Map of the Roman Empire - Samaria

Samaria
P-9 on the Map

Ancient Samaria A region in first century Israel and also the name of the capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in Old Testament times. Amos 3:9; Jeremiah 31:5; Obadiah 1:19; cf. 1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings. 17:26; 23:19. After 721 BC Samaria became the name of a province of Assyria, and later the name of a region in Israel situated between Judah and Galilee. During Roman times it constituted a very large region between the north and south of Israel. Ezra 4:17; 1 Maccabees 3:10; 10:30; Luke 17:11; John 4:4; Acts 1:8; 8:1; 8:5; 9:31; 15:3.

Amos 3:9 - Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

Jer. 31:5 - Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat [them] as common things.

Obadiah 1:19 - And [they of] the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and [they of] the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead.

1 Kgs. 13:32 - For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which [are] in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

2 Kgs. 17:26 - Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

2 Kgs. 23:19 - And all the houses also of the high places that [were] in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [the LORD] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

John 4:4 - And he must needs go through Samaria.

Acts 1:8 - But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 8:1 - And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Acts 9:31 - Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

Acts 15:3 - And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

Acts 8:5 - Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

John 4:5 - Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Samaria. A district of Palestine extending along the coast from near Caesarea to Joppa on the south. (See Palestina.) - Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.

Samaria. To the north, Samaria is bounded by the Jezreel Valley; to the east by the Jordan Rift Valley; to the west by the Carmel Ridge (in the north) and the Sharon plain (in the west); to the south by the Jerusalem mountains. In Biblical times, Samaria "reached from the [Mediterranean] sea to the Jordan Valley", including the Carmel Ridge and Plain of Sharon. The Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height of over 800 meters. Samaria's climate is more hospitable than the climate further south. - Wikipedia

Samaria (Samaritis),
I. a district of Palestine, bounded N. by Galilsea at Ginea, s. by Judsea at Silo, w. by Judsea at Bethar, E. by Persea at the Jordan. Areta and Nabloos.
II. prius Sehemron, " hill of Semer," capital of Samaria, 40 m. N. from Jerusalem. The royal residence of the kings of Israel. Built by Omri; destroyed by the Assyrians, and again by John Hyrcanus; restored by Herod, and called by him Sebaste, "august, royal." A colonia of Severus. - Classical Gazetteer

Samaria SAMA�RIA
SAMA�RIA (Eth. Σαμαρεῖιτις, LXX. Joseph.; Eth. Eth.Σαμαρεύς, Eth.χώρα Σαμαρέων, Eth. Σαμαρίς, Σαμάρεια, Ptol.). The district has been already described in general, under PALAESTINA [p. 518], where also the notice of Josephus has been cited [p. 532]. It remains to add a few words concerning its extent, its special characteristics, and its place in classical geography. It lay, according to Josephus, �between Judaea and Galilee (comp. St. John, 4.4), extending from a village called Ginaea in the great plain (Esdraelon) to the toparchy of Acrabatta.� Ginaea there can be no difficulty in identifying with the modern Jenin, at the southern extremity of the plain, on the road from Nabl�s to Nazareth. The toparchy of Acrabatta, mentioned also by Pliny, it is difficult to define: but it certainly lay between Nabl�s and Jericho, and therefore probably east of the toparchy of Gophna and in the same parallel of latitude. (Eusebius, Onomast. s. v. Ἀκραββεὶν; Reland, Palaest. p. 192.) The northern boundary of Samaria is well defined by a continuous line of hills, which, commencing with Mount Carmel on the W., runs first in a SW direction and then almost due E. to the valley of the Jordan, bounding the great plain of Esdraelon on the S. Its southern boundary is not so distinctly marked, but was probably conterminous with the northern limits of the tribe of Benjamin. It comprehended the tribe of Ephraim, and the half of Manasseh on this side Jordan, and, if it be extended as far E. as Jordan, included also some part of Issachar, that skirted these two tribes on the E. Pliny (5.13) reckons to Samaria the towns Neapolis, formerly called Mamortha, Sebaste, and Gamala, which last is certainly erroneous. [GAMALA] Ptolemy names Neapolis and Thena (Θῆνα, 5.16.5), which last is evidently identical with Thanath (Θανὰθ) of the tribe of Joseph, mentioned by Eusebius (Onomast. s. v.), and still existing in a village named Thena, 10 miles E. of Neapolis, on the descent to the Jordan. St. Jerome notes that the most precious oil was produced in Samaria (in Hoseam, cap. xii.), and its fertility is attested by Josephus. - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.

Shomron (Samaria) is literally a watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Judaea/Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the "hill of Shomeron," a solitary mountain, a great "mamelon". It is an oblong hill, with steep but not inaccessible sides, and a long flat top. Omri, the king of Israel, purchased this hill from Shemer its owner for two talents of silver, and built on its broad summit the city to which he gave the name of "Shomeron", i.e., Samaria, as the new capital of his kingdom instead of Tirzah (1 Kings 16:24). As such it possessed many advantages. Omri resided here during the last six years of his reign. As the result of an unsuccessful war with Syria, Omri appears to have been obliged to grant to the Syrians the right to "make streets in Samaria", i.e., probably permission to the Syrian merchants to carry on their trade in the Israelite capital. This would imply the existence of a considerable Syrian population. - Wikipedia

Samaritans
Ethnically, the Samaritans are the inhabitants of Samaria after the beginning of the Assyrian Exile of the Israelites.[5] When Assyria overran the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, part of the Israelite population was deported, and other peoples from the Assyrian Empire were resettled in Israel. Sargon claimed in Assyrian annals that he carried away 27,280 inhabitants from Samaria, the capital of Kingdom of Israel.[6] This could not have been the entire population; many Israelites must have remained.[7] The inhabitants worshiped the Greek gods, but when the then-sparsely populated areas became infested with dangerous wild beasts, they appealed to the king of Assyria for Israelite priests to instruct them on how to worship the "God of that country." The result was a syncretistic religion, in which national groups worshiped the Hebrew god, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.[dubious � discuss] Samaritans claim to be descendants of Israelites from the Northern Kingdom who escaped deportation and exile. A genetic study concluded from Y-chromosome analysis that Samaritans descend from the Israelites (including Kohanim, or priests), and mitochondrial DNA analysis shows descent from Assyrians and other foreign women, effectively validating both local and foreign origins for the Samaritans. (Shen et al., 2004)[1] Samaritanism is a religion closely related to Judaism, though it is not considered part of it, and its adherents are not considered to be Jews. Samaritanism primarily uses a Torah as its holy book, though little of later Jewish theology. Their temple was built at Mount Gerizim in the middle of fifth century BCE and was destroyed by the Macabbean (Hasmonean) John Hyrcanus late in 110 BCE, although their descendants still worship among its ruins. The purported antagonism between Samaritans and Jews is important in understanding the Christian Bible's stories of "The Good Samaritan" and the Samaritan Woman. - Wikipedia