John P. Meier, «The Historical Jesus and the Historical Samaritans: What can be Said?», Vol. 81 (2000) 202-232

Careful analysis of the Gospels shows that there is not very much hard data about the historical Jesus’ interaction with or views about the Samaritans. There is multiple attestation, found in the Lucan and Johannine traditions, that Jesus, different from typical views of his time, held a benign view of Samaritans and had positive, though passing, encounters with some Samaritans. However, there is gospel agreement, from silence or statement, that Jesus had no programmatic mission to the Samaritans. Besides the above important conclusions, this essay also makes clear the useful distinction between Samaritans and Samarians.

primordial break with authentic Israelite religion, centered on Mt. Gerizim and preserved by the Samaritans, the direct descendants of the Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

        The Jewish version of events is not so wildly anachronistic, but neither is it historically accurate. Strictly speaking, the OT never applies the term ‘Samaritans’ to the special religious group centered around the cult place located on Mt. Gerizim. In the OT, the Hebrew term commonly translated by modern scholars as ‘Samaritans’ (has$s$o4m^ero4n|) occurs only at 2 Kgs 17,29, within a highly polemical passage. In v. 29, the noun has$s$o4m^ero4n| simply means ‘the inhabitants of Samaria’, who are said to have created ‘high places’ for false worship in the northern kingdom of Israel¹⁰.