RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Samaria
shean, seven miles south of the city. Both Jerome and the pilgrim Sylvia record a Salem in this vicinity, and in 1852 Robinson found there the name Shaih Salim. Abel-meholah, the home of Elisha (I Kings xix. 16, iv. 12), which Judges vii. 22 seems to locate south of Beth-shean, is identified by the Onomasticon with a village named Bethmaela or Bethaula, nine miles south of Scythopolis in the Jordan valley, thus pointing to the modern spring 'Ain al-Halwah. The Gilboa of I Sam. xxviii. 4, after which the mountain range was named (II Sam. i. 21), corresponds to the modern Jalbaun on the western declivity of the Jabal Fuku'ah, which rises abruptly above the plain of Beth-shean. Further to the west, on the lower slopes, lies the little village of Bait Kad, which may correspond to the Beth- 'Ekedh, " shearing house," of II Kings x. 12, 14.
Turning to the coast from the mouth of the Nahr al-'Aujah to Carmel, some twelve miles north of Jaffa is the ruined site of Arsuf, corresponding to the ancient Apollonia which was claimed by Alexander Jannaeus for Judea and was rebuilt by Gabinius (Josephus, Ant., XIII., xv. 4; 6. Cities of War, I., viii. 4). The chief place on Western the Samaritan coast, however, was Samaria. Csesarea, also called Csesarea Palsestina, Csesarea Palsestinse, Csesarea ad mare, or Sebaste. It was earlier known as Csesarea Stratonis, and as Straton here represents 'abd 'Astarton, " servant of Astarte," it would seem to have been founded by the Sidonians late in the Persian period. Alexander Jannseus subjugated the city and its vicinity as far as Dor, but it was " freed " by Augustus and given to Herod, who must be regarded as the real founder of the city, which was henceforth called Csesarea. On the deposition of Archelaus, Csesarea became the seat of the Roman procurators of Judea (6-41 a.d.), and again after the death of Agrippa I. (44). Philip and the centurion Cornelius lived there (Acts viii. 40, x. 1 sqq., xxi. 8), there Paul was imprisoned before being taken to Rome, and there he appeared before Agrippa II. and Berenice (Acts xxiii. 23-24, xxiv. 27, xxv. 14 sqq.). Vespasian made it a Roman colony, and Alexander Severus gave it the title of a metropolis (Tacitus, Hist., ii. 78). In consequence of its wide harbor, trade from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean passed through it (Acts ix. 30, xviii. 22, xxi. 8). The most famous bishop of the city was Eusebius (q.v.). The relatively smaller Csesarea of the Crusaders was destroyed by the sultan Bibars in 1296. The site still bears the name of Kaisariyah. About nine miles north of Csesarea are the ruins, now called Hirbat Tanturah, which mark the site of the ancient city of Dor, founded by the Phenicians. Although the king of Dor was conquered by Joshua (Josh. xii. 23), the city did not become tributary to Israel until the regal period (Josh. xvii. 11-12; Judges i. 27), so that I Kings iv. 11 makes the entire mountain region of Dor a tax-district of Solomon. The " height of Dor " (Josh. xii. 23, R. V.), apparently the southwestern slope of Carmel, must be distinguished from the city itself. According to the Eshmunazar inscription the Persian king gave Dor and the coast as far as Joppa to the Sidonians. In the Maccabean period Trypho
1. Origins.
was vainly besieged at Dor by Antiochus Sidetes (I Mace. xv. 10-14). Alexander Jannseus won the city from Zoilus, but in 63 b.c. Pompey made it a free city. It was, however, deserted in the days of Jerome. The Migdal Malha of the Talmud, the Magdihel of Jerome's Onomasticon, is represented by the modern Hirbat Malihah, five miles north of Tanturah. A Hebrew Migdal El was probably once situated at the present ruins of 'Atlit, the Castellum Peregrinorum of the Crusaders. (H. Guthe.)
II. The People. — 1. Origin and History: The account of the origin of the people (called in Greek Samareitai, Samaritai, and in Latin Samaritani) after the destruction of the northern kingdom is given in II Kings xvii. 24 sqq., according to which Sargon brought colonists from " Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim " to take the place of the Jews who had been deported. The account continues to the effect that since these colonists did not fear Yahweh he sent lions among them; representations of the facts were then made to Sargon who had a Hebrew priest from among the captives sent to teach them how to worship Yahweh, " the god of the land." Yet each nationality made for itself gods in each place, while priests were appointed and offered sacrifice in the high places. This account, so far as the settling of colonists is concerned, is corroborated by the annals of Sargon (cf. Schrader, KAT, pp. 276 sqq.), which speak of two sets of colonists settled in the West; Ezra iv. 2, 10, speaks of settlements made by " Esar-haddon " and " Asnapper " (Asshurbanipal; cf. Assyhia, VI., 3, §§ 12-14). In view of the composite character of the population thus derived, the question has been raised how a people of such unity of character and with so pronounced a Jewish stamp could have been formed. Hengstenberg finds the answer in the tenacity with which they held to Jewish models, especially after they received the Pentateuch. Josephus {Ant., IX., xiv. 3, X., ix. 7) claims a purely heathen origin for the Samaritans, and affirms that the Jews up to his time denied any relationship with them, calling them Cutheans (cf. II Kings xvii. 24). But this account must be rejected in favor of the other story told in the sources referred to above. Since the Hebrews deported numbered only 27,290, it is clear that not all the Hebrew population was carried away; the remnant left must have been strong enough to account for the bringing of the heathen settlers over to the practise of the religion of Yahweh. Very early the Samaritans called themselves " children of Israel " and descendants of Joseph. This conclusion is not contradicted by the few notices of the early centuries. For by the end of the seventh century b.c. there was rehabilitation of the Yahweh worship in the northern kingdom (II Kings xxiii. 15, 19 sqq.); in the report of the high places in Samaria there is no word of idolatry in connection with Josiah's reform. In Ezra iv. 2 the Samaritans make their appeal to Zerubbabel on the basis of their worship of the God of Israel from the days of Esar-haddon; and the Jews in their reply do not accuse them of idolatry. Ezra vi. 21 shows a trace of inclusion of a part of the Samaritans in association with the returned exiles after the building of
Samaria