John 4:9

For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.— Have no friendly intercourse, &c. This must be the meaning of ου συγχρωνται here; for it is evident from John 4:8 that the Jews had some dealings with them. It has been frequently observed, that many causes concurred to occasion this inveterate hatred of the Jews towards the Samaritans; such as their foreign extract,—and the early mixture of superstitionandidolatryintheirreligion, 2 Kings 17:24; 2 Kings 17:41.—the injurious manner in which they treated the Jews after their return from the captivity, Ezra 4:1. Nehemiah 6:1, and especially their building a temple on mount Gerizim, which they made the centre of their worship, in opposition to that at Jerusalem: and perhaps nothing contributed more to expose them to the contempt and abhorrence of the Jews, than the infamous offer which they made to Antiochus, of dedicating that temple to Jupiter, and admitting the rites of his idolatrous worship, at a time when the Jews were suffering the utmost extremities in defence of theirreligion. We may observe, it is not said, that the Samaritans had no dealings with the Jews, but that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans; whence it is natural to conclude, that the enmity was greatest on the side of the Jews. As a proof of this, see a remarkable passage in Sir 50:25-26.