Tur Gobel (Mount Ebal) - (Jabal Islamiyah) van www.christusrex.org
Eusebius, Onomasticon 64:9-15 (ca. 295 A.D.); Jerome 65:9-15 (ca. 390 A.D.)
Gebal (Deut 11:29), a mountain in the Promised Land, where an altar was built at Moses' command. And there are two mountains near Jericho, standing close and facing one another, one of which is called Gerizim and the other Gebal. However, the Samaritans believe these two mountains to be near Neapolis, but they are grossly mistaken, for the mountains they indicate are very far the one from the other, and the voice of anyone blessing or cursing from one of them, as the Scripture says, cannot be heard from the other.
Josephus, Antiquities 5.1.19 (1st cent. A.D.)
(68) The fifth year was not past, and there was not one of the Canaanites remained any longer, excepting some that had retired to places of great strength. So Joshua removed his camp to the mountainous country, and placed the tabernacle in the city of Shiloh, for that seemed a fit place for it, because of the beauty of its situation, until such time as their affairs would permit them to build a temple; (69) and from thence he went to Shechem, together with all the people, and raised an altar where Moses had beforehand directed; then did he divide the army, and place one half of them on Mount Gerizzim, and the other half on Mount Ebal, on which mountain the altar was;9 he also placed there the tribe of Levi, and the priests. (70) And when they had sacrificed, and denounced the [blessings and the] curses, and had left them engraven upon the altar, they returned to Shiloh.
Josephus, War I, 63 (1st cent. A.D.)
(follows the Samaritan tradition) So he took Medaba and Samea, with the towns in their neighborhood, as also Shechem and Gerizzim; and besides these, [he subdued] the nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt round about that temple which was built in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem; he also took a great many other cities of Idumea, with Adoreon and Marissa.
Hieronymus, Ep.108 (Peregrinatio Paulae) 13 (385 A.D.)
She passed on to Shechem (not, as some wrongly take it, "Sychar"), now called Neapolis, and near Mount Gerizim she went into the church built round the Well of Jacob.
Procopius, De aedificiis V,7 (6th cent. A.D.)
In Palestine there is a city named Neapolis, above which rises a high mountain, called Garizin. This mountain the Samaritans originally held; and they had been wont to go up to the summit of the mountain to pray on all occasions, not because they had ever built any temple there, but because they worshipped the summit itself with the greatest reverence. But when Jesus, the Son of God, was in the body and went among the people there, He had a conversation with a certain woman who was a native of the place.' And when this woman questioned Him about the mountain, He replied that thereafter the Samaritans would not worship on this mountain, but that the true worshippers (referring to the Christians), would worship Him in that place; and as time went on the prediction became a fact. For it was not possible that He who was God should not utter truth. And it came about as follows. During the reign of Zeno, the Samaritans suddenly banded together and fell upon the Christians in Neapolis in the church while they were celebrating the festival called the Pentecost, and they destroyed many of them, and they struck with their swords the man who at that time was their Bishop, Terebinthius by name, finding him standing at the holy table as he performed the mysteries; and they slashed at him and cut off the fingers from his hand; and they railed at the mysteries, as is natural for Samaritans to do, while we honour them with silence. And this priest straightway came to Byzantium and appeared before the ruling Emperor and displayed what he had suffered, setting forth what had happened and reminding the Emperor of the prophecy of Christ; and he begged him to avenge all that had been done. The Emperor Zeno was greatly disturbed by what had happened, and with no delay inflicted punishment in due measure upon those who had done the terrible thing. He drove out the Samaritans from Mt. Garizin and straightway handed it over to the Christians, and building a church on the summit he dedicated it to the Mother of God, putting a barrier, as it was made to appear, around this church, though in reality he erected only a light wall of stone. And he established a garrison of soldiers, placing a large number in the city below, but not more than ten men at the fortifications and the church. The Samaritans resented this, and chafed bitterly in their vexation and deplored their condition, but through fear of the Emperor they bore their distress in silence. But at a later time, when Anastasius, was holding the imperial office, the following happened. Some of the Samaritans, incited by a woman's suggestion, unexpectedly climbed the steep face of the mountain, since the path which leads up from the city was carefully guarded and it was impossible for them to attempt the ascent by that route. Entering the church suddenly, they slew the guards there and with a mighty cry summoned the Samaritans in the city. They, however, through fear of the soldiers, were by no means willing to join the attempt of the conspirators'. And not long afterwards the governor of the district (he was Procopius of Edessa, a man of learning) arrested the authors of the outrage and put them to death. Yet even after that no thought was taken for the fortifications, and no provision for proper defence was made at that time by the Emperor. But during the present reign, although the Emperor Justinian has converted the Samaritans for the most part to a more pious way of life and has made them Christians, he left the old fortification around the church on Garizin in the form in which it was, that is, merely a barrier, as I have said; but by surrounding this with another wall on the outside he made the place absolutely impregnable. There too he restored five shrines of the Christians which had been burned down by the Samaritans. Thus, then, have these things been done.