Σαμαρεῖτις

From the study of John 4:9

Range of meaning

A member of the community centred on Mount Gerizim near Shechem in the central hill country. Samaritans regarded themselves as true Israelites, descendants of the northern tribes (especially Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh), and later called themselves Shamerim, "keepers" of the Law. They accepted only the five books of Moses, in their own version, and held that God had chosen Gerizim, not Jerusalem, as his place of worship.

Against the English

Because of Jesus' parable (Luke 10), "Samaritan" in modern English means a kind helper; there are charities named after it. To a first-century Jew the word meant a rival Israelite group, seen as compromised in its worship and doubtful in its descent. It was close to an insult: "Aren't we right that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (John 8:48).

How it drifted

The parable of the Good Samaritan worked by shocking its hearers. Over centuries of retelling the shock wore off, and the word came to mean simply a good person.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jewish polemic described Samaritans as descendants of foreign settlers brought in by Assyria (2 Kings 17:24–41). Josephus calls them "Cutheans" and says they claim kinship with Jews only when it suits them (Antiquities 9.288–291; 11.340–341). Sirach 50:25–26 mocks "the foolish people that live in Shechem." The Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed the Gerizim temple around 111–110 BCE (Ant. 13.254–256). In about 6–9 CE, Samaritans scattered human bones in the Jerusalem temple courts (Ant. 18.29–30). Around 52 CE, Galilean pilgrims were killed at a Samaritan village (Ant. 20.118–136). Compare Luke 9:52–53 and Matthew 10:5.