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The Story of the Samaritans - Who Were They and Why Were They Rejected_ _ Bible Stories · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: For thousands of years, a small nation lived in the
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  Speaker 1: hills of the Holy Land, neither Jewish nor Gentile, carrying
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  Speaker 1: a unique and controversial identity known as the Samaritans. They
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  Speaker 1: were both guardians of ancient traditions and targets of deep contempt.
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  Speaker 1: Their story begins in the pages of the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: and stretches into their encounters with Jesus, revealing a timeless
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  Speaker 1: message about prejudice, faith and redemption. Let's explore who these
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  Speaker 1: mysterious Samaritans were and why their name became synonymous with rejection.
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  Speaker 1: The Great King Solomon ruled Israel at the height of
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  Speaker 1: its power and prosperity. His kingdom stretched across the Promised Land,
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  Speaker 1: uniting the twelve tribes of Israel under one crown. Temples, palaces,
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  Speaker 1: and cities, flourished, trade brought riches from distant lands. It
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  Speaker 1: was the golden age of Israelite power, an era that
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  Speaker 1: many future generations would look back on with longing. But
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  Speaker 1: even in those glory days, hidden cracks had already begun
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  Speaker 1: to form. Solomon, for all his wisdom, made serious mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible tells us in First Kings eleven four that
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  Speaker 1: as Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after
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  Speaker 1: other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, his God, as the heart of David his
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  Speaker 1: father had been. Taxes increased to fund grandiose projects. Forced
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  Speaker 1: labor was imposed, especially on the northern tribes. While Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and the tribe of Judah thrived, other regions began to
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  Speaker 1: feel the burden of royal demands. Long standing tensions between
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  Speaker 1: the northern and southern tribes present even before the monarchy
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  Speaker 1: started to resurface beneath the surface of unity. When Solomon died,
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  Speaker 1: his son Rehoboam took the throne, it was a pivotal moment,
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  Speaker 1: a chance to ease tensions and bring the nation together.
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  Speaker 1: But the opposite happened. In First King, chapter twelve, we
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  Speaker 1: read how Rihoboam rejected the people's plea for fairer taxation.
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  Speaker 1: When representatives of the northern tribes, led by Jeroboam, asked
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  Speaker 1: him to lighten the heavy yoke imposed by Solomon, Rehoboam
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  Speaker 1: first consulted the older advisers who had served his father.
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  Speaker 1: They urged wisdom and humility, If today you will be
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  Speaker 1: a servant to these people and serve them and give
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  Speaker 1: them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.
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  Speaker 1: But Rehoboam chose instead to listen to the younger men
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  Speaker 1: he had grown up with. They advised him to assert
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  Speaker 1: dominance and authority. So when the people returned for his decision,
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  Speaker 1: Rihoboam declared arrogantly, my father made your yoke heavy. I
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  Speaker 1: will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips,
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  Speaker 1: I will scourge you with scorpions. This harsh and foolish
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  Speaker 1: reply was the final straw. In response to his cruelty,
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  Speaker 1: ten tribes revolted, as recall Hoo did in First Kings
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  Speaker 1: twelve sixteen. The people cried out, what share do we
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  Speaker 1: have in David? What part in Jesse's son? To your
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  Speaker 1: tens Israel, look after your own house David. In a
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  Speaker 1: single moment, the United Kingdom of Israel, painstakingly built by
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  Speaker 1: David and Solomon, split in two. The ten northern tribes
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  Speaker 1: rejected the House of David and formed their own kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: retaining the name Israel. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin
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  Speaker 1: remained loyal to Rehoboam, forming the Southern kingdom called Judah.
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  Speaker 1: The Northern kingdom initially made Shechem, its capital, an ancient
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  Speaker 1: city with deep roots in Israel's history. Later, King Omri
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  Speaker 1: established a new capital called Samaria. As first King, sixteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty four tells us Omri bought the Hill of Samaria
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  Speaker 1: from Shema for two talents of silver and built a
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  Speaker 1: city on the hill, naming its Samaria after Shema, the
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  Speaker 1: former owner of the hill. Samaria was strategically build built
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  Speaker 1: on a hill, making it easy to defend, It quickly
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  Speaker 1: became the political, economic, and religious center of the Northern Kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: Over time, the entire region around the city came to
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  Speaker 1: be known as Samaria, and its inhabitants would later be
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  Speaker 1: known as Samaritans. Thus began the first chapter in the
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  Speaker 1: story of the Samaritans, born from a divided kingdom, a
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  Speaker 1: political wound that never fully healed, and a new center
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  Speaker 1: of power to rival Jerusalem. From the very start, the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Kingdom faced serious challenges. Jeroboam, its first king, had
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  Speaker 1: a practical concern if his people continued traveling to Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: for religious festivals and sacrifices at the Temple, their loyalty
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  Speaker 1: might slowly return to the House of David. To prevent this,
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  Speaker 1: he made a decision that would forever change the religious
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  Speaker 1: course of the Northern Kingdom. In verse Kings twelve twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight twenty nine, we read, after seeking advice, the king
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  Speaker 1: made two golden calves. He said to the people, it
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  Speaker 1: is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: Here are your gods Israel, who brought you up out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt. One he set up in Bethel, and the
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  Speaker 1: other in Dan. This was a deliberate call back to
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  Speaker 1: the golden calf Aaron had made in the wilderness, when
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  Speaker 1: he had uttered nearly identical words, here are your gods, Israel,
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  Speaker 1: who brought you up out of Egypt. Jeroboam wasn't necessarily
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  Speaker 1: rejecting Yahweh, but rather creating an alternative way to worship him,
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  Speaker 1: one that violated the Second Commandment and led the people
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  Speaker 1: away from true devotion. He also instituted new festivals and
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  Speaker 1: appointed a different priesthood. Jeroboam instituted a festival on the
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  Speaker 1: fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held
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  Speaker 1: in Judah, and he appointed priests from all sorts of people,
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  Speaker 1: even though they were not Levites. First Kings twelve thirty
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  Speaker 1: two thirty three. These religious innovations came to define the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Kingdom throughout its existence, one after another, the kings
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  Speaker 1: who succeeded Jeroboam continued in this path of corrupted worship.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible repeats over and over that they followed the
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  Speaker 1: sins of Jeroboam, son of Nibat, and did not turn
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  Speaker 1: away from them the Kings thirteen two. As generations passed,
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  Speaker 1: things grew worse. Some kings, like Ahab and Jezebel, introduced
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  Speaker 1: the worship of Baal and ashera Canaanite fertility deities, Pagan altars,
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  Speaker 1: asherer poles and high places dotted the landscape. Though Yahwe's
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  Speaker 1: worship continued in name, it had been thoroughly corrupted by idolatry.
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  Speaker 1: But God did not leave his people without warning. For
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  Speaker 1: nearly two centuries, he sent prophets to the Northern Kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: men like Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea. They confronted kings,
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  Speaker 1: challenged false priests, and called the people to repentance. Through Hosea,
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  Speaker 1: God lamented, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
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  Speaker 1: Hosea four to six. And he warned they sow the
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  Speaker 1: wind and reap the whirlwind Hosea eight seven. And the
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  Speaker 1: storm truly came in the form of the Assyrian Empire.
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  Speaker 1: Since the ninth century bcee, Assyria had been expanding its power,
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  Speaker 1: conquering neighboring nations with a brutal and efficient army. Under
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  Speaker 1: King Tiglath Pyleisa the third seven forty five seven twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven BCEE, the Assyrians began to pressure Israel, demanding heavy tributes. Hoshea,
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  Speaker 1: the last king of Israel, tried a dangerous strategy. While
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  Speaker 1: pretending loyalty to Assyria, he secretly sought help from Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: When Tiglathpileesa died and was succeeded by Shalmoneser fIF, Hoshea
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  Speaker 1: stopped paying tribute, hoping the change in Assyrian leadership would
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  Speaker 1: offer a chance for independence. That was a fatal mistake.
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  Speaker 1: In Second King seventeen for five we read, But the
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  Speaker 1: King of Assyria found that Hoshea was a traitor, for
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  Speaker 1: he had sent envoys to so King of Egypt, and
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  Speaker 1: he no longer paid annual tribute to the King of Assyria. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the King of Assyria seized him and put him in prison.
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  Speaker 1: Then the King of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched
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  Speaker 1: against Samaria, and laid siege to it for three years.
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  Speaker 1: The siege was long and terrible. Hunger and disease ravaged
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  Speaker 1: the population trapped within Samaria's walls. Finally, in seven hundred
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  Speaker 1: twenty two b C. The city fell to the new
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  Speaker 1: Assyrian king, Sagon the second. The Bible describes the event
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  Speaker 1: in stark but powerful terms. In the ninth year of Hoshea,
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  Speaker 1: the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: to Assyria. Second King seventeen six. The Assyrians were infamous
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  Speaker 1: for their cruelty and for a calculated military policy mass deportation.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't just conquer peoples, they uprooted them from their homelands,
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  Speaker 1: scattering them throughout the vast empire to break their national
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  Speaker 1: identity and prevent future rebellions. Sagon the second boasted in
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  Speaker 1: his own inscriptions that he had taken twenty seven thousand,
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety inhabitants of Samaria captive. They were
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  Speaker 1: forced to walk hundreds of kilometers, chained in long lines,
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  Speaker 1: driven forward by Assyrian soldiers wielding spears and whips. Second
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  Speaker 1: King seventeen six tells us the Israelites were taken to
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  Speaker 1: Hala in Gozan on the Haber River and in the
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  Speaker 1: towns of the Meads, distant regions in northern Mesopotamia and
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  Speaker 1: media modern day Iran. Families were torn apart. Entire communities vanished.
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  Speaker 1: The elites, artisans, priests, and leaders were the primary targets
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  Speaker 1: of this deportation policy. The goal was clear to eliminate
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  Speaker 1: anyone who could organize resistance or preserve the cultural heritage
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. Towns and villages across Samaria were left empty.
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  Speaker 1: Fields that once yielded wheat, barley, and olives were abandoned.
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  Speaker 1: The ten Northern tribes scattered across the Assyrian Empire began
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  Speaker 1: to lose their identity as they merged with other nations.
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  Speaker 1: These became known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: The fall of Samaria marked the end of the Northern Kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible portrays this catastrophe as divine judgment for Israel's unfaithfulness.
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  Speaker 1: All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, their god. They worshiped other gods and followed
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  Speaker 1: the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out
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  Speaker 1: before them King seventeen seven to eight. But the story
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  Speaker 1: of the region that once held the Northern Kingdom was
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  Speaker 1: far from over. A new and unexpected chapter was about
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  Speaker 1: to begin, the birth of a mixed people who would
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  Speaker 1: one day be known as the Samaritans. An empty land
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  Speaker 1: yields no taxes. The Assyrians didn't just want to conquer,
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to profit from their conquests, so soon after
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  Speaker 1: the deportation of the Israelites, they implemented the second part
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  Speaker 1: of their strategy, the resettlement of the region with foreign peoples.
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  Speaker 1: In Second King seventeen twenty four we find the account
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  Speaker 1: of this process. The King of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Ava, Hamath,
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  Speaker 1: and Cepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria
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  Speaker 1: to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived
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  Speaker 1: in its towns. Each of these places represented a distinct
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  Speaker 1: culture with its own trees, additions, languages and religions. From
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  Speaker 1: Babylon came worshippers of Marduk and Nabu. From Kutha, a
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  Speaker 1: city in southern Babylonia, came devotees of Nergal, god of
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  Speaker 1: the underworld, from Ava, possibly Iva Hamath in Syria, and
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  Speaker 1: Cepharvaim likely Sipar in Babylonia. Each group brought its own
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  Speaker 1: gods and cultural practices. Picture the scene in the hills
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  Speaker 1: of Samaria. Caravans of foreign families arriving after long journeys,
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  Speaker 1: speaking unfamiliar languages, wearing exotic clothes, carrying their few possessions,
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  Speaker 1: and most importantly, bringing their own idols and religious customs.
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  Speaker 1: Some likely came unwillingly, just as the Israelites had been
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  Speaker 1: forced to leave. Others may have seen it as a
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  Speaker 1: chance to start anew perhaps escaping hardship in their homelands.
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  Speaker 1: These settlers found a land hastily abandoned. Empty houses waited
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  Speaker 1: for new occupants. Uncultivated fields offered promise to those who
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  Speaker 1: would work them, but challenges loomed. Deteriorated irrigation systems, damaged roads,
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  Speaker 1: fragmented communities. Rebuilding a functioning society would take time. The
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  Speaker 1: newcomers settled in the former Israelite cities, places with names
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  Speaker 1: like Bethel, Shechem, Dothan, and Samaria itself. To them, these
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  Speaker 1: were simply new places to live, but to any Israelites
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  Speaker 1: left behind, these were sacred sites, steeped in history and
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  Speaker 1: spiritual meaning. Bethel was where Jacob had seen the ladder
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  Speaker 1: to Heaven. Shechem was where God had appeared to Abraham
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  Speaker 1: and promised the land to his descendants. Seeing foreigners inhabit
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  Speaker 1: these places and worship foreign gods must have been deeply painful.
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  Speaker 1: Yet not all Israelites had been taken. The poorest, the
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  Speaker 1: simple farmers, some artisans were left behind deem insignificant by
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  Speaker 1: the Assyrians. In Tecan Kings twenty five twelve, speaking of
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  Speaker 1: the later Babylonian exile of Judah, we read the commander
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  Speaker 1: of the guard left behind some of the poorest people
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  Speaker 1: of the land to work the vineyards and fields. A
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  Speaker 1: similar pattern lightly occurred during the conquest of the Northern Kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: These remaining Israelites now found themselves living side by side
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  Speaker 1: with foreign settlers. At first, there may have been tension
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  Speaker 1: and mistrust, but over the months and years, something inevitable happened,
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  Speaker 1: mutual adaptation. The remnant Israelites and the foreign colonists needed
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  Speaker 1: each other to survive. The Israelites knew the land, its
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  Speaker 1: seasons and secrets. The settlers brought new skills, resources, and
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  Speaker 1: connections to the Assyrian Empire. Gradually, intermarriage occurred. Young Israelites
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  Speaker 1: found partners among the Babylonian or Kathian colonists. Children were
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  Speaker 1: born of these unions, carrying both Israelite and foreign blood,
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  Speaker 1: growing up with traditions from both Yahweh and Pagan gods.
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  Speaker 1: They picked up bits of Hebrew from their Israelite grandparents,
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  Speaker 1: while speaking Aramaic or another language with their foreign relatives.
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  Speaker 1: Thus emerged a mixed population, neither purely Israelite nor entirely Pagan.
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  Speaker 1: The first Samaritans, they weren't called that yet. The name
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  Speaker 1: would come later, derived from the region in which they lived,
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  Speaker 1: but even then they were already a distinct people, born
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  Speaker 1: from the Assyrian imperial policy of displacement and population resettlement.
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  Speaker 1: This ethnic mixture would centuries later become one of the
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  Speaker 1: main reasons Jews would come to despise the Samaritans. But
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  Speaker 1: to fully understand that rejection, we must first look at
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  Speaker 1: how the religion of this new mixed people developed. Life
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  Speaker 1: in the land of Israel wasn't easy for the new inhabitants.
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  Speaker 1: Soon after their arrival, an unexpected problem arose, as recorded
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  Speaker 1: in Second King seventeen twenty five twenty six. When they
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  Speaker 1: first lived there, they did not worship the Lord, so
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  Speaker 1: he sent lions among them, and they killed some of
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  Speaker 1: the people. It was reported to the King of Assyria,
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  Speaker 1: the people you deported and resettled in the towns of
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  Speaker 1: Samaria do not know what the god of that land requires.
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  Speaker 1: He has sent lions among them, which are killing them
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  Speaker 1: off because the people do not know what he requires.
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  Speaker 1: This passage reveals much about the religious mindset of the time.
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  Speaker 1: In the ancient world, every land was considered the domain
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  Speaker 1: of specific deities. To thrive in a new territory, settlers
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  Speaker 1: believed they had to learn how to appease the local gods.
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  Speaker 1: The lion attacks, likely more frequent due to abandoned villages
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  Speaker 1: and a reduced human and population, were interpreted as a
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  Speaker 1: sign of divine anger. In the colonist's eye, the god
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  Speaker 1: of the land of Israel was punishing them for not
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  Speaker 1: knowing how to worship him properly. The King of Assyria, ever, pragmatic,
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  Speaker 1: saw a straightforward solution. In Sez Kings seventeen twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight, we read, then the King of Assyria gave
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  Speaker 1: this order, have one of the priests taken captive from
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  Speaker 1: Samaria go back to live there and teach the people
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  Speaker 1: what the God of the land requires, so one of
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  Speaker 1: the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to
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  Speaker 1: live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Picture this lone Israelite priest, torn from his homeland years before,
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  Speaker 1: now returning on an official mission to teach foreigners how
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  Speaker 1: to worship Yahweh. We don't know his name, his tribe,
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  Speaker 1: or his personal story, but we do know he settled
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  Speaker 1: in Bethel, ironically, one of the key centers of the
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  Speaker 1: corrupt Golden Calf worship established by Jeroboam. What kind of
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  Speaker 1: religious instruction could this priest have offered? He himself lightly
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  Speaker 1: came from a tradition already compromised by the religious syncretism
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  Speaker 1: that had plagued the Northern Kingdom for nearly two centuries,
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  Speaker 1: and now he was alone, without a priestly community, without
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  Speaker 1: readily available sacred texts. Under these conditions, the faithful transmission
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  Speaker 1: of Israelite religion would have been inevitably flawed. As we
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  Speaker 1: might expect, the result wasn't a full conversion to the
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  Speaker 1: Israelite faith, but the rise of a unique religious syncretism,
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  Speaker 1: as explained in Second Kings seventeen twenty nine thirty three. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: each national group made its own gods in the several
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  Speaker 1: towns where they settled, and set them up in the
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  Speaker 1: shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.
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  Speaker 1: The people from Babylon made sir Coth Bennoth, those from
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  Speaker 1: Cuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashimah. The
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  Speaker 1: Avites made Nibbahs and Tartak, and the Cephervites burned their
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  Speaker 1: children in the fire as sacrifices to Adramlek and Anamelek,
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  Speaker 1: the gods of Sepharvaim. They worshiped the Lord, but they
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  Speaker 1: also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate
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  Speaker 1: for them as priests in the shrines at the high places.
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  Speaker 1: They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own
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  Speaker 1: gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from
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  Speaker 1: which they had been brought. This passage lays bare the
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  Speaker 1: complex nature of the new Samaritan religion. On the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: they feared the Lord. They acknowledged Yahweh as the God
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  Speaker 1: of Israel and adopted elements of the Law of Moses.
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  Speaker 1: But this fear seems more rooted in superstition and fear
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  Speaker 1: of divine punishment. Than in a deep understanding of Yahwe's
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  Speaker 1: covenant with Israel. On the other and they continued worshiping
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  Speaker 1: their ancestral gods and maintained their previous religious customs. Each
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  Speaker 1: ethnic group brought its own deities Sukoth Benoth possibly a
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  Speaker 1: title for the Babylonian goddess Ishtar Nergal, the Kathian god
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  Speaker 1: of the underworld and disease Ashima, Nibas and Tartak lesser
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  Speaker 1: known deities, and the terrifying Adramalek, and a Namelek, to
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  Speaker 1: whom the Cephevite sacrificed children. A priesthood was established, but
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  Speaker 1: not from the legitimate Aaronic lineage. They also appointed their
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  Speaker 1: own priests for the high places from among all their people,
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  Speaker 1: who officiated for them in the shrines of the high
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  Speaker 1: places Second Kings seventeen to thirty two. These priests were
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  Speaker 1: likely chosen from among the settlers themselves, with no true
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  Speaker 1: connection to the Israelite priestly tradition. The Bible summarizes this
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  Speaker 1: religious ambiguity in Second Kings seventeen thirty four. To this day,
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  Speaker 1: they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the
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  Speaker 1: Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws
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  Speaker 1: and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: whom he named Israel. This blended worship of Yahweh and
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  Speaker 1: pagan gods. This partial observance of the Law of Moses
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  Speaker 1: mixed with idolatrous practices, This imperfect preservation of Israelite tradition.
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  Speaker 1: This was the religious foundation of the early Samaritans. It
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  Speaker 1: was a religion that Jews would later regard as corrupt
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  Speaker 1: and impure, neither truly Israelite nor fully pagan. Over time,
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  Speaker 1: Samaritan religion would evolve. The worship of pagan gods would
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  Speaker 1: gradually fade, and the focus on Yahweh would grow stronger.
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  Speaker 1: But its syncretic origins and lack of direct ties to
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  Speaker 1: the legitimate priesthood or the Jerusalem Temple would permanently shape
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  Speaker 1: the religious identity of the Samaritans. Nearly three centuries had passed.
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  Speaker 1: The world had changed dramatically during that time. The once
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  Speaker 1: mighty Assyrian Empire, which had conquered the Northern Kingdom and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: created the conditions for the emergence of the Samaritans, had
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: declined and ultimately fell to the combined assault of the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Babylonians and the Medes in six hunder twelve BCE. The
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Kingdom of Judah, which had survived as a vassal state
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: under Assyria, briefly experienced greater independence, particularly during the religious
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: reforms of King Josiah, But in five ninety seven BCE,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and more decisively, in five eighty six BCE, Judah also fell,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: this time to the Babylonians under King nebucad Neza. Solomon's
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Temple in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship for nearly
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: four centuries, was destroyed, and many Jews were taken captive
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to Batleabon. It was a disaster of similar magnitude to
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: what had happened to the Northern Kingdom one hundred thirty
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: six years earlier. Unlike the Northern tribes, however, the Jews
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: held tightly to their identity. During the exile. Prophets like Jeremiah,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Ezekiel and Daniel provided guidance. Their religious traditions were preserved
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and in some ways strengthened by the experience of exile.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: When the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: in five thirty nine BCE, a new era began In
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: five thirty eight BCE, Cyrus issued a decree allowing the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. The
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: first group of returnees, led by Zirubebel, arrived in Jerusalem
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: around five hundred and thirty seven BCE. Reconstruction of the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: temple began, but it faced local opposition and practical difficulties.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: The second Temple was finally completed in five sixteen BCE.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Other groups of exiles returned in the decades that followed.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: In four fifty eight BCE, Ezra, a priest and scribe,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: led a second major return. In four forty five BCE,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah came with authorization from the Persian king Articxerxes to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Both men implemented strict religious reforms,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: reinforcing adherents to the law and religious purity. When the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Jewish exiles returned, they encountered the mixed population of Samaria,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans, who had been established in the land for generations.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: For the returning Jews, questions of identity and purity were paramount.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: They had learned through the painful experience of exile, the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: consequences of unfaithfulness to Yahweh and of mixing with payagan practices.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: They were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Some Samaritans, possibly those more devout toward Yahweh and less
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: attached to pagan customs, saw the rebuilding of the temple
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem as an opportunity for reconciliation. In Ezrah four
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: one three we read about this attempt. When the enemies
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: came to Zerubabel and to the heads of the families
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and said, let us help you build, because like you,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: since the time of Esa Hadden, king of Assyria, who
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: brought us here. But Zurubebel Joshua and the rest of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the heads of the families of Israel answered, you have
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: no part with us in building a temple to our God.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: We alone will build it for the Lord, the God
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of Israel, as King Cyrus, the King of Persia, commanded us.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: This passage is revealing in several ways. First, it shows
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that the Samaritans saw themselves as legitimate worshippers of Yahweh,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the God of Israel. Second, they acknowledged their origins in
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the Assyrian resettlement policy since the time of Esarhadden, who
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: brought us here. Third, the response from Zurubabel and Joshua
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: reflects the Jews categorical rejection, you have no part with us.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: This rejection became a defining moment in Jewish Samaritan relations.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: The Jews viewed the Samaritans as an impure people of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: mixed blood and corrupted religion. They did not accept that
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans had any rightful part in the worship of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yahweh or in the legacy of Israel. The Samaritans responded
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: with opposition to the reconstruction effort. In Ezra four four
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: to five, we read, then the peoples around them set
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: out to discourage the people of Judah and make them
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: of Cyrus, King of Persia and down to the reign
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: of Darius, King of Persia. Later, when Neemiah led the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, he faced particularly fierce opposition from
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: sin Balat the Horonite, who appears to have been a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Samaritan leader. In Neemiah four one two, it says, when
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: san Balat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and in the presence of his associates and the army
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: of Samaria, he said, what are those feeble Jews doing?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: back to life from those heaps of rubble burned? As
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: they are rejected by the Jews and deeply resentful. The
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Samaritans then decided to build their own temple. Around four
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty two b c E. Under the leadership of
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Sambalat or possibly his descendant, they established a sanctuary on
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Mount Gerizim, near the ancient city of Shechem. The choice
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of location was no coincidence. According to Deuteronomy eleven, twenty
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: nine and twenty seventy twelve, Mount Gerizim was the Mountain
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of Blessing, where six tribes of Israel were to stand
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and proclaim the blessings of the Covenant upon entering the
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: promised land. Joshua eight thirty three confirms that this ceremony
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: took place. All Israel foreigners and native born alike, with
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the elders, officials, and judges were standing on both sides
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of the ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: people of Israel. This connection to such a significant moment
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: in Israel's history gave Mount Gerizim special importance. Moreover, in
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was believed to be the site
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: where Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed, as opposed to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: the Jewish tradition which identifies that place as Mount Moriah
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, and where Jacob had his dream of the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: ladder to Heaven, which Jewish tradition places in Bethel. In
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the Samaritan understanding, Mount Gerizim was the true place chosen
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: by God for his sanctuary. They believed that Mount Gerizim,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: not Jerusalem, was the legitimate site of worship. To reinforce
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: this position, the Samaritans adopted only the Pentateuch, the Five
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: their sakes scripture. They rejected the later prophetic and historical
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: books which validated Jerusalem and the Davidic lineage. Their version
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: of the Pentateuch contained significant differences from the Jewish masoretic text.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: The most notable was found in their version of Deuteronomy
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: twenty seven to four, where the Jewish text referred to
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Mount Ibal as the place to build an altar, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the Samaritan version had Mount Gerizim. For the Samaritans, this
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: was textual proof that there sacred mountain had been chosen
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: by God from the beginning. They also established their own
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: priestly lineage, independent of the Jerusalem priesthood. Although they claimed
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: descent from Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, the Jews disputed
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: this genealogy, considering it fabricated. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: offers a negative account of the Samaritan Temple's origins, claiming
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: it was built as a refuge for dissenting Jews who
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to escape Nehemiah's strict reforms. Manassa brother of the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: high priest Jadua, had married the daughter of san Balah,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and Nehemiah expelled him. So san Balad promised not only
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: to preserve his son in law's priestly position, but also
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to make him governor and build a temple similar to
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the one in Jerusalem on Mount Gherrisim. Whatever the precise
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: truth behind its founding, the construction of the temple on
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Mount Gerizim marked the definitive split between Jews and Samaritans.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: From that moment on, there would be two peoples claiming
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to be the true Israel, two temples each asserting legitimacy
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: as the proper place to worship Yahweh, and two competing
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: interpretations of the Law of Moses. A conflict that would
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: last for centuries had only just begun. With two temples
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and two established religious traditions. The conflict between Jews and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Samaritans deepened in the centuries that followed. What began as
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a religious dispute soon took on political, cultural, and social dimensions,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: becoming a bitter rivalry that would shape both group's identities.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Fundamental theological differences became increasingly pronounced the central point of
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: contention was the legitimate place of worship for the Jews.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Mount Zion in Jerusalem was the only site chosen by
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: God for his temple, as described in the Books of Samuel,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Kings and Chronicles. Psalm one thirty two thirteen to fourteen
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: clearly states for the Lord has chosen Zion, he has
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: desired it for his dwelling place. This is my resting
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: The Samaritans, on the other hand, pointed to passages in
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: the Pentatuuk that emphasized the significance of Mount Jerizim. From
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: their perspective, the shift in worship to Jerusalem was an
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: innovation introduced by the Davidic dynasty, one not authorized by
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the Law of Moses. They insisted that their mountain had
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: been the rightful place of worship since the days of
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the patriarch Abraham. Another crucial divergence was over the biblical canon.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The Samaritans recognized only the Pentateuch as divinely inspired, rejecting
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the prophetic and other writings that followed. To them, Moses
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: was the sole great prophet and all genuine divine revelation
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: had been completed through him. In their in view, the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: later claims of prophets like Samuel, Isiah or Jeremiah held
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: no authority. In contrast, the Jews accepted the prophets and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the historical and poetic writings as part of their scripture.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: These additional books not only legitimized the Jerusalem Temple and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the Davidic line, but also included sharp criticisms of the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Northern Israelites for their idolatry, criticisms that could easily be
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: extended to the Samaritans as their spiritual descendants. Interpretations of
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the Law of Moses also differed significantly. Although both groups
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: based their religious practices on the Pentateuch, their readings of
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the same texts often led to very different conclusions. Issues
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: such as the religious calendar, when to celebrate the festivals
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: ordained by God, purity laws, sacrificial rituals, and other practices
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: became intense points of controversy. Over time, mutual accusations of
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: scriptural and traditional corruption grew more severe. Jews viewed the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Samaritans as a mixed blood people practicing a syncretistic and
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: impure religion. For them, the Samaritans rejection of the prophets
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: and the House of David was sufficient evidence of their
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: deviation from the true faith. The Samaritans, on the other hand,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: saw the Jews as having strayed from the original Mosaic faith,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: corrupted by foreign influences. During and after the Babylonian Exile
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: in the fourth century BCE, the world around the Jews
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and Samaritans changed drastically. With the conquests of Alexander the
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Great Hellenism, the Greek culture and way of life began
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to spread throughout the Middle East. After Alexander's death, his
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: generals divided the empire. The region of Judea and Samaria
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: passed from the Egyptian Ptolemies to the Syrian Seleucids. Tensions
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: between Jews and Samaritans escalated when some Jews during this
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: period of Hellenization began adopting Greek customs. The Samaritans used
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: this as evidence that the Jews were willing to compromise
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: their faith, while presenting them themselves as the true guardians
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: of ancient Israelite tradition. However, the Samaritans were not immune
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: to Hellenistic influence either. When Antiochus, the fourth of Epiphanes,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the Seleucid king, attempted to forcibly impose Hellenism on the Jews,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: including the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple in one hundred
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and sixty seven BCE. Some Samaritans apparently went along with
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the new policies. According to Second Maccabees six one two,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans even offered to dedicate their temple on Mount
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Gerizim to Zeus Hellnios, which only reinforced the Jewish view
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: that the Samaritans were easily influenced and inferior in their
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: devotion to Yahweh. Hostilities between the two groups grew to
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the point where, at some point during this period, direct
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: travel between Galilee in the north and Judea in the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: south became dangerous due to the hostile territory of Samaria
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: in between. Jews traveling to Jerusalem for the festivals often
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: took a longer route through the Jordan Valley to the east,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: avoiding potentially violent encounters with Samaritans. Religious and ethnic tensions
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: between Jews and Samaritans erupted into open conflict during the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Macabean period. The Macabean Revolt, which began in one hundred
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: sixty seven BCE as a Jewish uprising against the forced
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Hellenization imposed by the Seleucid Empire eventually led to the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmanian dynasty.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: After the death of Simon Maccabeus, his son John Hyrcanus
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: became high priest and ruler one thirty five one four BCE.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Under his leadership, the new Jewish state expanded its borders
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: through a series of military conquests. The Hasmanians were driven
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: not only by territorial ambitions, but also by a desire
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to purify the land of Israel from foreign influences and
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: those they deemed corrupted in beinan twenty eight BCE, John
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Hyrcanus turned his attention to Samaria. His forces first captured
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the city of Shechem at the foot of Mount Gerizim,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and then advanced to the Samaritan's Sacred Mountain itself. There,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: in an act of deep religious and political significance, they
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: completely destroyed the Samaritan Temple. The historian Flavius Josephus, in
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: his Jewish Antiquities, reports that John Hyrcanus not only demolished
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the temple but also raised the city that had developed
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: around it. For the Samaritans, this was not merely a
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: military defeat, but a religious catastrophe. Their sacred center, equivalent
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem for the Jews, had been desecrated and destroyed.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: This deliberate destruction was more than an act of war.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: It was a calculated blow to the religious legitimacy of
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans. For John Hyrcanus and the Jews, there was
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: only one legitimate temple, the one in Jerusalem. The Samaritan
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: temple was seen as a symbol of heresy and rebellion
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: against the true worship of Yahweh, and its destruction was
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: viewed as an act of religious purification. After the conquest,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: John Hyrcanus imposed Jewish practices on the Samaritans, including forced
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: circumcision and adherents to Jewish laws as interpreted by the Pharisees.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: This coercive imposition of religion only deepened the hatred between
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: the two peoples. For the Samaritans, this was not a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: genuine conversion, but religious tyranny. The destruction of Samaritan cities continued.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Josephus reports that a few years later, Alexander Janaeus, son
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: of John Hyrcanus, and his successor as ruler, also attacked
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: and destroyed the city of Samaria, the former capital of
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom. Despite the destruction of their temple, the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Samaritans continued to regard Mount Gerizim as their sacred site.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Without a formal temple, they maintained their religious practices as
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: best they could, worshiping at the location where their sanctuary
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: had once stood. The physical destruction of the temple did
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: not erase their conviction that Mount Gerizim was the true
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: place chosen by God for worship. In fact, the hasmony
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: in persecution may have strengthened Samaritan identity rather than destroyed it.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: They now saw themselves not only as guardians of the
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: true Mosaic faith, but also as martyrs suffering for their
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: loyalty to that faith. The trauma of their temple's destruction
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: sank deep into the Samaritan collective memory, much like the
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: destruction of the First Temple had marked Jewish consciousness. This
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: traumatic event remained in the Samaritan collective memory for generations.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: The violence of John Hyrcanus against the Samaritan sanctuary cemented
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the hostility between the two peoples, creating a rift that
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: seemed impossible to bridge. The independence of the Hasmanian Kingdom
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: would not last long. In sixty three BCE, the Roman
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: general Pompei, taking advantage of a civil war between Hasmanay
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and claimants to the throne, intervened in the region. Jerusalem
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: was besieged and captured, and Judea effectively became a client
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: state of Rome. With this conquest, both Jews and Samaritans
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: lost their independence and came under foreign occupation. Roman rule
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: brought relative political stability, but also new challenges for the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: region's traditional religious communities. For the Samaritans, Roman rule offered
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: some relief from Hasmanian oppression. The Romans tended to respect
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: local cults as long as they didn't disrupt the Pax
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Romana or interfere with tax collection. Although they did not
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: permit the reconstruction of the temple on Mount Gerizim, the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Samaritans were at least able to practice their religion without
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: the active persecution they had faced under the Hasmanaeans. The Romans,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: with their pragmatic approach to governance, recognized both Jews and
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Samaritans as distinct groups, each with their own religious traditions.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: This meant that the Samaritans had some legal protection and
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: official recognition, even though they continued to be held in
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: contempt by the Jews. However, living under the same imperial
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: power only solidified the social separation between the two groups.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: Isolation became complete. Eat Jews avoided any contact with Samaritans,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: considering them ritually impure. Touching an object a Samaritan had touched,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: eating food prepared by Samaritan hands, even drinking water from
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: a Samaritan well, all of it was seen as contamination.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: The term Samaritan became an insult among Jews, synonymous with
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: impurity and religious betrayal. In heated debates, calling someone a
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Samaritan was a grave offense. We see this reflected in
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the Gospel of John eight forty eight, when Jesus's opponents
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: say to him, aren't we right in saying that you
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: are a Samaritan and demon possessed? In this statement, Samaritan
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: and demon possessed are paired as equivalent insults. Intermarriage between
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Jews and Samaritans was strictly forbidden. Trade between the two
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: was avoided whenever possible. When Jews needed to travel from
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Galilee to Judae, many preferred to take a long detour
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: through the Jordan Valley rather than pass through Samaria, even
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: though it was the shortest route. The Gospel of John
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: captures this social reality in chapter four, verse nine, when
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for water. She responds with surprise,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: drink from me? A Samaritan woman? And the evangelist adds
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: the explanation for Jews do not associate with Samaritans. This
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: simple phrase, Jews do not associate with Samaritans, encapsulate centuries
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: of conflict, prejudice, and separation. What began as a political
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: division between the Northern and Southern kingdoms evolved into a
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: deep religious and ethnic rift that seemed impossible to mend.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: The Samaritans, for their part, also harboured resentment toward the Jews,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the destruction of their temple, the ongo rejection, the accusations
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: of impurity and religious falsehood. All of it fueled a
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: cycle of mutual hostility that spanned generations. Each group lived
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: within its own social and religious world, with minimal interaction
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: between them. At times, this simmering hostility irrupted into open violence.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: The historian Josephus recounts several incidents. In one of them,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Samaritans allegedly scattered human bones in the Jerusalem Temple during passover,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: ritually defiling it. In another episode, during the time of
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Pontius Pilot, a man claiming to be a prophet led
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: many Samaritans to Mount Gerizim, promising to show them sacred
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: vessels supposedly buried there by Moses. Pilot, seeing this as
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the start of a potential uprising, sent troops who killed
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: many of the participants. It was in this context of
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: deep sens seated enmity that Jesus of Nazareth entered the scene,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: challenging the conventions of his time by engaging with Samaritans
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: in radically different ways. Jesus of Nazareth was born and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: raised in Jewish Galilee, brought up in the religious traditions
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: of his people. As a devout jew, he would have
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: been expected to share the common prejudices against Samaritans. Instead,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Jesus shocked his contemporaries by interacting with Samaritans in ways
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: that defied both social and religious norms of the day.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: One of the most significant encounters occurred at a well
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: in Psychar, a Samaritan city, Jesus and his disciples were
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: traveling from Judea to Galilee, and unlike the common practice
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: of detouring through the Jordan Valley, Jesus had to go
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: through Samaria. As stated in John four to four. That
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: simple phrase already suggests it's a deliberate choice. Jesus opted
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: for the direct route through Samaria rather than the longer
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: path most Jews preferred. In John chapter four, we read
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: that Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down by Jacob's
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: well while his disciples went into town to buy food.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: It was around noon, a time when few people came
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: to the well adieu to the heat. A Samaritan woman
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: me a drink. The woman's surprise reveals just how unusual
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: this moment was. How is it that you, a Jew,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: ask me a Samaritan woman for a drink? The divide
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: between Jews and Samaritans was so strong that a simple
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: request for water seemed unthinkable. Later in the conversation, we
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: learned that this woman had had five husbands and was
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: currently living with a man who was not her husband,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: a situation that made her doubly marginalized both as a
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Samaritan and because of her moral status. What followed was
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: a profound conversation about living water, true worship, and the
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: nature of the Messiah. Jesus directly addressed the long standing
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: dispute over the proper place of worship. Believe me, woman,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: a time is coming when you will worship the Father,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: is coming, and has now come, when the true worshippers
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, For
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: they are the kind of worship as the Father seeks.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: With these words, Jesus transcended the ancient rivalry between Mount
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Geryzim and Jerusalem, pointing to a form of worship not
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: tied to geography, but rooted in sincerity of heart. And then,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: in a stunning moment, he revealed his identity to this
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Samaritan woman. I am he the one speaking to you, who,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: one of the clearest self declarations of Jesus, is the
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Messiah in all the Gospels. At the end of the encounter,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the woman left her water jar and ran back to
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: town to tell others about Jesus. Many Samaritans from that
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: city believed in him. Because of her testimony, and after
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Jesus stayed with them for two days, even more people
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: came to believe. They said, we no longer believe just
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: and we know that this man really is the savior
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: of the world. It is striking that the Samaritans recognized
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Jesus not just as Israel's Messiah, but as the savior
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: of the world, a remarkably universal vision that transcended the
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: ancient ethnic and religious hostilities. In another instance, recorded in
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Look ten twenty five thirty seven, Jesus told the parable
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: of the good Samaritan. When a legal expert asked, who
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: is my neighbor, Jesus responded with a story about a
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Jewish man attacked by robbers and left half dead on
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest and a Levite,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: representatives of Jewish religious authority, passed by without helping. It
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: was a Samaritan who stopped, tended the man's wounds, took
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: him to an inn, and paid for his recovery. This
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: parable completely overturned the expectations of jesus Jewish audience. The
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: hero of the story was someone from a group despised
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: by the Jews. The Samaritan, not the priest or Levite,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: embodied the love of neighbor that the law demanded. At
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the end of the parable, Jesus asked which of these
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: three do you think was a neighbor to the man
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: who fell into the hands of robbers. The inevitable answer,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: the one who had mercy on him, forced the legal
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: expert to acknowledge the humanity and virtue of a Samaritan.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: In yet another episode told in Luke seventeen eleven nineteen,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one came back to
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: thank him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus highlighted this fact,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Has no one returned to give praise to God except
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: this foreigner. Once again, the Samaritan is portrayed positively, demonstrating
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: a gratitude and faith that the Jewish lepers failed to show.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: There's also a lesser known story in Luke nine fifty
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: one fifty six, when Jesus and his disciples were on
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead to a
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the people
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Angered the disciples, James and John asked, Lord, do you
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: But Jesus rebuked them for their violent impulse. You do
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: not know what kind of spirit you are of, for
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: but to save them. Even when rejected by the Samaritans,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus did not allow retaliation or violence against them. His
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: consistent attitude of respect and compassion toward the Samaritans, treating
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: them as people worthy of the same consideration as any Jew,
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: was revolutionary for his time. Through these encounters and teachings,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Jesus ministry established a groundbreaking precedent of inclusion and reconciliation.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: He challenged the deep rooted prejudices of his society, demonstrating
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: that compassion, faith, and gratitude transcended the ethnic and religious
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: barriers humans had created. Jesus inclusive approach toward the Samaritans
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: did not end with his death and resurrection. In fact,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: he explicitly incorporated it into the mission he entrusted to
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: his followers before ascending to Heaven. Jesus told the disciples
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: in Acts one eight, but you will receive power when
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: and to the ends of the earth. This instruction explicitly
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: included Samaria as one of the primary targets of apostolic preaching,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: placing it on the same level of importance as Jerusalem
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and Judea. It was a direct call to overcome long
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: standing prejudice and bring the message of the Gospel to
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans as well. Initially, the early Christians, all of
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: them Jewish, focused their activities in Jerusalem. The church grew rapidly,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: but remained essentially a movement within Judaism. That changed after
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the martyrdom of Stephen and the subsequent persecution of Christians
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem led by Saul of Tarsus, who would later
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: become the apostle Paul. In Acts eight one four we
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: read that all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: and Samaria. Those who had been scattered preached the Word
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: wherever they went. This forced dispersion became the catalyst for
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: the geographical expansion of the Church, just as Jesus had foretold,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. Among the believers who
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: were scattered was Philip, one of the seven chosen to
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: serve tables in the early Church. In Acts eight five
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: to eight, we read Philip went down to a city
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: impure spirits came out of many, and many who were
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: in that city. The Samaritan's enthusiastic response to the Gospel
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: defied centuries of religious hostility. People who had been considered
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: impure and heretical by Jews for generations were now accepting
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Jesus as the Messiah. This wasn't just a matter of
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: individual conversions. It marked a historic reconciliation. In Acts eight
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: nine thirteen, Luke reports that in that same city there
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: was a man named Simon, who practiced sorcery and amazed
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the people of Samaria. Even this influential magician believed and
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: was baptized after witnessing the signs performed by Philip. When
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Word of God, they sent Peter and John to confirm
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: this extraordinary development. In Acts eight fourteen seventeen, we read
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Spirit had not yet come on any of them, they
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: they received the Holy Spirit. This moment carried immense historical
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and theological significance. Peter and John, two of the most
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: prominent Jewish apostles, traveled to Samaria, entered Samaritan homes, shared
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: meals with Samaritans, prayed for them, and laid hands on them,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: actions that would have been unthinkable for observant Jews just
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: a few years earlier. Peter himself, who had grown up
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: with the typical Jewish prejudices against Samaritans, now recognized them
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: as brothers in the faith. This shift in perspective would
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: be tested and expanded even further when God led him
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: into the home of the Gentile Cornelius acts ten. The
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: dividing wall was being torn down not just between Jews
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: and Gentiles, but also between Jews and Samaritans. The inclusion
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: of the Samaritans in the early Church marked a decisive
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: step in the expansion of Christianity beyond the boundaries of
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: traditional Judaism. Even before the first Gentiles were converted, the Samaritans,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: a people of ambiguous religious status neither fully Jewish nor
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: entirely Gentile, had already been incorporated into the Christian community.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: It's worth noting that Samaria would continue to be a
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: fertile ground for the Gospel years later. As Paul and
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: Barnabas traveled from Antioch to the Council of Jerusalem, they
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: passed through Samaria. The Church sent them on their way,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: the believers very Gladas fifteen three. This passage suggests that
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: there were already established Christian communities in Samaria who rejoiced
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: at the news of Gentile conversions, the Gospel showed its
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: power to break down centuries old ethnic and religious divisions.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: The ancient hostility between Jews and Samaritans dating back to
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom's split after Solomon began to fade in light
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: of a new shared identity in Christ. As Paul would
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: later write to the Galatians, there is neither Jew nor
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Greek slave, nor free male nor female, for you are
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: all one in Christ Jesus, Galatians three twenty eight. The
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: story of the Samaritans from their origins as a mixed
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: people after the Assyrian conquest to their acceptance in the
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: early Church is a powerful testimony to the Gospel's ability
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: to reconcile historical enemies and create a new community where
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: old barriers of prejudice and division are broken down. If
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: this story touched your heart like it did mine, don't
• 59:07
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• 59:23
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