The Bible is a book for all people, in all times and places, and its lessons hold eternal value. Yet the Bible was also written in particular times and places and knowledge of those contexts is sometimes assumed rather than explained. For instance, in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, we read the phrase, in parenthesis: “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. We also read that Jesus and His disciples “had to pass through Samaria.” Hate is a difficult thing to measure or quantify, but the story assumes we know something about how intense the Jews’ hate for Samaritans was.
According to Warren Wiersbe, “So intense was [the Jews’] dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection!”[1] This hate was so strong that many Orthodox Jews would travel much longer routes around Samaria to avoid setting foot in it. They thought the dirt itself would contaminate them. Why all this hate?
One reason for this hate was genetic. Anyone who reads the Old Testament knows there are many extensive genealogies. To the Jew, it was very important to know which of the original 12 tribes you descended from and that your ancestors had not intermarried with people of other religions. But Samaritans genealogies were not pure enough for them. Much of Samaria was populated with the descendants of poorer Jews left behind by the Assyrians, many of whom had intermarried with foreigners the Assyrians planted there. So, Jews in Judah looked down on Samaritans because of their mixed genealogy. The Samaritans were considered “half-breeds.”
Another reason was religious. When the Samaritan woman said “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” in John 4:20, she was referring to an alternative Judaism. Among other differences, the Samaritans had a center of worship on Mount Gerizim, with its own temple. They even re-wrote parts of the Pentateuch to justify this.[2] To Israel, Jerusalem was the only center of worship. Sacrifices to Yahweh were only to be offered there, and every male was supposed to make a pilgrimage there three times every year. There was to be no rival temple, and therefore the Samaritans (in the Jewish mind) had cut themselves off from the true worship of Yahweh and should be shunned.
John has to write that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” because doing that was unusual, especially for a Jewish rabbi like Jesus. But then Jesus went there, simply being in Samaria was a strong statement that Jesus didn’t care for the hateful tribalism. But not only did He go there, but He interacted with its people, at a time when “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Jesus was and would continue to break down these barriers. In the four gospels, Jesus preached to the Jews first, then to the “half-breed” Samaritans, then to full Gentiles, and the apostles followed the same pattern in Acts. This sequence progressively illustrated that the gospel is for all tribes of people.
What does this mean for us today? Hate like what the Jews felt for Samaritans is rampant and if Jesus could overcome that hate, He can overcome any hate. Any reasons we have for hating, or even disliking people just because of what group or tribe they belong to aren’t good enough reasons.
But tribal rivalries are everywhere we look: national and regional, political and economic, cultural and ethnic, musical and athletic, and every other dimension we can imagine. But no tribal loyalty is more important than the obligation to love God and love our neighbor, no matter who they are.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:38-39 –
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Not only does this describe the love God has for us in Jesus, but it also describes the love we should have for others. Nothing should get in the way, including any religious, racial or other differences.
Jesus overcomes tribalism, and so should His people.
[1] Wiersbe, Warren. Be Alive (John 1-12) (1986). P.65.
[2] Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1886). P. 274-5.
