“Samaria Refers to both the town which served as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel and to its surrounding area, which lay between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The prophets Elijah and Elisha performed much of their ministry in and around the city, which is one of the few that was not already built when the Israelite’s conquered Canaan. The Israelite King Omri built Samaria on a hill he had purchased, naming it after its former owner, Shemer (1 Kings 16:24). Omri’s son Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria (1 Kings 16:32), prompting God to inflict a severe famine (1 Kings 17:1). The King of Aram besieged and attacked the city, but was defeated by Ahab’s army as predicted (1 Kings 20:13). However, the Aramean army later laid siege to the city and caused another famine so severe that mothers ate their own children (2 Kings 6:24-28). The famine ended when the Aramean camp was scared away by God causing them to hear the sound of an attacking army This allowed the Israelites to enter the Aramean camp and plunder their supplies, thus fulfilling Elisha’s prediction that grain prices would suddenly fall (2 Kings 7:5-7, 16). However, Samaria remained a place of idol worship (2 Kings 13:6; Jer. 23:13; Hosea 8:5) and was sent into exile with the rest of Israel by the Assyrian army (2 Kings 17:5-6). Samaria’s downfall was predicted by the prophets, who used Samaria as a metaphor for all of Israel (Isa. 8:4; Hosea 13:16; Amos 3:12; Micah 1:6). However, the prophets also predicted Samaria’s eventual restoration (Jer. 31:5, Ezek. 16:53). The Assyrians brought in foreigners to repopulate the emptied Samaritan towns, where they formed practices which mixed their local religions with that of the Israelites (2 Kings 17:24, 33). The town changed hands a number of times before finally being given to Herod the Great by the Roman Emperor Augustus, and was renamed Sebaste. Herod built a large temple dedicated to Augustus there. In New Testament times, Samaria was one of the three main land areas which made up Israel (the other two being Judea and Galilee). As a result of the exile, the people of Samaria were looked down upon by Jews as an inferior mixed-breed. The religious leaders who opposed Jesus, for example, called him a Samaritan as an insult (John 8:48). Though Jesus experienced some resistance to his ministry from Samaritans (Luke 9:52-53), his own conduct toward Samaritans was radically gracious. In Samaria Jesus initiated conversation with a local woman by an ancient well (John 4:4-5), and Jesus’ parable of the kind helper from Samaria was a revolutionary depiction for a Jew to give of that ethnicity at the time (Luke 10:33). After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Samaria was one of the first regions where the early church spread the gospel (Acts 1:8, 8:25). The disciple Philip preached the Gospel in the city of Sebaste, and many Samaritans came to faith. A famous sorcerer named Simon was among these converts, although he at first attempted to gain fame through the Gospel. The Apostles Peter and John came to the city to establish the new Samaritan believers, and they rebuked Simon, who repented (Acts 8:5-25) Sebaste became an early center of Christianity.” Sent from Bible Study
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