than elsewhere. But the best proof of their richness and fertility is that both are thickly populated." The accounts of modern travellers confirm tliis description by the Jewish historian of the "good lanii" which was allot- ted to that powerful portion of the house of Joseph which crossed the Jordan, on the first division of the territory. The geographical position of the ])rovince is several times incidentally mentioned in the New Test. Thus in Luke xvii, 11 it is stated that our Lord, in proceed- ing to Jerusalem from northern Palestine, " passed through the midst of Samaria ;" and again, when he left Jud;ea and went to Galilee, St. John says, "He must needs go through Samaria" (iv,4). So also, when Paul and Barnabas were sent on a special mission from Anti- och to Jerusalem, " they passed through Phenice and Samaria" (Acts xv, 3). They followed the road along the sea-coast, doubtless calling at the great cities of Sidon, Tyre, and Cwsarea.
After the time of Roman rule in Syria, the name of Samaria as a province appears to have passed away. It is used by Pliny anti Ptolemy, and is mentioned by Jer- ome. It is not found, however, in the Kotitke Ecclesi- as/icce, nor in any later work ; and it is now wholly un- known to the natives of the country. The name of the ancient citj' has even given place to the Arabo-Greek Stbusiii/e/i. — Kitto.
On the history and natural features of the region in question, see Israel, Kingdom of; Palestine; Sa- JiAKiA, City of.
Samar'itan (Heb. Shomeroni', •'3ir'i', from Sho- meron, the Heb. name of Samaria ; Sept., New Test., Jo- sephus, and other Greek writers, "S-afiuptirrtQ, fern. 2a- fiapiiTiQ; by the later Jews, D'^fP^lS, i. e. Cuthites [q. v.] ; bj' themselves, D^T'C'ilJ, Shomerim, watchers [by a play upon their original name], i. e. keepers of the law, as interpreted by Epiphanius, Hceres. i, 9), a term which in its strictest sense would denote an inliabitant of the cily of Samaria. But it is not found at all in this sense, exclusively at any rate, in the Old Test., nor per- haps elsewhere. In fact, it oidy occurs there once, and then in a wider signification, in 2 Kings xvii, 29. There it is employed to designate those whom the king of As- syria had "placed in (what are called) the cities of Sa- maria (whatever these may be) instead of the children of Israel." Were the word Samaritan found elsewhere in the Old Test., it would have designated those who belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, which in a large sense was called Samaria. As the extent of that kingdom varied, wliich it did very much, gradually di- minishing to the time of Shalmaneser, so the extent of the word Samaritan would have varied. In the New Test, it is applied, strictly speaking, to the people or sect who had established an independent worship tif their own in a temple or synagogue at Nabliis. (In the fol- lowing account of this community, we ado]it in part the statements found in the dictionaries of Kitto and Smith.) See Sects of the Jews.
I. Orifjin of this Piojile. — As we have seen in the pre- ceding articles, Shalmaneser, or Sargon, his successor (2 Kings xvii, 5, 6, 26), carried Israel, i, e. the remnant of the ten tribes which st ill acknowledged Hoshea's author- ity, into Assyria. This remnant consisted, as has been shown, of Samaria (the city) and a few adjacent cities and villages. Now (a), did he carry away all tlieir in- habitants, or notV (It) Whether they were wholly or only partially desolated, who rcjilaced the deported pop- ulation? On the answer to these inquiries will depend our determination of the questions. Were the Samari- tans a mixed race, composed partly of Jews, partly of new settlers, or were they purely of foreign extraction!* I'pon few Biblical (|uestions have scholars arrived at conclusions more opposite.
\. Arguments in Favor of an Exclitsirelij Heathen Orifjin (if the Hiamaritaiis. — The great advocate of this view is Hengstenberg, who states not only the Biblical reasons, but continues the examination through Sirach,
SAMARITAN"
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SAMARITAN
the Maccabees, and the New Test. (A uthentie des Penta- tench, i, 3-"28). In favor of the piireh' Assyrian origin of the jieople, Hengstenberg qnotes Mill, Schultz, K. Sinaon, Kelanil, and Elmacin. To tliis list others add Suicer, Hammond, Drusius, Maldonatus, Hiivernick, liobinson, and Trench (^Parables, p. 310 sq.). In ancient times, Josephus, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Chrys- ostora, and Theodoret are quoted on the same side. The following is an outline of this position :
It has been asserted that the language of Scripture admits of scarcely a doubt. •' Israel was carried away" (2 Kings xvii, 6, "23), and other nations were placed " in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" (2 Kings xvii, 24). There is no mention whatever, as in the case of the somewhat parallel destruction of the kingdom of Judah, of " the poor of the land being left to be vine -dressers and husbandmen" (2 Kings xxv, 12). It is added that, had any been left, it would have been impossible for the new inhabitants to have been so utterly unable to acquaint themselves with "the man- ner of the God of the land" as to require to be taught by some priest of the captivity sent from the king of Assyria. Besides, it was not an unusual thing with Oriental conquerors actually to exhaust a land of its in- habitants. Comp. Herod, iii, 149 : " The Persians drag- ged {rTayi]Vf.iiaavTti;) Samos, and delivered it up to Sy- loson, stripped of all its men ;" and, again, Herod, vi, 31, for the application of the same treatment to other isl- ands, where the process called uayiii'ti'tiv is described, and is compared to a hunting-out of the population (tV- B'ljptvHi'). Such a capture is presently contrasted with the capture of other territories to which (yayip'tvEiv was not applied. Josephus's phrase in reference to the cit- ies of Samaria is that Shalmaneser " transplante'd all the people" {Ant. ix, 14, 1). A threat against Jerusalem, which was, indeed, onh' partially carried out, shows how complete and summary the desolation of the last relics of the sister kingdom must have been: "I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab : and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish : he wipeth and turneth it upon the face thereof" (2 Kings xxi, 13). This was uttered within forty years after B.C. 721, during the reign of Manas- seh. It must have derived much strength from the re- centness and proximity of the calamity.