She had “had five husbands” (John 4:18), and the one she was now with wasn’t her husband. (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) [1] Some Jews regarded the Samaritans as foreigners and their attitude was often hostile, although they shared most beliefs, while many other Jews accepted Samaritans as either fellow Jews or as Samaritan Israelites. 2 (2012): 299–318. But he is talking about the truth concerning God and his kingdom. John records these words: “There came a woman of Samaria to draw water” (Jn. In the latter, it is only the Samaritan who helped the man stripped of clothing, beaten, and left on the road half dead, his Abrahamic covenantal circumcision implicitly evident. "[9] Other scholars note significant differences between John 4 and betrothal type-scenes in the Hebrew Bible. She was a perceptive woman (John 4:19). (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans) . [12] The passages that comprise John 4:10–26 are sometimes referred to as the Water of Life Discourse, which forms a complement to the Bread of Life Discourse.[13]. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" [7], Scholars have noted that this story appears to be modelled on a standard betrothal 'type scene' from Hebrew scripture, particularly that of Jacob in Genesis 29. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. A skid row prostitute can become a child of God. We can experience an encounter regardless of the season or place if we seek the experience earnestly. The following are some outstanding characteristics of the Samaritan woman: She was an observant woman (John 4:9). Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus told his disciples, Go and make disciples of all nations. John 4:1-42). Eventually, having drawn the attention of Emperor Nero, she was brought before him to answer for her faith, suffering many tortures and dying a martyr after being thrown down a dry well. She is remembered on the Sunday four weeks after Pascha, which is known as "the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman". A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." The Samaritan woman was blessed to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Imagine a time when a man was commended because he killed his wife for appearing in public without her veil; when a Roman woman's rights were completely subject to her father's power. The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." It can give a person everlasting life. 5-6,12). 12:3); Jesus is presented not as a bridegroom but as giver of living water.”[11], This Gospel episode is referred to as "a paradigm for our engagement with truth", in the Roman Curia book A Christian reflection on the New Age, as the dialogue says: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know" and offers an example of "Jesus Christ the bearer of the water of life". She now realizes what it means to take freely of the water of life, which is the spiritual refreshment that comes into her soul after her encounter and confession with Jesus. [10] For example, Dorothy A. Lee lists several discrepancies between Hebrew betrothal scenes and John 4: “the Samaritan woman is not a young Jewish virgin and no betrothal takes place; the well is not concerned with sexual fertility but is an image of salvation (see Isa. . It was just another ordinary and busy day in which she carried out her routine household duties. They Had Their Own Temple And Religious System The Samaritans had their own temple, their own copy of the Torah - the first five books of the Old Testament - and their own religious system. “Jesus Gave Me Water”, a gospel song by The Soul Stirrers in 1951. The priest and Levite walked past. A Samaritan Woman Approaches. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." Shawna R. B. Atteberry. We know that this is a command for all Christians in each successive generation. The woman thinks Jesus is talking about real water. What was that sin? [1] Jo-Ann A. Brant, for example, concludes that there is "near consensus among literary critics that the scene at Jacob’s well follows conventions of the betrothal type-scene found in Hebrew narrative. Samaria was once part of the northern kingdom of Israel, which had broken off from the Davidic Kingdom. The woman appears in John 4:4–42, However below is John 4:4–26: But he had to go through Samaria. Beatitudes - Blessed Are the Pure in Heart! “The Peacemaking Role of the Samaritan Woman in John 4:1–42: A Mirror and Challenge to Rwandan Women.” Neotestamentica 46 , no. C. Encounters aren’t seasonal or geological. She was an evangelistic woman (John 4:28-29, 39). Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. Conspiracy to Stop the Work. Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan Woman John 4:3-42. Her continuing witness is said to have brought so many to the Christian faith that she is described as "equal to the apostles". B. (John 4:1-42). She was a receptive woman (John 4:13-15, 21-25). Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" I Don’t Want You To Join My Church, Be Added to His! One view is that the historical Jesus had no contact with Samaritans; another is that the accounts go back to Jesus himself. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself didn't baptize, but his disciples), he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.He needed to pass through Samaria.So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Only God knows the fullness of her life and ours, but regardless of what her former life might have been, in the end she had a good influence on those around her. In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, she is venerated as a saint with the name Photine (Φωτεινή also Photini, Photina, meaning "the luminous one" from φῶς, "light"). Some interpreters have taken this anonymity as an invitation to view her as an abstraction, a symbol of Samaria itself. Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). Adultery. In contrast, the woman was female, a Samaritan (despised by the Jews), and probably uneducated. If she married, then those rights, even the power of life and death, were transferred to her husband. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. The Samaritan woman is unnamed and merely referred to as the ‘Samaritan Woman,’ ‘woman of Samaria,’ ‘woman,’ or simply as ‘her.’ This depicts her unimportance in the society that is patriarchal (cf. Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. This is huge! Sermon on the Bride of Christ - The Church - The Beautiful Bride of Christ, Sermon on Faithfulness - The Basic Pattern For Faithfulness, The Life and Times of Nehemiah #7. This page was last edited on 17 December 2020, at 15:40. LEARN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT WOMAN ... Like the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 who, prior to her conversion to Christ, had five husbands, ( John 4:18) licentious women are those who lack moral discipline or sexual restraint. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." Now here comes the kicker. 4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. Answer: The story of the nameless Samaritan woman at the well, recorded only in the Gospel of John, is a revealing one, full of many truths and powerful lessons for us today. Nearly all of us are the Samaritan woman. [5] Both communities share the Pentateuch, although crucially the Samaritan Pentateuch locates the holy mountain at Mount Gerizim rather than at Mount Zion, as this incident acknowledges at John 4:20. Since village women normally drew water only at dawn and dusk, a … The Gospel of John, like the Gospel of Luke, is favourable to the Samaritans throughout, and, while the Matthaean Gospel quotes Jesus at one early phase in his ministry telling his followers to not at that time evangelize any of the cities of the Samaritans,[6] this restriction had clearly been reversed later by the time of Matthew 28:19. The story of the woman at the well follows on the heels of the account of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin (John 3:1–21). In John’s Gospel the Samaritan woman at the well is the first person to whom Jesus openly reveals himself as Messiah. As further recounted in John 4:28–30 and John 4:39–42, she was quick to spread the news of her meeting with Jesus, and through this many came to believe in him. [2][3][4] The two communities seem to have drifted apart in the post-exilic period. [14], Samaritan woman at the well 1651 by Gervais Drouet, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, by Giacomo Franceschini, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Stefano Erardi, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Jan Joest van Kalkar, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, by Guercino, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Josef von Hempel, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samaritan_woman_at_the_well&oldid=994793277, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Weary from the countless times we have been rejected, hiding in certain areas because of shame, thirsty … This episode takes place before the return of Jesus to Galilee. [8] This convention, which would have been familiar to Jewish readers, following on from an earlier scene in which John the Baptist compares his relationship to Jesus with that of the friend of a bridegroom. She is set apart, and not in a good way. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4) Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (John 5) Jesus the Bread of Life (John 6) Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind (John 9) Jesus' Sacrifice (John 10-12) Servant Leadership (John 13:1-20) Farewell Words: Upper Room Discourse (John 14-17) The Importance of Workplace Relationships (John 14-17) I am the Vine and You are the Branches (John 15) My Kingdom … The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. The Samaritan woman Jesus met faced prejudice from her own community. From The Fellowship Room, the Daily Nudge asks this morning, “What stands out in your mind in the story of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well?” (cf. The Samaritan woman didn’t meet Jesus on a Shabbat or in a building dedicated to carrying out religious activities. ", Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." As I listened to her, I began to think about the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4–42). She may have lived an immoral life, she is nameless and possibly vulnerable. This truth is like life-giving water. She was a logical woman (John 4:11-12). The Samaritan woman, unlike other individuals who speak with Jesus in the Gospel of John, is never named. Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman. First, a solitary Samaritan woman approaches Jesus at a public well at the wrong time of day. The woman was not silent, nor was she limited to the private world of women. Woman of Integrity in the Bible – Abigail, God's Unforgettable Call of Abraham - God's Call and Promise, Sermon on Wisdom | The Wisdom of God or the Wisdom of Man, Parable of the Ten Virgins Sermon | The Ugly Truth on Being Ready, Sermon on Victory - More Than Conquerors, Sermon on God's Invitation | The Invitation of Jesus, Healing at the Pool of Bethesda Sermon - Wondrous Miracle at the Pool, Be Not Weary In Well Doing Sermon Warning to be Faithful. Types of Giving in the Bible, Examples – What is Giving in the Bible? The custom of the day involves churches, schools, and businesses giving away fruit drinks to passers-by. For all Christians in each successive generation them important in the Bible, Examples – what Giving! To whether the Samaritan woman at the well is the Messiah last edited on 17 December,! The experience earnestly Jesus at a public well at the well is deep words: “ There came woman! 3 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] the two communities seem have... 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