Jesus the
Christ
Chapter 13
- Honored by Strangers, Rejected by His Own
Jesus and
the Samaritan Woman
The direct route
from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria; but many Jews, particularly
Galileans, chose to follow an indirect though longer way rather than traverse
the country of a people so despised by them as were the Samaritans. The
ill-feeling between Jews and Samaritans had been growing for centuries, and at
the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry had developed into most intense
hatred. The inhabitants of Samaria were a mixed people, in whom the blood
of Israel was mingled with that of the Assyrians and other nations; and one
cause of the animosity existing between them and their neighbors both on the
north and the south was the Samaritans’ claim for recognition as Israelites; it
was their boast that Jacob was their father; but this the Jews denied. The
Samaritans had a version of the Pentateuch, which they revered as the law, but
they rejected all the prophetical writings of what is now the Old Testament,
because they considered themselves treated with insufficient respect therein.
Note: The
Samaritans had a temple that rivaled Jerusalem until its destruction by the
Jews.
The religious tension between the
Jews and the Samaritans led to the temple on Gerizim being destroyed by
either John Hyrcanus in
the 2nd century BCE (according to Josephus) or by Simeon the Just (according to the Talmud). The date of the Samaritan temple
destruction, the 21st of Kislev, became a holiday for the Jews during which it
is forbidden to eulogize the dead. However, the mountain evidently
continued to be the holy place of the Samaritans, as it is mentioned
as such by the Gospel of John and
coins produced by a Roman mint situated in Nablus included within
their design a depiction of the temple; surviving coins from this mint, dated
to 138–161 CE, show a huge temple complex, statues, and a substantive staircase
leading from Nablus to the temple itself. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
To the
orthodox Jew of the time a Samaritan was more unclean than a Gentile of any
other nationality. It is interesting to note the extreme and even absurd
restrictions then in force in the matter of regulating unavoidable relations
between the two peoples. The testimony of a Samaritan could not be heard before
a Jewish tribunal. For a Jew to eat food prepared by a Samaritan was at one
time regarded by rabbinical authority as an offense as great as that of eating
the flesh of swine. While it was admitted that produce from a field in Samaria was
not unclean, inasmuch as it sprang directly from the soil, such produce became
unclean if subjected to any treatment at Samaritan hands. Thus, grapes and
grain might be purchased from Samaritans, but neither wine nor flour
manufactured therefrom by Samaritan labor. On one occasion the epithet
“Samaritan” was hurled at Christ as an intended insult. “Say we not well that
thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” The Samaritan conception of the
mission of the expected Messiah was somewhat better founded than was that of
the Jews, for the Samaritans gave greater prominence to the spiritual kingdom
the Messiah would establish, and were less exclusive in their views as to whom
the Messianic blessings would be extended.
Note: Jesus
Christ as the Messiah fulfilled Scripture.
“And in that day there
shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For
the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”
Isaiah 11:10
In His
journey to Galilee Jesus took the shorter course, through Samaria; and
doubtless His choice was guided by purpose, for we read that “He must needs go”
that way. The road led through or by the town called Sychar, “near to
the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.” There was Jacob’s
well, which was held in high esteem, not only for its intrinsic worth as an
unfailing source of water, but also because of its association with the great
patriarch’s life. Jesus, travel-worn and weary, rested at the well, while His
disciples went to the town to buy food. A woman came to fill her water jar, and
Jesus said to her: “Give me to drink.” By the rules of oriental hospitality
then prevailing, a request for water was one that should never be denied if
possible to grant; yet the woman hesitated, for she was amazed that a Jew
should ask a favor of a Samaritan, however great the need. She expressed her
surprise in the question: “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans.” Jesus, seemingly forgetful of thirst in His desire to teach,
answered her by saying: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water.” The woman reminded Him that He had no bucket or
cord with which to draw from the deep well, and inquired further as to His
meaning, adding: “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the
well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?”
Note: God
is the fountain of living waters.
For My people have committed two evils: They
have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn
themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13
Jesus found
in the woman’s words a spirit similar to that with which the scholarly
Nicodemus had received His teachings; each failed alike to perceive the
spiritual lesson He would impart. He explained to her that water from the well
would be of but temporary benefit; to one who drank of it thirst would return;
“But,” he added, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman’s interest was keenly
aroused, either from curiosity or as an emotion of deeper concern, for she now
became the petitioner, and, addressing Him by a title of respect, said: “Sir,
give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” She could
see nothing beyond the material advantage attaching to water that would once
and for all quench thirst. The result of the draught she had in mind would be
to give her immunity from one bodily need, and save her the labor of coming to
draw from the well.
Note: God
is the fountain of living waters.
O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake
You shall be ashamed. Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have
forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living
waters. Jeremiah 17:13
The subject
of the conversation was abruptly changed by Jesus bidding her to go, call her
husband, and return. To her reply that she had no husband Jesus revealed to her
His superhuman powers of discernment, by telling her she had spoken truthfully,
inasmuch as she had had five husbands, while the man with whom she was then
living was not her husband. Surely no ordinary being could have so read the
unpleasing story of her life; she impulsively confessed her conviction, saying:
“Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” She desired to turn the
conversation, and, pointing to Mount Gerizim, upon which the sacrilegious
priest Manasseh had erected a Samaritan temple, she remarked with little
pertinence to what had been said before: “Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship.” Jesus replied in yet deeper vein, telling her that the time was near
when neither that mountain nor Jerusalem would be preeminently a place of
worship; and He clearly rebuked her presumption that the traditional belief of
the Samaritans was equally good with that of the Jews; for, said He: “Ye
worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the
Jews.” Changed and corrupted as the Jewish religion had become, it was better
than that of her people; for the Jews did accept the prophets, and through
Judah the Messiah had come. But, as Jesus expounded the matter to her, the
place of worship was of lesser importance than the spirit of the worshiper.
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth.”
Note:
Spiritually dead people will proclaim that God has a tangible body.
We cannot believe for a moment that God is
destitute of body, parts, passions, or attributes. Attributes can be made manifest
only through an organized personage. All attributes are couched in and are the
results of organized existence (DBY, 23). Teachings of Brigham Young,
churchofjesuschrist.org.
Unable or unwilling
to understand Christ’s meaning, the woman sought to terminate the lesson by a
remark that probably was to her but casual: “I know that Messias cometh, which
is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” Then, to her
profound amazement, Jesus rejoined with the awe-inspiring declaration: “I that
speak unto thee am he.” The language was unequivocal, the assertion one that
required no elucidation. The woman must regard Him thereafter as either an
impostor or the Messiah. She left her pitcher at the well, and hastening to the
town told of her experience, saying: “Come, see a man, which told me all things
that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Note: Jesus
Christ is the fountain of living waters.
On the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If
anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as
the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.” John 7:37-38
Near the
conclusion of the interview between Jesus and the woman, the returning
disciples arrived with the provisions they had gone to procure. They marveled
at finding the Master in conversation with a woman, and a Samaritan woman at
that, yet none of them asked of Him an explanation. His manner must have
impressed them with the seriousness and solemnity of the occasion. When they
urged Him to eat He said: “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” To them His
words had no significance beyond the literal sense, and they queried among
themselves as to whether some one had brought Him food during their absence;
but He enlightened them in this way: “My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work.”
Note: Jesus
Christ is the fountain of living waters.
Moreover,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were
baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the
same spiritual food, and all drank
the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
them, and that Rock was Christ. 1
Corinthians 10:1-4
A crowd of
Samaritans appeared, coming from the city. Looking upon them and upon the grain
fields nearby, Jesus continued. “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and
then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the
fields; for they are white and already to harvest.” The import of the saying
seems to be that while months would elapse before the wheat and the barley were
ready for the sickle, the harvest of souls, exemplified by the approaching
crowd, was even then ready; and that from what He had sown the disciples might
reap, to their inestimable advantage, since they would have wages for their
hire and would gather the fruits of other labor than their own.
Note:
Believers will be fishers of men for Jesus Christ.
And Jesus,
walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said
to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:18-19
Many of the
Samaritans believed on Christ, at first on the strength of the woman’s
testimony, then because of their own conviction; and they said to the woman at
whose behest they had at first gone to meet Him: “Now we believe, not because
of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” Graciously He acceded to their request
to remain, and tarried with them two days. It is beyond question that Jesus did
not share in the national prejudice of the Jews against the people of Samaria;
an honest soul was acceptable to Him come whence he may. Probably the seed sown
during this brief stay of our Lord among the despised people of Samaria was
that from which so rich a harvest was reaped by the apostles in after years.
Note: All
believers regardless of race or nationality will be in one heaven before the
Father and Son.
Now when He had taken the
scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down
before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which
are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain,
and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and
tongue and people and nation, and have
made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall
reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:8-10
Jesus Again
in Galilee: at Cana and Nazareth
Following
the two days’ sojourn among the Samaritans, Jesus, accompanied by the disciples
who had traveled with Him from Judea, resumed the journey northward into
Galilee, from which province He had been absent several months. Realizing that
the people of Nazareth, the town in which He had been brought up, would be
probably loath to acknowledge Him as other than the carpenter, or, as He
stated, knowing that “a prophet hath no honour in his own country,” He
went first to Cana. The people of that section, and indeed the Galileans
generally, received Him gladly; for many of them had attended the last Passover
and probably had been personal witnesses of the wonders He had wrought in
Judea. While at Cana He was visited by a nobleman, most likely a high official
of the province, who entreated Him to proceed to Capernaum and heal his son,
who was then lying at the point of death. With the probable design of showing
the man the true condition of his mind, for we cannot doubt that Jesus could
read his thoughts, our Lord said to him: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye
will not believe.” As observed in earlier instances, notably in the
refusal of Jesus to commit Himself to the professing believers at Jerusalem, whose
belief rested solely on their wonder at the things He did, our Lord would
not regard miracles, though wrought by Himself, as a sufficient and secure
foundation for faith. The entreating nobleman, in anguish over the precarious
state of his son, in no way resented the rebuke such as a captious mind may
have found in the Lord’s reply; but with sincere humility, which showed his
belief that Jesus could heal the boy, he renewed and emphasized his plea: “Sir,
come down ere my child die.”
Note: True
believers will have a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith in
Jesus Christ.
Now the purpose of the commandment is
love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which
some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to
be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things
which they affirm. 1 Timothy 1:5-7
Probably
the man had never paused to reason as to the direct means or process by which
death might be averted and healing be insured through the words of any being;
but in his heart he believed in Christ’s power, and with pathetic earnestness
besought our Lord to intervene in behalf of his dying son. He seemed to
consider it necessary that the Healer be present, and his great fear was that
the boy would not live until Jesus could arrive. “Jesus saith unto him, Go thy
way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto
him, and he went his way.” The genuineness of the man’s trust is shown by his
grateful acceptance of the Lord’s assurance, and by the contentment that he
forthwith manifested. Capernaum, where his son lay, was about twenty miles
away; had he been still solicitous and doubtful he would probably have tried to
return home that day, for it was one o’clock in the afternoon when Jesus spoke
the words that had given him such relief; but he journeyed leisurely, for on
the following day he was still on the road, and was met by some of his servants
who had been sent to cheer him with the glad word of his son’s recovery. He
inquired when the boy had begun to amend, and was told that at the seventh hour
on the yesterday the fever had left him. That was the time at which Christ had
said, “Thy son liveth.” The man’s belief ripened fast, and both he and his
household accepted the gospel. This was the second miracle wrought by
Jesus when in Cana, though in this instance the subject of the blessing was in
Capernaum.
Note: Do
you have sincere faith in Jesus Christ resulting in everlasting life?
Jesus
answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks
of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I
shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life.” John 4:13-14
Our Lord’s
fame spread through all the region round about. During a period not definitely
stated, He taught in the synagogs of the towns and was received with favor,
being “glorified of all.” He then returned to Nazareth, His former home,
and, as was His custom, attended the synagog service on the Sabbath day. Many
times as a boy and man He had sat in that house of worship, listening to the
reading of the law and the prophets and to the commentaries or
Targums relating thereto, as delivered by appointed readers; but now, as a
recognized teacher of legal age He was eligible to take the reader’s place. On
this occasion He stood up to read, when the service had reached the stage at
which extracts from the prophetical books were to be read to the congregation.
The minister in charge handed Him the roll, or book, of Isaiah; He turned to
the part known to us as the beginning of the sixty-first chapter, and read: “The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Handing the book to the
minister, He sat down. It was allowable for the reader in the service of the
Jewish synagog to make comments in explanation of what had been read; but to do
so he must sit. When Jesus took His seat the people knew that He was about to
expound the text, and “the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him.” The scripture He had quoted was one recognized by all classes
as specifically referring to the Messiah, for whose coming the nation waited.
The first sentence of our Lord’s commentary was startling; it involved no
labored analysis, no scholastic interpretation, but a direct and unambiguous
application: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” There was
such graciousness in His words that all wondered, and they said, “Is not this
Joseph’s son?”
Note:
Non-believers will question Jesus Christ and denigrate Him.
(Joseph Smith preaching) God is
in the still small voice. In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of
the devil–all corruption. Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell,
boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on
the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only
man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the
days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither
Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a
work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him, but the Latter-day Saints
never ran away from me yet. History of the Church, Volume 6, pages 408-409
Jesus knew their
thoughts even if He heard not their words, and, forestalling their criticism,
He said: “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself:
whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he
said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” In
their hearts the people were eager for a sign, a wonder, a miracle. They knew
that Jesus had wrought such in Cana, and a boy in Capernaum had been healed by
His word; at Jerusalem too He had astonished the people with mighty works. Were
they, His townsmen, to be slighted? Why would He not treat them to some
entertaining exhibition of His powers? He continued His address, reminding them
that in the days of Elijah, when for three years and a half no rain had fallen,
and famine had reigned, the prophet had been sent to but one of the many
widows, and she a woman of Sarepta in Sidon, a Gentile, not a daughter of
Israel. And again, though there had been many lepers in Israel in the days of
Elisha, but one leper, and he a Syrian, not an Israelite, had been cleansed
through the prophet’s ministration, for Naaman alone had manifested the
requisite faith.
Note:
People of faith will recognize miracles of God.
Therefore
He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?— just as
Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Galatians 3:5-6
Then great was
their wrath. Did He dare to class them with Gentiles and lepers? Were they to
be likened unto despised unbelievers, and that too by the son of the village
carpenter, who had grown from childhood in their community? Victims of
diabolical rage, they seized the Lord and took Him to the brow of the hill on
the slopes of which the town was built, determined to avenge their wounded
feelings by hurling Him from the rocky cliffs. Thus early in His ministry did
the forces of opposition attain murderous intensity. But our Lord’s time to die
had not yet come. The infuriated mob was powerless to go one step farther than
their supposed victim would permit. “But he passing through the midst of them
went his way.” Whether they were overawed by the grace of His presence,
silenced by the power of His words, or stayed by some more appalling
intervention, we are not informed. He departed from the unbelieving Nazarenes,
and thenceforth Nazareth was no longer His home.
Note:
Non-believers will hate Jesus Christ and believers.
“If
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.”
John 15:18
In
Capernaum
Jesus
wended His way to Capernaum, which became to Him as nearly a place of
abode as any He had in Galilee. There He taught, particularly on Sabbath days;
and the people were astonished at His doctrine, for He spoke with authority and
power. In the synagog, on one of these occasions, was a man who was a
victim of possession, and subject to the ravages of an evil spirit, or, as the
text so forcefully states, one who “had a spirit of an unclean devil.” It is
significant that this wicked spirit, which had gained such power over the man
as to control his actions and utterances, was terrified before our Lord and
cried out with a loud voice, though pleadingly: “Let us alone; what have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee
who thou art; the Holy One of God.” Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit,
commanding him to be silent, and to leave the man; the demon obeyed the Master,
and after throwing the victim into violent though harmless paroxysm, left him.
Such a miracle caused the beholders to wonder the more, and they exclaimed:
“What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean
spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of
the country round about.”
Note: Jesus
as the Messiah, taught with authority.
Then He went down to Capernaum, a city
of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. And they were astonished at
His teaching, for His word was with authority. Luke 4:31-32
In the
evening of the same day, when the sun had set, and therefore after the Sabbath
had passed, the people flocked about Him, bringing their afflicted friends
and kindred; and these Jesus healed of their divers maladies whether of body or
of mind. Among those so relieved were many who had been possessed of devils,
and these cried out, testifying perforce of the Master’s divine authority:
“Thou art Christ the Son of God.”
Note: Jesus
as the Messiah, commanded with authority.
Then they were all amazed and spoke among
themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and
power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” Luke 4:36
On these as
on other occasions, we find evil spirits voicing through the mouths of their
victims their knowledge that Jesus was the Christ; and in all such instances
the Lord silenced them with a word; for He wanted no such testimony as theirs
to attest the fact of His Godship. Those spirits were of the devil’s following,
members of the rebellious and defeated hosts that had been cast down through
the power of the very Being whose authority and power they now acknowledged in
their demoniac frenzy. Together with Satan himself, their vanquished chief,
they remained unembodied, for to all of them the privileges of the second or
mortal estate had been denied; their remembrance of the scenes that had
culminated in their expulsion from heaven was quickened by the presence of the
Christ, though He stood in a body of flesh.
Note:
Former angels or demons have been reserved for judgment.
And the angels who did not keep
their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; Jude 1:6
Many modern
writers have attempted to explain the phenomenon of demoniacal possession; and
beside these there are not a few who deny the possibility of actual domination
of the victim by spirit personages. Yet the scriptures are explicit in showing
the contrary. Our Lord distinguished between this form of affliction and that
of simple bodily disease in His instructions to the Twelve: “Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.” In the account of
the incidents under consideration, the evangelist Mark observes the same
distinction, thus: “They brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that
were possessed with devils.” In several instances, Christ, in rebuking demons,
addressed them as individuals distinct from the human being afflicted, and
in one such instance commanded the demon to “come out of him, and enter no more
into him.”
Note:
Non-believers will never recognize miracles of God in their lives.
And my
speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, that your
faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5
In this
matter as in others the simplest explanation is the pertinent truth; theory
raised on other than scriptural foundation is unstable. Christ unequivocally
associated demons with Satan, specifically in His comment on the report of the
Seventy whom He authorized and sent forth, and who testified with joy on their
return that even the devils had been subject unto them through His name; and to
those faithful servants He said: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven.” The demons that take possession of men, overruling their agency
and compelling them to obey Satanic bidding, are the unembodied angels of the
devil, whose triumph it is to afflict mortals, and if possible to impel them to
sin. To gain for themselves the transitory gratification of tenanting a body of
flesh, these demons are eager to enter even into the bodies of beasts.
Note: Believers
will rejoice for having the assurance of salvation.
Then the seventy returned
with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And
He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you. Nevertheless,
do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather
rejoice because your names are
written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20
Possibly it
was during the interval between the rebuking of the evil spirit in the synagog
and the miracles of healing and casting out devils in the evening of that
Sabbath, that Jesus went to the house of Simon, whom He had before named Peter,
and there found the mother-in-law of His disciple lying ill of fever. Acceding
to the request of faith He rebuked the disease; the woman was healed forthwith,
rose from her bed, and ministered the hospitality of her home unto Jesus and
those who were with Him.
Note: Are
you a slave of a church or a servant of Jesus Christ?
Now as soon
as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and
Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s
wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So, He came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.
And she served them. Mark 1:29-31
Notes to
Chapter 13
1.
Animosity between Jews and Samaritans.—In any
consideration of the Samaritans, it must be kept in mind that a certain city
and the district or province in which it was situated were both known as
Samaria. The principal facts pertaining to the origin of the Samaritans and the
explanation of the mutual animosity existing between the people and the Jews in
the time of Christ, have been admirably summarized by Geikie (Life and Words of Christ,vol. 1, pp. 495–6).
Omitting his citation of authorities, we quote: “After the deportation of the
Ten Tribes to Assyria, Samaria had been repeopled by heathen colonists from
various provinces of the Assyrian empire, by fugitives from the authorities of
Judea, and by stragglers of one or other of the Ten Tribes, who found their way
home again. The first heathen settlers, terrified at the increase of wild
animals, especially lions, and attributing it to their not knowing the proper
worship of the God of the country, sent for one of the exiled priests, and,
under his instructions, added the worship of Jehovah to that of their idols—an
incident in their history from which later Jewish hatred and derision taunted
them as ‘proselytes of the lions,’ as it branded them, from their Assyrian
origin, with the name of Cuthites. Ultimately, however, they became even more
rigidly attached to the Law of Moses than the Jews themselves. Anxious to be
recognized as Israelites, they set their hearts on joining the Two Tribes, on
their return from captivity, but the stern puritanism of Ezra and Nehemiah
admitted no alliance between the pure blood of Jerusalem and the tainted race
of the north. Resentment at this affront was natural, and excited resentment in
return, till, in Christ’s day, centuries of strife and mutual injury,
intensified by theological hatred on both sides, had made them implacable
enemies. The Samaritans had built a temple on Mount Gerizim, to rival that of
Jerusalem, but it had been destroyed by John Hyrcanus, who had also levelled
Samaria to the ground. They claimed for their mountain a greater holiness than
that of Moriah; accused the Jews of adding to the word of God, by receiving the
writings of the prophets, and prided themselves on owning only the Pentateuch
as inspired; favoured Herod because the Jews hated him, and were loyal to him
and the equally hated Romans; had kindled false lights on the hills, to vitiate
the Jewish reckoning by the new moons, and thus throw their feasts into
confusion, and, in the early youth of Jesus, had even defiled the very Temple
itself, by strewing human bones in it, at the Passover.
“Nor had
hatred slumbered on the side of the Jews. They knew the Samaritans only as
Cuthites, or heathens from Cuth.’ The race that I hate is no race,’ says the
son of Sirach. It was held that a people who once had worshipped five gods
could have no part in Jehovah. The claim of the Samaritans that Moses had
buried the Tabernacle and its vessels on the top of Gerizim, was laughed to
scorn. It was said that they had dedicated their temple, under Antiochus
Epiphanes, to the Greek Jupiter. Their keeping the commands of Moses even more
strictly than the Jews, that it might seem they were really of Israel, was not
denied; but their heathenism, it was said, had been proved by the discovery of
a brazen dove, which they worshipped, on the top of Gerizim. It would have been
enough that they boasted of Herod as their good king, who had married a
daughter of their people; that he had been free to follow, in their country, his
Roman tastes, so hated in Judea; that they had remained quiet, after his death,
when Judea and Galilee were in uproar, and that for their peacefulness a fourth
of their taxes had been remitted and added to the burdens of Judea. Their
friendliness to the Romans was an additional provocation. While the Jews were
kept quiet only by the sternest severity, and strove to the utmost against the
introduction of anything foreign, the Samaritans rejoiced in the new importance
which their loyalty to the empire had given them. Shechem flourished: close by,
in Cęsarea, the procurator held his court: a division of cavalry, in barracks
at Sebaste—the old Samaria—had been raised in the territory. The Roman
strangers were more than welcome to while away the summer in their umbrageous
valleys.
“The
illimitable hatred, rising from so many sources, found vent in the tradition
that a special curse had been uttered against the Samaritans, by Ezra,
Zerubbabel, and Joshua. It was said that these great ones assembled the whole
congregation of Israel in the Temple, and that three hundred priests, with
three hundred trumpets, and three hundred books of the Law, and three hundred
scholars of the Law, had been employed to repeat, amidst the most solemn
ceremonial, all the curses of the Law against the Samaritans. They had been
subjected to every form of excommunication; by the incommunicable name of
Jehovah; by the Tables of the Law, and by the heavenly and earthly synagogues.
The very name became a reproach. ‘We know that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a
devil,’ said the Jews, to Jesus, in Jerusalem. … A Samaritan egg, as the hen
laid it, could not be unclean, but what of a boiled egg? Yet interest and
convenience strove, by subtle casuistry, to invent excuses for what intercourse
was unavoidable. The country of the Cuthites was clean, so that a Jew might,
without scruple, gather and eat its produce. The waters of Samaria were clean,
so that a Jew might drink them or wash in them. Their dwellings were clean, so
that he might enter them, and eat or lodge in them. Their roads were clean, so
that the dust of them did not defile a Jew’s feet. The Rabbis even went so far
in their contradictory utterances, as to say that the victuals of the Cuthites
were allowed, if none of their wine or vinegar were mixed with them, and even
their unleavened bread was to be reckoned fit for use at the Passover. Opinions
thus wavered, but, as a rule, harsher feeling prevailed.”
That the
hostile sentiment has continued unto this day, at least on the part of the Jews,
is affirmed by Frankl and others. Thus, as quoted by Farrar (p. 166 note):
“‘Are you a Jew?’ asked Salameh Cohen, the Samaritan high priest, of Dr.
Frankl; ‘and do you come to us, the Samaritans, who are despised by the Jews?’
(Jews in the East, ii, 329). He added that they
would willingly live in friendship with the Jews, but that the Jews avoided all
intercourse with them. Soon after, visiting Sepharedish Jews of Nablous, Dr.
Frankl asked one of that sect, ‘if he had any intercourse with the Samaritans?’
The women retreated with a cry of horror, and one of them said, ‘Have you been
among the worshipers of the pigeons?’ I said that I had. The women again fell
back with the same expression of repugnance and one of them said, ‘Take a
purifying bath!’” (idem, p. 334). Canon Farrar adds, “I had the pleasure
of spending a day among the Samaritans encamped on Mount Gerizim, for their
annual passover, and neither in their habits nor apparent character could I see
any cause for all this horror and hatred.”
2.
Sychar.—The town where dwelt the Samaritan woman with
whom Jesus conversed at Jacob’s well, is named Sychar in John 4:5; the name occurs nowhere else in the Bible.
Attempts have been made to identify the place with Shechem, a city dear to the
Jewish heart because of its prominence in connection with the lives of the
early patriarchs. It is now generally admitted, however, that Sychar was a
small village on the site of the present Askar, which is, says Zenos, “a
village with a spring and some ancient rock-hewn tombs, about five eighths of a
mile north of Jacob’s well.”
3.
The Nobleman of Capernaum.—The name of the nobleman
whose son was healed by the word of Jesus is not given. Attempts to identify
him with Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas, are based on unreliable
tradition. The family of the nobleman accepted the teachings of Christ. “Joanna
the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward” (Luke 8:3) was among the grateful and honorable women
who had been recipients of our Lord’s healing ministry, and who contributed of
their substance for the furtherance of His work. Unconfirmed tradition should
not be confounded with authentic history.
4.
The Targums are ancient Jewish paraphrases on the
scriptures, which were delivered in the synagogs in the languages of the common
people. In the time of Christ the language spoken by the Jews was not Hebrew,
but an Aramaic dialect. Edersheim states that pure Hebrew was the language of
scholars and of the synagog, and that the public readings from the scriptures
had to be rendered by an interpreter. “In earliest times indeed,” says he, “it
was forbidden to the Methurgeman [interpreter] to read his translation, or to
write down a Targum, lest the paraphrase should be regarded as of equal
authority with the original.” The use of written targums was “authoritatively
sanctioned before the end of the second century after Christ. This is the
origin of our two oldest extant Targumim—that of Onkelos (as it is called) on
the Pentateuch; and that on the Prophets, attributed to Jonathan the son of
Uzziel. These names do not indeed, accurately represent the authorship of the
oldest Targumim, which may more correctly be regarded as later and
authoritative recensions of what, in some form, had existed before. But
although these works had their origin in Palestine, it is noteworthy that in
the form in which at present we possess them, they are the outcome of the
schools of Babylon.” (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i,
pp. 10, 11.)
5.
Capernaum.—“The name Capernaum signifies, according to
some authorities, ‘the Village of Nahum,’ according to others, ‘the Village of
Consolation.’ As we follow the history of Jesus we shall discover that many of
His mighty works were wrought, and many of His most impressive words were
spoken in Capernaum. The infidelity of the inhabitants, after all the
discourses and wonderful works which He had done among them, brought out the
saying of Jesus, ‘And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be
cast down to hell.’ (Matt. 11:23.) So thoroughly has this prediction been
fulfilled that no trace of the city remains, and the very site which it
occupied is now a matter of conjecture, there being even no ecclesiastical
tradition of the locality. At the present day two spots have claims which are
urged, each with such arguments of probability as to make the whole question
the most difficult in sacred topography. … We shall probably never be able to
know the exact fact. Jesus damned it to oblivion, and there it lies. We shall
content ourselves with the New Testament notices as bearing on the work of
Jesus.
“We learn
that it was somewhere on the borders of Zabulun and Nephthalim, on the western
shore of the Sea of Galilee (compare Matt. 4:13, with John 6:24). It was near or in ‘the land of Gennesaret’
(compare Matt. 14:34, with John 6:17, 20, 24), a plain about three miles long and
one mile wide, which we learn from Josephus was one of the most prosperous and
crowded districts of Palestine. It was probably on the great road leading from
Damascus to the south, ‘by the way of the sea.’ (Matt. 4:15.) There was great wisdom in selecting this
as a place to open a great public ministry. It was full of a busy population.
The exceeding richness of the wonderful plain of Gennesaret supported the mass
of inhabitants it attracted. Josephus (B. J., iii, 10:8) gives a glowing
description of this land.”—Deems, Light of the Nations, pp. 167,
168.
6.
Knowledge Does Not Insure Salvation.—James of old
chided his brethren for certain empty professions (James 2:19). Said he in effect: You take pride and
satisfaction in declaring your belief in God; you boast of being distinguished
from the idolaters and the heathen because you accept one God; you do well to
so profess, and so believe; but, remember, others do likewise; even the devils
believe; and, we may add, so firmly that they tremble at the thought of the
fate which that belief makes sure. Those confessions of the devils, that Christ
was the Son of God, were founded on knowledge; yet their knowledge of the great
truth did not change their evil natures. How different was their acknowledgment
of the Savior from that of Peter, who, to the Master’s question “Whom say ye
that I am?” replied in practically the words used by the unclean spirits before
cited, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15–16; see also Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20). Peter’s faith had already shown its vital
power; it had caused him to forsake much that had been dear, to follow his Lord
through persecution and suffering, and to put away worldliness with all its
fascinations, the sacrificing godliness which his faith made so desirable. His
knowledge of God as the Father, and of the Son as the Redeemer, was perhaps no
greater than that of the unclean spirits; but while to them that knowledge was
but an added cause of condemnation, to him it was a means of salvation.—Abridged
from The Articles of Faith, 5:97–99.