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There can be no doubt that Mount Gerizim was a hallowed site. Abraham built his
first altar there (Gen. 12: 6, 7), as did also Jacob (Gen. 33: 18-20), and the Lord
commanded that His blessing should be put there:
"And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land
whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and
the curse upon Mount Ebal" (Deut. 11: 29).
Note that Sichem and Shechem, mentioned in the first two of the previous three
quotations, are one and the same, and originally represented a region in which the Mounts
Gerizim and Ebal stood. Compare Sychar (John 4: 5) and Sychem (Acts 7: 16). Apart
from the hallowed connections of Mount Gerizim, the Samaritans justified it as a place of
worship from Deut. 27: 4, 5:
"Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones,
which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal . . . . . And there shalt thou blind an altar
unto the Lord thy God."
The Samaritan Pentateuch reads, "Gerizim" for "Ebal", and although this is thought to
be a deliberate alteration, yet did the Samaritans rest their case upon it.
The relationship which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans during the Lord's
earthly ministry, is described for us in John 4: 9:
"Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, how is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans."
The Greek word translated "dealings" is sunkraomai, and it requires some
explanation. It is evident from the narrative that the Jews did have some dealings with
the Samaritans, for "His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat" (4: 8).
"The city" was Samaritan, and this implies two things: that the Jews did have dealings
with them, and that the food sold must have been deemed kosher (or lawful). The
lexicographer Parkhurst, recognizing the difficulty in the Authorized Version translation,
quotes Dr. John Lightfoot on the passage:
"Lightfoot, however, I think more justly, interprets sunkraomai by `being obliged, or
laying themselves under any obligation to, by accepting of favours from'." (Greek
Lexicon).
Hence, having no dealings with would seem to imply "having no friendly intercourse
with".
The attitude of the Jews toward the Samaritans may be further seen from such a
passage as John 8: 48, where the Lord is accused, "Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a
demon". Note also the suggestion of the disciples in Luke 9: 54, when certain
Samaritans would not receive the Lord. Yet did the Lord portray this people in a good
light in contrast to Israel, when He gave the parable of The Good Samaritan (10: 30-37).