Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Tony Costa" <tmcos AT rogers.com>]

Yiagl wrote> "Naming an area after its main city is not uncommon. Remember
that the area
> to the north of Judah was called "Shomron" (Samaria). The Phoenicians were
> called "Sidonians". Not to mentions names like "the land of Hamath". In
> modern Arabic, "balad" is often used for a town and its immediate
environs."

The area to the north of Judah that was called Samaria was a city, the
capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel in counterdistinction to
Jerusalem the capital city of the southern kingdom, Judah. Nowhere in the MT
do we read or hear of the "land of Samaria", it appears in the context of a
city. In the time of Jesus it would be true to say that Samaria had become a
land region, sandwiched in between Judea to the south, and Galilee to the
north.

Tony Costa