WHO WERE SAMARITANS?

YAHSHUA Ministered in Galilee, Judea and Samaria, according to the Gospels.

Where are those places? All of them happened to be in Israel in the area that was ruled by King David (1010 – 970 BC) and his son Solomon from (970-940 BC).

During King Solomon’s reign, Prophet Ahijah met Jeroboam and Prophesied how GOD would divide the Kingdom into 2 and give him 10 tribes to rule and only 2 tribes to Solomon’s son [1^st Kings 11:29 – 37].

After King Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam initially became king, but the kingdom got divided into two, just as GOD Said it would and that account is recorded in 1^st Kings Chapter 12.

The ‘Northern Kingdom’ is referred to as “The Kingdom of Israel”, from then onwards in the Scriptures. Omri who reigned from 885 – 874 BC persuaded the owner of a hill in the fertile valley northwest of Sechem to sell it to him and built a city on that hill and called it ‘Samaria’ around 880 BC and then he made ‘Samaria’ the capital of the Northern Kingdom [1^st Kings16:24]. Later Omri’s son Ahab further fortified it.

Jerusalem was captured by King David from the Jebusites around 1000 BC and declared it the “Capital of the Kingdom” [2^nd Samuel 5:6-10].

In Jerusalem his son Solomon built the “House of GOD” and “Dedicated it to GOD” as Recorded in 1^st Kings Chapters 5 to 8.

After the division of the Kingdom, it continued to be the Capital of the ‘Southern Kingdom’, which was also called “The Kingdom of Judah” (English) in the Scriptures.

2^nd Kings 17:3 onwards record how the Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser attacked the Northern Kingdom and laid siege to Samaria for 3 years [Verse 5].

Verse 6 simply states “King of Assyria captured it and exiled the People of the Northern Kingdom into the territories that had been captured previously”, as was the custom of that empire.

The Bible in that Verse records this happened in the 9^th year of Hoshea, the king of the NK\Israel and he thus became the last king of that kingdom.

That happened in 723 BC according to world history. Shalmaneser was assassinated immediately afterwards and Sargon II who took over was the one who initially exiled the Northern Kingdom.

Verse 7 states “All that happened because the People of that kingdom disobeyed GOD and there onwards a description of their sins follow.

2^nd Kings 17:24 states “The king of Assyria brought inhabitants of the lands, (naming them) and settled those people in the area that belonged to the NK”.

We have to bear in mind that what is “Written in the Bible” happens to be “What the various authors were ‘Compelled by GOD’S SPIRIT To Record’, in Accordance with GOD’S Sovereign Plan” and NOT all the details of every situation”, just as the media does today, in reporting about various incidents.

Hence, according to world history, what is Stated in that Verse happened in stages and was carried out by subsequent emperors like Esarhaddon (681-669) and Ashurbanipal (669 – 627).

Assyrians did this mainly to avert any rebellion by a ‘united people’ in any of their conquered territories. And the other practice was to take the ‘best of the society’ and to leave what they considered the ‘least’ behind.

Babylonians also did that in stages and ‘THAT is HOW’ Daniel and his friends ended up in the Nebuchadnezzer’s palace [Daniel Chapter 1], while Ezekiel lived along the banks of river Kebar [Ezekiel 1:1].

Therefore the least of the NK were left behind in the area that belonged to the NK or Israel, whilst people from various other countries were brought and settled also in that same area of the former Israeli Kingdom.

Their descendants were called “Samaritans”, as the capital of the NK was Samaria and that area was called “Shomron” then, even as done at present, in Hebrew.

Also because those descendants were a ‘mixed people’, Jews of the Southern Kingdom\Judea despised them.

At the Time of Christ, various ‘Religious Leaders’ of the Jewish People used to cross the river Jordon and walked along the territory east of River Jordon until they passed the area called ‘Samaria’ and would NOT even speak to ‘Samaritans’.

Coming back to the Gospel of John, 4:3 states YAHSUA and HIS Disciples left Judea, which is south of the area called Samaria, to go to Galilee, which was in the north.

Verse 4 States “Having to go through Samaria”, because HE had NOT crossed over to the other side of river Jordon, as other leaders did.

In Verse 27 John Records, “When the Disciples came back they were astonished”, translators might use different words, to see Christ Speaking with this woman in Samaria, because Jewish People normally would NOT even speak with Samaritan men, let alone a woman.