John 4:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain;— Whom the woman meant by the appellation offathers, is a point much disputed: they who think that she meant the Ephraimites, from whom the Samaritans pretended their descent, hold that the mountain on which they worshipped was mount Ephraim, wherewas Shiloh, the seat of the tabernacle for several years. Another account, more generally adopted, is to this effect: Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon mount Gerizim, for Manasseh his son-in-law, who, for marrying Sanballat's daughter, was expelled from the priesthood, and from Jerusalem. See Nehemiah 13:28. This was the place where theSamaritans used to worship, in opposition to Jerusalem; and it was so near Sichem, the scene of this history, that a man's voice might be heard from one to the other; Judges 9:7. Now as Gerizim was the mount which the woman meant, it will easily appear whom she meant by the fathers who worshipped there. Itis generally known and acknowledged, that the Samaritans, though a mixture of Jews and foreigners,pretended to derive their origin from the patriarchs, especially from Abraham, Jacob, &c. Now it appears from scripture, that Abraham and Jacob erected altars in this place, where also the blessings were pronounced in the time of Joshua; and it is probable, likewise, that it had been a place consecrated to religious worship by the inhabitants of Sichem. See Genesis 12:6-7; Genesis 33:18; Genesis 33:20. Deuteronomy 11:29. Joshua 8:33.