Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Those Pesky Samaritans

LUKE 9:52-53
We're always hearing about deep hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews. I'd forgotten all about this incident when a Samaritan village tells Jesus' messengers that He can just keep on walking. James and John want to call down fire on the village (got to love those Sons of Thunder) but Jesus says no and they move on. Of course, a little later in Luke there comes the story of the good Samaritan and again we hear about that hostility. The Navarre Bible points out that the Samaritans aren't just another pagan tribe, which would be easy to ignore. Based on this description, I can easily see the hatred between them because the Samaritans would see the Jews as "holier than thou" while the Jews would despise the Samaritans for not "keeping the faith."
The Samaritans were hostile towards the Jews. This enmity derived from the fact that the Samaritans were descendants of marriages of Jews with Gentiles who repopulated the region of Samaria at the time of the Assyrian captivity (in the eighth century before Christ). There were also religious differences: the Samaritans had mixed the religion of Moses with various superstitious practices, and did not accept the temple of Jerusalem as the only place where sacrifices could properly be offered. They built their own temple on Mount Gerezim, in opposition to Jerusalem (cf. Jn 4:20); this was why, when they realized Jesus was headed for the Holy city, they refused him hospitality.

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