SAMARIA (Hē Samareitis). - One of the three historical regions of Palestine, in the center of the plateau, having the Jordan as its boundary to the east, the coastal plain of Sharon to the west, and the plain of Esdraelon to the north. The southern boundary with Judea shifted often, according to political vicissitudes.
The name, which before the exile was applied to the territory of the Northern Kingdom (II Kings 10:32; 15:29; 17:28; II Chron. 25:13), after the destruction of the capital and the Kingdom designated the inhabitants of the Assyrian province of Samarina, then of the district of Semaraja. At first it included within its territory the villages of Bethel, Bethoron and Jericho, but after the return of the Jews from exile it lost at its southern boundary the toparchies of Aphairema (= et-Tajjibeh), Lydda, Ramathaim (Remis), Acrabattene.
According to Flavius Josephus (Bell. Jud., III, 3, 4), Samaria began at the north of the village of Ginea (= Genin) on the southern edge of the plain of Esdraelon, belonging to Galilee, and extended southward as far as the toparchy of Acrabatta (= el-'Aqrabeh). Elsewhere, however, the same writer (Vita, 14) indicates Casaloth (= Iksal) as the southernmost point of Galilee, thus leaving outside the boundaries the plain of Esdraelon, the domain of Berenice, who owned granaries there (Vita, 24). Probably the plain remained divided between Galilee and Samaria by the historical river
Kishon (Nahr el-Muqatta'), touching to the northeast the boundary of the territory of Scythopolis (= Bejsān) and to the northwest Phoenicia at the point of Anuar-Borcaeus (Bell. Jud., III, 3, 3), corresponding to 'Ajn Berqit between Caesarea and Dora. The boundary with Judea to the south consisted, according to the same author (Bell. Jud., I, 6, 5), of a line that starting from Antipatris (Qal'at Rās el-'Ajn) went up along the Wādī Dejr Ballū as far as Ḥirbet Berqit, and from there, heading toward el-'Ormeh, descended to Corea (= Qarāwah) and then along the Wādī Fār'ah to the Jordan, which from the Wādī Mālib as far as the Wādī Kefringī constituted the eastern side, while the western side went up from the Nahr el-'Awāqā as far as the Nahr ez-Zerqā. These boundaries remained almost unchanged until the time of the Arab conquerors, who pushed back the southern boundaries of the district of Nābulus to the south of Lubbān and Sejūn.
The region is a massif, which continues with the mountains of Judea. The most eminent heights are between 700 and 900 m., exceeding 1000 m. only at Tell 'Asūr (1011 m.) near the eastern edge; to the west, however, the group, once known by the name of "mountains of Ephraim," is less elevated. In the center of the region, the two famous mountains of Hebal (v.), today Gebel es-Slemijjeh, (938 m.) and of Garizim, today Gebel et-Tōr (868 m.), face each other; and between them is the valley and plain of el-Mahnah, where Shechem (v.) was situated, near which is the present-day Nābulus with 20,000 inhabitants. Nearby was Jacob's well, on the edge of which the Savior converted the Samaritan woman (Jn. 4). In the valleys numerous wādīs converge, to form the most important river of Samaria, the Nahr el-'Awāqā, and to the east is the Wādī Fār'ah.
The fields of cereals are extensive. The region is traversed, from north to south, by the road that runs from Jerusalem through Genin, another important center of Samaria. With the new political division of Palestine, Genin forms the northern limit of the Kingdom of Jordan; the other route of communication from east to west, which leads from Nābulus to the coast, is interrupted at Tūl Karm, the frontier between Israel and Jordan.
Bibliography3 works
Donato Baldi