A people shaped by conquest
Samaria was the capital region of Israel's northern kingdom. After Assyria captured it, the Assyrian king brought people from several foreign places to live in the towns of Samaria, as 2 Kings 17:24 describes. Those settlers lived alongside people who remained in the land, forming the complicated background to the Samaritan community.
The account says these communities came to fear the Lord, but many also kept practices connected with the gods they had previously served. That mixed religious picture appears in 2 Kings 17:29-33. Later Samaritans identified strongly with Israel's God and Israel's story, even though Jewish people did not accept all their claims.
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from 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.
Why Jews and Samaritans were divided
The conflict involved more than ethnicity or geography. Jews worshipped at the temple in Jerusalem, while Samaritans believed Mount Gerizim was the right place for worship. When Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman near Sychar, she brought up this very disagreement in John 4:20.
The relationship had become so strained that John explains Jews and Samaritans normally had no dealings with one another (John 4:9). Yet Jesus did not pretend their differences did not exist. He pointed to the Jewish setting of God's saving work while calling people to worship the Father genuinely, in spirit and truth (John 4:21-24).
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Jesus crossed the boundary
John says Jesus needed to go through Samaria (John 4:4). There he spoke at length with a Samaritan woman, then stayed in the area for two days after the people asked him to remain. Many Samaritans came to believe through hearing him themselves, recognising him as the Saviour of the world (John 4:39-42).
This was not a casual detail. Jesus gave time, truth, and dignity to people whom many others kept at a distance. The scene shows that old hostility does not get the final word when he meets someone.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
The Good Samaritan
Jesus also made a Samaritan the central figure in one of his best-known parables. A wounded traveller was left on the road while a priest and a Levite went by. Then a Samaritan stopped, cared for the man's injuries, carried him to shelter, and paid for his care (Luke 10:31-35).
For Jesus' hearers, that choice would have landed sharply. The expected outsider became the one who acted with mercy. Jesus then turned the question back to his listener: not merely, who counts as my neighbour, but will I become a neighbour to the person in need? (Luke 10:36-37).
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.