Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron (Hebrew: שֹׁמְרוֹן, Standard Šoməron Tiberian Šōmərôn; Arabic: سامريّون, Sāmariyyūn or ألسامرة, as-Samarah – also known as جبال نابلس, Jibal Nablus; Greek: Σαμάρεια) is a geographic term used for the mountainous region between the Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. It is the name of natural, historical and political regions. It is the central region of the Biblical Land of Israel. Most of the region is in the northern West Bank of the Jordan River.
The word is perhaps from shâmar, 'to watch,' hence meaning something like 'outlook'; but, according to 1 Kings 16:24, derived from the individual [or clan] Shemer, from whom Omri purchased the site.
Samaria is one of the several standard statistical "areas" utilized by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.[1] "The CBS also collects statistics on Judea-Samaria and the Gaza District. It has produced various basic statistical series on the territories, dealing with population, employment, wages, external trade, national accounts, and various other topics."[2] Samaria is used by people who want to emphasize Israel's and the Jewish people's relationship with their land. For example, Samaria, along with Judea, is now more widely known, outside of Israel, by the neologism "West Bank." See Judea and Samaria.
Geographical location
To the north, Samaria is bounded by the Esdraelon valley; to the east by the Jordan River; to the west by the Carmel Ridge (in the north) and the Sharon plain (in the west); to the south by Judea (the Jerusalem mountains). Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height of over 800 meters. Samaria's climate is more hospitable than the climate of Judea.
Captial of ancient Israel
Samaria was the ancient capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. It was built by Omri in the seventh year of his reign, on the mountain he had reprotedly bought for two talents of silver from a man called Shemer, after whom the city was named (1 Kings 16:23-24). However, the etymology of the name may also be "watch mountain." The city was located six miles from Shechem and was noted both for its strategic location and the fertility of the surrounding lands.
It remained the capital of Israel from two centuries, until it was ca[tire by the Assyrians in 722-721 B.C.E. The city was strongly fortified and endured several seiges before its eventual downfall. Archaeologists believe the city may have been richer than any other city in Israel or Judah.
Omri faced pressure from the kingdom of Syria, and was forced to allow Syrian merchants to open markets in the streets of Samaria (1 Kings 29:34).
Omri's son, King Ahab, reportedly built there an "ivory palace" in the capital (1 Kings 16:39). The city gate of Samaria is often mentioned several times in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, and there is also a reference to "the pool of Samaria" in 1 Kings 22 38). It was there that Ahab met his ally and son-in-law, Jehoshaphat of Judah, to hear the prophecy of the prophet Micaiah (I Kings xxii. 10; II Chron. xviii. 2, 9). Ahab reportedly constructed a temple to Baal there, probably at the behest of his Phoencian wife Jezebel, much to the dismay of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The latter recruited the usurper Jehu to slaughter Ahab's descendants, execute Jezebel, and destroy the temple of Baal and all of its priests. Some 70 of Ahabs sons were slain at Samaria itself, including Joram of Israel. Jehu also order the murder of Ahaziah Judah, Joram's ally, who had been visiting Joram at Samaria (2 Kings 9:27).
Earlier, however, Samaria successfully sustained two sieges by the Syrians under Ben-hadad. During the time of Ahab (around 900 B.C.E.) Samaria was afflicted by a famine caused by drought (1 Kings 27). During the reign of Ahab's son Joram, (2 Kings 6-7) the seige was so intense that residents were reduced to cannibalism but were rescued by God's miraculous intervention.
When Joash/Jehoash of Israel warred against Judah and captured Jerusalem, he brought to Samaria the gold, silver, and vessels of the Temple and the king's palace (2 Kings 14:14). Later King Pekah of Israel returned to Samaria a great number of captives of Judah. However, due to the intervention of the prophet Oded, the captives were well treated in Samaria and afterward released (2 Chron. 27: 8-9, 15).
Although Samaria had successfully withstood the Syrians, and sometimes even allied with them against Judah, the rise of the Assyrian Empire would eventually spell the city's doom. In the seventh year of Hoshea of Israel, Samaria was besieged by Shalmaneser. Three years later it was captured by an Assyrian king (II Kings xvii. 5-6, xviii. 9-10) whose name is not mentioned. Josephus ("Ant." ix. 14, § 1) states that it was Shalmaneser, but Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions show that it was Sargon II, who ascended the throne in 722 B.C.E., and had captured Samaria by the following year.
The city, however, was not destroyed (comp. Jer. xli. 5). Two years later it made an alliance with Hamath, Arpad, and Damascus against the Assyrians, which failed through the overthrow of the King of Hamath (inscriptions of Sargon). The deported Israelites of Samaria as well as those of its dependencies were replaced by heathen from different countries, sent there by the Assyrian king.
The new settler, probably influence by the remaining local population, came to believe that the "God of the land" had not been properly propitiated, and Yahwist priests were sent by the Assyrian authorities to teach the settlers the prophet worship of the Israelite God (2 Kings 17:24-41). According to the Jewish theory these Assryian settlers inermarried with native Israelites and were the founders of the Samaritan religion, as well as the ancestors of the Samaritans. The Samaritans themselves, however, claim that they worshiped Yahweh from the time of Moses onward at Mount Gerezim, near Shechem. They argue that the Jewish claim to Jerusale as the only authorized shrine of Yahweh is based on a fraud perpetrated by the priest Eli and his successors.
In the Biblical tradition Samaria was a was a place of idolatry and corruption, although it is clear that several of its kings, including even the wicked Ahab, honored Yahweh. The city's corruption was denounced by Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and other prophets, who also foretold the punishment of the city as a punishment for its sins.
Under Greek and Roman rule
Samaria emerged again into history four centuries after its capture by the Assyrians. By this time Samaria was once again an important city, with its Temple at Gerezim rivaling or exceeding the competing Yahwist Temple of Jerusalem, which had been rebuilt after Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews of Judah to return to what was now called Judea. The Samaritans, having assassinated the governor of Cœle-Syria, Andromachus, (332 or 331 B.C.E.), were severely punished by Alexander the Great. Alexender sent his own people, the Macedonians, to punish and control the city (Eusebius, "Chronicon"). A few years later, Alexander, had Samaria rebuilt. The Samaritans, however, were not easilyl conrolled. In 312, the city was dismantled by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, and 15years later (c. 296) it was again captured and demolished, by Demetrius Poliorcetes.
Almost two centuries elapsed during which nothing is heard of Samaria, but it is evident that the city was again rebuilt and strongly fortified. At the end of the second century B.C.E. the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus besieged it for an entire a before he captured and destroyed it, by diverting certain streams, which flooded the lower part of the city (Josephus, l.c. xiii. 10), probably in or shortly before 107 B.C.E. Again according to Josephus, Samaria was later held by Alexander Jannæus ("Ant." xiii. 15, § 4), and was afterward taken by Pompey, who rebuilt it and attached it to the government of Syria (ib. xiv. 4, § 4; "B. J." i. 7, § 7). The city was further strengthenedby Gabinius.
Caesar Augustus entursted the city to Herod the Great, under whom it flourished anew as Sebaste. He rebuilt it in 27 or 25 B.C.E. on a much larger scale and embellished it with magnificent buildings, including with the Temple of Augustus. Under Herod the city became the capital of the whole Roman administrative district of Samaria. Sebaste is mentioned in the Mishnah ('Ar. iii. 2), where its orchards are praised. Josephus ("B. J." ii. 3, § 4; 4, §§ 2-3) speaks of Jewish soldiers of Sebaste who served in Herod's army and who later—like Josephus himself—sided with the Romans when the Jews revolted in 66 C.E. After Herod's death around 4 B.C.E., Sebaste and the province of Samaria came under the administration of his son Archelaus, after whose banishment it passed under the control of Roman procurators. It then went came under Herod Agrippa I, and later again came under the procurators ("Ant." xvii. 11, § 4; "B. J." ii. 6, § 3). At the outbreak of the Jewish war it was attacked by the Jews ("B. J." ii. 18, § 1). Under Septimius Severus it became a Roman colony, but with the growth of Nablus (biblical Shechem) it lost its importance.
In the fourth century Sebaste was a small town (Eusebius, "Onomasticon," s.v.). Jerome (Commentary on Obadiah) records the tradition that Samaria was the burial-place of Elisha, Obadiah, and John the Baptist. Ahab's palace was excavated in the twentieth century, and in recent years, archaelogists may have discovered royal tombs possible belong to the Omride dynasty.
Political control
The history of Samaria in modern times begins when the territory of Samaria, formerly belonging to the Ottoman Empire, is entrusted to the United Kingdom to administer in the aftermath of World War I as a British Mandate of Palestine, by the League of Nations. As as result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the territory fell into the control of Jordan and residents would later receive Jordanian passports.
Samaria was taken by Israeli forces from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War. Jordan withdrew its claim to the West Bank, including Samaria, only in 1988, and later confirmed by the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty of 1993. Jordan instead recognizes the Palestinian Authority as sovereign in the territory. In the 1994 Oslo accords, responsibility for the administration over some of the territory of Samaria (Areas 'A' and 'B') was transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has been criticized for the policy of establishing settlements in Samaria. Israel's position is that the legal status of the land is unclear. See Israeli settlements.
History
Ancient occupation
SAMARIA (Hebrew: shomron, modern: Sebaste), established as the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Omri circa 884 B.C.E. Prior to the Omride period the site appears to have been the center of an extensive wine and oil production area, which may have accounted for its choice as the new capital.
The site has been excavated by two archaeological expeditions. The first was the Harvard Expedition, initially directed by G. Schumacher in 1908 and then by George Andrew Reisner in 1909 and 1910; with the assistance of architect C.S. Fisher and D.G. Lyon. The second expedition was known as the ‘Joint Expedition,’ a consortium of 5 institutions directed by J.W. Crowfoot between 1931 and 1935; with the assistance of Kathleen Mary Kenyon , Eliezer Sukenik and G.M. Crowfoot. The leading institutions were the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the Hebrew University. In the 1960’s small scale excavations directed by F. Zayadine were carried out on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
The city is built on the summit of a rocky hill, and the foundations of the monumental buildings from later periods often ploughed down through the earlier strata to the bedrock, which was never far below. In the modern times the site has been used as farmland by the contemporary villagers of neighboring Sebaste, this meant that most of the excavated areas had to be back-filled and returned to agricultural use. These two points hindered excavation and later analysis of the remains. The earliest remains consist of extensive rock cut installations, initially thought to date to the Early Bronze Age by Kenyon, these have recently been re-evaluated, first by Stager and then by Franklin, and are now recognized to be the remains of an extensive early Iron Age oil and wine industry (designated Building Period 0).
The fragment of a stela with an Assyrian inscription attributed to Sargon II was found on the eastern slope of the acropolis testifying to their presence. In addition, according to inscriptions from Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad, the inhabitants of Samaria were deported to Assyria. The remains of a wall relief in Room 5 of Sargon’s palace is thought to depict Samaria and its defeated defenders.
New inhabitants were brought in (from Cuthah and the Syro-Mesopotamian area, 2 Kings 17:24) and they formed a new Samaritan population, also known as Cuthim. The city together with the neighboring highland area became known as Samerina and was ruled by an Assyrian governor. There are only meager remains from the succeeding Babylonian period and it was only in the Persian period, in the mid 5th century, that the city reemerged in importance. The tensions between the ruling family of Sanballat and Jerusalem under the governorship of Nehemiah are documented in the Bible (Ezra 4:10, Neh 2:1-8). Samaria became a Hellenistic town in 332 B.C.E. and thousands of Macedonian soldiers were settled there following a revolt by the Samaritans. Three 13 m diameter round towers dating to that period have been excavated (the first two by Harvard who attributed them to the Israelite period) and a later, massive, fortification wall with square towers. These fortifications were breached during the destruction of the city by John Hyrcanus in 108. Traces of the destruction wrought by Hyrcanus were found by the excavators, but the city was apparently resettled under Alexander Yannai. In 63 B.C.E. Samaria was annexed to the Roman province of Syria.
Sebastia
In 30 B.C.E. the emperor Augustus awarded the city to Herod the Great who renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus ("Sebaste" is the feminine form of Gr. Sebastos = Augustus). The outstanding remains from this period are; the Augusteum, consisting of a temple and a large forecourt built over the Omride palace at the summit of the acropolis; a city gate and an east-west colonnaded street; a theater on the north-east slope of the acropolis; a Temple to Kore on a terrace north of the acropolis, and a stadium to the north-east in the valley below. East of the acropolis and in an area that today links the ancient city with the modern village of Sebaste lies the forum flanked on the west by a partially excavated basilica. Water for Roman Sebaste was provided by an underground aqueduct that led into the area of the forum from springs in the east. The city was encompassed by a city wall 2½ mi. (4 km) long, with imposing towers that linked the gateways in the west and north. A number of mausoleums with ornate sarcophagi were excavated in the area of the modern village and adjoining fields.
In late 1976, the Israeli settlement movement, Gush Emunim, attempted to establish a settlement at the abandoned train station (dating from the Ottoman period). The Israeli government did not approve and the group that was removed from the site would later found the settlement of Elon Moreh adjacent to Nablus/Shechem.
Reconstruction
The city was rebuilt without any major changes in the 2nd century C.E. by Septimius Severus when the city was established as a colony. Samaria has been associated with John the Baptist, whose body was believed to be buried there. A small basilica church, first founded in the 5th century, was excavated on the southern slope of the acropolis. The church was believed to be the burial place of the head of John the Baptist. A monastery was added to it at a later date. In the 12th century C.E. a Latin cathedral also dedicated to John the Baptist was built east of the Roman forum and combined elements of the Roman period city wall. It later became the Sebaste village mosque.
Excavation
Only the acropolis of Samaria has been extensively excavated down to the bedrock. The palace was excavated solely by the Harvard Expedition and recognized by them as the Palace of Omri (designated Building Period I). The Omride palace was located on an elevated 4 meter high rock-cut platform that isolated it from its immediate surroundings. While immediately below the palace, cut into the face of the bedrock platform, there are two rock-cut tomb chambers that have only recently been recognized and attributed to Omri and Ahab. West of the palace there are meager remains of other Building Period I buildings but much of the rock surface has been severely damaged by later buildings. The Omride palace continued in use during the next building phase (designated Building Period II), but it was no longer isolated on an elevated platform. The acropolis area was extended in all direction by the addition of a massive perimeter wall built in the casemate style; the new enlarged rectangular acropolis measured c. 290 ft. (90 m.) from north to south and at least c. 585 ft. (180 m.) from west to east, and the surface was now raised to a uniform elevation by the addition of a massive fill. This phase (Building Period II) was traditionally attributed to Ahab due to the misallocation of Wall 161 that run parallel to the northern casemates and the identification of a large rock-cut pool near the northern casemate wall as the Bibilical ‘Pool of Samaria;’ the wall (Wall 161) is now recognized to belong to Building Period II and the ‘pool’ is a rock-cut grape-treading area that originated in Building Period 0 and continued in a reduced form in Building Period I. Consequently the onset of Building Period II can only be relatively fixed. There is neither a biblical anchor nor securely dated pottery to establish the chronological affiliation of Building Period II. The Omride Palace was still in use and the royal tombs were still accessible (now via subterranean rooms) and there was an administrative building the Ostraca House (due to the 63 ostraca retrieved from the floor’s make-up) built west of the palace on the newly extended acropolis. The ostraca provide a wealth of data concerning oil and wine supplies, and can possibly be attributed to the period of Jeroboam II c. 785-749, thus providing a probable date for Building Period II. North of the palace a rich cache of Phoenician ivories (furniture ornamentation) were retrieved, these were mixed with later debris but it was presumed by the excavators (The Joint) that it was in this area that the ‘Ivory House’ that Ahab built for Jezebel 1 Kings 22:39 stood. North-east and below the acropolis a number of Iron Age tombs were found and their location probably delimits the area of the city in that direction. In essence only the acropolis was excavated down to the Iron Age but it is presumed by the excavators (The Joint) that the city extended down over the northern and southern slopes of the hill.
New Testament reference
The New Testament mentions Samaria in Luke chapter 17:11-20, in the miraculous healing of the ten lepers, which took place on the border of Samaria and Galilee. John 4:1-26 records Jesus' encounter at Jacob's well with the woman of Sychar, in which He declares Himself to be the Messiah. In Acts 8:5-14, it is recorded that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached there. In the time of Jesus, Syria Iudaea of the Romans was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Samaria occupied the centre of Syria Iudaea (John 4:4). (Syria Iudaea was later renamed Syria Palaestina in 135, following the Bar Kokhba revolt.) In the Talmud, Samaria is called the "land of the Cuthim."
See also
- Lost Ten Tribes - specifically relating to the northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria and the wars that took place with the Kingdom of Judah before the fall of the Kingdom of Judah and its occupants becoming lost to the pages of history. However, many theories abound as to what became of the "lost ten tribes" and the advocates do not necessarily agree with each other.
- The name of the chemical element samarium is not related to Samaria.
- Samaritan - a similar article concentrating more on the ethnic and religious group.
- The Good Samaritan
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Reisner, G. A. and C.S. Fisher, and D.G. Lyon (1924). Harvard excavations at Samaria, 1908-1910. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
- Crowfoot, J. W. and G.M. Crowfoot (1938). Early Ivories from Samaria (Samaria-Sebaste 2). London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Crowfoot, J. W. and K.M. Kenyon and E.L. Sukenik (1942). The Buildings at Samaria (Samaria-Sebaste 1). London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Crowfoot, J. W. and K.M. Kenyon and G.M. Crowfoot (1957). The Objects from Samaria (Samaria-Sebaste 3). London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Zayadine, F (1966). Samaria-Sebaste: Clearance and Excavations (October 1965-June 1967). Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 12: 77-80.
- Rainey, A. F. (November 1988). Toward a Precise Date for the Samaria Ostraca. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 272: 69-74.
- Stager, L. E. (February–May 1990). Shemer's Estate. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 277/278: 93-107.
- Becking, B. (1992). The Fall of Samaria: An Historical and Archaeological Study. Leiden; New York: E. J. Brill. ISBN 9004096337.
- Tappy, R. (1992). The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria, Volume 1: Early Iron Age Through the Ninth Century B.C.E. (Harvard Semitic Studies 44). Atlanta: Scholars Press. ISBN 9781555407704.
- Tappy, R. (2001). The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria. The Eighth Century B.C.E. Volume II (Harvard Semitic Studies 50). Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1575069166.
- Franklin, N. (2003). The Tombs of the Kings of Israel. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 119 (1): 1-11.
- Franklin, N. (2004). Samaria: from the Bedrock to the Omride Palace. Levant 36: 189-202.
External links
- Entry for Samaria in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica
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