A further confirmation to the same effect might be deduced from a consideration of the results of the scheme of reformation ascribed to Zoroaster towards the close of the Babylonish exile, whereby he hoped to unite the Jews with the Chaldeans, Persians, &c., in one sect, by purging the Magian system of worship from idolatry, restoring it to what he held to be its primitive purity, and combining with it the doctrine of one supreme creative intelligence, the doctrine of a resurrection, and other tenets of the Jews which might be incorporated in a system that neither taught nor admitted a Mediator, or any doctrine of Divine or creature mediation. This artful scheme, which was more or less successful at the time, and which, among those Jews of Babylon and the provinces who did not return to Palestine, may be traced down for centuries in the history of Oriental Gnosticism, obviously furnished a further reason for guarding the true worshippers, after the period of exile and the cessation of prophetic gifts, by such means as the Chaldee versions furnish. Let it be further observed, as not unworthy of particular notice, that the Samaritans, from the very commencement of their history, and of their rivalship and hostility to the Jews, and the erection of their temple on Mount Gerizim, simultaneously with that of the restored Jews at Jerusalem, received and used no portion of the sacred writings then extant, except the books of Moses; and that they perseveringly rejected all traditions, and all glosses and comments on the original text. And yet from the saying of the Samaritan woman, "I know that Messiah cometh; (that is, _the Christ, the Anointed_;) when he is come, he will teach us all things," it would seem that, down to our Saviour's time, they understood the true doctrine concerning his person, his incarnation, and the titles by which he would be distinguished. When told that he who was then present in the form of man, and who spoke to her, was the Messiah, she manifested no surprise or doubt. Many of the Samaritans believed in him on her testimony. "And many more believed because of what they heard from himself," and said, "We know that this is truly the Saviour of the World, the Messiah." (_Campbell._) Now, since they held no intercourse with the Jews, and, from prejudice and hostility, would learn nothing from them; and since they received only the Pentateuch and rejected all traditions, it would seem that they must from the beginning of their history have understood the Mosaic writings to teach those doctrines, and from continual study of them as the only source of their religious knowledge, hopes and expectations, must have perpetuated the sentiments with which they originally received them.