Origins of the Samaritans
John 4:1–45
Excerpt
Samaritan [is] in the OT an ethnic term for the residents of the district of Samaria. The term appears only once (2 Kings 17:29) in the account of the settlement of Mesopotamian colonists in the region by the Assyrians, in the comment that these foreign people made gods of their own which they placed ‘in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made.’ In the NT, however, the term is used exclusively for the members of a particular ethno-religious community based in the area, living for the most part around Mt. Gerizim (John 4:1-42) but residing also in their own villages throughout the region (Matt. 10:5; Luke 9:52), who might be encountered in villages neighboring on Samaria (Luke 17:11-19) or even on the roadway betweenJerusalem and Jericho (Luke 10:29-37).
Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. Harper’s Bible dictionary 1985 : 898. Print.
Comments