Leaving for the present the Baptist, we follow the footsteps of the Master. They are only traced by the disciple who best understood their direction, and who alone has left us a record of the beginning of Christ's ministry. For St. Matthew and St. Mark expressly indicate the imprisonment of the Baptist as their starting-point, [1866] and, though St. Luke does not say this in so many words, he characteristically commences with Christ's public Evangelic teaching in the Synagogues of Galilee. Yet the narrative of St. Matthew [1867] reads rather like a brief summary; [1868] that of St. Mark seems like a succession of rapid sketches; and even that of St. Luke, though with deeper historic purpose than the others, outlines, rather than tells, the history. St. John alone does not profess to give a narrative at all in the ordinary sense; but he selects incidents which are characteristic as unfolding the meaning of that Life, and records discourses which open its inmost teaching; [1869] and he alone tells of that early Judæan ministry and the journey through Samaria, which preceded the Galilean work.
The shorter road from Judæa to Galilee led through Samaria; [1870] and this, if we may credit Josephus, [1871] was generally taken by the Galileans on their way to the capital. On the other hand, the Judæans seem chiefly to have made a détour through Peræa, in order to avoid hostile and impure Samaria. It lay not within the scope of our Lord to extend His personal Ministry, especially at its commencement, beyond the boundaries of Israel, [1872] and the expression, He must needs go through Samaria,' [1873] can only refer to the advisability in the circumstances of taking the most direct road, [1874] or else to the wish of avoiding Peræa as the seat of Herod's government. [1875] Such prejudices in regard to Samaria, as those which affected the ordinary Judæan devotee, would, of course, not influence the conduct of Jesus. But great as these undoubtedly were, they have been unduly exaggerated by modern writers, misled by one-sided quotations from Rabbinic works. [1876]
The Biblical history of that part of Palestine which bore the name of Samaria need not here be repeated. [1877] Before the final deportation of Israel by Shalmaneser, or rather Sargon, [1878] the Samaria' to which his operations extended must have considerably shrunk in dimensions, not only owing to previous conquests, but from the circumstance that the authority of the kings of Judah seems to have extended over a considerable portion of what once constituted the kingdom of Israel. [1879] Probably the Samaria of that time included little more than the city of that name, together with some adjoining towns and villages. It is of considerable interest to remember that the places, to which the inhabitants of Samaria were transported, [1880] have been identified with such clearness as to leave no reasonable doubt, that at least some of the descendants of the ten tribes, whether mixed or unmixed with Gentiles, must be sought among what are now known as the Nestorian Christians. [1881] On the other hand, it is of no practical importance for our present purpose to ascertain the exact localities, whence the new Samaritans' were brought to take the place of the Israelitish exiles. [1882] Suffice it, that one of them, perhaps that which contributed the principal settlers, Cuthah, furnished the name Cuthim, by which the Jews afterwards persistently designated the Samaritans. It was intended as a term of reproach, [1883] to mark that they were of foreign race, [1884] [1885] and to repudiate all connection between them and the Jews. Yet it is impossible to believe that, at least in later times, they did not contain a considerable admixture of Israelitish elements. It is difficult to suppose, that the original deportation was so complete as to leave behind no traces of the original Israelitish inhabitants. [1886] Their number would probably be swelled by fugitives from Assyria, and by Jewish settlers in the troublous times that followed. Afterwards, as we know, they were largely increased by apostates and rebels against the order of things established by Ezra and Nehemiah. [1887] Similarly, during the period of internal political and religious troubles, which marked the period to the accession of the Maccabees, the separation between Jews and Samaritans could scarcely have been generally observed, the more so that Alexander the Great placed them in close juxtaposition. [1888]