The topic of violence between Jews and Samaritans came up in a recent discussion, which inspired me to do a little digging into what I thought I had been taught about it. It occurred to me to capture my notes here for future reference.

I’d always had the impression that there was ongoing strife between them going beyond social disrespect. I looked through my resources, and was pretty disappointed to not find much, other than generic descriptions of disrespect (for the most part, that Jews thought Samaritans were half-breeds, impure, etc.)

I did find this bit in my New Testament overview by Mark Allen Powell – “The Roman historian Josephus reports numerous violent confrontations between Jews and Samaritans throughout the first half of the first century.” I don’t have any historical stuff from Josephus, so I can’t confirm that. But it reminds me of historical violence between Christians and Muslims.

I have more resources that talk about historic animosity, if it’s true that Samaritans are descended from the northern kingdom of Israel, and we know Israel and Judah often fought each other. I think a long axis of history suggests that what happened hundreds of years ago continues to inform what happens now. So maybe this is something like ongoing Shia versus Sunni violence in the middle east. But, hard to say to what degree this informed interaction between Jews and Samaritans in Jesus’ earthly time.

I guess where I’m at, is that I feel like this is what I’ve always been taught, though I can’t name exactly where or how. But I also know it’s true that prejudice is always violent without exception. Not that everyone who’s prejudiced is a convicted felon, but I’m not going to try to tell Black folks that their fear of traveling through small Indiana towns is overblown. I grew up learning the rule that in Lake County, as long as Black folks stay north of US 30, and white folks stay south, no one gets hurt. I think it’s safe to say that for Jews and Samaritans, it didn’t stop at name calling. People have always been people.

So, that’s where I come from when I talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I suggest that it took courage for the Samaritan to check on the Jew in the ditch, because it might be a trap. It didn’t help that the road between Jerusalem and Jericho was a well-known bandit hotspot anyway. Is it more about perceiving the guy in the ditch as a potential mugger, or just because “you know how those Samaritans are” ? I wasn’t there, but I also know that before the days of car doors that automatically lock, white folks were taught to lock their doors when black folks were around. So, I still feel like my interpretation is legitimate, that we can make connections between our modern understanding of racism and the violence it incites, and what we find in Biblical passages that include Samaritans.

On this note, here’s an interesting article – https://www.franciscanmedia.org/ask-a-franciscan/the-rift-between-jews-and-samaritans