Acts 8:5

And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed unto them the Christ.

The city of Samaria ... was long considered by scholars as ambiguous, some declaring that it had reference to Sychar, as in John 4:5, and others thinking it referred to the city of Samaria, that is, the capital of the province. McGarvey said:

The definite article is now admitted to be a part of the Greek text, and this settles the question (as proved by the Sinaitic manuscript which has the definite article). It was the old capital ... enlarged and embellished by Herod the Great.[10]

Concerning what it means to preach Christ, see under Acts 8:12.

The people of Samaria were regarded by the Jews with contempt, their mixed racial and religious characteristics being the cause of this. (See my Commentary on John, p. 113.) In fact, the Jew looked upon all Gentiles in the same way; but, as Howson noted, "His hostility to the Samaritan was probably the greater, in proportion as he was the nearer."[11] It was in keeping with this same greater reaction to what is near, as compared to what is distant, that Sir Walter Scott wrote: "A wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion in a distant desert!"[12]

[10] J. W. McGarvey, New Commentary on Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1892), p. 138.

[11] J. S. Howson, op. cit., p. 65.

[12] Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman (New York: American Book Company, 1899), p. 299.