Inhabitants of Samaria, the land between Judea and Galilee. Most Judean traditions portray the Samaritans negatively.

Another of the numerous sub-groups in early Judaism (see also Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes) and residents of the district of Samaria north of Jerusalem and Judah in what is now Israel. They are said to have recognized only the Pentateuch as scripture and Mt. Gerizim as the sacred center rather than Jerusalem. There was ongoing hostility between Samaritans and Judahites. Samaritan communities exist to the present.

Demographically a group of people who lived in the former northern kingdom of Israel, centered around the ancient capital of Samaria, who after the Assyrian destruction and exile (721 B.C.E.) had remained and intermarried with the non-Israelite peoples transported to the region by Assyria. Religio-politically, a conservative Jewish group that maintained the ancient paleo-Hebrew script for their sacred writings (as opposed to the square script introduced by foreign powers during Assyrian and Babylonian hegemony), and, more importantly, who recognized only the Torah as legitimate scripture (as opposed to Judean Jews, who had expanded scripture to include the prophets and the writings). The Samaritans have maintained their own temple and cult of Jewish festivals on Mount Gerizim near Shechem from the late fourth century B.C.E. to the present day ( CSB RG 195–6).

Twenty four hour telephone service staffed by volunteers for the depressed and suicidal. Named after the New Testament parable, The Good Samaritan. In it, some bloke from a place thought to be full of arseholes helps a man from a rival town that has had the shit kicked out of him by robbers who left him for dead. PBR

Samaritans (until 2002 known as The Samaritans) is a British and Irish-based registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in distress or at risk of suicide. The name comes from the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, though the organization is not religious.