Editing Samaria (section)

===Hellenistic period===
During the [[Hellenistic Palestine|Hellenistic period]], Samaria was largely divided between a Hellenizing faction based around the town of Samaria and a pious faction in Shechem and surrounding rural areas, led by the High Priest.

Samaria was a largely autonomous province nominally dependent on the [[Seleucid Empire]]. However, the province gradually declined as the [[Maccabees|Maccabean]] movement and [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean Judea]] grew stronger.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=Dušek |first=Jan |title=Samaria, Samarians, Samaritans |chapter=Administration of Samaria in the Hellenistic Period |date=27 October 2011 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110268201.71/html |pages=76–77 |access-date=11 April 2023 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110268201.71 |isbn=978-3-11-026820-1 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411195358/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110268201.71/html |url-status=live }}</ref> The transfer of three districts of Samaria— [[Taybeh, Ramallah|Ephraim]], [[Lod]] and [[Deir 'Ammar|Ramathaim]]—under the control of Judea in 145 BCE as part of an agreement between [[Jonathan Apphus]] and [[Demetrius II Nicator|Demetrius II]] is one indication of this decline.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raviv |first=Dvir |date=3 July 2019 |title=Granting of the Toparchies of Ephraim, Ramathaim and Lod to Hasmonean Judea |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2019.1650500 |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=267–285 |doi=10.1080/03344355.2019.1650500 |s2cid=211674477 |issn=0334-4355}}</ref> Around 110 BCE, the decline of Hellenistic Samaria was complete, when the Jewish [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean ruler]] [[John Hyrcanus]] destroyed the cities of Samaria and Shechem, as well as the city and temple on Mount Gerizim.<ref name=":2" /><ref>See: Jonathan Bourgel, "[https://www.academia.edu/42119968/The_Samaritans_during_the_Hasmonean_Period_The_Affirmation_of_a_Discrete_Identity The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318162438/https://www.academia.edu/42119968/The_Samaritans_during_the_Hasmonean_Period_The_Affirmation_of_a_Discrete_Identity|date=2022-03-18}}", ''JBL'' 135/3 (2016), pp. 505-523; [https://www.academia.edu/34049422/The_Destruction_of_the_Samaritan_Temple_by_John_Hyrcanus_A_Reconsideration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620130651/https://www.academia.edu/34049422/The_Destruction_of_the_Samaritan_Temple_by_John_Hyrcanus_A_Reconsideration|date=2019-06-20}}. See also idem, [https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/11/628/htm "The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period: The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119013131/https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/11/628/htm|date=2022-01-19}} Religions 2019, 10(11), 628.</ref> Only a few stone remnants of the Samaritan temple exist today.