SAMARIA (Heb. Shonterdn, Obeid. Shamrayin, Septuagint, Samareia,, Semeron, etc.), anciently a city of Palestine, the chief seat of the Eplaraimitic Baal-worship, and from the seventh year of Omri's reign, the capital of the kingdom of Israel. It was beauti fully situated on a hill about 6 m. n.w. of Shechem, and probably derived its name (which may be interpreted " pertaining to a watch" or a " watch-mountain") from the position of the hill, which- rises from the center of a wide valley, and commands au extensive prospect; but an eponymous etymology is adopted by the writer of 1st Kings, who says (chap. xvi. verse 24): " And he [Ontri] bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for talents of silver, and built on the hid, and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria." The date assigned to Omri's 'purchase is 925 me., from which time Samaria became the seat of government, which had been formerly at Thirsa. It was twice besieged by the Syrians (901 B.C. and S92 B. c.), under Ahab and Joram, on both occasions unsuccessfully; but in 721 (720) a c., it was stormed by Shalma.neser, king of Assyria, after a three years' siege. Its inhabitants, together with those of all the other " cities of Samaria" (which had become the general name for the country itself in which the city stood), i.e., the kingdom of Israel—or the "ten tribes"—were then carried off into a captivity from which they never returned. Their place was supplied, after a time, by colonists, planted there • by Shalmaneser and Esarhaddon, from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamad], and Sepharvaim (according to 2d Kings, chap. xvii. verse 24; Media and Persia, Josephus's Antiquities, x. 9, 7), who con stituted the original body of the people subsequently known as Samaritans, but whose bulk was gradually increased by accessions of renegade Jews and others. The question has been much, and on the whole unprofitably, discussed, whether these so-called " Samar itans" were a mixed race of remanent Israelites and heathen Assyrians, or whether they were exclusively the latter. The mere language of Scripture, strictly construed, seems to favor the second of these views, unless the term "cities" of 2d Kings, xvii. 24, is intended to imply that the ancient inhabitants dwelt in the open country. On the other hand, we find, apart from the other reasons against so unparalleled a wholesale depart& Bon. Israelitish inhabitants under Hezekiah and Josiah, both in Ephraim and Manasseh. Modern authorities therefore assume that they were, to a certain extent, what they always insisted on being, Israelites—(not Jews), i.e., a people largely intermixed with Israelitish elements, that, during the exile, had adopted the worship of Jehovah. The
returning Jews, however, would not recognize their claims to the participaffon in the national cult us and temple, and a bitter antagonism sprang up between the two nation alities. In 409 B.C. a rival temple was erected on Mt. Gerizim, raid a rival priesthood and ritual organized, and henceforth the breach, for some periods at least, became apparently irreparable—" the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans," and eke At other periods, however, a more friendly intercourse seems to have taken place between them. The rabbinical laws respecting the "Kiishites" (Cuthim), as they were called by the later Jews, are therefore strangely contradictory, and their discrepancies can only be explained partly by the ever-shifting phases of their mutual relations, and partly by the modifications brought about in the Samaritan creed itself. The later his tory of the city of Samaria is somewhat checkered. It was captured by Alexander the great, when the "Samaritan" inhabitants were driven cut, and their place supp!led by Syro-Macedonians. It was again taken (199 n.e.) by John Hyrcanus, who completely destroyed it. Soon rebuilt, it remained for the next 50 years in possession of time Jews; but Pompey, in his victorious march, restored it to the descendants of the _expelled Samaritans, who had settled in the neighborhood, and it was refortified by Gahinius. Herod the great rebuilt it with considerable splendor, and called it Sebaste. in honor of the emperor Augustus, from whom he had received it as a present. In the 3d c. it became a Roman colony and an episcopal see. Its prosperity perished with the Mohanunedan conquest of Palestine; and at present it is only a small village called Sebustieh, an Arab corruption of Sebaste, but contains a few relics of its former greatness. " Samaritans," es a religious sect, still exist at Nablus (anc. Shechem), as they have existed in the dis trict uninterruptedly through all the vicissitudes of war and conquest from the time of Christ. Their present creed and form of worship agree in many particulars with that of the so-called "rabbinical" Jews, although the Samaritans pretend utterly to reject the " traditions." They alone, however, have retained the paschal sacrifice of a lamb. The language of the ancient Samaritans is a Hebrceo-Aramaie dialect, but contains a number of non-Semitic (Cildman) words. It only survives in a few fragments of ancient litera ture, a translation of the Pentateuch, and some liturgical pieces. The present inhabit ants speak Arahic.—See Dr. Robinson's Biblical Researches, Reamer's Paldstina, and Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, etc.