The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

The political history of the people can be told in a
few sentences. Their Temple,* to which reference
has been made, was built, not in Samaria but at
Shechem—probably on account of the position
held by that city in the former history of Israel—
and on Mount Gterizim, which in the Samaritan
Pentateuch was substituted for Mount Ebal in Deut.
xxvii. 4. It was Shechem also, with its sacred
associations of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph,
which became the real capital of the Samaritans.
The fate of the city of Samaria under the re'q^ of
Alexander is uncertain—one account speaking of
the rebellion Oi the city, the nurder of the
Macedonian governor, the consequent destruction
of Samaria, and the slaughter of part, and
transportation of the rest, of its inhabitants to
Shechem,' while Joeephus is silent on these events.
When, after the death of Alexander, Palestine
became the field of battle between the rulers of
Egypt and Syria, Samaria sufibred even more than
other parts of the country. In 320 B.C. it passed
finom the rule of Syria to that of Egypt (Ptolemy
Lagi). Six years later ' it again became Syrian