Why do they dislike the Samaritans?

Day 136
OT Reading: 2 Kings 15-17
NT Reading: John 6:1-21

For hundreds of years, Israel had done things their way. A variety of kings had come and gone. Some had been good, many had been bad. But after awhile God had simply had enough. In today's reading, God allows Israel...his chosen people, the nation through which he would bless the whole world...to be defeated in battle and taken into captivity.

There is one very distinct element of all this that I hope you can grasp though...and that is what happens with Samaria. As we saw in 2 Kings 17, after the Israelites are moved out Samaria is filled with Assyrians who (due to some pesky lions) end up learning about the desires of "the god of that country." Later on when some Jews make their way back to this area, they will intermarry with these Assyrians and create a new race of people called "Samaritans."

For our studies this is a crucial element that I hope you do not miss. In the New Testament we run into Samaritans and references to Samaria quite often (think, "The Good Samaritan" of Luke 11 and "Jesus with the Samaritan woman" in John 4). But there we see that Samaritans are despised, hated and treated as inferior...yet nowhere in the New Testment are we told why.

Well it all stems back several centuries and begins here. With this import of Assyrians (and the subsequent inter-marrying that we'll read about later), Samaritans became a "mixed blood" race...and were therefore seen by "true Jews" as half-breeds.

Perhaps to you that's just an insignificant detail. But my hope is that you will see New Testament interactions between Jews and Samaritans in a new light.

As one other note of interest (well, at least I find it interesting), there is still a group of about 400 Samaritans who live in the same region today. As I understand (though I admit I have not done extensive research) these present-day Samaritans view themselves as part of the inheritance of Israel, and maintain sacrificial practices even to this day.