myBibleHistory

Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations

Who Were the "People of the Land"?

Ezra describes neighbors who claimed to have worshiped Israel's God since Esarhaddon resettled them, and "the people of the land" who obstructed the work. Outside sources show Samaria as a Persian province with Yahwistic names among its leaders, Sanballat as its governor, and a sanctuary on Mount Gerizim from perhaps the 5th century BC. The later Samaritan community grew out of this world, but over a long time.

Samaria as a province: documented · Gerizim sanctuary from Persian period: disputed · Equation with later Samaritans: simplification

Mount Gerizim
Site or place photographMount Gerizim above Nablus (ancient Shechem), seen from Mount Ebal.Image credit

1 What Scripture says

Ezra 4:1–5, 9–10Nehemiah 2:10, 19; 13:28

"Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither" (Ezra 4:2).

2 What evidence we might expect

  • Persian-period Samaria with its own officials; Yahwistic worship there; evidence of friction or contact with Jerusalem.

3 What ancient sources survive

Elephantine petition (TAD A4.7–8)

Language
Aramaic
Composed
407 BC
Oldest surviving copy
Original papyri
Status
Not scripture

Addresses "Delaiah and Shelemiah, the sons of Sanballat governor of Samaria" as well as Bagohi of Judah.

Wadi Daliyeh papyri

Language
Aramaic
Composed
c. 375–335 BC
Oldest surviving copy
Original papyri and seal impressions
Status
Not scripture

Legal documents of Samaria's elite, mentioning a later Sanballat.

4 What discoveries exist

Excavations on Mount Gerizim (Y. Magen) uncovered a sacred precinct; Magen dated its first phase to the 5th century BC, others to later. Thousands of inscriptions from the Hellenistic phase use the divine name. Samarian coins of the 4th century BC show Persian and Greek motifs and Yahwistic names.

5 How interpretations compare

Traditional reading

The Samaritans

The adversaries were the Samaritans, whose worship was mixed (2 Kings 17).

Assessment: Simplifies: the Samaritan community as a distinct religious body took shape later.

Scholarly reconstruction

Provincial rivals

Samaria's leaders and Yahwistic population saw Jerusalem's rebuilding as a political challenge and wished to share in it.

Scholarly reconstruction

Those who stayed

"People of the land" may include Judeans who never went into exile.

6 The strongest supported reconstruction

Ezra's adversaries included Samaria's Yahwistic elite and other local groups; the conflict is one root of the later Jewish–Samaritan division.

7 What remains possible or unknown

  • Exactly whom 4:1–5 refers to
  • When the Gerizim temple was built

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedSamaria was a Persian province governed by Sanballat in the late 5th century BC.

    Source: B. Porten and A. Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vol. 1 (1986): TAD A4.1 (Passover letter), A4.7–A4.9 (temple petition and memorandum)

  • DisputedThe Gerizim sanctuary existed in the Persian period.
  • DisputedEzra's adversaries were the later Samaritan community.

Where this connects