and Judaea. From the gospels we know that the Samaritans were not only ranked with

Gentiles and strangers (Matt 10:5; John 4:9,20), but that the very term Samaritan was one

of reproach (John 8:48). "There be two manner of nations," says the son of Sirach

(Ecclus. 1.25,26), "which my heart abhorreth, and the third is no nation; they that sit

upon the mountain of Samaria, and they that dwell among the Philistines, and that

foolish people that dwell in Sichem." And Josephus has a story to account for the

exclusion of the Samaritans from the Temple, to the effect that in the night of the

Passover, when it was the custom to open the Temple gates at midnight, a Samaritan

had come and strewn bones in the porches and throughout the Temple to defile the

Holy House. Most unlikely as this appears, at least in its details, it shows the feeling of

the people. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the Samaritans fully retaliated by

bitter hatred and contempt. For, at every period of sore national trial, the Jews had no

more determined or relentless enemies than those who claimed to be the only true

representatives of Israel's worship and hopes.