2 Kings 17 · a question people ask
Are the people of 17:24 the Samaritans Jesus met?
2 Kings doesn't say, and neither do the Gospels. This chapter says only that the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and placed them "in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities" (17:24), and of them and their children, "They do as their fathers did to this day" (17:41). The one time the WEB's Old Testament has the word "Samaritans" is in this chapter, and there it names those who had made the high places: every nation "put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made" (17:29) (tap Samaritans). In John's Gospel "A woman of Samaria came to draw water" (John 4:7); she calls Jacob "our father Jacob" (John 4:12) and says, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain" (John 4:20). Neither John nor 2 Kings says where the Samaritans of Jesus' day came from, so these notes don't either.
The verses
“The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.”
“However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.”
“So these nations feared the LORD, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.”
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.””