When the Galileans went up to the feast at Jerusalem, they had to travel through Samaria.
When the Galileans went up to the feast at Jerusalem, they had to travel through Samaria. (JHN 4:3-4) It happened that there was a Galilean killed in a Samaritan village called Nais, (or Ginea.) This caused a fight between the travellers and the villagers in which many of the Galileans were killed. The Jewish rulers took this very heinously and stirred up the Jews to arms and exhorted them to defend their liberty. They said slavery was bad enough without having to suffer additional wrongs as well. At Jerusalem, the common people left the feast, took up arms and invaded Samaria. They would not stop fighting no matter what the magistrates said or did. The people also called for help from Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and Alexander, both the captains of the thieves. They invaded the part of Samaria which bordered on the country of Acrabatene and made a confused slaughter. They spared no age nor sex and also burnt the towns. When Cumanus knew what was done, he took with him one cavalry troop from Sebaste and four cohorts of foot soldiers along with armed Samaritans and he attacked the Jews. When he had overtaken them, he killed many of those who followed Eleazar but took more prisoners. When the rulers of Jerusalem saw the magnitude of the calamity, they put on sack cloth and ashes on their heads and pleaded with the rest of the multitude who went to destroy the territories of Samaria that they would change their minds. They told them how their country would be destroyed, the temple burnt and their wives and children taken captives. Therefore they begged them to put down their arms and go home. The Jews obeyed and went home. However, the thieves retired again to their strongholds and after this time Judea was overrun by thieves. {Josephus, Wars, 1. 2. c. 11. <c. 12. 1:612>} {Josephus, Antiq., 1. 20. c. 5. <c. 6. 1:532>}