had come from such vast distances, they would stay on for those 50 days until the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, and after that, return home. Luke tells us about Pentecost: “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). He continues to enumerate them, and it is very interesting to find a map of the world as it was known at the time of Christ and find there “every nation under heaven.”
There was a Jewish priest, Josephus Flavius by name, who lived just one generation after our Lord, and who wrote down practically everything of interest about his time. His collected works have been brought out in a giant edition, and although some of it is tedious to read, he is still an almost inexhaustible source of information. 1 He dwells at great length on those feasts and how they were celebrated. He is not always too accurate in numbers they say, and when he comes to talking about himself or his people, he is pretty much conceited, making a kind of wonder child of himself. But otherwise, we really learn things from him.
If we have made ourselves acquainted with the general picture of the countryside and this month of Nisan, as they called the early spring, we know that the land of Israel would be at its greenest and most beautiful and all the roads leading to Jerusalem would be swarming with pilgrims. Then we pick out that one caravan, the one coming from Nazareth. Pilgrims hardly ever travel alone; merely for safety’s sake they prefer to travel in caravans. They also like the companionship, and as they ride on camels or donkeys or walk through the dust of the road, they chant psalms and hymns together and play on their flutes.
In order to go from Galilee to Judea there were two main routes; we can find them on the map. The shortest one would lead through the country of Samaria. Samaria! The people living there were of mixed background, descending partly from the Hebrews and partly from the Gentiles who had been brought in by the kings of the Assyrians. “And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria” (2 Kings 17:24). Because they were of mixed ancestry the Orthodox Jews hated them. To them they were heretics, and there was no worse epithet than to be called “Samaritan.” One day the enraged Pharisees would hurl this name at Our Lord: “You are a Samaritan and have a demon” (John 8:48). It sounds almost as if these two things belonged together. The Samaritans were shown this concept in most unmistakable terms.
The rabbis had compiled a whole code of laws and regulations as to how a Jew should behave with a Samaritan. He was allowed to look at him only once, just to make sure he was one. Then he had to avert his eyes and keep them averted. Of course, he was not allowed to touch him or touch anything which had been touched by a Samaritan — and so on and so on. So when we read about all these petty laws, we understand the surprise of the woman at Jacob’s well when she says: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9.) It is really true that whatever we learn of the habits and customs will come in handy later when we lovingly study the public life of our Lord.
The pilgrims from Nazareth had to bring their own provisions for the pilgrimage. Nothing should be bought in Samaria. There were traditional overnight places all mapped out from of old. The first stop used to be made in Engannim. (In Josephus Flavius’ work we would find it under the name Ginea, and on a modern map of our days, Jenim.) It is about two miles away from Nazareth, and the first village after the pilgrims were through the plains of Esdraelon. The Samaritans had a temple of their own on Mount Garizim, of which they were very jealous. The Jews constantly rubbed in what they thought of them and their temple, and this didn’t make the Samaritans any more friendly toward the
There was a Jewish priest, Josephus Flavius by name, who lived just one generation after our Lord, and who wrote down practically everything of interest about his time. His collected works have been brought out in a giant edition, and although some of it is tedious to read, he is still an almost inexhaustible source of information. 1 He dwells at great length on those feasts and how they were celebrated. He is not always too accurate in numbers they say, and when he comes to talking about himself or his people, he is pretty much conceited, making a kind of wonder child of himself. But otherwise, we really learn things from him.
If we have made ourselves acquainted with the general picture of the countryside and this month of Nisan, as they called the early spring, we know that the land of Israel would be at its greenest and most beautiful and all the roads leading to Jerusalem would be swarming with pilgrims. Then we pick out that one caravan, the one coming from Nazareth. Pilgrims hardly ever travel alone; merely for safety’s sake they prefer to travel in caravans. They also like the companionship, and as they ride on camels or donkeys or walk through the dust of the road, they chant psalms and hymns together and play on their flutes.
In order to go from Galilee to Judea there were two main routes; we can find them on the map. The shortest one would lead through the country of Samaria. Samaria! The people living there were of mixed background, descending partly from the Hebrews and partly from the Gentiles who had been brought in by the kings of the Assyrians. “And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria” (2 Kings 17:24). Because they were of mixed ancestry the Orthodox Jews hated them. To them they were heretics, and there was no worse epithet than to be called “Samaritan.” One day the enraged Pharisees would hurl this name at Our Lord: “You are a Samaritan and have a demon” (John 8:48). It sounds almost as if these two things belonged together. The Samaritans were shown this concept in most unmistakable terms.
The rabbis had compiled a whole code of laws and regulations as to how a Jew should behave with a Samaritan. He was allowed to look at him only once, just to make sure he was one. Then he had to avert his eyes and keep them averted. Of course, he was not allowed to touch him or touch anything which had been touched by a Samaritan — and so on and so on. So when we read about all these petty laws, we understand the surprise of the woman at Jacob’s well when she says: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9.) It is really true that whatever we learn of the habits and customs will come in handy later when we lovingly study the public life of our Lord.
The pilgrims from Nazareth had to bring their own provisions for the pilgrimage. Nothing should be bought in Samaria. There were traditional overnight places all mapped out from of old. The first stop used to be made in Engannim. (In Josephus Flavius’ work we would find it under the name Ginea, and on a modern map of our days, Jenim.) It is about two miles away from Nazareth, and the first village after the pilgrims were through the plains of Esdraelon. The Samaritans had a temple of their own on Mount Garizim, of which they were very jealous. The Jews constantly rubbed in what they thought of them and their temple, and this didn’t make the Samaritans any more friendly toward the
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