The Samaritans, who came into existence at the time of the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, from the blending of Israelitish and heathenish elements, desired fellowship with the Jewish colony that returned from the Babylonish captivity, but were repelled on account of their manifold compromises with pagan practice. And although an expelled Jew named Manasseh purified their religion as far as possible of heathenish elements, and gave them a temple and order of worship on Mount Gerizim, this only increased the hatred of the Jews against them. Holding fast to the Judaism taught them by Manasseh, the Samaritans never adopted the refinements and perversions of later Judaism. Their Messianic expectations remained purer, their particularism less severe. While thus rendered capable of forming a more impartial estimate of Christianity, they were also inclined upon the whole, because of the hatred and contempt which they had to endure from Pharisaic Judaism, to look with favour upon Christianity despised and persecuted as they themselves had been (John iv. 41; Acts viii. 5 ff.). On the other hand, the syncretic-heathen element, which still flourished in Samaritanism, showed its opposition to Christianity by positive reactionary attempts (§ 25, 2).[4] § 10. INTERCOURSE BETWEEN JUDAISM AND HEATHENISM. Alexander the Great’s conquest of the world brought into connection with one another the most diverse elements of culture in antiquity. Least of all could Judaism outside of Palestine, the _diaspora_, living amid the influences of heathen or Hellenic culture and ways of viewing things, withdraw itself from the syncretic current of the age. The Jews of Eastern Asia maintained a closer connection and spiritual affinity with the exclusive Palestinian Rabbinism, and the heathen element, which here penetrated into their religious conceptions, became, chiefly through the Talmud, the common property of post-Christian Judaism. But heathenism also, contemptible as Judaism appeared to it, was susceptible to Jewish influences, impressed by the deeper religious contents of Judaism, and though only sporadic, instances of such influence were by no means rare.