In the books of Kings there are brief notices of the origin of the people called Samaritans. The ten tribes which revolted from Rehoboam, son of Solomon, chose Jeroboam for their king. After his elevation to the throne he set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel, lest repeated visits of his subjects to Jerusalem, for the purpose of worshipping the true God, should withdraw their allegiance from himself. Afterwards Samaria, built by Omri, became the metropolis of Israel, and thus the separation between Judah and Israel was rendered complete. The people took the name Samaritans from the capital city. In the ninth year of Hosea, Samaria was taken by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser, who carried away the inhabitants into captivity, and introduced colonies into their place. The dregs of the populace, particularly those who appeared incapable of active service, were not taken away by the victors. With them, therefore, the heathen colonists became incorporated. But the latter were far more numerous than the former, and had all power in their own hands. The remnant of the Israelites was so inconsiderable and insignificant as not to affect, to any important extent, the opinions of the new inhabitants. As the people were a mixed race, their religion also assumed a mixed character. In it the worship of idols was associated with that of the true God. But apostacy from Jehovah was not universal. On the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, the Samaritans wished to join them in rebuilding the Temple, saying, "Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, which brought us up hither" (Ezra iv. 2). But the Jews declined the proffered assistance; and from this time the Samaritans threw every obstacle in their way. Hence arose that inveterate enmity between the two nations which afterwards increased to such a height as to become proverbial. In the reign of Darius Nothus, Manasses, son of the Jewish high-priest, married the daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan governor; and to avoid the necessity of repudiating her, as the law of Moses required, went over to the Samaritans, and became high-priest in the temple which his father-in-law built for him on Mount Gerizim. From this time Samaria became a refuge for all malcontent Jews; and the very name of each people became odious to the other. About the year B.C. 109 John Hyrcanus, high-priest of the Jews, destroyed the city and temple of the Samaritans; but Herod rebuilt them at great expense B.C. 25. In their new temple, however, the Samaritans could not be induced to offer sacrifices, but still continued to worship on Gerizim. At the present day they have dwindled down to a few families. Shechem, now called Nablus, is their place of abode. They still possess a copy of the Mosaic law.

A different account of the origin of this people has been given by Hengstenberg, whom Havermick and Robinson follow. It has been ably combated by Kalkar (in Pelz's Mitarbeiten for 1840, drittes Heft, p. 24, &c.), to whom the reader is referred.

With the remnant above referred to, a correspondence was formerly maintained by several learned Europeans, but without leading to any important result. It was commenced by Joseph Scaliger in 1559; and resumed, after a century, by several learned men in England in 1675, and by the great Ethiopic scholar, Job Ludolf, in 1684. The illustrious orientalist De Sacy also held correspondence with them. All their letters to England and France, and all that was then known respecting them, he published in a work entitled, "Correspondance des Samaritains," &c., in Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, tom. xii. The best accounts of them given by modern travellers are by Pliny Fisk (American Missionary Herald for 1824), who visited them in 1823; and by Robinson and Smith, who visited them in 1838 (see Biblical Researches and Travels in Palestine, iii. 113-116).