Remember, you asked! Probably more than you intended, but I found the info fascinating so thought I'd share it all...
From
Samaritans - Wikipedia
Per their tradition, the Samaritans are descended from the Israelites who, unlike the
Ten Lost Tribes of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel, were not subject to the
Assyrian captivity after the northern
Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and annexed by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. Regarding the
Samaritan Pentateuch as the unaltered
Torah, the Samaritans view the
Jews as close relatives, but claims that Judaism fundamentally alters the original Israelite religion. The most notable theological divide between Jewish and Samaritan doctrine concerns the world's holiest site, which the Jews believe is the
Temple Mount in
Jerusalem and which Samaritans believe is
Mount Gerizim near modern
Nablus and ancient
Shechem.
[3][4] Both Jews and Samaritans assert that the
Binding of Isaac occurred at their respective holy sites, identifying them as
Moriah. The Samaritans attribute their schism with the Jews to
Eli, who was a
High Priest of Israel around the 11th century BCE and who is accused in Samaritan belief of having established a religious shrine at
Shiloh to oppose the original one at Mount Gerizim.
Once a large community, the Samaritan population shrank significantly in the wake of the
Samaritan revolts, which were brutally suppressed by the
Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. Their numbers were further reduced by
Christianization under the Byzantines and later by
Islamization following the
Arab conquest of the Levant.
[5] In the 12th century, the Jewish explorer and writer
Benjamin of Tudela estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in
Palestine and
Syria.
[6]
As of 2024, the Samaritan community numbers around 900 people, split almost evenly between
Israel (some 460 in
Holon) and the
West Bank (some 380 in
Kiryat Luza).
[7] The Samaritans in Kiryat Luza speak
Levantine Arabic, while those in Holon primarily speak
Israeli Hebrew. For liturgy, they also use
Samaritan Hebrew and
Samaritan Aramaic, both of which are written in the
Samaritan script. According to Samaritan tradition, the position of the community's leading
Samaritan High Priest has continued without interruption over the course of the last 3600 years, beginning with the Hebrew prophet
Aaron. Since 2013, the 133rd Samaritan High Priest has been
Aabed-El ben Asher ben Matzliach.
For censuses, Israeli law treats
Samaritans as a distinct religious community, but the
Chief Rabbinate of Israel defines them as
ethnically Jewish (i.e., Israelite).
[8] Rabbinic literature, however, rejected the Samaritans'
Halakhic Jewishness unless the community renounced Mount Gerizim as the historical Israelite holy site, though
Jewish–Samaritan marriages have become increasingly common and accepted in Israel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans#cite_note-10 All Samaritans in both Holon and Kiryat Luza are Israeli citizens, but those in Kiryat Luza also hold Palestinian citizenship.
There are also a significant and growing number of communities, families, and individuals around the world who, despite not being part of the Samaritan community, identify with and observe the tenets and traditions of the Samaritans' ethnic religion. The largest community globally, the "Shomrey HaTorah" of Brazil, has approximately 20,000 members as of February 2023.[9]
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Why were the Samaritans of Jesus' time despised?
From Pastor explains ongoing feud between Jews and Samaritans
The Jews had an ongoing feud with the Samaritans from the time they returned from Babylonian captivity. Bible students call this the Samaritan Schism.
When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was conquering most of the Middle Eastern world, he used a tactic designed to keep his captives from uniting and rebelling. He played a kind of "Fruit Basket Turn-Over" by moving large populations of countries to different locations. So, when he took most of Judah to Babylon he resettled other people in their place.
Not all the Jews were carried off. The elderly and sickly were left, and many Temple scribes were left to care for them. With the country almost vacant, the scribes and other able-bodied people moved into the plantations on the rolling pasturelands of Samaria. These intermarried with those who were brought in, so that the Samaritans were no longer a pure Jewish race. Seventy years later, when the Jews returned, the Samaritans came to help rebuild Jerusalem. The Jews called them "half-breeds" and sent them home. The Samaritans built their own temple which the Jews considered pagan. The feud grew, and by the time of Christ, the Jews hated the Samaritans so much they crossed the Jordan river rather than travel through Samaria.
But, John 4:4 says Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why? Because he had a divine appointment with a woman there who later said she believed when the Messiah came he would teach her about God (verse 25). Later, to shame the Jews for their prejudice, Jesus made the main character in one of his parables a Good Samaritan (Luke 10); and the 1 leper of 10 in Luke 17 who returned to thank Jesus was a Samaritan. On a side note, the scribes later became so wealthy they hired servants to copy the scrolls. They became the lawyers who interpreted the Laws of Moses and gave Jesus much opposition.
In John 4:26 we find an important revelation. It was to a sinful Samaritan woman that Jesus announced he was the promised Messiah. Jesus was not prejudiced, and he taught his followers to respect all people.
- Dr. Tom Lovorn is pastor of God's Storehouse Baptist Church in Richmond, and writes a weekly column on religion for The Progress-Index. You may send your Bible questions to Dr. Tom in care of this newspaper or via his web site at www.tomlovorn.us.