the hill-top. The Passover is annually celebrated here. Three times a year, on the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, on Pentecost and at Tabernacles, the Samaritans perform a pilgrimage from their synagogue at the foot of Mount Gerizim to the top of the mountain to appear before the Lord. The pilgrims as they ascend, read selected paragraphs from Deuteronomy; chs. 27 and 28 are, however, read in full. Is there some connexion here between the ceremony described in Joshua and the Samaritan pilgrimages? Do the Samaritan pilgrimages seek to commemorate the covenant made at Shechem and at the same time fulfil the command to appear thrice yearly before the Lord? Certainly the practice is important as a survival of an ancient Hebrew pilgrimage. After reaching the first of the many holy places on the mountain, visits are made to the various altars. It matters not that they be called the altars of Adam, Seth, Noah, Isaac, etc.; the memory of the altars and the numerous massebhoth testifies to the multiplication of altars and massebhoth condemned by Hosea.
Other ruins of less interest are to be seen on the mountain top, such as the remains of a castle and a Byzantine Church. The summit of the mountain commands a view embracing nearly the whole of Palestine. Contrary to the statement of Josephus, it is not the highest of the mountains of Samaria, Ebal and Jebel 'Asur being rather higher.
[Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963. - R.A.S.M. - J.Bo.]