Who are the Samaritans? In John 4, Jesus travels from Judaea to Galilee and ventures through Samaria. Jesus’ journey is astonishing because Jews would never travel through Samaria. Even when they most direct path to a place would take them through Samaria, they would go around it. The Samaritans occupied the area of Israel that was given to Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And the question must be raised, why did the Jewish people despise the Samaritans so much? …