Samaria, Samaritans A Samaritan was an inhabitant of Samaria, but there was a difference between the Samaria of the Old Testament and the Samaria of the New. In the time of Israel’s Old Testament monarchy, Samaria was a city in central Israel and its inhabitants were Israelites. In New Testament times Samaria was the central region of Palestine and its inhabitants were non-Israelites.
Capital of the northern kingdom
After the death of Solomon in 930 BC, the ancient kingdom of Israel was split into two. The breakaway northern section of ten tribes continued to call itself the kingdom of Israel; the southern section of two tribes became known as the kingdom of Judah. The northerners established their capital first at Shechem, then at Tirzah, but when Omri came to the throne he built a new capital at Samaria. Samaria remained the capital till the end of the northern kingdom. The town, built on a hill, had a commanding position over the surrounding plain and nearby trade routes (1 Kings 1:16-24). It was well fortified and able to withstand enemy attacks (1 Kings 1:20-21; 2 Kings 1:6-7:20).
Just as Omri had made Samaria the political centre of his kingdom, so his son and successor Ahab made it the religious centre. The religion, however, was the corrupt religion of Baal imported by Ahab’s heathen wife Jezebel. Ahab built a fully equipped Baal temple in Samaria (1 Kings 1:16-33), and although this was destroyed during Jehu’s purge, false religion was never removed from Samaria (2 Kings 1:10-31; Jeremiah 23:13). Israel’s idolatry was the reason why God finally allowed the kingdom to be destroyed. In 722 BC the Assyrians captured Samaria, slaughtered the people, and carried off most of the survivors into foreign captivity (2 Kings 1:17-18).
Samaritans: a new people and a new religion
In keeping with their usual policy, the Assyrians resettled people from other parts of their empire into Samaria and other cities of the former northern kingdom (2 Kings 17:24). These people tried to avoid punishment from Israel’s God by combining the worship of Yahweh with their own religious practices. They also intermarried with the Israelite people left in the land, producing a new racial group known as the Samaritans (2 Kings 1:17-33).
Because Samaritans were of mixed blood and mixed religion, tension arose between them and true Jews (cf. John 4:9). Succeeding Assyrian kings transported additional foreigners into Samaria (Ezra 4:2,Ezra 4:9-10). Assyria itself was conquered by Babylon in 612 BC.
During the years 606-587 BC, the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom Judah and took its people into captivity. In 539 BC Persia conquered Babylon and allowed the captive Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple and city. by this time, as a result of Assyria’s resettlement policy, the Samaritans were well established in the land. When they offered to help the Jews, the Jewish leaders rejected them, fearing they might introduce corrupt ideas into the Jewish religion (Ezra 1:4-3). The Samaritans reacted bitterly, and opposed the Jews throughout their building program (Ezra 1:4-24; Nehemiah 1:4-23).
When, despite years of Samaritan opposition, the Jews completed their building program, the Samaritan leaders changed their tactics. by cunning and deceit some of them worked themselves into places of influence in Jerusalem. They corrupted the religion, defiled the temple and persuaded Jews and Samaritans to intermarry. Finally, in a sweeping reform, the Jerusalem governor Nehemiah drove those who were not true Jews out of the city (Nehemiah 1:13-9,23).
The Samaritans then decided to show their opposition to the Jews and Jerusalem by establishing Mt Gerizim, beside the town of Shechem, as their national place of worship. Later they built a temple there. This only increased the hatred between Jews and Samaritans.
In using the five books of Moses to defend their beliefs and practices, the Samaritans became so extreme that they almost refused to accept the remaining books of the Old Testament as having any authority. Their chief beliefs were that there was one God, Moses was his only prophet, Moses’ law was the only valid teaching, and the temple on Mt Gerizim was the only legitimate place of worship (Deuteronomy 27:12; John 4:9,20).
Today, near what used to be the town of Shechem, there is a small community that follows the ancient Samaritan religion.
Samaria in the New Testament
In New Testament times people commonly thought of Palestine as being divided into three regions: Judea in the south, Samaria in the centre and Galilee in the north. Under the Romans, Judea and Samaria were often grouped together. The centre of administration for the region was Caesarea, a city built on the coast by Herod the Great (Luke 3:1; Acts 1:8; Acts 23:33). Herod also built a city on the site of ancient Samaria and named it Sebaste.
On one occasion when Jesus passed through Samaria, he spent two days preaching at Sychar (near Shechem) and many Samaritans believed (John 1:4-5,39). On another occasion people of a Samaritan village showed the traditional Samaritan hatred for Jews by refusing to receive Jesus in their village (Luke 1:9-53).
but not all Samaritans were unfriendly. Jesus told stories about Samaritans who were kind and thankful, which was in contrast to the unloving and ungrateful attitude of many of the Jews (Luke 1:10-37; Luke 17:11-18). After his resurrection Jesus commanded the Christians to take the gospel to Samaria, something that Philip and others did with great success (Acts 1:8; Acts 8:1,4-6,25; Acts 9:31; Acts 15:3).