The Samaritans of Samaria ( see map at Iudaea Province ), had their temple on Mount Gerizim, and along with some other differences, see Samaritanism, were in conflict with Jews of Judea and Galilee and other regions who had their Temple in Jerusalem and practiced Judaism.

The city was sacked by the Samaritans in 529, but rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Bethlehem was conquered by the Arab Caliphate of ' Umar ibn al-Khattāb in 637, who guaranteed safety for the city's religious shrines.

Here, Jesus ' compassion extends to all who are needy, women are important among his followers, the despised Samaritans are commended, and Gentiles are promised the opportunity to accept the gospel.

The Israel of the Persian period included descendants of the inhabitants of the old kingdom of Judah, returnees from the Babylonian exile community, Mesopotamians who had joined them or had been exiled themselves to Samaria at a far earlier period, Samaritans and others.

Epiphanius, writing of Joseph of Tiberias, a wealthy Roman Jew who converted to Christianity in the time of Constantine, says he claimed to have received an imperial rescript to build Christian churches in Jewish towns and villages where no gentiles or Samaritans dwell, naming Tiberias, Diocaesarea, Sepphoris, Nazareth and Capernaum.

Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion, brought back by those returning from exile.

Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh ( the two sons of Joseph ) as well as some descendants from the priestly tribe of Levi, who have connections to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into the land of Canaan, while some suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the Samaritan Kingdom of Baba Rabba.

The Samaritans have insisted that they are direct descendants of the Northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who survived the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.

Unlike the Chronicler, the Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the " lost " tribes taken into Assyrian captivity.

Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by those returning from exile.

The Israelites (, Standard: ; Tiberian: ; ISO 259-3: ) were a Semitic Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East, who inhabited part of the Land of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods ( 15th to 6th centuries BCE ), later evolving into Jews and Samaritans of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, inhabiting the territories of Judea and Galilee, and Samaria respectively, though a Jewish diaspora had already developed outside of Judea and Galilee.

The Samaritans consider themselves ( and some biblical scholars consider them ) to be the remaining population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were not exiled during the ten tribes exile and who joined with the exiled people that the Assyrians brought into the land instead of the exiled Israelite population ( such as the people of Kutha ), forming the Samaritan community.

While at Rome, he voiced his support for the Jews to Claudius, and against the Samaritans and the procurator of Iudaea Province, Ventidius Cumanus, who was lately thought to have been the cause of some disturbances there.

Samaritans have traditionally ascribed the Targum to Nathanael, a Samaritan priest who died circa 20 BCE.

" The Samaritans then complained to Vitellius, Roman governor of Syria, who sent Pilate to Rome to explain his actions regarding this incident to Tiberius.

Samaritans were hated by Jesus ' target audience, the Jews, to such a degree that the Lawyer's phrase " The one who had mercy on him " may indicate a reluctance to name the Samaritan.

As the story reached those who were unaware of the oppression of the Samaritans, this aspect of the parable became less and less discernible: fewer and fewer people ever heard of them in any context other than as a description.

In Johannine Christology the proclamation " who takes away the sin of the world " begins the unfolding of the salvific theme of the redemptive and sacrificial death of Jesus followed by his resurrection which is built upon in other proclamations such as " this is indeed the Saviour of the world " uttered by the Samaritans in John 4: 42.

", XI, vii, viii ), who refused to separate from his alien wife, Sanaballat's daughter, and with him the many Jews, priests and laymen, who sided with the rebel, these betook themselves to Shechem ; a schismatic temple was then erected on Mount Garizim and thus Shechem became the " holy city " of the Samaritans.

Some of its inhabitants were of the number of the " Samaritans " who believed in Jesus when he tarried two days in the neighborhood, and the city must have been visited by the Apostles on their way from Samaria to Jerusalem ( Acts 8: 25 ).

:* The return of Babylonian Jews increases the schism with the Samaritans, who had remained in the region during the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations.

Historically, Samaritans were a large community — up to more than a million in late Roman times, but were then gradually reduced to several tens of thousands a few centuries ago — their unprecedented demographic shrinkage has been a result of various historical events, including, most notably, the bloody suppression of the Third Samaritan Revolt ( 529 CE ) against the Byzantine Christian rulers, and mass conversion to Islam in the Early Muslim period of Palestine.

In Classical times, Shechem was the main settlement of the Samaritans, whose religious center stood on Mount Gerizim, just outside of the town.

His description of the Samaritans in Egypt ( l. c., pp. 206 – 208 ) is one of the most valuable and reliable of medieval times.

The statement that the festivals were abolished, probably means that the Dositheans celebrated them on other days than the Jews ; but as, according to a trustworthy statement of Epiphanius, the Dositheans celebrated the festivals together with the Pharisaic Jews, an approximation may well be assumed toward the Karaites, a sect with which the Samaritans had much in common in later times.

A large group of Samaritans had been persuaded by an unnamed man to go to Mount Gerizim in order to see sacred artifacts allegedly buried by Moses.

After the end of the Babylonian Captivity, a large schism between the Samaritans and Judaism developed, with the Samaritans, but not the Jews, regarding Mount Gerizim as the holy place chosen by God.

The Samaritans ( Shomronim, as-Sāmariyyūn ) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant.

The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group named after and inhabiting Samaria after the beginning of the Assyrian Exile of the Israelites.

The Samaritans, a group historically related to the Jews, practice animal sacrifice in accordance with the Law of Moses.

Selway has been associated with emotional support group Samaritans as a listening volunteer since 1991.

Palestinians ( including Druze and Bedouin ) constituted the largest group, followed by Jews ( including Sephardim and Ashkenazim ), Egyptians, Cypriots, Samaritans, Circassians Armenians, Dom, and others.

One group of note ( that exists up until this day ) were the Samaritans, who adhered to most features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the Assyrian Jews.

The word " Palestinian " is occasionally used by ethnographers and linguists to denote the specific Arab subculture of the southern Levant ; in that sense, it includes not only the Arabs of British Mandate Palestine, but also those inhabitants of Jordan who are originally from Palestine and the Druze, while excluding both Bedouin ( who culturally and linguistically group with Arabia ) and ethnic minorities such as the Dom and Samaritans.

Bidwill volunteers for Flying Samaritans, a group of volunteers including doctors and other medical personnel who establish free medical clinics in Mexico.

The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the eastern Mediterranean region, originating from connection with ancient Samaria.

Wide agreement now exists among textual critics that the Samaritan Pentateuch represents an authentic ancient textual tradition despite the presence of some unique variants introduced by the Samaritans.

It now has plaques that advertise the telephone number of The Samaritans and above the railings on the bridge there are anti-climb barriers.

The Samaritans, who now number less than one thousand people, continue to use a derivative of the Old Hebrew alphabet, known as the Samaritan alphabet.

In the Biblical account, however, Cuthah was just one of several cities from which people were brought to Samaria, and the Samaritans were later called " Cutheans " to spite them, with the added assertion that the men of Kuth made Nergal their god.

The text is not clear on this matter, but one possibility is that these " people of the land " were thought of as Samaritans.

In 2004 Samaritans announced that volunteer numbers had reached a thirty-year low, and launched a campaign to recruit more young people ( specifically targeted at ages 18 – 24 ) to become volunteers.

Samaritans ' vision is that fewer people die by suicide.

Although Samaritans volunteers are trained in many of the same techniques as professional counsellors, they neither judge nor tell people what to do.

By listening and asking questions, the Samaritans volunteers help people explore their feelings and work out their own way forward.

In 2007, 80 % of the people contacting Samaritans did not express suicidal feelings.

Samaritans believes that offering people the opportunity to be listened to in confidence, and accepted without prejudice, can alleviate despair and make emotional health a mainstream issue.

* Samaritans of Singapore is a non-profit and non-religious organisation which aims to provide 24-hour confidential emotional support to people in crisis, thinking of suicide or affected by suicide.

According to the Bible, other people were brought to Samaria, the Samaritans, under his predecessor Shalmaneser V ( 2 Kings 18 ).

In the Gospels generally, " though the Jews of Jesus ' day had no time for the ' half-breed ' people of Samaria ," Jesus " never spoke disparagingly about them ," and " held a benign view of Samaritans.

Typically more than 100 local people walk through the town in themed fancy dress raising money for The Samaritans.

Toc H padre Chad Varah went off on his own to start the Samaritans and branches across the country set up flashing light alarm schemes in their boroughs – the homespun precursor of the systems used by many old or vulnerable people today.

* Samaritans of Singapore is a non-profit and non-religious organisation which aims to provide 24-hour confidential emotional support to people in crisis, thinking of suicide or affected by suicide.