Calling someone a Samaritan today is generally considered a compliment—an indication that a person has done a good deed. But among Jews in Jesus' time, it would have been considered an insult.
A number of traditions attempt to explain the enmity between Samaritans and Jews. See, for example, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962). Vol. IV, pp. 190–193 . One traces it back to the time when Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, saying that the Samaritans allied themselves with Sanballat in opposing Nehemiah. Others relate the enmity to the Samaritans' decision to build a temple at the foot of Mount Gerizim, as a rival holy place to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Whether the roots are in these or other causes, by Jesus' time the separation between the two groups was complete. As John's Gospel noted, "The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." John 4:9.
