the death of Solomon, the kingdom split in two, the northern Kingdom of Israel with its last capital city Samaria and the southern Kingdom of Judah with its capital, Jerusalem. The Deuteronomistic history, written in Judah, portrayed Israel as a sinful kingdom, divinely punished for its idolatry and iniquity by being destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. The tensions continued in the post-exilic period. The Books of Kings are more inclusive than Ezra–Nehemiah since the ideal is of one Israel with twelve tribes, whereas the Books of Chronicles concentrate on the Kingdom of Judah and ignore the Kingdom of Israel. Contemporary scholarship confirms that deportations did take place both before and after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in 722-720 BCE. However, these deportations are thought to have been less severe than the Book of Kings portrays. During the earlier Assyrian invasions, the Transjordan did experience significant deportations, with entire tribes vanishing; the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Dan, and Naphtali are never again mentioned. However, Samaria was a larger and more populated area, and even if the Assyrians did deport 30,000 people as they claimed, many would have remained in the area. The cities of Samaria and Megiddo were mostly left intact, and the rural communities were generally left alone. Some scholars have claimed there's no evidence to support the settlement of foreigners in the area, however, others disagree. Nevertheless, the Book of Chronicles records that King Hezekiah of Judah invited members of the tribes of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Issachar and Manasseh to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover after the destruction of Israel. In light of this, it has been suggested that the bulk of those who survived the Assyrian invasions remained in the region. The Samaritan community of today is thought to be predominantly descended from those who remained. Samaritans claim to be descended from the Israelites of ancient Samaria who were not expelled by the Assyrian conquerors of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. They had their own sacred precinct on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. Moreover, they claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter the