Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 9/21/2007

Question
QUESTION: I am a little confused:
acts 8:5 "then philip went down to the city of samaria and preached Christ to them.
i can find samaria as a provence of Palestine...
I found some info that samaria used to be the capitol of Israel....is that true??
unable to find the city of samaria on a map....
where was the city of samaria??
thank you
God bless
cathy

ANSWER: Blessings and thank you for your question.

When the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms (Israel in the north, Judah in the south), the north was left without a capital, since Jerusalem was in Judah. Omri, a powerful king of Israel, built a new capital city, Samaria. Most of the kings of Israel were a sorry lot, prone to worship false gods, and the prophets frequently condemned Samaria. Ahab was one of the worst kings, and his famous enemy was God’s faithful prophet, Elijah.

The warlike Assyrians captured the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 b.c., deported its inhabitants, and settled the area with foreigners. Some Israelites remained there and intermarried with the foreigners, creating a mixed stock. According to 2 Kings 17:33, this resulted in a mixed religion—serving God, but also serving false gods. The people were known as Samaritans, after Israel’s former capital, Samaria (see 905).
When the Jews of the southern kingdom returned from their exile in Babylon, they locked horns with the Samaritans. The Jews saw themselves as the keepers of the true faith, but the Samaritans wanted a part in restoring Jerusalem’s temple. The Jews refused, not wanting the help of a mixed-race (and mixed-religion) people. The Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. The Samaritans and Jews were now two separate peoples, with similar—but different—religious practices.
The New Testament depicts the hostility between Jews and Samaritans. The Romans had created the province of Samaria between Galilee and Judea, and the Jewish inhabitants of those two regions disliked traveling through Samaria, bypassing it when they could. Samaritan was a slur word on Jewish lips, and Jesus’ enemies accused Him of being one (John 8:48). John 4 records a remarkable dialogue between Jesus and a woman in Samaria, a dialogue that makes it clear that Christ had compassion for Samaritans. The book of Acts records that Christianity was preached and accepted in Samaria, so the new faith broke down the wall between Samaritan and Jew. The most famous Samaritan was the compassionate one in Jesus’ best-known parable [the good Samaritan]).


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QUESTION: wow that is exactly what i wanted thank you so much....!!
i have been unable to find an expert to answer this following question about genesis and the 12 tribes:

as i look at maps showing the boundaries for the 12 tribes of Israel, i see: manasseh asher naphtali zebulun issachar gad epharim benjamin reuben simeon judah dan

Genesis 48:5 makes it clear that ephraim and manasseh became jacob's sons.

why is joseph included in Genesis 49:22, but not in the maps....
why is levi included in G49:5, but not in the maps.....
manasseh and ephraim are not in the G49 list but are in the maps...why???
thank you and God bless

Answer
Blessings

Ephraim and Manasseh are the two sons of Joseph, while Jacob claimed them as his own, they were not part of God's establishment of the 12 tribes of Israel.  So while they aren't part of the 12, they were given thier own lands.  So the maps show the lands of the sons rather than calling them the lands of Joseph.

Levi was not given land inheritance, but was given land within cities and countrysides.  This is because Levi's inheritance was to be "the priesthood of God." They were to serve God and recieve the tithe as thier inheritance.


So the 12 are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin.