John 4:5

John 4:5. He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar. ‘From the hills through which the main route of Palestine must always have run the traveller descends into a wide plain, the widest and the most beautiful of the plains of the Ephraimite mountains, one mass of corn unbroken by boundary or hedge, from the midst of which start up olive trees, themselves unenclosed as the fields in which they stand. Over the hills which close the northern end of this plain, far away in the distance, is caught the first glimpse of the snowy ridge of Hermon. Its western side is bounded by the abutments of two mountain ranges, running from west to east. These ranges are Gerizim and Ebal; and up the opening between them, not seen from the plain, lies the modem town of Nâblus... the most beautiful, perhaps it might be said the only very beautiful spot in central Palestine.' [1] Nâblus is a corruption of Neapolis, the name given by the Romans to the ‘new city' built nearly on the site of the ancient Shechem. The city which gave its name to this district of the Holy Land, Samaria, distant about six miles, had recently been rebuilt in a style of great magnificence by Herod the Great, who gave it the name of Sebaste. But, partly through the prestige of its antiquity and famous history, and partly through the power of religious associations, Shechem was pre-eminently the city of Samaria. It lay, as has been said, at the loot of Mount Gerizim, on the summit of which was the temple of the Samaritans, the stronghold of their worship for nearly three hundred years. It is impossible here to do more than trace the main outlines of the history of the Samaritan people. Their origin has in modern times been a subject of warm controversy. The narrative of 2 Kings 25:12 certainly seems to imply that all the inhabitants of the country were carried away to ‘Halah and Habor and the cities of the Medes' (2 Kings 17:6): Josephus also speaks of the transplanting of all the people. But, apart from the improbability that such a wholesale deportation would be made, we find both in Scripture (2 Chronicles 34:9, and perhaps 2 Chronicles 30:1; 2 Chronicles 30:5; 2 Chronicles 30:10) and also in Josephus intimations that some few at least of the inhabitants remained, after the land had been colonised by settlers from Cuthah and other cities of Assyria. In the manner related in 2 Kings 17 these colonists were led to mingle a worship of Jehovah as the tutelary Deity of their new country with the idolatry brought with them from their native cities. What we read of their history at a later date is in exact accord with the mixed character of their race and their worship. They referred their own origin only to Assyria (Ezra 4:2), yet they were desirous of fraternising with the Jews in their work of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem; and, when finally repulsed by the Jews and defeated in their attempts to injure and frustrate their work, they built (B.C. 409) a rival temple on Mount Gerizim after the model of that in Jerusalem, taking as their first high priest one whom Nehemiah had expelled (Nehemiah 13:28). From this time they seem to have maintained a system of worship modelled on that of the Jews, their older idolatry being, as far as we can judge, entirely renounced. Of the Scriptures the Samaritans received one portion only, the Pentateuch; but for this they professed peculiar reverence. A comparison of the Samaritan Pentateuch with that of the Hebrew Bible shows that many alterations had been introduced into the text by the Samaritans, but at the same time that these had only been made for the purpose of authenticating their own mode of worship and of maintaining the honour of their sacred places. This partial agreement, however, between the religious beliefs of the two peoples, so far from preventing, had really led to the most determined hostility between them. To the Jew, a man of purely Gentile descent and a man of mixed race were equally Gentiles; and an approximation to Jewish belief and modes of worship gave no claim of brotherhood with Jews. Hebrew literature is full of strangely varying statements in regard to the Cuthim (as they are called), statements which probably reflect the relations subsisting between the nations at different periods (see Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, iii. 1117, 1118). In the time of our Lord the temple on Mount Gerizim had long been in ruins, but both the mount and the city at its foot had retained their sacred character; and it was here that the true Samaritan practices and traditions had their strongest hold on the people. The slight sketch which we have been able to give of the history of this people will be sufficient to show how singular was their situation. The ancient writings of the Jews themselves deal with Samaritans now as with heathen, now as with men belonging to the stock of Israel; and the narrative of this chapter places them in the same position a position not wholly Gentile, but intermediate between the Jewish and the Gentile world. It has been commonly assumed that the ‘city called Sychar' is identical with Shechem, and the chief subject of controversy has been the motive for the change of name. Whilst some have regarded the alteration as a mere error of pronunciation, most have ascribed it to Jewish prejudice, interpreting Sychar as ‘drunkard' or ‘falsehood:' others, again, have considered the word identical with a well Sokhar mentioned in the Talmud. It seems more probable, however, that Sychar is a village still known by a name substantially the same (El-Askar), situated about two miles to the east of the present town of Nablus. This village is nearer than Shechem can have been to the well which bore the name of Jacob; and it is much more likely that the Evangelist would pause to describe the position of such a place than that of the ancient city of Shechem.

[1] Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 233, 234.

Near to the parce of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. There can be no doubt that, in speaking of Jacob's gift to his son Joseph, John refers to Genesis 48:22, ‘I have given thee one portion above thy brethren,' whatever meaning may be attached to the last words of that verse. The Hebrew word here rendered ‘portion' is identical with the name Shechem. At Shechem, therefore, were the bones of Joseph buried (Joshua 24:32), and the city and surrounding country ‘became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.'