I am beginning to think that this story has been very much misunderstood and misinterpreted. Amongst the Samaritans were the lost 10 tribes of Israel, taken into slavery after the decline of the David/Solomon nation and later returned to their land. Samaria was known as the Kingdom of Israel and Judea was a different province.

jesus speaks over and over again of Samaritans and in John 8; 48 he is accused of being a Samaritan (which he does not seem to deny). Every time Jesus and the disciples travelled between Gallilee and jerusalem they walk through the territory of the Samaritans.

The essential conflict with the Samaritans and the Jews was about where cleansing and sacrifices occur, the Jews insisted it must occur at the temple in Jerusalem whereas the Samaritans had their own places in the mountains. But they all worshipped the same God, unlike the Gentiles who worshipped the Hellenic, Assyrian and Egyption Gods of empire. The Samaritans were considered unclean because they had not been cleansed in the Jerusalem temple.

This needs to be understood in the context of Jesus’ threats to destroy the Jerusalem temple and john the baptist’s Jordan river baptism – forgiving sins outside of the temple.

The conflict between Jews and Samaritans is a different thing altogether from the Jews and the Gentiles – the migrant merchant class in colonised Palestine.

Mathew 10: 5
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

The usual interpretation of this is to avoid the Samaritans and the lost sheep were those who had lost their way in lifes ongoing struggles, but I wonder if the real message was to avoid the cities of the Kingdom of Israel as they were where the Gentile class were located. The faithfull, like in Judea, existed in the wilderness. The city is very often the symbol of Sin and corruption throughout the bible and I wonder if that paradigm is also at play in the Mathew direction to go to the lost sheep but not into Samaritan cities.

The Maccabean revolt less than 200 years earlier was based around the faithfull leaving the cities and living in the bush.

If, as it seems to me, Jesus is saying go to the children of David, the Samaritans, but avoid the corrupted centres dominated by Gentiles, this gives a very different meaning to the story of the woman at the well.

If this story is looked at with the assumption that the woman herself was amongst the lost sheep of Israel then the story takes on a completely different meaning. Same with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Perhaps, when Jesus says “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” He is not talking about throwing Jewish food to Samaritan dogs, but rather refering to the poverty of the Samaritans (and the woman’s child in particular) being expropriated by the Gentile dogs. – economic imperialism and colonisation. Perhaps the message is not about the great distance between jews and Samaritans but rather, in the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of David, the Jews and Samaritans are one, the only division existing in the different understandings of the corrupt Jerusalem temple.

The woman’s response ….”Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” was perhaps not a self deprecating acceptance of her status as dog but rather an assertion that even the invading gentile dogs are subject to the God of Israel. (as reinforced in the story of Jesus healing the centurion’s relative/slave).

This leads to an important observation I’ve made while looking at the Indian Baba’s, both past and present, although special and gifted incarnations, they remain deeply socialised into their Indian Culture.

One should not wonder that this also occurred to Jesus – who had the insight to rise above it!!

But I will have to challenge Brother William on an important point though – “I am not a special person.”

Brother William is very special – a unique individual who has freed his soul – surrounded by Creeds and Dogma – he cut through them and is now showing all how to fashion the sabre. His freed soul is standing on the central tablelands of the shared experience of the divine on this little orb!

I am astounded that Brother William is an octogenarian – his writing embodies eternal youth!

All Thanks to Brother William!!