When the Israelites divided into 2 kingdoms after the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel was established in the northern section of the Promised Land, in accordance with the lands allotted to the 10 tribes in that area. Shechem was the original capital, until Jeroboam moved it to Tirzah. Later, in approximately 880 B.C., Omri, the sixth King of Israel, established the capital at Samaria, a new town built on a hilltop about 7 miles (11 kilometers) northwest of Shechem. "Samaria" came to be used interchangeably for both the city, and the region. After the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians, the region then known as Samaria was reduced in size. By the time of Jesus it was bounded by Galilee to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Judea to the south and the Jordan River to the east. Today, it is in the so-called "West Bank" area. Very telling....huh?
In the story of the Samaritan woman, Christ is talking with her. And then the apostles show up and are amazed that He is talking with a Samaritan woman.
This story takes place very early in Our Lord's ministry and as noted....[John 4:4] He had to go through Samaria.
Not only are the Apostles amazed....so is the Samaritan women...(verse 9) the Samaritan woman therefore saith to him, 'How dost thou, being a Jew, ask drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?' for Jews have no dealing with Samaritans.
As I posted earlier, the Samaritans were transplanted pagans from Babylon [II Kings 17:24] from about the seventh century B.C. and had continued in their pagan practices while taking on some of the elements of the God of Abraham. [II Kings 17:33-34]. The Jews, (Judah and Benjamin) being their neighbors to the south knew this....and despised them. This is the primary reason our Lord gave instructions to the twelve not to go there! [Matthew 10:5]
This is what Josephus has to say about them: So when Alexander had thus settled matters at Jerusalem, he led his army into the neighboring cities; and when all the inhabitants to whom he came received him with great kindness, the Samaritans, who had then Shechem for their metropolis, (a city situate at Mount Gerizzim, and inhabited by apostates of the Jewish nation,) seeing that Alexander had so greatly honored the Jews, determined to profess themselves Jews; for such is the disposition of the Samaritans, as we have already elsewhere declared, that when the Jews are in adversity, they deny that they are of kin to them, and then they confess the truth; but when they perceive that some good fortune hath befallen them, they immediately pretend to have communion with them, saying that they belong to them, and derive their genealogy from the posterity of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Accordingly, they made their address to the king with splendor, and showed great alacrity in meeting him at a little distance from Jerusalem. And when Alexander had commended them, the Shechemites approached to him, taking with them the troops that Sanballat had sent him, and they desired that he would come to their city, and do honor to their temple also; to whom he promised, that when he returned he would come to them. And when they petitioned that he would remit the tribute of the seventh year to them, because they did but sow thereon, he asked who they were that made such a petition; and when they said that they were Hebrews, but had the name of Sidonians, living at Shechem, he asked them again whether they were Jews; and when they said they were not Jews, "It was to the Jews," said he, "that I granted that privilege; however, when I return, and am thoroughly informed by you of this matter, I will do what I shall think proper." And in this manner he took leave of the Shechenlites; but ordered that the troops of Sanballat should follow him into Egypt, because there he designed to give them lands, which he did a little after in Thebais, when he ordered them to guard that country.
Notice in verse 12 of John 4....the Samaritan woman even lies about her heritage to Our Lord: Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? She was no more a descendant of Israel than Bin Laden!
They had no honor, they were pagans and the only time the Apostles became involved with them was in Acts 8 when Philip, a non Apostle, convinced Peter and John to come up and help him in Samaria. Look at the result regarding the beginnings of the entire "Simon Magus affair" and subsequent apostasy.
"One mausoleum, designated mausoleum M, has sparked much debate because of the mosaics with which it is decorated. One figure in particular, depicting the sun-god, is often interpreted as Christ. [Christus helios, the mosaic of Sol in Mausoleum M, which is interpreted as Christ-Sol] This would make the mausoleum the single exception to the rule that all mausolea in the necropolis are pagan. However, this mausoleum has been the focus of some of my own research that deals with the Roman sun god, and I question the Christian interpretation given to its mosaics."
The Vatican contends that Sun-God symbols on the tomb of their founder are Christian when in fact these were insignias of Simon Magus. Note this from the Schaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia:
"[The] high fame which he [Simon Magus] enjoyed throughout Samaria reached its culmination in his identification with the Semitic sun god Shamash, whose cult was united with that of the moon goddess Astarte". [V 10; p 420; # 5]
This may very well explain the idolatrous attachment the Vatican has with their famous Sun-burst monstrances and other Sun God images that permeate its regalia. They were the emblems of Simon Magus who was probably buried in the shrine of the Sun God there on Vatican Hill that had to be demolished by Constantine when he built the first St Peters Basilica. If they check those bones again that came out of this Sun God mausoleum, they will probably find them to be Samaritan not Jewish.
And lest we forget our history, Constantine built the first Basilica over the tomb that he considered to be the founder of his newly formed Roman Christianity, and until the day he died he was dedicated to the cult of the Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun God.
I'm very much aware of the Judah and ??, the two areas of the Promised Land, north and south.