Gerizim was the place where it had always been intended that the Temple of Jehovah should be built. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the co-operation of the Samaritans in rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple had been refused, and at no later period would the Jews consent to have friendly dealings with the Samaritans.
Nehemiah had seen the evils resulting from mixed marriages, and the contaminating influence of foreign merchants in Jerusalem. In later days, when Greek literature and Greek manners were spreading over Syria, the more zealous of the Jews contended earnestly against the corrupting innovations. The day when the Seventy Elders translated the Law into Greek for king Ptolemy was pronounced accursed—a day of evil, as when Israel made for itself a golden calf. The patriotic struggle of the Maccabees was all intended to get rid of foreign influence, and keep God's chosen people separate. The Pharisees were a party who by their very name claimed to be "separated," and made it their object to resist the slightest departure from the requirements of the Jewish Law. Their ideas and tenets came to be generally accepted by the Jews of Judea; and hence in the days of Christ Jerusalem was a centre of exclusiveness, bigotry, and ceremonialism.
The Jews of Galilee, cut off from their brethren of the south by the interposition of Samaria, could seldom visit the Temple at Jerusalem; they saw little of the sacrifice of bulls and goats, and learned to worship in synagogues in a plainer way. They were in contact with the northern nations, made alliance with Phœnicia, and did business with men of many nationalities in the fishing towns of the Lake of Tiberias. It is possible that through their intercourse with foreigners, a part of their district was called "Galilee of the Gentiles;" and they seem to have become so different in their dialect or pronunciation that when a
