III. SHECHEM, a a City of Samaria, call’d otherwise Sichar, Neapolis, or Naplouse. Josephus says, that the People of the Country call’d it Mabartha; perhaps because of the Vale of Moreh that Josh. xvii. 7. xx. 7.was hard by. Joshua appoints this City to the Tribe of Benjamin; it was in the Mountains belonging to this Tribe. We have elsewhere spoke of Mount Gerizim, Gen. xlvii. 22. Josh. xxiv. 32. John iv. 5.situate near Shechem. Jacob bought a Field in the Neighbourhood of this City, which by way of Overplus he gave to his Son Joseph, who was buried there. Near the same City was to be seen Jacob’s Well or Fountain, near which Jesus Christ enter’d into Discourse with the Woman of Samaria. After the Ruin of Samaria by Shalmaneser, Schechem was the Capital of the Samaritans; and Josephus says,1 it was still so in the Time of Alexander the Great. It was ten Miles from Shiloh,2 forty from Jerusalem, and fifty-two from Jericho3. St. Jerome says,4 that St. Paula visited the Church that was built upon Jacob’s Fountain. Antoninus Martyr, Adamnanus, and Villibaldus, who wrote in the eighth Century, speak then of this Church. Phocas who wrote in the twelfth Century makes no mention of it.
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