John 4:1–42_Jesus and the Samaritan woman
25/8/24
Passage
John 4:1–26
Questions
1 Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And it was necessary for him to go through Samaria.
Why the return to Galilee, Jesus’ home town in the north?
What was the origin of the Samaritans?1 How did the Samaritans and the Jews get on [v9]?
5 Now he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 And Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, because he had become tired from the journey, simply sat down at the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John uses Roman time so this is midday in the Middle East. Jesus is tired because he is fully human.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me water to drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the town so that they could buy food.) 9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me water to drink, [since] I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
It does not jump out at us but Jesus is in Samaria! He is talking to a woman! He even wants to drink from the cup of this unclean woman!
What other Old Testament stories have we encountered where unclean women becomes part of the people of YHWH?
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep! From where then do you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, [are you,] who gave us the well and drank from it himself, and his sons and his livestock?”
One of the disputes between the Samaritans and the Jews was the rightful location of the temple. The Jews, of course, worshipped in Jerusalem. The Samaritans had built a temple on Mount Gerizim but the Jewish Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus had destroyed it in 128BC.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks of this water which I will give to him will never be thirsty for eternity, but the water which I will give to him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Read Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Revelation 22:1–5.
What is Jesus identifying himself as?
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or come here to draw water!” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have said rightly, ‘I do not have a husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you have now is not your husband; this you have said truthfully!”
How unclean is this poor woman? Why is she at the well alone in the middle of the day? What’s the point that John is emphasising?
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
What is going to happen? What is Ezekiel’s third temple?
22 You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming—and now is —when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever that one comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.
John’s gospel is not chronological but thematic.
Where does John place this story? Who is he putting her next to? Has so much been revealed to anyone else at this point.
27 And at this point his disciples came, and they were astonished that he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you seek?” or “Why are you speaking with her?”
Jesus is tearing down Jew-Samaritan and man-woman barriers. He does so with authority and his disciples cannot challenge him.
Is this your experience of Jesus? Absolute authority that you cannot deny or resist?
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Perhaps this one is the Christ?” 30 They went out from the town and were coming to him.
…
39 Now from that town many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word, 42 And they were saying to the woman, “No longer because of what you said do we believe, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this one is truly the Savior of the world!”
Read Acts 1:8; 8:4–8; 9:31.
God directs events, behind the scenes, to bring the Samaritans into his kingdom. The Samaritan woman is named St Photini in Orthodox tradition.
Do you begin to see her significance? Also, a good conversation starter if you know a Photini or a Photis!
The separation between Samaritans and Jews originated from historical, religious, and political differences. After the Assyrian conquest (722 BCE), Israelites in the northern kingdom intermarried with foreigners, creating the Samaritan community. Following the Babylonian Exile (586 BCE), returning Jews rejected the Samaritans' participation in rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, leading Samaritans to establish their own temple on Mount Gerizim. Religious differences grew, with Samaritans accepting only the Torah and Jews embracing a broader Hebrew Bible. Hostility, including the destruction of the Samaritan temple in 128 BCE, solidified their distinct identities, resulting in two separate religious communities. [Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. Grabbe, Lester L. Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? London: T&T Clark, 2007. Knoppers, Gary N. Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of Their Early Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 3rd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012. Smith, Morton. Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.]