Samaria
(watch mountain). This city is situated 30 miles north of Jerusalem and about six miles to the northwest of Shechem, in a wide basin-shaped valley, six miles in diameter, encircled with high hills, almost on the edge of the great plain which borders upon the Mediterranean. In the centre of this basin, which is on a lower level than the valley of Shechem, rises a less elevated hill, with steep yet accessible sides and a long fiat top. This hill was chosen by Omri as the site of the capital of the kingdom of Israel. He “bought the hill of Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of the owner of the hill, Samaria.” ( 1 Kings 16:23 , 24 ) From the that of Omri’s purchase, B.C. 925, Samaria retained its dignity as the capital of the ten tribes, and the name is given to the northern kingdom as well as to the city. Ahab built a temple to Baal there. ( 1 Kings 16:32 , 33 ) It was twice besieged by the Syrians, in B.C. 901, ( 1 Kings 20:1 ) and in B.C. 892, ( 2 Kings 6:24-7 ; 2 Kings 6:20 ) but on both occasions the siege was ineffectual. The possessor of Samaria was considered Deuteronomy facto king of Israel. ( 2 Kings 15:13 , 14 ) In B.C. 721 Samaria was taken, after a siege of three years, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, ( 2 Kings 18:9 , 10 ) and the kingdom of the ten tribes was put an end to. Some years afterward the district of which Samaria was the centre was repeopled by Esarhaddon. Alexander the Great took the city, killed a large portion of the inhabitants, and suffered the remainder to set it at Shechem. He replaced them by a colony of Syro-Macedonians who occupied the city until the time of John Hyrcanus, who took it after a year’s siege, and did his best to demolish it entirely. (B.C. 109.) It was rebuilt and greatly embellished by Herod the Great. He called it Sebaste=Augusta, after the name of his patron, Augustus Caesar. The wall around it was 2 1/2 miles long, and in the centre of the city was a park 900 feet square containing a magnificent temple dedicated to Caesar. In the New Testament the city itself does not appear to be mentioned; but rather a portion of the district to which, even in older times it had extended its name. ( Matthew 10:5 ; John 4:4 , 5 ) At this clay the city is represented by a small village retaining few vestiges of the past except its name, Sebustiyeh, an Arabic corruption of Sebaste. Some architectural remains it has, partly of Christian construction or adaptation, as the ruined church of St. John the Baptist, partly, perhaps, traces of Idumaean magnificence, St. Jerome, whose acquaintance with Palestine imparts a sort of probability to the tradition which prevailed so strongly in later days, asserts that Sebaste, which he invariably identifies with Samaria was the place in which St. John the Baptist was imprisoned and suffered death. He also makes it the burial-place of the prophets Elisha and Obadiah.
Samaria, Country Of
Samaria at first included all the tribes over which Jeroboam made himself king, whether east or west of the river Jordan. ( 1 Kings 13:32 ) But whatever extent the word might have acquired, it necessarily be came contracted as the limits of the kingdom of Israel became contracted. In all probability the territory of Simeon and that of Dan were very early absorbed in the kingdom of Judah. It is evident from an occurrence in Hezekiah’s reign that just before the deposition and death of Hoshea, the last king of Israel, the authority of the king of Judah, or at least his influence, was recognized by portions of Asher, Issachar and Zebulun and even of Ephraim and Manasseh. ( 2 Chronicles 30:1-26 ) Men came from all those tribes to the Passover at Jerusalem. This was about B.C. 728. Samaria (the city) and a few adjacent cities or villages only represented that dominion which had once extended from Bethel to Dan northward, and from the Mediterranean to the borders of Syria and Ammon eastward. In New Testament times Sa maria was bounded northward by the range of hills which commences at Mount Carmel on the west, and, after making a bend to the southwest, runs almost due east to the valley of the Jordan, forming the southern border of the plain of Esdraelon. It touched toward the south, is nearly as possible, the northern limits of Benjamin. Thus it comprehended the ancient territory of Ephraim and that of Manasseh west of Jordan. The Cuthaean Samaritans, however, possessed only a few towns and villages of this large area, and these lay almost together in the centre of the district. At Nablus the Samaritans have still a settlement, consisting of about 200 persons. [ Shechem ]
Samaritans
Strictly speaking, a Samaritan would be an inhabitant of the city of Samaria, but the term was applied to all the people of the kingdom of Israel. After the captivity of Israel, B.C. 721, and in our Lord’s time, the name was applied to a peculiar people whose origin was in this wise. At the final captivity of Israel by Shalmaneser, we may conclude that the cities of Samaria were not merely partially but wholly depopulated of their inhabitants in B.C. 721, and that they remained in this desolated state until, in the words of ( 2 Kings 17:24 ) “the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and front Cuthah, and from Av. (Ivah,) ( 2 Kings 18:34 ) and from Hamath, and front Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.” Thus the new Samaritans were Assyrians by birth or subjugation. These strangers, whom we will now assume to hare been placed in “the cities of Samaria” by Esar-haddon, were of course idolaters, and worshipped a strange medley of divinities. God’s displeasure was kindled, and they were annoyed by beasts of prey, which had probably increased to a great extent before their entrance upon the land. On their explaining their miserable condition to the king of Assyria, he despatched one of the captive priests to teach them “how they should fear the Lord.” The priest came accordingly, and henceforth, in the language of the sacred historian, they “Feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do the unto this day.” ( 2 Kings 17:41 ) A gap occurs in their history until Judah has returned from captivity. They then desire to be allowed to participate in the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem; but on being refused, the Samaritans throw off the mask, and become open enemies, frustrate the operations of the Jews through the reigns of two Persian kings, and are only effectually silenced in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 519. The feud thus unhappily begun grew year by year more inveterate. Matters at length came to a climax. About B.C. 409, a certain Manasseh, a man of priestly lineage, on being expelled from Jerusalem by nehemiah for an unlawful marriage, obtained permission from the Persian king of his day, Darius Nothus, to build a temple on Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans, with whom he had found refuge. The animosity of the Samaritans became more intense than ever. They are sid to have done everything in their power to annoy the Jews. Their own temple on Gerizim they considered to be much superior to that at Jerusalem. There they sacrificed a passover. Toward the mountain, even after the temple on it had fallen, wherever they were they directed their worship. To their copy of the law they arrogated an antiquity and authority greater than attached to any copy in the possession of the Jews. The law (i.e. the five books of Moses) was their sole code; for they rejected every other book in the Jewish canon. The Jews, on the other hand, were not more conciliatory in their treatment of the Samaritans. Certain other Jewish renegades had from time to time taken refuge with the Samaritans; hence by degrees the Samaritans claimed to partake of jewish blood, especially if doing so happened to suit their interest. Very far were the Jews from admitting this claim to consanguinity on the part of these people. The traditional hatred in which the jew held the Samaritan is expressed in Ecclus. 50:25 , 26 . Such were the Samaritans of our Lord’s day; a people distinct from the jews, though lying in the very midst of the Jews; a people preserving their identity, though seven centuries had rolled away since they had been brought from Assyria by Esar-haddon, and though they had abandoned their polytheism for a sort of ultra Mosaicism; a people who, though their limits had gradually contracted and the rallying-place of their religion on Mount Gerizim had been destroyed one hundred and sixty years before by John Hyrcanus (B.C. 130), and though Samaria (the city) had been again and again destroyed, still preserved their nationality still worshipped from Shechem and their impoverished settlements toward their sacred hill, still retained their peculiar religion, and could not coalesce with the Jews.
Sanballat
(strength), a Moabite of Horonaim. ( Nehemiah 2:10 , 13 ; 13:28 ) He held apparently some command in Samaria at the time Nehemiah was preparing to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, B.C. 445, ( Nehemiah 4:2 ) and from the moment of Nehemiah’s arrival in Judea he set himself to oppose every measure for the welfare of Jerusalem. The only other incident in his life is his alliance with the high priest’s family by the marriage of his daughter with one of the grandsons of Eliashib; but the expulsion from the priesthood of the guilty son of Joiada by Nehemiah promptly followed. Here the scriptural narrative ends.
Shaalbim, Or Shaalabbin
(home of foxes), a town in the allotment of Dan. ( Joshua 19:42 ; Judges 1:35 ; 1 Kings 4:9 ) By Eusebius and Jerome it is mentioned in the Onomasticon as a large village in the district of Sebaste (i.e. Samaria), and as then called Selaba.
Shallum
(retribution). The fifteenth king of Israel, son of Jabesh, conspired against Zachariah, killed him, and brought the dynasty of Jehu to a close, B.C. 770. Shallum, after reigning in Samaria for a month only, was in his turn dethroned and killed by Menahem. ( 2 Kings 15:10-14 ) The husband of Huldah the prophetess, ( 2 Kings 22:14 ; 2 Chronicles 34:23 ) in the reign of Josiah. (B.C. 830.) A descendant of Shesham. ( 1 Chronicles 2:40 , 41 ) The third son of Josiah king of Judah, known in the books of Kings and Chronicles as Jehoahaz. ( 1 Chronicles 3:15 ; Jeremiah 22:11 ) [ Jehoahaz ] (B.C. 610.) Son of Shaul the son of Simeon. ( 1 Chronicles 4:25 ) A high priest. ( 1 Chronicles 6:12 , 13 ; Ezra 7:2 ) A son of Naphtali. ( 1 Chronicles 7:13 ) The chief of a family of porters or gate-keepers of the east gate of the temple. ( 1 Chronicles 9:17 ) (B.C. 1050.) Son of Kore, a Korahite. ( 1 Chronicles 9:19 , 31 ) Father of Jehizkiah, an Ephraimite. ( 2 Chronicles 28:12 ) One of the porters of the temple who had married a foreign wife. ( Ezra 10:24 ) One of the sons of Bani. ( Ezra 10:42 ) The son of Halohesh and ruler of a district of Jerusalem. ( Nehemiah 3:12 ) The uncle of Jeremiah, ( Jeremiah 32:7 ) perhaps the same as 2. Father or ancestor of Maaseiah ( Jeremiah 35:4 ) perhaps the same as 9. (B.C. 630.)
Shalmaneser
(fire-worshipper) was the Assyrian king who reigned probably between Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon, B.C. 727-722. He led the forces of Assyria into Palestine, where Hoshea, the last king of Israel, had revolted against his authority. ( 2 Kings 17:3 ) Hoshea submitted and consented to pay tribute; but he soon after concluded all alliance with the king of Egypt, and withheld his tribute in consequence. In B.C. 723 Shalmaneser invaded Palestine for the second time, and, as Hoshea refused to submit, laid siege to Samaria. The siege lasted to the third year, B.C. 721, when the Assyrian arms prevailed. ( 2 Kings 17:4-6 ; 18:9-11 ) It is uncertain whether Shalmaneser conducted the siege to its close, or whether he did not lose his crown to Sargon before the city was taken.
Shamir
(n point or thorn.) A town in the mountain district of Judah. ( Joshua 15:48 ) only. It probably lay some eight or ten miles south of Hebron. A place in Mount Ephraim, the residence and burial-place of Tola the judge. ( Judges 10:1 , 2 ) Perhaps Samur, half-way between Samaria and Jenin . A Kohathite, son of Micah or Michal, the first-born of Uzziel. ( 1 Chronicles 24:24 )
Shearinghouse, The
a place on the road between Jezreel and Samaria, at which Jehu, on his way to the latter, encountered forty-two members of the royal family of Judah, whom he slaughtered. ( 2 Kings 10:12 , 14 ) Eusebius mentions it as a village of Samaria “in the great plain [of Esdraelon], 15, miles from Legion.”
Shechem
(back or shoulder). An important city in central Palestine, in the valley between mounts Ebal and Gerizim, 34 miles north of Jerusalem and 7 miles southeast of Samaria. Its present name, Nablus, is a corruption of Neapolis, which succeeded the more ancient Shechem, and received its new name from Vespasian. On coins still extant it is called Flavia Neapolis. The situation of the town is one of surpassing beauty. It lies in a sheltered valley, protected by Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north. The feet of these mountains, where they rise from the town, are not more than five hundred yards apart. The bottom of the valley is about 1800 feet above the level of the sea, and the top of Gerizim 800 feet higher still. The sit of the present city, which was also that of the Hebrew city, occurs exactly on the water-summit; and streams issuing from the numerous springs there flow down the opposite slopes of the valley, spreading verdure and fertility in every direction. Travellers vie with each other in the language which they employ to describe the scene that here bursts so suddenly upon them on arriving in spring or early summer at this paradise of the holy land. “The whole valley,” says Dr. Robinson, “was filled with gardens of vegetables and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by fountains which burst forth in various parts and flow westward in refreshing streams. it came upon us suddenly like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine.” The allusions to Shechem in the Bible are numerous, and show how important the place was in Jewish history. Abraham, on his first migration to the land of promise, pitched his tent and built an altar under the oak (or terebinth) of Moreh at Shechem. “The Canaanite was then in the land;” and it is evident that the region, if not the city, was already in possession of the aboriginal race. See ( Genesis 12:6 ) At the time of Jacob’s arrival here, after his sojourn in Mesopotamia, ( Genesis 33:18 ; 34 ) Shechem was a Hivite city, of which Hamor, the father of Shechem, was the headman. it was at this time that the patriarch purchased from that chieftain “the parcel of the field” which he subsequently bequeathed, as a special patrimony, to his son Joseph. ( Genesis 33:19 ; Joshua 24:32 ; John 4:5 ) The field lay undoubtedly on the rich plain of the Mukhna, and its value was the greater on account of the well which Jacob had dug there, so as not to be dependent on his neighbors for a supply of water. In the distribution of the land after its conquest by the Hebrews, Shechem fell to the lot of Ephraim, ( Joshua 20:7 ) but was assigned to the Levites, and became a city of refuge. ( Joshua 21:20 , 21 ) It acquired new importance as the scene of the renewed promulgation of the law, when its blessings were heard from Gerizim and its curses from Ebal, and the people bowed their heads and acknowledged Jehovah as their king and ruler. (27:11; Joshua 24:23-25 ) it was here Joshua assembled the people, shortly before his death, and delivered to them his last counsels. ( Joshua 24:1 , 25 ) After the death of Gideon, Abimelech, his bastard son, induced the Shechemites to revolt from the Hebrew commonwealth and elect him as king. ( Judges 9:1 ) ... In revenge for his expulsion after a reign of three years, Abimelech destroyed the city, and as an emblem of the fate to which he would consign it, sowed the ground with salt. ( Judges 9:34-45 ) It was soon restored, however, for we are told in ( 1 Kings 12:1 ) ... that all Israel assembled at Shechem, and Rehoboam, Solomon’s successor, went thither to be inaugurated as king. here, at this same place, the ten tribes renounced the house of David, and transferred their allegiance to Jeroboam, ( 1 Kings 12:16 ) under whom Shechem became for a time the capital of his kingdom. From the time of the origin of the Samaritans, the history of Shechem blends itself with that of this people and of their sacred mount, Gerizim. [ Samaria ] Shechem reappears in the New Testament. It is the Sychar of ( John 4:5 ) near which the Saviour conversed with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. The population of Nablus consists of about 5000, among whom are 500 Greek Christians, 150 Samaritans, and a few Jews. The enmity between the Samaritans and jews is as inveterate still as it was in the days of Christ. The Mohammedans, of course, make up the bulk of the population. The well of Jacob and the tomb of Joseph are still shown in the neighborhood of the town. The well of Jacob lies about a mile and a half east of the city, close to the lower road, and just beyond the wretched hamlet of Balata . The Christians sometimes call it Bir es-Samariyeh— “the well of the Samaritan woman.” The well is deep—75 feet when last measured—and there was probably a considerable accumulation of rubbish at the bottom. Sometimes it contains a few feet of water, but at others it is quite dry. It is entirely excavated in the solid rock, perfectly round, 9 feet in diameter, with the sides hewn smooth and regular. Of all the special localities of our Lord’s life, this is almost the only one absolutely undisputed. The tomb of Joseph lies about a quarter of a mile north of the well, exactly in the centre of the opening of the valley. It is a small between Gerizim and Ebal. It is a small, square enclosure of high whitewashed walls, surrounding a tomb of the ordinary kind, but with the peculiarity that it is placed diagonally to the walls, instead of parallel as usual. A rough pillar used as an altar and black with the traces of fire is at the head and another at the foot of the tome. In the walls are two slabs with Hebrew inscriptions, and the interior is almost covered with the names of pilgrims in Hebrew Arabic and Samaritan. Beyond this there is nothing to remark in the structure itself. The local tradition of the tomb, like that of the well is as old as the beginning of the fourth century. The son of Hamor, the chieftain of the Hivite settlement of Shechem at the time of Jacob’s arrival. ( Genesis 33:19 ; 34:2-26 ; Joshua 24:32 ; Judges 9:28 ) A man of Manasseh, of the clan of Gilead. ( Numbers 26:31 ) A Gileadite, son of Shemida, the younger brother of the foregoing. ( 1 Chronicles 7:19 )
Shemer
(preserved), the owner of the hill on which the city of Samaria was built. ( 1 Kings 16:24 ) (B.C. 917.) [ Samaria ]
Shimshai, Or Shimshai
(sunny), the scribe or secretary of Kehum, who was a kind of satrap of the conquered province of Judea and of the colony of Samaria, supported by the Persian court. ( Ezra 4:8 , 13 , 17 , 23 ) He was apparently an Aramaean, for the letter which he wrote to Artaxerxes was in Syriac. ( Ezra 4:7 ) (B.C. 529.)
Simon
(contracted form of Simeon, a hearing). Son of Mattathias. [ Maccabees ] Son of Onias the high priest, whose eulogy closes the “praise of famous men” in the book of Ecclesiasticus, ch. 4. (B.C. 302-293.) A “governor of the temple” in the time of Seleucus Philopator, whose information as to the treasures of the temple led to the sacrilegious attach of Heliordorus. 2 Macc. 3:4 , etc. (B.C. 175.) Simon the brother of Jesus. The only undoubted notice of this Simon occurs in ( Matthew 13:55 ; Mark 6:3 ) He has been identified by some writers with Simon the Canaanite, and still more generally with Symeon who became bishop of Jerusalem after the death of James, A.D. 62. The former of these opinions rests on no evidence whatever, nor is the later without its difficulties. Simon the Canaanite, one of the twelve apostles, ( Matthew 10:4 ; Mark 3:18 ) otherwise described as Simon Zelotes, ( Luke 6:15 ; Acts 1:13 ) (A.D. 28.) The latter term, which is peculiar to Luke, is the Greek equivalent for the Chaldee term preserved by Matthew and Mark. [ Canaanite, The ] Each of these equally points out Simon as belonging to the faction of the Zealots, who were conspicuous for their fierce advocacy of the Mosaic ritual. Simon of Cyrene, a Hellenistic Jew, born at Cyrene, on the north coast of Africa, who was present at Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, either as an attendant at the feast, ( Acts 2:10 ) or as one of the numerous settlers at Jerusalem from that place. ( Acts 6:9 ) (A.D. 30.) Meeting the procession that conducted Jesus to Golgotha, as he was returning from the country, he was pressed into the service to bear the cross, ( Matthew 27:32 ; Mark 15:21 ; Luke 23:26 ) when Jesus himself was unable to carry it any longer. Comp. ( John 19:17 ) Mark describes him as the father of Alexander and Rufus, perhaps because this was the Rufus known to the Roman Christians, ( Romans 16:13 ) for whom he more especially wrote. Simon, a resident at Bethany, distinguished as “the leper.” It is not improbable that he had been miraculously cured by Jesus. In his house Mary anointed Jesus preparatory to his death and burial. ( Matthew 26:6 ) etc.; Mark 14:3 etc.; John 12:1 etc. Simon Magus, a Samaritan living in the apostolic age, distinguished as a sorcerer or “magician,” from his practice of magical arts. ( Acts 8:9 ) According to ecclesiastical writers he was born at Gitton, a village of Samaria, and was probably educated at Alexandria in the tenets of the Gnostic school. He is first introduced to us as practicing magical arts in a city of Samaria, perhaps Sychar, ( Acts 8:5 ) comp. John 4:5 And with such success that he was pronounced to be “the power of God which is called great.” ( Acts 8:10 ) The preaching and miracles of Philip having excited his observation, he became one of his disciples, and received baptism at his hands, A.D. 36,37. Subsequently he witnessed the effect produced by the imposition of hands, as practiced by the apostles Peter and John, and, being desirous of acquiring a similar power for himself, he offered a sum of money for it. His object evidently was to apply the power to the prosecution of magical arts. The motive and the means were equally to be reprobated; and his proposition met with a severe denunciation from Peter, followed by a petition on the part of Simon, the tenor of which bespeaks terror, but not penitence. ( Acts 8:9-24 ) The memory of his peculiar guilt has been perpetuated in the word simony, as applied to all traffic in spiritual offices. Simon’s history, subsequent to his meeting with Peter, is involved in difficulties. Early Church historians depict him as the pertinacious foe of the apostle Peter, whose movements he followed for the purpose of seeking encounters, in which he was signally defeated. He is said to have followed the apostle to Rome. His death is associated with this meeting. According to Hippolytus, the earliest authority on the subject, Simon was buried alive at his own request, in the confident assurance that he would rise on the third day. Simon Peter. [ Peter ] Simon, a Pharisee, in whose house a penitent woman anointed the head and feet of Jesus. ( Luke 7:40 ) Simon the tanner, a Christian convert living at Joppa, at whose house Peter lodged. ( Acts 9:43 ) The house was near the seaside, ( Acts 10:6 , 32 ) for the convenience of the water. (A.D. 37.) Simon the father of Judas Iscariot. ( John 6:71 ; 13:2 , 26 )