LogFAQs > #936598910

Let's talk a bit about the Babylonian exile. Basically, the Neo-Babylonians were massive jerks, and in order to control conquered territories, they deported large segments of the population(likely primarily elites or anyone that might be expected to stir things up) and settled them around Babylon, so they could keep a close eye on them.
Fortunately for everyone who wasn't a Babylonian, Neo-Babylon was short-lived and was conquered by Persia, led by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus was much less of a jerk, and when he discovered all these exiled peoples crowded around Babylon, he struck on a great idea: he escorted them home, and then he set about rebuilding all the temples the Babylonians had burned and looted. If the Old Testament is anything to go by, the strategy was a PR coup that supplied Cyrus with a number of happy vassals(Cyrus, IIRC, is the only foreign king that is mentioned in a positive way).
Of course, the people who had been left behind had probably been doing just fine without the exiles, and may have been annoyed. In Judea, this manifested in the fact that the left-behind and the exiles had slightly different rituals. The exiles alleged that, in their absence, the left-behinds had forgotten the proper ways, while the left-behinds charged that the exiles had allowed their rituals to be corrupted by Babylonian religious practices.
They handled this like humans normally handled minor disagreements; that is, very poorly.
The left-behinds who refused to yield, in the end, formed their own community and came to be known as Samaritans(due to their claim of descent from the tribes that lived around Samaria, or the modern day West Bank), and all good, self-respecting orthodox Jews hated them(the feeling was mutual).

I bring it up because knowing who the Samaritans were really changes the context of one of Jesus' most famous parables: that of the good Samaritan. They still exist today, even.