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Dear Friends,
Today we will discuss a distinct sect which exists to this day in Samaria, the Samaritans. I would like to discuss the places where Samaritans are mentioned in the Bible and New Testament and ponder, with you, whether or not they are all in fact members of the same group, which we know to this day.
Circa 722 BCE, Shalmeneser, king of Assyria, set out to conquer the west. His military expedition was successful; however, he was overthrown by Sargon, who returned a few years later to complete the mission. It was these Assyrian kings who were responsible for the destruction of the Northern Israelite Kingdom, exiling the inhabitants of the 10 Tribes of Israel to various corners of the Assyrian empire, where Israelite national and religious identity was lost forever.
Assyrians Waging War
The policy of exile was well known in the Assyrian empire: people were systematically conquered and exiled to foreign lands. This was a means of alienating them from their past, integrating them with the rest of the population in the empire, and preventing future nationalistic revolts against the empire. Also in 2 Kings 18, when the later Assyrian king Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem, a high ranking officer, the Rab Shakke, was sent to try and convince the people to surrender themselves: he makes it very clear that in this way they will be allowed to live in prosperity, but not in their own land – they will inevitably be exiled.
A relief of Assyrians taking captives and leading them to exile
Naturally, while the Israelites were exiled to far ends of the empire, other peoples conquered by the Assyrians were exiled to Samaria. When arriving, they were attacked by lions, and in the Assyrian and pagan view, this was a sign of the wrath of the local deity, in this case – YHWH the God of Israel, offended by the fact that he was no longer being worshipped. In order to stop the attacks, the Assyrians allowed an Israelite priest to resettle in Samaria, and teach the new immigrants the laws of the land. The immigrants agreed to worship God, in the manner of the northern tribes who worshipped Golden Calves, but continued to worship their own local deities as well, thus creating a number of mixed religions, each group of immigrants keeping their old ways while adapting their religion to the laws of worshipping YHWH. This is the only place where the title "Samaritan" is mentioned in connection to these groups in the Hebrew Bible.
Later in biblical history, in the Book of Ezra chapter 4, we hear of enemies of the Judeans who returned to Judea from the Babylonian Exile. These enemies were inhabitants of Samaria, and claimed to worship the God of Israel from the days of Esarhedon king of Assyria (Sargon's grandson, ruled from 681 to 669 BCE). They asked to join in with the Judeans in the building of the Temple, but were turned down, and proceeded to cause much trouble by turning to the Persian authorities and asking them to prevent the Judeans from re-establishing their religious and political independence. Is this in fact the same group of Samaritans? I think this is doubtful, due to two major reasons I would like to present:
1. In 2 Kings 17, there is a detailed list of the places from which the immigrants were brought to Samaria. In Ezra 4 there is also a list of the places from which the Samaritans originally came. The lists are completely different!
2. In Ezra, no one refuted the claim that the Samaritans of Ezra indeed worship God properly. They are rejected based on ethnic reasons: the Judeans returning from exile wish to remain pure (the struggle against mixed marriages is central in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah). If, like the Samaritans described in 2 Kings 17, they in fact practiced a religion that was a mixture of Paganism and Northern Israelite worship, would this not be mentioned as a reason for their rejection?
If so, we have here descriptions of two separate groups who can be called Samaritans: the first, exiles brought to Samaria by the Assyrian kings circa 720 BCE, who practiced a mixed religion of paganism and YHWH worship. The second, exiles brought to Samaria by the Assyrian king Esarhedon some 50 years later, who apparently adopted a religion much closer to the proper worship of God prescribed by the Torah. Apparently, it is a group more similar to this group which became the sect now known to us as the Samaritans. Today's Samaritans live according to laws that are not the same as Jewish laws, but all their laws are based on the Torah and they are in no way pagans in their practices. During the Second Temple Period, Samaritans were often called Cuthites – because 2 Kings 17 mentions Cutha as one of the places from which the exiles were brought. Maybe descendants of these Cuthites were also Samaritans, but it is important to note that Samaritan practices at the time differed from the pagan practices that this derogatory name is supposed to remind us of, based on 2 Kings 17.
One of Jesus' famous sermons brings a Samaritan as an example of the ultimate other. In Luke 10, 25-37, Jesus wishes to explain to his disciples just what "you shall love...your neighbor as yourself!" means, and in order to do so, he brings a parable: a man is wounded by bandits and left to die in the desert. All sorts of people pass by, but the only one who assists him, brings him to receive medical care and makes sure that he is taken care of until he recovers is a Samaritan who passes by! Obviously, Samaritans were considered enemies, not expected to assist. Jesus wishes to prove that a Christian must assist all those in need, friends or foes, just like the Samaritan. Many countries have a "Good Samaritan Law", ruling that one mustn't ignore another person in mortal distress.
Have a great week!
The Biblical Hebrew online Team
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