SAMARITANA AL POZZO

### THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL

The well-known episode from the Gospel of John (4:3-43), which recounts Jesus’ encounter, weary from His journey, with the Samaritan woman drawing water from Jacob’s well, could not fail to attract the attention of Christian artists because of its messianic significance.

Though not one of the most common subjects, the known representations provide a fixed iconographic type with few variations, except for one scene (Wilpert, *Sarcofagi*, pl. 233, 2), in which a third figure is added to the two traditional ones, probably Peter, to express the Apostles’ amazement at the unusual encounter, as in the cited Johannine passage. Few examples survive in funerary painting, all dating between the late 2nd and the 3rd century. The Savior, dressed in a tunic and pallium—with the single exception of the crypt of the Coronation in the Catacomb of Pretestato (Wilpert, *Pitture*, pl. 19), where He wears a crimson chlamys—stands or sits, holding the scroll of the Law or with His hand outstretched to receive from the woman the bowl of water, or else the woman is shown drawing water from the well. The scene of the Samaritan woman...

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### SAMARITANS

The rivalry between the two peoples. The Samaritans did not suffer persecution either at the hands of Pompey the Great or Herod; but at the order of Pontius Pilate (q.v.), many of them were killed during an assembly convened by a false prophet on Mount Gerizim in A.D. 36, which Pilate had forbidden (Josephus, *Ant.* XVIII, 4, 1-2). The Samaritans took part in the general rebellion of Palestine against the Romans; Cerealis, commander of the Fifth Macedonian Legion, besieged them on Mount Gerizim and is said to have killed more than 11,000 of them on 15 July 67 (*Bell. Jud.* IV, 8, 1-2).

They later regained strength and spread throughout Palestine and even beyond the Jordan; their hatred of the Jews extended to Christians. On several occasions they destroyed churches and killed the faithful, but after severe punishment by the emperors Zeno and Justinian (6th century) they never recovered their former power. In 1167 the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela found that the Cutheans were a small minority scattered among Nablus, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Damascus (Nablus counted only about a hundred families).

Today there are about 260 Samaritan families gathered around their new synagogue at the foot of Gerizim. About 85 of them are scattered between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Their doctrines are little known; the basis of their faith is the Mosaic Law contained in the Samaritan Pentateuch (q.v.), the only sacred collection they accept. They preserve its text, altered and interpolated, with practical adaptations deriving from an oral tradition later committed to writing. Thus arose the *Tābah* (10th century), a compilation of norms concerning the priesthood and sacrifices, the *Hillik* (the “Way” along the paths of the Law), etc. The Samaritans still await the *Tābah*, a kind of reforming Messiah in the manner of Moses, who will establish a glorious kingdom for a thousand years after his death. They reject any sensible representation or anthropomorphism in speaking of God. They strictly observe the Sabbath and circumcision. They still speak a dialect that appears to derive from the Aramaic of Palestine and use an archaic alphabet derived from the paleo-Hebrew script.

Of the former power and spread of the Samaritans, before the revolt of 549, testimony is borne by the remains of their synagogues found in Palestine and Transjordan, bearing inscriptions; on Mount Nebo, eight fragments were discovered during excavations. In 1948, in the village of Salbit, 3 km east of Qubā on the Jerusalem-Ramleh road, a synagogue was discovered, oriented toward Mount Gerizim, with an inscription from Exodus 15:18.

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