{ "id": "dict_005058", "term": "Samaritans", "slug": "samaritans", "letter": "S", "entry_type": "people_group", "entry_family": "historical_person_place", "tier": 2, "aliases": [ "Samaritan" ], "short_definition": "Samaritans are a people with their own sanctuary traditions and a complex relation to Jews.", "simple_one_line": "Samaritans are a people with their own sanctuary traditions and a complex relation to Jews.", "tooltip_text": "Samaritans: a people with their own sanctuary traditions and a complex relation to Jews", "lede_intro": "Samaritans are a people with their own sanctuary traditions and a complex relation to Jews. The group's significance comes into focus when its identity, period, and relation to Israel, the church, or later Jewish-Christian interpretation are carefully specified.", "at_a_glance_definition": "Samaritans are a distinct community centered on Samaria and Mount Gerizim, crucial to Gospel and Acts themes of grace across hostility.", "at_a_glance_key_points": [ "Their origins are tied to the northern kingdom's aftermath and later population mixing.", "They accepted the Pentateuch and worshiped on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem.", "Jesus and Acts use the Samaritans to display grace that crosses inherited enmity." ], "description_academic_short": "Samaritans are a distinct community centered on Samaria and Mount Gerizim, crucial to Gospel and Acts themes of grace across hostility. The Samaritans show that the gospel reaches across entrenched hostility and disputed sacred space.", "description_academic_full": "Samaritans are a distinct community centered on Samaria and Mount Gerizim, crucial to Gospel and Acts themes of grace across hostility. Samaritans appear in the background of Kings, become more prominent in the Gospels, and then receive the gospel in Acts 8. The Good Samaritan and the Samaritan woman are especially important for understanding Jesus' treatment of inherited enmity. The Samaritan community emerged from the complex history of the northern kingdom after Assyrian conquest and resettlement, though its exact origins remain debated. The Samaritans show that the gospel reaches across entrenched hostility and disputed sacred space. They also help mark the Acts 1:8 pattern from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.", "background_biblical_context": "Samaritans appear in the background of Kings, become more prominent in the Gospels, and then receive the gospel in Acts 8. The Good Samaritan and the Samaritan woman are especially important for understanding Jesus' treatment of inherited enmity.", "background_historical_context": "The Samaritan community emerged from the complex history of the northern kingdom after Assyrian conquest and resettlement, though its exact origins remain debated.", "background_jewish_ancient_context": "Samaritan-Jewish tensions help explain surprise, hostility, and scandal in several Gospel scenes. The divide was both religious and social.", "key_texts_primary": [ "2 Kings 17:24-41 - Assyrian resettlement helps frame Samaritan background.", "John 4:19-26 - The Samaritan woman raises the question of true worship.", "Luke 10:25-37 - Jesus uses a Samaritan as the exemplary neighbor.", "Acts 8:4-17 - The gospel reaches Samaria." ], "key_texts_secondary": [ "John 8:48 - Samaritan identity could be used polemically in Judean discourse.", "Luke 9:51-56 - Samaritan rejection of Jesus reveals enduring tensions.", "Luke 17:11-19 - A Samaritan becomes the grateful leper who returns in faith.", "Acts 1:8 - Samaria is explicitly named in the widening geography of witness." ], "original_language_note": null, "original_language_terms": [], "theological_significance": "The Samaritans show that the gospel reaches across entrenched hostility and disputed sacred space. They also help mark the Acts 1:8 pattern from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.", "philosophical_explanation": null, "interpretive_cautions": "Do not collapse Samaritans into a timeless stereotype or assume every reference uses the group in the same way. Ask who is in view, when they appear, and how Scripture or later history uses the group within the storyline.", "major_views_note": null, "doctrinal_boundaries": "This entry touches worship, mission, reconciliation, and the extension of covenant blessing beyond inherited barriers.", "practical_significance": "The Samaritans remind the church that ethnic, historical, and religious hostility does not define the limits of gospel grace.", "related_entries": [ "Samaria", "Gentiles", "Acts" ], "see_also": [ "Assyria", "John", "Parable of the Good Samaritan" ], "meta_description": "Samaritans are a distinct community centered on Samaria and Mount Gerizim, crucial to Gospel and Acts themes of grace across hostility. The Samaritans show…", "jsonld_description": "Samaritans are a distinct community centered on Samaria and Mount Gerizim, crucial to Gospel and Acts themes of grace across hostility. 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