Samaria (; Hebrew: שֹׁמְרוֹן‎, Standard Šoməron, Tiberian Šōmərôn;
Arabic: السامرة‎, as-Sāmirah – also known as Jibāl Nāblus, "Nablus Mountains")
is a historical and biblical name used for the central region of ancient Land of Israel,
also known as Palestine, bordered by Galilee to the north and Judaea to the south. For
the beginning of the Common Era, Josephus set the Mediterranean Sea as its limit to
the west, and the Jordan River as its limit to the east. Its territory largely corresponds
to the biblical allotments of the tribe of Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh;
after the death of Solomon and the splitting-up of his empire into the southern Kingdom of
Judah and the northern one of Israel, this territory constituted the southern part of
the Kingdom of Israel. The border between Samaria and Judea is set at the latitude of
Ramallah.The name "Samaria" is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, the second capital
of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The name likely began being used for the entire kingdom
not long after the town of Samaria had become Israel's capital, but it is first documented
after its conquest by Sargon II of Assyria, who turned the kingdom into the province of
Samerina.Samaria has been revived as an administrative term in 1967, when the West Bank has been
defined by Israeli officials as the Judea and Samaria Area, of which the entire area
north of the Jerusalem District is termed as Samaria.
Jordan ceded its claim to the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in
August 1988. In 1994, control of Areas 'A' (full civil and security control by the Palestinian
Authority) and 'B' (Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control)
were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority and the
international community do not recognize the term "Samaria"; in modern times, the territory
is generally known as part of the West Bank.
== Etymology ==
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew name "Shomron" is derived from the individual
[or clan] Shemer, from whom King Omri (ruled 880s–870s BCE) purchased the hill on which
he built his new capital city (1 Kings 16:24).The fact that the mountain was called Shomeron
when Omri bought it may indicate that the correct etymology of the name is to be found
more directly, in the Semitic root for "guard", hence its initial meaning would have been
"watch mountain". In the earlier cuneiform inscriptions, Samaria is designated under
the name of "Bet Ḥumri" ("the house of Omri"); but in those of Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled
745–727 BCE) and later it is called Samirin, after its Aramaic name, Shamerayin.
== Historical boundaries == The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus
wrote: (4) Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies between Judea and Galilee; it begins
at a village that is in the great plain called Ginea, and ends at the Acrabbene toparchy,
and is entirely of the same nature with Judea; for both countries are made up of hills and
valleys, and are moist enough for agriculture, and are very fruitful. They have abundance
of trees, and are full of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild, and that which
is the effect of cultivation. They are not naturally watered by many rivers, but derive
their chief moisture from rain-water, of which they have no want; and for those rivers which
they have, all their waters are exceeding sweet: by reason also of the excellent grass
they have, their cattle yield more milk than do those in other places; and, what is the
greatest sign of excellency and of abundance, they each of them are very full of people.
(5) In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which is also named Borceos.
This is the northern boundary of Judea. In biblical times, Samaria "reached from the
[Mediterranean] sea to the Jordan Valley", including the Carmel Ridge and Plain of Sharon.
At the beginning of the Common Era, the boundary between Samaria and Judea passed eastwards
of Antipatris, along the deep valley which had Beth Rima (today's Beit Rima) and Beth
Laban (today's Al-Lubban al-Gharbi) on its southern, Judean bank; then it passed Anuath
and Borceos, identified by Charles William Wilson (1836–1905) as the ruins of ’Aina
and Khirbet Berkit; and reached the Jordan Valley north of Acrabbim and Sartaba. Mount
Hazor also stands at that boundary.
== Modern-time administrative regions == In modern times, Samaria was one of six administrative
districts of British-ruled Mandatory Palestine.Following the administration of the West Bank by Israel
in 1967, the Israelis continued to refer to the territories by their biblical names and
argued for their usage on historical, religious, nationalist and security grounds.
== Geography == To the north, the area known as the hills
of Samaria is bounded by the Jezreel Valley; to the east, by the Jordan Rift Valley; to
the northwest, by the Carmel Ridge; to the west, by the Sharon plain; and to the south,
by the Jerusalem mountains.The Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height
of over 800 metres. Samaria's climate is more hospitable than the climate further south.
There is no clear division between the mountains of southern Samaria and northern Judaea.
== History ==
=== Ancient ===
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites captured the region known as Samaria from
the Canaanites and assigned it to the Tribe of Joseph. After the death of King Solomon
(c. 931 BC), the northern tribes, including those of Samaria, separated from the southern
tribes and established the separate Kingdom of Israel. Initially its capital was Tirzah
until the time of King Omri (c.884 BC), who built the city of Shomron and made it his
capital. In 726–722 BC, the new king of Assyria,
Shalmaneser V, invaded Canaan and besieged the city of Samaria. After an assault of three
years, the city fell and much of its population was taken into captivity and deported. Little
documentation exists for the period between the fall of Samaria and the end of the Assyrian
Empire.It seems likely that many returned in 715 BC due to slave revolts that Assyrian
king Sargon was enduring. Tremper Longman III suggests that Ezra 4:2, 9-10 implies that
later Assyrian kings also returned more Israelites to Samaria.In the Bible, Samaria was condemned
by the Hebrew prophets for its "ivory houses" and luxury palaces displaying pagan riches.In
AD 6, the region became part of the Roman province of Judaea, after the death of king
Herod the Great. Over time, the region has been controlled
by numerous different civilizations, including Israelites, Babylonians, the classical Persian
Empire, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.
=== New Testament references === The New Testament mentions Samaria 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 at Jacob's Well with the
woman of Sychar, in which he declares himself to be the Messiah. In Acts 8:2 it is recorded
that the early community of disciples of Jesus began to be persecuted in Jerusalem and were
'scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria'. Philip went down to the city
of Samaria and preached and healed the sick there. In the time of Jesus, Iudaea of the
Romans was divided into the toparchies of Judea, Samaria, Galilee and the Paralia. Samaria
occupied the centre of Iudaea (John 4:4). (Iudaea was later renamed Syria Palaestina
in 135, following the Bar Kokhba revolt.) In the Talmud, Samaria is called the "land
of the Cuthim".
=== Modern history === The modern history of Samaria began when the
territory of Samaria, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, was entrusted to the United
Kingdom to administer in the aftermath of World War I as a Mandatory Palestine District
of Samaria between 1918–1948. The 1947 UN partition plan called for the Arab state to
consist of several parts, the largest of which was described as "the hill country of Samaria
and Judea."As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of the territory was unilaterally
incorporated as Jordanian-controlled territory, and was administered as part of the West Bank
(west of the Jordan river). The Jordanian-held West Bank came under the control of Israel
during the 1967 Six-Day War. Jordan ceded its claims in the West Bank (except for certain
prerogatives in Jerusalem) to the PLO in November 1988, later confirmed by the Israel–Jordan
Treaty of Peace of 1994. In the 1994 Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority was established
and given responsibility for the administration over some of the territory of West Bank (Areas
'A' and 'B'). Samaria is one of several standard statistical
districts utilized by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. "The Israeli CBS also collects
statistics on the rest of the West Bank 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." The Palestinian Authority however
use Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Salfit, Ramallah and Tubas governorates as administrative
centers for the same region. The Shomron Regional Council is the local
municipal government that administers the smaller Israeli towns (settlements) throughout
the area. The council is a member of the network of regional municipalities spread throughout
Israel. Elections for the head of the council are held every five years by Israel's ministry
of interior, all residents over age 17 are eligible to vote. In special elections held
in August 2015 Yossi Dagan was elected as head of the Shomron Regional Council.Israeli
settlements in the West Bank are considered by the international community to be illegal
under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. In September 2016, the Town
Board of the American Town of Hempstead in the State of New York, led by Councilman Bruce
Blakeman entered into a partnership agreement with the Shomron Regional Council, led by
Yossi Dagan, as part of an anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
== Archaeology ==
=== Ancient city of Samaria/Sebaste ===
The ancient site of Samaria-Sebaste covers the hillside overlooking the Palestinian village
of Sebastia on the eastern slope of the hill. Remains have been found from the Canaanite,
Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine era.Archaeological finds from Roman-era
Sebaste, a site that was rebuilt and renamed by Herod the Great in 30 BC, include a colonnaded
street, a temple-lined acropolis, and a lower city, where John the Baptist is believed to
have been buried.The Harvard excavation of Samaria, which began in 1908, was headed by
Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner. The findings included Hebrew, Aramaic, cuneiform and Greek
inscriptions, as well as pottery remains, coins, sculpture, figurines, scarabs and seals,
faience, amulets, beads and glass. The joint British-American-Hebrew University excavation
continued under John Winter Crowfoot in 1931–35, during which time some of the chronology issues
were resolved. The round towers lining the acropolis were found to be Hellenistic, the
street of columns was dated to the 3–4th century, and 70 inscribed potsherds were dated
to the early 8th century.In 1908–1935, remains of luxury furniture made of wood and ivory
were discovered in Samaria, representing the Levant's most important collection of ivory
carvings from the early first millennium BC. Despite theories of their Phoenician origin,
some of the letters serving as fitter's marks are in Hebrew.
=== Other ancient sites === Dothan (ancient city), identified with Tel
Dothan near Jenin Nablus area:
Mount Gerizim, Samaritan and Byzantine ruins Mount Ebal, Iron Age remains
Tell Balata, identified as biblical Shechem Shiloh (biblical city), identified with Khirbet
Seilun/Tel Shiloh Tirzah (ancient city), the first capital of
the northern Kingdom of Israel, identified with Tell el-Far'ah (North)
== Samaritans ==
The Samaritans (Hebrew: Shomronim) are an ethnoreligious group named after and descended
from ancient Semitic inhabitants of Samaria, since the Assyrian exile of the Israelites,
according to 2 Kings 17 and first-century historian Josephus. Religiously, the Samaritans
are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based
on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient
Israelites prior to the Babylonian exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land
of Israel. Their temple was built at Mount Gerizim in the middle of the 5th century BCE,
and was destroyed under the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus of Judea in 110 BCE, although
their descendants still worship among its ruins. The antagonism between Samaritans and
Jews is important in understanding the Bible's New Testament stories of the "Samaritan woman
at the well" and "Parable of the Good Samaritan". The modern Samaritans, however, see themselves
as co-equals in inheritance to the Israelite lineage through Torah, as do the Jews, and
are not antagonistic to Jews in modern times.
== See also == Archevites
Samaritan Revolts List of burial places of biblical figures
Ahwat Judea and Samaria Area
== References ==
== Bibliography == Rainey, A. F. (November 1988). "Toward a Precise
Date for the Samaria Ostraca". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
272 (272): 69–74. doi:10.2307/1356786. JSTOR 1356786.
Stager, L. E. (February–May 1990). "Shemer's Estate". Bulletin of the American Schools
of Oriental Research. 277/278 (277): 93–107. doi:10.2307/1357375. JSTOR 1357375.
Becking, B. (1992). The Fall of Samaria: An Historical and Archaeological Study. Leiden;
New York: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-09633-7. 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.
doi:10.1179/lev.2004.36.1.189. Park, Sung Jin (2012). "A New Historical Reconstruction
of the Fall of Samaria". Biblica. 93 (1): 98–106.
Tappy, R. E. (2006). “The Provenance of the Unpublished Ivories from Samaria,” Pp.
637–56 in “I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times” (Ps 78:2b): Archaeological
and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday,
A. M. Maeir and P. de Miroschedji, eds. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Tappy, R. E. (2007). “The Final Years of Israelite Samaria: Toward a Dialogue between
Texts and Archaeology,” Pp. 258–79 in Up to the Gates of Ekron: Essays on the Archaeology
and History of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honor of Seymour Gitin, S. White Crawford,
A. Ben-Tor, J. P. Dessel, W. G. Dever, A. Mazar, and J. Aviram, eds. Jerusalem: The
W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Israel Exploration Society.
== External links == "Samaria". Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th
ed.). 1911. p. 108. Vailhé, Siméon (1912). "Samaria". Catholic
Encyclopedia. 13.