Samaria Field Study

Mount Gerazim - SW. of Shechem

Mount Ebal, N or Shechem

 

On this past field study we looked at the region of Samaria. This was the area that was allotted to Ephraim and Manasseh. The terrain is different from that of the region of Benjamin and Jerusalem. There is more diversity in the types of rock and the hills and valleys are more rolling than the steep mountains that are found further south.

            We talked about a lot of different things, but a one of the things that stood out to me were the ideas of identity and social structures.  When the patriarchs were traveling through this region there were other people groups living here. There had to be ways in which the patriarchs interacted with the people. There are stories of Abraham coming and sacrificing on the mountains nearby, there is a story of Jacob living outside the city of Shechem for a while and it would not be surprising to hear of others.

pillars that were in front of the temple

          Already at the time of Jacob we talked about the idea of identity. What made the people who lived with Jacob different and set apart from the people who lived in Shechem on the other side of the wall? It is likely that the relationship between the city of Shechem and the family of Jacob what one that was mutually beneficial. Jacob being shepherds would have provided for people in the city things that they would need such a milk products and fertilizer for their field, and the city would provide for the needs of Jacob. And even though they had such a relationship, there was still something that made the people of Shechem a different people than that of Israel.  

farm land to the East of the city

an important stone, probably where the crowning of kings happened

          In Genesis 34 there is the story of Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Hamor, the son of the ruler of Shechem takes her and defiles her. The English translation uses the word ‘rape’, but we talked about how that word might not accurately describe the relationship between Hamor and Dinah. Hamor asks Jacob and his sons for Dinah in marriage, but Jacob’s sons tell him that for that to be allowed all the men of the city of Shechem must be circumcised. Hamor agrees and does this right away. It seems like there is more going on that just rape, it seems that Hamor actually loves Dinah, and is willing to suffer a great amount of pain to marry her. But while all the men of the city are healing Levi and Simeon go into the city and kill every male, plundered the city and took their sister back home.

city gates

 When Jacob heard about this he is upset because he is afraid that they have brought trouble on themselves by making them obnoxious to the people living in the land. But Levi and Simeon reply, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”(Gen 34:31) In the past we have touched on the idea of the shame-based culture and that in this culture it was the head of house’s responsibility to take care of the house including protecting the women. Failure to protect Dinah was a shame to Jacob and his house. Furthermore, failure to do anything about it afterwards was even more shame, and so Levi and Simeon being older brother take it on themselves to earn back their families honor.
   Was it the right thing to do? Was it what God would have told them to do? After Egypt, Levi and Simeon didn't inherit prominent pieces of land, Simeon on the other side of the Jordan River and Levi, priests but inherited no section of land. Was God saying something about how he wanted his people to interact with the people that they were living by?

Jacob's well, it's very deep

This wasn't the only time that sense of identity has been an issue in this particular area. In the New Testament the hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews is huge. The Jews will avoid the land of Samaria all together if they cannot make it through within a day. Samaritan and Jews didn't talk and disagreed on major issues such as where they were to worship. The differences were quite deeply rooted back to the time when Assyria conquered the land of Israel and brought in a large group of new immigrants into the area as a tactic to keep control over it. The people of Israel ended up intermarrying and adopting some of the customs and practices of these new people.

It still had water in it 

 There is a story in John 4 about Jesus traveling through the area of Samaria. Early afternoon he stops at a well and asks a woman for a drink of water. In short they have a conversation about the woman is shocked that a Jewish man is speaking to her and Jesus continues to reveal that he is the messiah and the difference between Jew and Samaritan isn't an issue in the Kingdom of heaven. Many people in the city hear and believe and Jesus stays there for two more days. Jesus has gone out of his way to include the people who the religious people would desperately try to stay away from.

At Shiloh, a spot where it is believed the tabernacle was set up

It has made me think a little. The story of Israel is a complex story, and along the way there are people who are clearly outsiders who are welcomed in and even given prominent roles in history.  Yet the one thing that we see consistently with these people was that they totally gave up their pagan ways and believe in God. It seems that God never made a stink about someone who whole-heartedly worshiped God being included in the people of God, even if they weren't ethnically Jews. Maybe it has always been more of a heart issue than who you were. God knows the heart. We were taught that from an early age, but what if our enemies loved God. Would we be willing to include them?