Here are another two words related to the Bible that get confused–Samaritans and Sumerians.

Samaritans are natives or inhabitants of Samaria, a distinct territory or region in central Palestine. This area used to be occupied by some of the tribes of Israel until Assyria came and hauled them off into captivity. The deported Israelites were replaced with foreign colonists who intermarried among the Israelites that had remained in Samaria. They were a mixed race, which ended up being despised by the Israelites concerned with racial purity.

It was important to note that Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman at a well–he treated her kindly, not something that Jews were supposed to do. In addition, he told the story of the good Samaritan, a shocking idea to the Jews of his day. He was indicating that our neighbors are not just those close to us in beliefs and geography. We are to treat everyone well.  There are actually Samaritans surviving today in a couple of small areas of the Middle East.

Sumerians, on the other hand, were ancient people existing in what is now the southern part of modern Iraq. This was in an area referred to today as the Fertile Crescent. In Sumer people developed the first high civilization in the history of mankind around 3000 B.C.  It was this culture that first developed writing, which consisted of a form of cuneiform (wedge-shaped symbols) script. One of the major cities of ancient Sumer included the biblical Ur, the city from which Abraham migrated.