There was open hostility among Jews and Samaritans in Jesus' day. Enmity had been brewing for centuries, and especially since the return of the exiles from Babylon in the sixth century B.C.E. Though it may be that by Jesus' day few remembered the stories of its origin, but the hostility was still there  and mutually shared.

Believed by tradition to be the remnant of the lost tribes of Israel which disappeared after the fall of Samaria to Sargon II of Assyria in 722 B.C.E., the Samaritans had retained many of the traditions of their Hebrew heritage, including their version of the Pentateuch (the Torah) and festivals such as Passover. In 586 B.C.E. the Southern Kingdom, Judah, fell to the Babylonians and many of its leaders and people were carried into exile.

Upon the return of the exiles from Babylon in 538 B.C.E., the Samaritans offered their help in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, a generous gesture that turned their back upon the loyalties of the earlier traditions of the Northern Kingdom and the ancient patriarchal tradition for worship at Shechem, the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Their offer was refused! Instantly there was hostility. The Samaritans countered by building their own rival temple on Gerizim, and by creating troublesome rumors about the exiles within the court of Cyrus, the Persian king. Though this Samaritan temple was destroyed by John Hyracnus in 128 B.C.E., the rivalry over these two sites raged on into Jesus' day.