Sebastiye, ruins on Mt. Shomron
Photograph taken between 1915-1918 by a German photographer.
Shomron or Samaria is under Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The village right next to the historical city is Sebastiye. Today, the population of Sebastiye consists of mostly Arab muslims.
Samaria was established as the capital of the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Omri circa 884 BC. During the reign of the last king of the northern kingdom, Hoshea (2 Kings 10), the Assyrians invaded in 722/721 BC when they established complete control over the capital city and the remainder of the northern kingdom.
New inhabitants were brought in (from Kutha and the Syro-Mesopotamian area, 2 Kings 17:24) and they formed a new Samaritan population. Samaria became a Hellenistic town in 332 BCE and thousands of Macedonian soldiers were settled there following a revolt by the Samaritans. In 30 BCE the emperor Augustus awarded the city to Herod the Great who renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus ("Sebaste" is the feminine form of Gr. Sebastos = Augustus).
Samaritanism is a religion closely related to Judaism, though it is not considered part of it, and its adherents are not considered to be Jews. Samaritanism primarily uses a Torah as its holy book, though little of later Jewish theology. Their temple was built at Mount Gerizim in the middle of fifth century BCE and was destroyed by the Macabbean (Hasmonean) John Hyrcanus late in 110 BCE, although their descendants still worship among its ruins.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaria
Sebastiye, ruins on Mt. Shomron
Photograph taken between 1915-1918 by a German photographer.
Shomron or Samaria is under Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The village right next to the historical city is Sebastiye. Today, the population of Sebastiye consists of mostly Arab muslims.
Samaria was established as the capital of the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Omri circa 884 BC. During the reign of the last king of the northern kingdom, Hoshea (2 Kings 10), the Assyrians invaded in 722/721 BC when they established complete control over the capital city and the remainder of the northern kingdom.
New inhabitants were brought in (from Kutha and the Syro-Mesopotamian area, 2 Kings 17:24) and they formed a new Samaritan population. Samaria became a Hellenistic town in 332 BCE and thousands of Macedonian soldiers were settled there following a revolt by the Samaritans. In 30 BCE the emperor Augustus awarded the city to Herod the Great who renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus ("Sebaste" is the feminine form of Gr. Sebastos = Augustus).
Samaritanism is a religion closely related to Judaism, though it is not considered part of it, and its adherents are not considered to be Jews. Samaritanism primarily uses a Torah as its holy book, though little of later Jewish theology. Their temple was built at Mount Gerizim in the middle of fifth century BCE and was destroyed by the Macabbean (Hasmonean) John Hyrcanus late in 110 BCE, although their descendants still worship among its ruins.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaria