In any country, foreigners can be looked upon with disdain and suspicion. Ancient Jews particularly despised their neighbors to the north, the Samaritans, because their ancestors had separated themselves from the union with Judah and Benjamin, been carried away to Assyria and been replaced with a mixed race people of perhaps partial Israelite stock. The distrust between the two peoples was also cultural and religious. The Samaritans were more conservative than the Jews, believing only in the five books of Moses, and they had a rival temple site. Unlike many Jews, Jesus did not avoid Samaritan territory on his travels and without prejudice or bigotry even conversed with one of their women at a well (John 4:5-42). It was this woman, an otherwise hated foreigner and others from her neighborhood who were among the first to believe Jesus’ message.
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