The term 'good Samaritan' is often used to describe someone who helps others, but few actually know who the Samaritans were in the Bible. The Samaritans were a group of people who lived in the region of Israel after the Syrian conquest. They survived until the time of Jesus and still exist in limited numbers today.
The Bible tells several stories about the Samaritans, and hatred between Jews and Samaritans is a recurring issue in the Gospels. To understand the origin of the Samaritans, it is necessary to go back to the Days of the Kings of Israel. After King Solomon ruled the Israelites, his son Rehoboam took reckless actions in the tenth century, which led to corruption and sin in both kingdoms. Despite the warnings of the prophets sent by God, as a result, God announced that they would be conquered by other peoples.
The northern kingdom was worse than the southern kingdom, with a line of wicked rulers. In 722 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians, and many Israelites were taken to Syria as captives. But some remained in the land and married foreigners. These half-Jewish, half-Gentile people became known as Samaritans.
In 586 BC, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian Empire. When the walls of Jerusalem were breached, the temple was destroyed, and the city walls torn down, the first biblical records of the Samaritans are found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which date back to the 5th century BC. When the Persian Empire replaced Babylon as a power regional, Nehemiah, a Jew, obtained permission from the Persian King to rebuild Jerusalem. But the local Samaritans objected and created problems for Nehemiah and his work team. Nehemiah made one at 14; This conflict was the beginning of a long period of enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans.
In ancient times, Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. After the fall of Israel, the region of Samaria was located in the center of what used to be the northern kingdom. During Jesus' time, Samaria was between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. Currently, the region of Samaria is located in the north of the West Bank, where a few hundred Samaritans still live and follow their faith based on the Pentateuch and Mount Gerizim.
Why were the Samaritans so hated in Jesus' time? The Samaritans were widely despised by the Jews due to a number of factors. First, they were considered a mixture of spiritually corrupt Israelites and pagan foreigners who had created a religion that the Jews considered heresy.
WHY WERE THE SAMARITANS SO HATED?
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