Samaria was the capital city for the northern tribes of Israel and was built about 880 B.C. by their king, Omri (reigned 885–873), after they broke away from the tribes of Judah, who had their capital and temple in Jerusalem. Samaria was said to be named for Shemer, the man from whom Omri bought the rocky hill on which the city was built (1 Kgs 16.24). The beautiful buildings of Samaria were erected with help from the Phoenicians, a highly cultured people who lived along the sea coast. Fine furniture with ivory inlays was produced during this time (1 Kgs 22.39), and a fancy palace was built for kings Omri and Ahab (reigned 873–851 B.C.). The city was captured by the Assyrians in 722 and then again by the Babylonians in 612 B.C. Tens of thousands of the Israelites were taken off to live in Assyria, Babylon, and Media, far to the east of Palestine.

Major rebuilding of the city of Samaria began under the Persians in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., when it became the center for Persian control of the district. Later, under the Hellenistic kings (the Ptolemies of Egypt but especially the Syrian king, Antiochus III [223–187 B.C.]), large numbers of Greeks were settled there, and Greek life style and worship of Greek gods were promoted. The strong fortifications built there by the Hellenistic rulers were taken over by the Jewish Maccabean king, John Hyrcanus, in 106 B.C. During the reign of Herod, who was made king by the Romans in 37 B.C., the city was completely rebuilt with impressive public buildings, including a temple to the Roman gods and a statue of the Roman emperor. A wall two miles long was built around the city.

The Samaritans who lived in this region had their own version of the Law of Moses, their own priesthood, and their own temple, which was located on nearby Mount Gerizim. The temple was destroyed by the Jewish king, John Hyrcanus, in 128 B.C. The emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117–135) relocated the main city of Samaria (which was called Neapolis, “New City,” and is now known as Nablus), and he also rebuilt the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim. It was pictured on a large coin of Hadrian, which shows the long rock-cut staircase that links the temple on the mountain with the new city, Neapolis, in the valley below.

The religion of the Samaritans taught that God spoke to his people only through Moses, as both law-giver and prophet. The only books that were in both the Jewish Bible and the Samaritan Bible were Genesis through Deuteronomy, and the Samaritan version of them differs in some details, especially when it highlights the importance of Mount Gerizim as the place where God meets his people. The Samaritans considered the story in the Jewish Bible about setting up a temple and a capital in Jerusalem to be a major mistake. They celebrated three of the same feasts as the Jews: Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Booths, and they observed the Sabbath and considered the Day of Atonement to be the holiest day in the year. They expected that there would be a future day when God would reward those who truly obeyed him and would punish all of disobedient humanity. The Samaritans rejected the Jews, their temple, their holy city of Jerusalem, their version of the Law of Moses, and their claims to have been given messages by God through the prophets. For the Samaritans, it was not the Jews but only themselves who were the true heirs of God’s promises to Israel.

In the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were despised by most Jews for two reasons: (1) many of them were following the lifestyle of the Roman world and ignoring the Law of Moses; (2) those who followed the Samaritan religious traditions denied that God was present among his people in Jerusalem and scorned the Jews.