In the previous series we learned about a Samaritan (heathen–Gentile–“dog”) woman with whom Jesus had a interesting conversation.  I explained that the Samaritans had been taken from their homeland following a war with the Assyrians who had moved them to the northern part of the Promised Land, called Samaria, where ten of the tribes of Israel had lived for generations.  The southern Israelite tribes continued to live in the southern area called Judea.  During her conversation with Jesus the woman had made some statements that needed to be explained.  For example, she referred to the Biblical Son of God as the Samaritans’ Messiah, saying that they worshiped Him.  She claimed that “our fathers” (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were their spiritual fathers, specifically naming Jacob.  By her words we know that she understood the concept of prophecy, even calling Jesus a prophet.  I asked how she could have known these truths when the Samaritans and the Jews had nothing to do with each other? Who could have taught them about the Biblical God?  Let us answer those questions using the Source of all Truth relative to all things spiritual.  To find the answers to the above-stated questions we must return to the final days of Solomon, king of Israel.  I will present the story in a broad, general manner.

Solomon’s father, King David, had drawn the 12 tribes of Israel back together after the disasterous rule of King Saul.  The kingdom had thrived under David and continued to grow, reaching even greater heights under his son Solomon who succeeded him on the throne.  Dignitaries came from throughout the Middle East to see the glory of Israel under his rule.  Such finery and power cost money.  Solomon financed the nation’s world-renowned splendor by burdening the people with heavy taxes.  Upon his death his son Rehoboam inherited the throne and promptly raised their taxes.  Though the southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin) seemed to accept the added burden without complaint, the northern tribes did not.

The ten northern tribes lived in the area of the Promised (Holy) Land called Samaria while the two other tribes lived in the southern area called Judea where Jerusalem was located.  Rehoboam ruled the nation from Jerusalem as had David and Solomon.  Angered by the tax increase, the ten northern tribes separated themselves from the two southern tribes (Judahites–called “Jews”) and became a separate nation under the kingship of Jeroboam.  The newly formed nation retained the name “Israel.”  The two southern tribes were called “Judahites.”  King James translators nicknamed them “Jews.”  The first time the word “Jews” was used in Scripture they were at war with Israel (2 Ki. 16:6).  Note: All Jews are Israelites, but all Israelites are not Jews.  The Jews number some 15 million world-wide while the Israelites (the other tribes) number in the hundreds of millions.  Read Who and Where is Israel Today?  (key word–“Where” or “Today”).

Though the ten Israelite tribes were separated from the Jews (tribes of Judah and Benjamin) geographically, they remained as one people spiritually.  Each year the people of Samaria (Israel) returned to the Temple in Jerusalem where they worshiped the Lord and offered sacrifices for their sins.  Fearing that the people would one day decide to remain in Judea, Jeroboam built two golden calves and placed them in two cities of Samaria.  He then told the people that they now had their own gods and need not return to Jerusalem to worship.  This proved not to be a problem for most of the people.  However, the Levites (priests) who served the true God soon left Samaria and returned to Judea where they also came to be called “Jews.”  Their departure left the Israelites without a priesthood to lead them.  Jeroboam then began to make priests of his friends.  Rich men bought priesthoods for themselves.  Over time these false priests came to be accepted as true priests of God and their teachings came to be “the word of the Lord.”

Following Israel’s defeat at the hands of the Assyrians and their enslavement in Assyria, the Assyrians, as was their custom, moved people from Babylon, whom they had defeated and captured, into Samaria.  But the new arrivals soon ran into a problem–lions.  Lions were killing the Samaritans at a horrendous rate, which had not been the case with the Israelites.  The people came to the conclusion that the God of the defeated Israelites was the only One Who could help them with their lion problem.  Desperate for help, they sent representatives to Assyria to ask Jeroboam to send some of his “priests” to teach them the ways of the Israelite’s God so that the lions would not bother them.  The king of Assyria allowed Jeroboam to do so and soon the Samaritans were being taught what they believed to be God’s Truth.  The problem was that the priests knew neither the Lord nor His ways.  Some of what they taught the Samaritans was true (the “headlines”), but they did not know the “fine print” of God’s Word–the Torah and the teachings of the prophets.  Though they believed and obeyed the teachings of their false prophets, God mercifully eliminated their lion problem.  Because of this the people came to accept their false god and his ways.

As a result of the ministries of the false prophets, the Samaritans knew a little of God’s Truth.  What the woman at the well told Jesus was what the Samaritan people had been taught by Jeroboam’s false priests.  Recall that Jesus told her that she and her people “… know not what you worship.”  They knew very little about the Scriptural God and His Truth.  They knew that God was a worker of miracles (remember the lions) and that His prophets could do miraculous things.  For this reason they came under the spell of a man known as Simon Magus (the magician) who, as we are told in the eighth chapter of Acts, had presented himself to the Samaritans as one of God’s priests.  By the time of Jesus he had been performing signs, wonder and miracles before the people which caused them to believed he was God’s priest, referring to him as “the great power of god.”  This man would later come under the preaching of Philip.  Seeing the miracles Philip performed, “Simon believed” what he taught and “was baptized.”  However, his heart was not right before God, prompting Peter to reject him.  Spurned and resentful, Simon left Samaria and moved to Rome where he established a church designed to appeal to all people regardless of their theology.  By teaching the basic precepts of what Philip and Peter had taught about Jesus, along with a great deal of Babylonian mystery religion, Simon soon attracted a following to his church.  Calling himself Simon Peter, he became the “first pope” of the Babylonian/Christian entity called the “Universal (meaning Catholic) Church.”

With its “come as you are, stay as you are” theology, his false church grew rapidly and later came to dominate the entirety of professing Christendom.  With the backing of the Roman Empire, Catholicism would eventually wield total power over much of Europe.  It was from this power that the Catholic Inquisition was able to murder some 50 million people who refused to bow to her dictates.  The so-called “Protestant Revolution” took place when some of her parishioners, led by a priest named Martin Luther, left her in protest against the activities of the priesthood.  Know this, Luther and his protesters were not protesting against the beliefs and practices of the church, most of which they took with them when they departed.  They were protesting against the wickedness of the priests who were doing such things as having sex with parishioners, selling “indulgencies,” etc.  The Introduction to this website lists a number of Catholicism’s beliefs and customs that the Protestants took with them when they supposedly left the Catholic Church.  Read Simon of Samaria: the Legacy (key word–“Legacy”), and The Ingathering: the Rise of the End-time Church (key word–“Ingathering”).  Neither the Catholic nor the Protestant Church has changed.  Both remain mired in Babylonian mystery theology.

Hopefully, this information has answered some questions concerning the woman at the well.  L.J.