Samaritans

The Samaritans are a distinct group of people inhabiting the region of Samaria who appear throughout the New Testament as a community separate from the Jewish people. The text describes a long-standing religious and social division between these two groups, noting that Jews do not associate with Samaritans (John 4:9). This tension is rooted in disagreements over the proper location for worship, as the Samaritans claimed their ancestors worshiped on a specific mountain, while the Jews maintained that Jerusalem was the place where people ought to worship (John 4:20). Despite these divisions, the Samaritans are frequently presented as recipients of Jesus’s ministry and the subsequent preaching of the early church.

Several individuals illustrate the complex relationship between the Samaritans and the followers of Jesus. The Samaritan Woman at the Well is a resident of Sychar who discusses theology with Jesus and subsequently convinces many in her town to believe in him (John 4:28–30). The Good Samaritan is the central figure of a parable who shows mercy to a traveler after a priest and a Levite pass by without helping (Luke 10:33–37). Simon Magus is a man in Samaria who practiced sorcery and amazed the people before he was baptized and later rebuked for trying to purchase spiritual power (Acts 8:9–20). The text also mentions a group of ten lepers, only one of whom, a Samaritan, returns to give thanks to Jesus after being healed (Luke 17:15–16). Additionally, the apostles Philip, Peter, and John are recorded as preaching the word of the Lord in many Samaritan villages (Acts 8:25).

The presence of the Samaritans in the biblical narrative serves to expand the scope of the gospel beyond the immediate confines of Judea. Jesus explicitly instructs his followers that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The text records that when a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, the believers were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, leading to the further spread of their message (Acts 8:1). By documenting the conversion and inclusion of the Samaritans, the New Testament depicts the breaking down of traditional ethnic and religious barriers within the growing community of believers.