Samaria
Samaria was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. It was also the name of a the administrative district surrounding the city under later Greek and Roman administrations, refering to the mountainous region between the Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. The territory of Samaria was the central region of the biblical Land of Israel, today located in the northern West Bank.
Human habitation at Samaria dates back to the fourth millennium B.C.E., but the town was formally founded as Israel's capital by King Omri in the early ninth century B.C.E. It was the residence of the northern kingdom's most famous ruler, King Ahab, and his infamous queen, Jezebel. Many of the northern kings were entombed there. Between c. 884-722 B.C.E. it endured several attacks and remained Israel's capital until it was captured by the Assyrian Empire and its leading residents were deported.
Samaria later became the central city of the Samaritan nation and lent its name to the surrounding administrative district in Greek and Roman times. In the New Testament, the territory of Samaria was where Jesus met the "woman at the well" to whom he revealed his identity as the Messiah. Sarmaria was also the origin of the traveler known as the "Good Samaritan" in one of Jesus' best-known parables. In the Book of Acts, the city of Samaria was the location of the first successful Christian evangelical effort outside of Jerusalem. It is also traditionally believed to be the burial place of John the Baptist.
In the twentieth century, the remains of Ahab or Omri's palace were discovered by archaelogists as were the later monumental steps of a major temple constructed by Herod the Great at Samaria.
In modern times, the territory of Samaria came under British rule with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It became under Jordanian control in 1948 but was seized by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967, and is currently under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli settlements in Samaria also have been established and are the subject of international controversy.
Location and climate
To the north, the territory of 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 generally more hospitable than the climate of Judea. In ancient times, this combined with more direct access to Mediterranean trade routes to give the northern kingdom a substantial economic advantage over its southern neighbor.
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, circa 884 B.C.E. 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). [1] Mondern excavations reveal human occupation there dating to the fourth millennium B.C.E. The site was a center of an extensive wine and oil production area.
Omri faced military pressure from the kingdom of Syria (Aram), and was forced for a time to allow Syrian merchants to open markets in the streets of Samaria (1 Kings 29:34). However, it remained the capital of Israel more than 150 years, constituting most of the northern kingdom's history, until it was captured by the Assyrians in 722-721 B.C.E. The city was strongly fortified and endured several seiges before its downfall. Archaeologists believe the city of Samaria was richer and more developed than any other city in Israel or Judah.
Omri's son, King Ahab, reportedly built an "ivory palace" in the capital (1 Kings 16:39). The remains of an impressive iron age building at the site were excavated in the twentieth century, and in recent years, archaelogists may have discovered royal tombs possibly belong to the Omride dynasty. A valuable collection of ivory carvings was also unearthed.
The city gate of Samaria is 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 at Samaria's gate that Ahab met his ally and son-in-law, Jehoshaphat of Judah, to hear the dramatic words of the prophet Micaiah (1 Kings 22:10). Ahab reportedly constructed a temple to Baal at Samaria, probably at the behest of his Phoencian wife Jezebel, much to the dismay of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The city successfully endured two sieges by the Syrians under Ben-hadad. During the time of Ahab, 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 Ssyrian seige was so intense that residents were reduced to cannibalism but were rescued by God's miraculous intervention.
The prophet Elisha, however, recruited one of Israel's military commanders, Jehu, to seize the throne from Joram and slaughter Ahab's descendants, execute Jezebel, and destroy the temple of Baal together with all of its priests. Some 70 of Ahab's sons were slain at Samaria on Jehu's orders.
When Jehu's grandson Joash (also called Jehoash—c. 801–786 B.C.E.) 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 (c. 737–732) returned victoriously to Samaria with a great number of captives of Judah. However, upon his arrival in the capital, the intervention of the prophet Oded resulted in these captives being released (2 Chron. 27: 8-9, 15). Under Jeroboam II, Samaria was famous both for its prosperity and its corruption.
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 downfall of the city as a punishment for its sins.
Although Samaria had successfully withstood the Syrians, and sometimes allied with them against Judah, the rise of the Assyrian Empire would eventually spell its doom. In the seventh year of King Hoshea, Samaria was besieged by Shalmaneser. Three years later it was captured by an Assyrian king (2 Kings 17-18), whose name is not mentioned. Josephus ("Ant." ix. 14, § 1) states that it was Shalmaneser, but Assyrian 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 (Jer. 41:5). According to Sargon's inscriptions, two years later it made an alliance with Hamath, Arpad, and Damascus against the Assyrians, which failed when Sargon overthrew of the King of Hamath, which he apparently boasts of in 2 Kings 18:32-35. The elite class of citizens from Samaria and other towns were replaced by colonists from different countries, sent there by the Assyrian king.
The new settlers, probably influenced by the remaining local population, came to believe that the "God of the land" had not been properly propitiated, and thus priests of Yahweh were sent back by the Assyrian authorities to teach the settlers to 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 being 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 of Jerusalem being the only authorized shrine of Yahweh is based on a fraud perpetrated by the priest Eli and his successors.
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 entrusted the city to Herod the Great, under whom it flourished anew as Sebaste. He rebuilt it in 27 B.C.E. on a much larger scale and embellished it with magnificent buildings, including with the Temple of Augustus. In the same year he married the beautiful Samaritan, Malthace, to whom two of his heirs were born. Under Herod the city became the capital of the whole Roman administrative district of Samaria, the Roman district of Syria Iudaea being divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.
The New Testament contains several references to Samara. In Matthew 10:5, Jesus instructs his disciples: "Do not... enter any town of the Samaritans." However, Luke's Gospel displays a different attitude in its famous parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). The province of Samaria is further mentioned in Luke 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 in the territory of Samaria at Jacob's well with the Samaritan woman of Sychar, in which he declares himself to be the Messiah. In Acts 8:5-14, it is recorded that Philip went to the city of Samaria and preached there, converting many residents, including the famous local miracle-worker Simon, called "Simon Magus" in Christian tradition.
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.
Modern history
The history of Samaria in modern times begins when the territory of Samaria, formerly belonging to the Ottoman Empire, came under the administration ofUnited Kingdom in the aftermath of World War I by mandate of the League of Nations. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the territory came under 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, which was later confirmed by the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty of 1993. Jordan now 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 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.
Excavations
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 and/or Ahab (designated Building Period I). The Omride palace was located on an elevated four 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. A large rock-cut pool near the northern casemate wall was identified with the bibilical "Pool of Samaria." It is now thought to be a grape-treading area that originated before the Omride dynasty and continued in a reduced form in Building Period I.
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 that it was in this area that the "Ivory Palace" that Ahab built for Jezebel 1 Kings 22:39 stood.
In from of these ancient structures lie massive stone stairs believed to have been constructed by Herod the Great as the entry to the temple he dedicated to Agustus at Sebaste.
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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