Page 91 - Advanced Life of Christ - Student Textbook

The nation of Israel was divided into two nations in the days of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12). Israel was
composed of the ten tribes to the north, and Judah was made up of Judah and Benjamin. The animosity
between the Jews (inhabitants of the Judah, the southern kingdom) and Israelites began immediately
after the division, as Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom (with Jeroboam as her first
king). Rehoboam assembled an army to make war against Israel to reunite the kingdom, but God
intervened through His prophet Shemiah (1 Kings 12:21-24). Later, in speaking of the reign of Abijam,
Jeroboam’s son, 1 Kings 15:6 says “there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his
life.”

Immediately after the division, Jeroboam changed the worship of the Israelites in 1 Kings 12:25-33. No
longer did the inhabitants of the north travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and worship
(cf Deuteronomy 12:5-14). Instead, Jeroboam set up idols in Dan and Bethel.

Later, after Israel’s fall to the Assyrians, they began to intermarry with the Assyrians, contrary
to Deuteronomy 7:3-5. This is why the Jews hated the Samaritans as “dogs,” or “half-breeds.”

Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon in 600 B.C. Its people, too, were carried off
into captivity. But 70 years later, a remnant of 43,000 was permitted to return and rebuild Jerusalem.
The people who now inhabited the former northern kingdom—the Samaritans—vigorously opposed the
repatriation and tried to undermine the attempt to reestablish the nation. For their part, the full-
blooded, monotheistic Jews detested the mixed marriages and worship of their northern cousins. So,
walls of bitterness were erected on both sides and did nothing but harden for the next 550 years. (Ezra
4, especially v 10; Nehemiah 4, especially v 2).

Eventually, the religion of the Samaritans evolved to the point that they held only the Pentateuch
(Genesis-Deuteronomy) as being the law of God, rejecting all the books of poetry and prophecy.
Furthermore, they claimed their copy of the Pentateuch was the only original copy (a claim still made
today by what few Samaritans still survive). Obviously, this was/is a claim rejected by the Jews. Tensions
increased when the Samaritans built their own Temple for worship on Mt. Gerizim and stated that their
mountain was the dwelling place of the Lord, not the Temple in Jerusalem. With that, any hope of
reconciliation between the two peoples was lost.

Samaria also became a place of refuge for all the outlaws of Judea (Joshua 20:6-7; 21:21). The
Samaritans willingly received Jewish criminals and refugees from justice. The violators of the Jewish
laws, and those who had been excommunicated, found safety for themselves in Samaria, greatly
increasing the hatred which existed between the two nations.

Sadly, disagreements, wars, differences in worship, and miscommunication resulted in the simmering
hatred that divided the people of Israel that were once brothers.

From these causes arose an irreconcilable difference between them, so that the Jews regarded the
Samaritans as the worst of the human race (John 8:48) and had no dealings with them (John 4:9). In
spite of the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, Jesus broke down the barriers between them,
preaching the gospel of peace to the Samaritans (John 4:6-26), and the apostles later followed His
example (Acts 8:25).

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