Why didn't Levites like Samaritans?

Answer 1

One thought:

Levites were not alone in hating the Samaritans.

After Solomon died, the twelve tribes of Israel split in two under the rulership of Jeroboam and Rehoboam in 997 BCE.

Rehoboam, Solomon's son, ruled over the Southern two tribes, Benjamin and Judah(and the Levite priests (2Chronicles 11:13-15), and continued their worship at the temple in Jerusalem.

Jeroboam, an army officer under Solomon(1 Kings 11:26), ruled the northern 10 tribes of Israel, and established a center of pagan calf worship in Samaria, causing this divided group to become apostate.(1Kings 12:27-33/2 Kings 10:29/2 Kings 17:16+17).

The term "Samaritans' can first be seen in The Bible after the destruction of the ten tribe kingdom by the Assyrians in 740BCE. (2Kings 17:29). Assyria moved in and, as was it's practice, intermarried other conquered nations with the inhabitants of Samaria, to further subjugate them. So that the already separated Jews in Samaria, would be further divided as time went on. The remaining people, alienated from God's temple in Jerusalem, would intermarry with pagan cultures, and their descendants would lose their religious identity.

Because of these breeches, over the years distrust and hatred grew. There were run-ins between Jews and Samaritans, that further alienated the two sides...such as in the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel(Ezra 4:1-24) and when Nehemiah began repairing the walls at Jerusalem .(Nehemiah 2:19+20; Nehemiah 4:1-12; Nehemiah 6:1-15).

The Samaritans believed a portion of the Bible (the Samaritan pentateuch - first five books), and rejected the rest, but because of this, had a belief in the fortold Messiah ("a prophet greater than Moses"-Deuteronomy 18:18+19)(Luke 17:16-19; John 4:9-43; Luke 9:52-56) Later, when Samaria was preached to by the early Christians, many Samaritans happily embraced Christianity(Acts 8:1-17+25; Acts 9:31; Acts 15:3), but at the time Jesus was on earth, there was still a very strong divide between Jews and Samaritans, which Jesus used in Illustration (Luke 10:29-37).