What is Samaritanism?

But they would not give up their own idols but retained the character of a mixed people ('mixed multitude', Ex. 12:38). Later the Samaritans built an own sanctuary on Mount Gerizim and took over the Pentateuch as binding Holy Scripture.

For the origin of the mixed people and worship of Samaria, see 2 Kings 17. They were but half Jews, though they boasted of their relation to Jacob. They received the five books of Moses as sacred, but undervalued the rest of the Bible. They were circumcised, kept the law after a sort, and were expecting a Messiah to come. The personal visit of the blessed Lord to Samaria is of the deepest and most touching interest. (John 4) The well at which He rested, it is said, "lay in a valley between the two famous mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, on which the law was read. On the latter height stood the rival temple of the Samaritans, which had so long afflicted the more zealous Jews by its daring opposition to the one chosen sanctuary on Mount Moriah."

The Samaritans were a mixed people. After Israel was carried captive, the king of Assyria sent people to live in the land who did not fear the Lord; and the Lord sent lions and slew some of them. So one of the priests was sent back to teach them the manner of the God of the land, and then when Nehemiah came back, Sanballat and these people wanted to join him, and he would not let them. Mount Gerizim was the place where Joshua pronounced the blessings, and so they said that would be the proper place for worship, and a temple was built at Gerizim by them. The high priest's daughter was married to a prince of these people; and they built a temple for themselves.

The Samaritans of the Lord's day were justly looked upon as a corrupt race. The commencement of their history is recorded in 2 Kings 17:24-41. Following the captivity of the ten tribes, the Assyrian king repeopled the land with men from Babylon and other heathen cities. Dwelling in the land of Jehovah, and yet not fearing the LORD, they were troubled by the LORD. In attempting to meet this trouble, the Assyrian king sent a priest of Jehovah to teach them the ways of Jehovah. In result they became a corrupt people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods". Thus they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and of the fact that the Messiah was coming.

The account of the colonization of Samaria by the King of Assyria is interesting. It gives the history of the Samaritans, which emanated from this mixture of races and religions and which were responsible for much trouble after the return of the Jewish remnant from the exile. The priest who was returned from Assyria to teach religious rites to the colonists settled in Bethel, where Jeroboam had instituted the idolatrous worship, which had dragged Israel down, produced a new religion, partly Israelitish and partly heathenish, like the mixed multitude which dwelt in the land.

2 Kings 17 is an important scripture in connexion with Micah. It details the sins of Israel on the ground of which the captivity of the Ten Tribes had come. It gives us an account also of the beginning of that people who, in the New Testament, are called, "Samaritans." It shows us their origin as a religious sect, holding truth, which the Jew had corrupted by a mixture with the various lies which the heathen conquerors of Israel had brought with them into the land. As to this little book of Micah we may see it in three parts:

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain." That was true. For centuries the rival temple at Gerizim had been the centre of Samaritan worship. But that fact could add nothing in support of its claims to be the house of God. Granted that she was following in the footsteps of her fathers, worshipping as they had done before her, still the question remained, Was that place selected by God in which to rear up His sanctuary, and acceptable worship to be offered therein? One word from Scripture would outweigh all the claims of Gerizim, even if they had been enveloped in the prescriptive right of hoar antiquity. A "thus saith the Lord" would demolish, for subject minds, all arguments and reasoning of men.

Again. Assuming that she was in ignorance of the revelation about Jerusalem, was the worship offered at Gerizim, if done in ignorance, to be accepted of God? Granted too that many a Samaritan conscientiously resorted to that mountain, would worshipping God according to their conscience make it thereby acceptable in His eyes? Was man's conscience to override the plain direction of the Word? By no means. So the Lord distinctly repudiated the claims of Gerizim, and the worship there carried on. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." The Samaritans were self-condemned, for out of Zion the Deliverer was to come (Ps. 14:7); from the stem of Jesse the King would spring. (Isa. 11:1.) Their position apart from the Jews practically denied this. But more, they worshipped what they knew not. The Jewish prophet, as she thought Him, had now spoken, and demolished in a moment all the supposed claims of Gerizim. Those words too had surely a deep meaning, "Ye worship ye know not what." But was He authorised to speak in such a manner? She little thought that the stranger was the prophet indeed (Deut. 18:18), and the only-begotten Son of God as well. How God then viewed the Samaritan position, politically and ecclesiastically, that woman learnt from Him whose house was the temple at Jerusalem. Now three things this interview distinctly settle for us. It is dangerous, as well as wrong, to make that a matter of man's opinion on which God has expressed His mind. Worshipping God as our fathers have done before us is no guarantee that we are worshipping aright. And granting that what we do, is done with a good conscience, that is no ground for God to accept it. What God has said about worship, is the one important question when that subject comes up. To conform to His mind in the matter is the simple duty of His people.

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain." That was true. For centuries the rival temple at Gerizim had been the centre of Samaritan worship. But that fact could add nothing in support of its claims to be the house of God. Granted that she was following in the footsteps of her fathers, worshipping as they had done before her, still the question remained, Was that place selected by God in which to rear up His sanctuary, and acceptable worship to be offered therein? One word from Scripture would outweigh all the claims of Gerizim, even if they had been enveloped in the prescriptive right of hoar antiquity. A "thus says the Lord" would demolish, for subject minds, all arguments and reasoning of men.

Again. Assuming that she was in ignorance of the revelation about Jerusalem, was the worship offered at Gerizim, if done in ignorance, to be accepted of God? Granted too that many a Samaritan conscientiously resorted to that mountain, would worshipping God according to their conscience make it thereby acceptable in His eyes? Was man's conscience to override the plain direction of the Word? By no means. So the Lord distinctly repudiated the claims of Gerizim, and the worship there carried on. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." The Samaritans were self-condemned, for out of Zion the Deliverer was to come (Ps. 14:7); from the stem of Jesse the King would spring. (Isa. 11:1.) Their position apart from the Jews practically denied this. But more, they worshipped what they knew not. The Jewish prophet, as she thought Him, had now spoken, and demolished in a moment all the supposed claims of Gerizim. Those words too had surely a deep meaning, "Ye worship ye know not what." But was He authorised to speak in such a manner? She little thought that the stranger was the prophet indeed (Deut. 18:18), and the only-begotten Son of God as well. How God then viewed the Samaritan position, politically and ecclesiastically, that woman learnt from Him whose house was the temple at Jerusalem. Now three things this interview distinctly settle for us. It is dangerous, as well as wrong, to make that a matter of man's opinion on which God has expressed His mind. Worshipping God as our fathers have done before us is no guarantee that we are worshipping aright. And granting that what we do is done with a good conscience, that is no ground for God to accept it. What God has said about worship, is the one important question when that subject comes up. To conform to His mind in the matter is the simple duty of His people.

Worship. — As such she now addressed Him, starting quite a new, and a very different, subject from that hitherto before them. Then she had replied by questions to that which the Lord had said. Now she introduced the subject of the place of worship, a matter of contention between Samaritans and Jews. To this He replied, "Woman, believe Me, the hour comes, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (21-24). The Samaritan worship was then all wrong. Their separation from that carried on at Jerusalem was quite unauthorised. Salvation was of the Jews. Through them it must come, and not through the upholders of the Samaritan schism, as we may well call it. Besides, those worshipped they knew not what. A solemn announcement indeed! A false worship has another being behind it than God. Demons are there, not God (1 Cor. 10:20). Was it not that to which the Lord referred? No question, then, could there be, but that the Samaritan worship was wrong. That question, which Samaritans had debated for centuries, and determined as they wished in their own favour, was settled against them by the prophet, as she thought Him, in a very few words, and there was left no room for a rejoinder. Salvation being of the Jews, Samaritan opposition to the worship at Jerusalem must be wrong. God could not be with them who disowned the only house and altar which He had sanctioned. Real worship of God there could not be in the Temple at Gerizim. Then if God was not there, what was there?

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Thus the woman poses the question, in what place should men worship? In His immediate answer Jesus makes two distinctions. He distinguishes the Jewish from the Samaritan worship in that the former was in an important sense a genuine worship of the God of the Bible, based on a real knowledge of that God revealed: whereas the latter was a spurious worship based on ignorance of God. Jesus also distinguishes both these—at Jerusalem and Gerizim—from the worship for which the hour had already struck, when the true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Attention has already been drawn to the fact that the Jewish and Samaritan worship were alike in that they both consisted in a system of priesthood and sacrifice, but at this moment we concentrate on the fact that they had also in common the idea of an earthly location solely appropriate to worship. The Lord's answer sweeps away the whole concept of an earthly sanctuary, even when, as at Jerusalem, it had been for former times the ordinance of Jehovah the God of Israel.