Lives of Scripture
Samaria
Built by King Omri as the new capital of the northern kingdom of Israel and named for Shemer, the hill's previous owner (1 Kings 16:24), Samaria became the seat of Ahab and Jezebel's Baal worship and the target of Elijah's and Elisha's confrontations with the royal house. Assyria besieged and finally destroyed it in 722 BC, deporting its population and resettling the region with foreigners — the origin of the later Jewish-Samaritan divide (2 Kings 17:5-6, 24). By the New Testament, Samaria (now naming the whole region, not just the city) was the setting for Jesus's conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4) and for Philip's preaching and the Spirit's coming there in Acts 8 — an early, deliberate crossing of Jewish-Samaritan hostility that Acts 1:8 had already marked out as part of the gospel's spread.
The Samaritans
The Samaritans were the people of the region of Samaria, the hill country between Judea and Galilee that took its name from this city. Their origin is disputed. 2 Kings 17:24-41 describes how, after the northern kingdom fell, the king of Assyria resettled the region with peoples from other conquered lands, who learned to fear the LORD while still serving their own gods. The Samaritans themselves trace their descent to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh left in the land, and many scholars think both groups contributed. After the exile, local opponents worked to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:1-5), and Sanballat rallied the soldiers of Samaria against Nehemiah's wall (Nehemiah 4:1-2).
By Jesus' day the Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem (John 4:20) and accepted only the five books of Moses as Scripture. Jews and Samaritans kept apart (John 4:9), and calling someone a Samaritan could be an insult (John 8:48). Jesus crossed that divide again and again. He spoke with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4). He rebuked James and John for wanting to call down fire on a Samaritan village (Luke 9:52-56), made a Samaritan the hero of a parable (Luke 10:30-37), and noted that the one healed leper who came back to thank Him was a Samaritan (Luke 17:11-19). After His resurrection He named Samaria in the gospel's path (Acts 1:8), and through Philip's preaching many Samaritans believed (Acts 8:4-25). A small Samaritan community still worships on Mount Gerizim today.
References: 1 Kings 16:24; 2 Kings 17:5-6; John 4:4-42; Acts 8:5-8
People connected to Samaria
- Ahab (M) — built a temple of Baal in this city
1 Kings 16:32
- Ben-hadad (M) — the Aramean king who besieged this city twice
1 Kings 20:1; 2 Kings 6:24
- Elisha (M) — lived in this city and guided its kings
2 Kings 5:3; 2 Kings 6:32
- Gehazi (M) — Elisha's servant here, struck with leprosy for his greed
2 Kings 5:20-27
- Hoshea (M) — its last king, imprisoned when the city fell to Assyria
2 Kings 17:1-6
- Jehu (M) — wiped out Ahab's family and Baal worship in this city
2 Kings 10:11; 2 Kings 10:17-28
- Jezebel (F) — queen in this city, who promoted Baal and killed the LORD's prophets
1 Kings 18:4
- Menahem — seized the throne of this city and paid heavy tribute to Assyria
2 Kings 15:14-19
- Naaman (M) — the Aramean commander sent to the prophet in this city to be healed of leprosy
2 Kings 5:3-9
- Oded (M) — the prophet here who turned back Israel's army with its Judean captives
2 Chronicles 28:9-11
- Omri (M) — founded this city as the capital of the northern kingdom
1 Kings 16:23-24
- Philip (M) — the evangelist who preached Christ in this city with great effect
Acts 8:5-8
- Shalmaneser (M) — the Assyrian king who besieged this city for three years and took it
2 Kings 17:5-6
- Shemer (M) — the man from whom Omri bought the hill and after whom he named this city
1 Kings 16:24
Also named in Scripture at Samaria: Ahaziah (M), Amasa (M), Amon (M), Argob (M), Arieh (M), Azariah (M), Berechiah (M), Esarhaddon (M), Jehikhiah (M), Jehoahaz (M), Jeroboam (M), Joash (M), Joash (M), Jonadab (M), Joram (M), Micaiah (M), Obadiah (M), Osnappar (M), Pekah (M), Pekahiah (M), Rehum (M), Sanballat (M), Shallum (M), Shimshai (M), Simon (M), Zedekiah (M).