33. 2 Kings xvii. 24-26; comp. Ezr. iv. 2, 10.
34. St. John viii. 48.
35. St. Luke
xvii. 16.
36. The expression cannot, however, be pressed as implying that the Samaritans were of
entirely Gentile blood.
37. Comp. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6, 9 Jer. xii. 5; Amos v. 3.
38. Jos. Ant. xi. 8, 2, 6, 7.
39. Comp. Herzfeld, Gesch. d. Volkes Isr. ii. p. 120.
The first foreign colonists of Samaria brought their peculiar forms of idolatry with
them.40 But the Providential judgments, by which they were visited, led to the
introduction of a spurious Judaism, consisting of a mixture of their former superstitions
with Jewish doctrines and rites.41 Although this state of matters resembled that which had
obtained in the original kingdom of Israel, perhaps just because of this, Ezra and
Nehemiah, when reconstructing the Jewish commonwealth, insisted on a strict separation
between those who had returned from Babylon and the Samaritans, resisting equally their
offers of co-operation and their attempts at hindrance. This embittered the national
feeling of jealousy already existing, and led to that constant hostility between Jews and
Samaritans which has continued to this day. The religious separation became final when
(at a date which cannot be precisely fixed42) the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount
Gerizim, and Manasseh, 43 the brother of Jaddua, the Jewish High-Priest, having refused
to annul his marriage with the daughter of Sanballat, was forced to flee, and became the
High-Priest of the new Sanctuary. Henceforth, by impudent assertion and falsification of
the text of the Pentateuch, 44 Gerizim was declared the rightful centre of wors hip, and the
doctrines and rites of the Samaritans exhibited a curious imitation and adaptation of those
prevalent in Judæa.
40. 2 Kings xvii. 30, 31.
41. vv. 28-41.
42. Jost thinks it existed even before the time of Alexander. Comp. Nutt, Samar. H ist. p.
16, note 2.
43. The difficult question, whether this is the Sanballat of the Book of Nehemiah, is fully
discussed by Petermann (Herzog's Real-Enc. vol. xiii. p. 366).
44. For a very full criticism of that Pentateuch, see Mr. Deutsch's Art. in Smith's Bible -
Dict.
We cannot here follow in detail the history of the Samaritans, nor explain the dogmas and
practices peculiar to them. The latter would be the more difficult, because so many of
their views were simply corruptions of those of the Jews, and because, from the want of
an authenticated ancient literature,45 the origin and meaning of many of them have been
forgotten.46 Sufficient, however, must be said to explain the mutual relations at the time
when the Lord, sitting on Jacob's well, first spake to the Samaritans of the better worship
'in spirit and truth,' and opened that well of living water which has never since ceased to
flow.
45. Comp. the sketch of it in Nutt's Samar. Hist., and Petermann's Art.