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These strangers in time mixed with the original inhabitants of the land (it is doubtful
whether they were all carried away), and the resulting hybrid race formed the nucleus of
the Samaritans. Later, during the Ezra-Nehemiah period, a "mixed multitude", separated
from Israel and expelled from Jerusalem, were probably also absorbed among them.
Thus, shortly after the return from Babylon, the Samaritans existed as a powerful nation
in the centre of Palestine. The hatred which grew up between this people and the Jews
dates from the time when Judah returned from the Babylonian captivity. When the
children of the captivity began to rebuilt their temple and their walls, the Samaritans
offered their help:
"Now when the adversaries (Samaritans, verse 10) of Judah and Benjamin heard that
the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; then they
came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with
you: for we seek your God, as ye do" (Ezra 4: 1, 2).
This offer was spurned by Israel, and these adversaries then set about to frustrate their
purpose (verses 3-5). Involved in this opposition was one Sanballat who, according to an
Aramaic papyrus discovered in 1909, was "governor of Samaria". The various forms
which his opposition took are noted in The Companion Bible at Neh. 2: 10. They are all
to be found in Nehemiah, and are grief (2: 10), laughter (2: 19), wrath and indignation
(4: 1-3), fighting (4: 7, 8), subtlety (6: 1, 2) and compromise (6: 5-7).
A Sanballat is mentioned by Josephus as having built a temple on Mount Gerizim, but
his testimony on this point is to be viewed with some suspicion as his chronology is
evidently at fault. It is however possible, that Sanballat, after his failure to successfully
oppose the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, did in fact build a rival temple for the
Samaritans. (The interested reader is referred to The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI,
chapter 8.) Whatever be the truth of the foregoing, the fact remains that there did at one
time exist on Mount Gerizim a temple, and even after its destruction by John Hyrcanus
(over one hundred years before Christ) it remained a sacred site to the Samaritans.
After the death of Alexander the Great, when his kingdom had been divided amongst
his four generals, a dispute concerning the true site of the Temple was brought before
Ptolemy, the general to whom had been allotted Egypt and Palestine. Josephus records
the event:
"Now it came to pass that the Alexandrian Jews, and those Samaritans who paid their
worship to the temple that was built in the days of Alexander at Mount Gerizim, did now
make a sedition one against another, and disputed about their temples before Ptolemy
himself, the Jews saying that, according to the Law of Moses, the temple was to be built
at Jerusalem; and the Samaritans saying that it was to be built at Gerizim. They desired
therefore the king to sit with his friends and hear the debates about these matters, and
punish those with death who were baffled . . . . . By this speech and other arguments,
Andronicus persuaded the king to determine that the temple at Jerusalem was built
according to the Law of Moses, and to put Sabbeus and Theodosius to death"
(Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, chapter 3).
This dispute continued till the days of the Lord, when the woman of Samaria again
brought it up in His presence (John 4:).