Biblical Nations - Samaritans

Samaritans

Key Scripture: 2 Kings 17:24

Figures: Sanballat, woman at the well, grateful leper

Happy New Year!  At the time of my writing, we have just entered 2025 - amazing to realize that's the quarter pole of the 21st century.  This week we're going to meet a group of people that was created in the wake of Israel's disobedience and who became the target of unmatched animosity from the Hebrew people.  In spite of this, however, the Samaritans also found themselves being specifically targeted by God as part of His redemption story.  We'll look at the origin of this intriguing people group, which tells where they came from and why they were so despised by Jews, as well as how they found their way back into the fold as part of God's chosen people.

The city of Samaria was founded by Israel's King Omri, father of the infamous Ahab, when he purchased a hill near the city of Shechem in the northern kingdom from a man named Shemer for about 150 lbs of silver.  Naming the location after the original owner, Omri developed fortifications and created a capital city for himself and his descendants.  The inhabitants were therefore the same Jewish race that populated Judah, but after more than 150 years it was conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians.  King Sargon II, who completed a siege originally started by Shalmaneser V, proceeded to take many of the surviving residents into captivity while also relocating other vanquished people groups into Israel.  Intermarrying with their new neighbors and adopting their practices, both the race and religion of Samaria was thoroughly mixed.  The Bible records that some of the priests of Israel were brought back to appease God after lions began to attack the new inhabitants, and eventually a new quasi-Jewish religion came into being that combined Mosaic law with the pagan traditions that these people brought with them.  While they kept the Torah, they sought to worship Yahweh on Mount Gerizim and believed the Levitical priests were illegitimate.

The Assyrians never returned their Hebrew captives to their homeland, leading history to refer to this group as the 10 lost tribes of Israel, but by the time of Judah's restoration the Samaritans were recognized as a unique group.  Persian rulers had installed a governor over Samaria, which at the time of Nehemiah was a man named Sanballat.  Likely hailing from Beth-Horon and possibly threatened by a loss of power or authority, this particular leader did not support any actions that benefitted the Jewish residents and opposed Nehemiah's work to rebuild Jerusalem's walls at every opportunity.  Nehemiah successfully rebuffed these efforts, insisting along the way that the interlopers had no share in the city despite the fact that Sanballat was well-enough entrenched in the upper echelons of Jerusalem's remnant that his daughter had even married a descendant of the high priest.  Nehemiah chased the man away and declared that he had desecrated the priesthood.  It is the first time in Scripture that a schism between the two groups is referenced, but it would not be the last.

Throughout the period between the Old and New Testament the animosity between north and south continued to grow, with the Jewish and Samaritan leaders insisting to their Greek/Seleucid rulers that they were distinct.  The Hasmonean leader known as John Hyrcanus destroyed the temple on Mount Gerizim in 110 BC, cementing the split between the two regions and people groups.  By the first century, Rome controlled both areas but Jews and Samaritans hated each other enough to avoid any dealings or even conversations.  King Herod seems to have extended an olive branch to both sides, not only refurbishing the Temple in Jerusalem but also rebuilding the city of Samaria (renamed to Sebaste, the Greek version of Augustus' name, in order to honor him).  Jesus himself had an interesting relationship with the group, as he initially told his twelve disciples to avoid the cities of Gentiles and Samaritans, but later seeks them out.  He is rejected by one of their cities, leading to James and John to want to call down a consuming fire against it, but later finds a willing audience when he engages a Samaritan women at a well near Mount Gerizim.  His parable that portrays a Samaritan as the hero, while styling a priest and Levite as uncaring passers-by, would have likely been scandalous to his Jewish listeners.  Finally, after healing ten lepers Jesus marveled that only one of them returned to give him thanks, and that man was a Samaritan.  When charging his followers with the Great Commission, it is telling that Samaria is specifically mentioned as a target of their evangelism efforts.

The book of Acts tells of the church's expansion in the years following Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and Samaria plays a significant role.  When Stephen is stoned by Jewish fanatics and a period of persecution begins, several of Christ's followers traveled north into Samaria.  Philip taught and performed miracles, leading many to believe, and when both Peter and John followed soon after they witnessed the Holy Spirit falling on non-Jewish Christians for the first time.  It is fascinating that such a watershed moment is brought about through obedience to a people group that wouldn't have had an origin story if it hadn't been for disobedience.  To this day a Samaritan minority group still exists that maintains both its unique ethnicity and its own version of Judaism, straddling the line between Israel and Palestinian West Bank and carrying dual citizenship with both.  Those who intermarried or chose to adopt the faith of surrounding cultures have been largely absorbed over time, and are no longer identifiable.