King Omri built Samaria in the ninth century BC (1 Kings 16:24). This city later becomes the capital of the Ten Tribes until the fall in 721 BC, and then the city becomes an administrative centre of the Assyrian province, Samaria. The old Ten Tribes was carried away to Assyria (approx. 722 BC) and other peoples came to live in the region of Samaria and took their own gods along (see 2 Kings 17:1–41). The Samaritans who returned from exile, mixed with these peoples so that they no longer had pure Jewish blood. In approximately 388 BC the Samaritans had built a place of worship on Mount Gerizim close to ancient Shechem (which was destroyed again in 128 BC). Later (331 BC), Alexander the Great destroys Samaria, after which Shechem becomes the most important place. In the end, Herod the Great rebuilds Samaria again and a new city arises in honour of Caesar Augustus, which is named: Sebaste (the Greek equivalent of the Latin Augusta).
Over the years, the land became a melting pot of religions, where biblical texts and customs are mixed with people’s own ideas and ideals (just as we also observe in the post-Christian Western Europe: secularization with Christian remnants mixed in).
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.