as πελεθου ναος, stercoreum delubrum, corresponding to the Samaritan designation of
the Temple at Jerusalem as τψβ )τλθλθ oedes stercorea. Frankel himself (Palast. Ex. p.
248) derives the expression from πλατανος with reference to Gen. xxxv. 4. But this
seems quite untenable. May not the term be a compound of +λπ, to spit out, and ναος?
48. Comp. Herzfeld, u. s. ii. p. 120.
49. In 314.
50. In 311.
51. 187 -175.
52. 175 -164.
53. According to Jos. Ant. xii. 5. 5, ελλυνιος; according to 2 Macc. vi. 2, ξενιος.
54. It is very probable that the date 25 Marcheshvan (Nov.) in the Megill. Taan. re fers to
the capture of Samaria. Both the Talmud (Jer. Sot. ix. 14; Sot. 33 a ) and Josephus (Ant.
xiii. 10. 7) refers to a Bath Qol announcing this victory to Hyrcanus while he ministered
in the Sanctuary at Jerusalem.
55. Between 113 and 105.
56. Not a few of the events of Herod's life were connected with Samaria. There he
married the beautiful and ill-fated Mariamme (Ant. xiv. 12. 1); and there, thirty years
later, her two sons were strangled by order of the jealous tyrant (Ant. xvi. 11. 2-7).
57. Ant xiv. 5. 3.
58. Ant. xx. 8. 5; Jewish War i. 21. 2.
59. Ant. xviii. 4. 2.
60. Comp. Nutt, Samar. Hist. p. 26, note, and the authorities there quoted.
Although not only in the New Testament, but in 1 Macc. x. 30, and in the writings of
Josephus,61 Western Palestine is divided into the provinces of Judĉa, Samaria, and
Galilee, the Rabbis, whose ideas were shaped by the observances of Judaism, ignore this
division. For them Palestine consisted only of Judĉa, Perĉa, and Galilee. 62 Samaria
appears me rely as a strip intervening between Judĉa and Galilee, being 'the land of the
Cuthĉans.' 63 Nevertheless, it was not regarded like heathen lands, but pronounced clean.
Both the Mishnah64 and Josephus65 mark Anuath (ρπκ ψ)ντωχ) as the southern boundary
of Samaria (towards Judĉa). Northward it extended to Ginĉa (the ancient En -Gannim)
on the south side of the plain of Jezreel; on the east it was bounded by the Jordan; and on
the west by the plain of Sharon, which was reckoned as belonging to Judĉa. Thus it
occupied the ancient territories of Manasseh and Ephraim, and extended about forty-eight
miles (north and south) by forty (east and west). In aspect and climate it resembled
Judĉa, only that the scenery was more beautiful and the soil more fertile. The politi cal
enmity and religious separation between the Jews and Samaritans account for their
mutual jealously. On all public occasions the Samaritans took the part hostile to the Jews,
while they seized every opportunity of injuring and insulting them. Thus, in t he time of
Antiochus III. they sold many Jews into slavery. 66 Afterwards they sought to mislead the
Jews at a distance, to whom the beginning of every month (so important in the Jewish
festive arrangements) was intimated by beacon fires, by kindling spurio us signals.67 We
also read that they tried to desecrate the Temple on the eve of the Passover;68 and that
they waylaid and killed pilgrims on their road to Jerusalem. 69 The Jews retaliated by
treating the Samaritans with every mark of contempt; by accusing them of falsehood,
folly, and irreligion; and, what they felt most keenly, by disowning them as of the same