Book of John
Week 12 – December 17, 2013
Chapter 4:5-27
4:5-6 – Sycar was not attested previous to this reference, but it was an insignificant Samaritan town (John
calls it a city, but it could hardly have been a city – town is probably generous – village is most likely). But it
is generally identified with Askar, a modern village on the eastern slope of Mt. Elba. It’s about ½ mile from
Jacob’s well, which is still known today and has had quite a history. The well is about 325 yards from the
tomb of Joseph. The Israelites brought his bones out of Egypt and buried him there. About 400AD a church
was built there, and then another in the 1100’s built by the Crusaders. The Moslems destroyed both and
now is the site of an unfinished Orthodox church (as of 1994). The word here is pege, which means
fountain, and was used to talk about a dug out well or cistern. This well was dug out, and they hit an
underground stream and it rarely has given out (Bruce). This land given by Jacob to Joseph is talked about
in Genesis 48:22. It is called “a shoulder of land” or a “ridge of land,” and the Hebrew word for this is
Shechem-place where Joseph’s bones were buried. This area was a “holy site” area. Were it not for the
animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans, more Jews would have traveled here in that visiting holy
sites was a very common way to spend times of holiday.
4:7-8 – The sixth hour is noon. They had most likely been walking for six hours already. It’s no wonder
Jesus was tired. Local women would not have come out to the well at mid-day; it was too hot. They would
have come out together in the cooler hours of the morning. This woman is out at noon – alone – for reasons
we learn about later. Jesus is asking her for a drink. He just says, “Give me a drink.” First, a man speaking to
a woman who was alone would have been seen as flirting. Rabbis tended to teach avoiding speaking to
women at all since your actions could be misunderstood. Samaritan women were considered by Jews to be
perpetually unclean from birth. There was no good reason to even acknowledge her let alone speak to her,
but to ask her for a drink was unimaginable. He would have to touch what she’d touched. It is also a part of
the Jewish story that Moses, Isaac and Jacob met their wives at a well. Jesus was running a risk speaking to
a women at a well, especially one who had a reputation like hers, a reputation we find Jesus was well aware
of! If the disciples had gone into her town to get food, they would have only been able to buy dry food. Dry
foods were thought to be less likely to take on defilement. Otherwise, they may have been in a village
nearby that was less Samaritan if that was even possible.
4:9 – The Samaritan woman is as shocked by Jesus speaking to her as anyone seeing this interchange
would have been. She knows he is a Jew, and Jews, John tells us, don’t associate with Samaritans. Her
question is grounded in the reality of the social relationships between Jews and Gentiles – Samaritans in
particular. Jewish teachers often warned against engaging with people who practiced immorality.
Samaritans, especially women, were considered immoral by design. Virginity at marriage was a huge
expectation of Jews – for women. They simply assumed all Gentiles, i.e., Samaritan women, were either
sexually active or prostitutes. They actually taught not to trust anyone’s sexual immorality quotient unless
the girl was under the age of three; otherwise, you were risking defilement simply by being around them.
Sex with immoral or prostitute women was shameful, as was adultery. But the way to avoid even the hint of
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shame was not to have anything to do with any women you weren’t 100 percent certain about. But did you
notice – her response was about his even speaking to her, not that he was trying to get too close or touch
her or anything to defile – just asking her for something.
Social, cross-gender discussions were very much discouraged. One of the six activities listed unsuitable for
a scholar was talking to a woman. A wife could be divorced for talking to a man in the street. Men tended to
not speak to their sisters or wives in public in order to avoid sending the wrong message to people who
didn’t know their family members. Strangers engaging people of the opposite sex were seen as flirtatious at
the least. Being alone with a man who was not your husband implied sinful intensions. If a man and a
woman were alone for 20 minutes, it was assumed they’d had sex. This is still a part of Islamic thinking, and
it grows out of the notions of the eastern Mediterranean tribal thoughts about men being with women who
weren’t their wives. This story with Jesus speaking so openly with a single woman at a well would have
been alive with all sorts of sexual ambiguity for the first readers. Most ancient stories, even Biblical ones
like Moses and Isaac and Jacob, all contain well-moments that end in romance. As this story unfolds –
particularly since readers knew that she was at the well at noon because the other women of the village
had good reasons for not being seen with her, most likely, because of some sort of immorality – then it
would be assumed, at least in ancient minds, that Jesus was looking for more than water. The story
certainly goes in a different direction, but the way things unfold in verse 4:9 would have raised many a 1st
century eyebrow. They would have thought (just like the woman and later the disciples), “What are you
doing talking to her!?”
Many see her response as rude; she would have been expected to show deference to him. Yet, we have to
keep in mind the centuries of hostility between Jews and Samaritans plus the great possibility that she was
generally always on the defensive. Her response fits in with, most likely, a lifetime of marginalization by
Jews and a background of people taking advantage of her.
4:10 – Jesus’ response is both unexpected and cryptic. She has no idea who he is, and so what he says
sounds a bit crazy to her. “Living water” was a term for running water, spring fed or a stream as opposed to
stagnant cistern water. Jesus lifts the conversation to a high spiritual plane. The gift of God is “the Spirit”
which God gives without measure. The Rabbis often spoke of the Torah as the gift of God, but Jesus is
setting God’s out-pouring of the Spirit above the law! And he is very open about whom he is – or at least
this woman, of all people, is in on the truth of who was asking for a drink. He says, If you’d know who I am
you would have asked me, and I would have given you ‘living water.’ Jesus is clearly making a distinction
between stagnant water from a pond or cistern and the kind of religious notions that never results in real
cleansing. Cleansing from that which defiles a person and makes them unclean had to be done with “living
water” and the living Spirit that brings life and true cleansing. Jesus says “the gift of God.” Gift is the word
dorea. It is only used once in the NT as a noun. It is used adverbially to say “freely,” but here it means an
overly abundant free gift – something unexpectedly free. And the gift is the Spirit which, if asked for, will be
given in a way that brings all that “living water” can possibility mean: cleansing, renewal, return to the
community, able to be used for sacred purposes. He says, If you knew what the situation really was, you
would have asked me – not me asking you.
4:11-14 – Her response is debated. Is she being condescending or is she actually entering in to a real
dialogue? In some ways I think there is still a chip on her shoulder. First, she says “Kurios” – Sir. It is a polite
sign of standing off, a way to separate them. She doesn’t know him or have any reason to carry on this odd
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conversation. She thinks he is talking about the very same water she was drawing. This water was “living
water”; it was spring fed, but Jesus didn’t have anything to draw the water out of the well and it was about
100 feet deep. It was a deep well. Her question was legitimate if they were only talking about literal water.
But then she gets a little too familiar. “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” I can see her eyebrows
raising. Anyone comparing themselves to a patriarch was on dangerous ground. To think he was able to do
something greater than a patriarch was dangerously close to heresy. Jesus was saying just that, but she had
no idea of who she was dealing with. She says, “He gave us the well; he drank of it. His sons and his cattle
drank from it.” She is both making a statement about the longevity of Jacob’s living water – how effective
his well digging had been for giving her people, us, water that was seemingly permanently living. She was
also certainly thinking about the folktale that had arisen around Genesis 29:10 that Jacob’s giving of water
to Rebekah was a miracle – that the well was not only covered with a stone, but dry, and he performed both
a chivalrous task and a miracle. To speak of “their father,” i.e., the Samaritans, as anything other than as
great as a man can be was unimaginable. She is digging at Jesus. But he isn’t having it. He states the obvious.
The water in this well will only satisfy for a while. In fact, the teaching on the Torah and on wisdom and even
on the presence of God all pointed to the fact that if you taste the waters of the law or wisdom you would
soon thirst for more. This wasn’t bad; it was just more like real life. We drink and then later long for more.
Jesus has something else in mind – water that is so satisfying that you will never thirst again. This speaks to
the complete satisfaction that comes from being filled with the living water of the Spirit. In fact, Jesus goes
on to say that this water will become a spring within them. It will flow out of them. “Welling up” is terribly
inadequate. The Greek is pege hydatos hallomenou – leaping up, jumping, bursting up into life for the ages.
This is the same word used when lame men are healed and told to “get up” – they leap up. This isn’t a quiet
thing; it’s wild and unpredictable. It isn’t stagnant like a pool; it’s alive like a roaring waterfall or geyser.
The Jews believed that in the next age a river would burst out of Jerusalem from the Temple Mount or
Mount Zion and cleanse the land. The Samaritans believed that in the next age a river would burst forth out
of Mt. Gerizim and bring cleansing to the land. Jesus says his water – the living water of the Spirit – is
greater than either of these expectations. His water will leap out of the heart of those that drink his water
and they will become the wellspring of living water. This is a huge notion, and it is something that catches
her attention, but she is still skeptical.
4:15 – She answers him in a purely physical way. She is thinking she can save a lot of time and energy if she
doesn’t need to drink water anymore! She clearly knows this is a physical impossibility, but she is
humoring him. Her coming to the well was a difficult aspect of her life – coming alone when other women
are not around. Her daily travels to the well (1/2 mile over a stream and past another watering place that
was apparently off limits to her – if this place is the village most scholars believe) were a part of her
marginalization, and the thought of not having to keep coming to the well to draw water sounded nice to
her. She could avoid a lot of work and embarrassment and hassle if Jesus’ water kept her from ever being
thirsty again. But Jesus is done with her treating him as if he is not important. He is about to reveal himself
to her in a way and around a subject that will get her attention once and for all!
4:16 – Verse 16 is very direct. All imperative: You go call your husband and come back – a perfectly wise
request if he is going to continue talking to her. Get your husband out here and we’ll talk further. But he
knows this is the reason she is alone at the well at noon. This command will change everything. He is ready
to get very serious!
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4:17 – Her answer is short and to the point – “I have not a husband.” Her answer is meant to keep her from
having to do anything further. She doesn’t offer an explanation, and she certainly didn’t expect this stranger
to know anything about her. This is where she was wrong. Jesus is now going to show her that even though
all the while he’d been giving her hints as to who he is – he was self-disclosing his identity to her in slight
ways – he knew all about her, and she was fully disclosed to him from the moment he first saw her. He says,
“Well say you ‘a husband I have not.’” Interestingly, she said “I have no husband.” Jesus turns the emphasis
around to say “a husband you have not” because the issues is about husbands. “You’ve had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
Women could not divorce their husbands except in circumstances where their husbands were perpetually
smelly – people who cleaned up feces and certain tanners. Only if a husband was overwhelmingly wretched
smelling could a women divorce her husband. Men would divorce for almost any reason. We do not know
her history. Five divorces? Maybe; maybe not. Rabbinical law said three was the max. She may have been
widowed a few times. She may have been particularly unseemly and dumped five times. This multitude of
husbands would have been perceived as all her fault. And if two had died, she would have been seen as
cursed! There is both the possibility of sexuality and difficulty being a part of all of this. Worst of all, she
was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband. This would have been the great sin that brought
certain separation from the other women of the community. Living with a man not your husband meant
without the expected civil ceremony which constituted a legal union. This meant the man had taken her in,
and she was living – in the mind of the community – as his personal prostitute. Now we have gotten to the
point of her marginalization. It is true that women often did pay their husbands to divorce them, but we
don’t see this here. What she has done is take the best step she can in her situation – five husbands, now
alone. I’ll live with whoever takes me in. She must have been attractive enough to continue pulling in men;
this probably worked against her. Still, Jesus has put his finger on the one subject she didn’t want to talk
about, but without talking about this she would never have taken his spiritual offer seriously. She would
have continued to see Jesus’ conversation as a natural outcome of a man talking to a woman – flirting or
worse. Jesus was not about to allow her to take him anything less than terribly serious! And now the
conversation changes.
4:19-20 – Anyone who had this type of insight was no average man. She uses the term prophet. This is an
important statement. Samaritans did not believe in any text post-Moses. They only believed in one prophet:
Moses. They took the promise of another coming prophet “like Moses” very seriously. And they looked
forward to the second prophet, which they called the Taheb, as their Messiah in the same way the Jews
looked forward to their Messiah. But their Messiah would be the second prophet. Her using this word
means she sees more in this moment than we would imagine. Him telling her all about her life was enough
proof for her that this was someone special. And interestingly, she goes right to the primary difference
between Jews and Samaritans – at least the difference that both groups looked to as proof that they were
right and the other was wrong – where God was to be worshipped. The text that was debated was
Deuteronomy 12:5. It says to seek a place of worship and worship there. The Jews read “a place which the
Lord your God will choose,” and they assume that is Jerusalem. The Samaritan version adds a yod – the
smallest of Hebrew letters – to the “will choose,” and it makes it a past tense – “a place your God had
chosen.” That place was the first place Abraham sacrificed to God when he entered Palestine – Mt. Gerazin.
The Samaritans also changed the Ten Commandments; they combined 9 and10 into one and added a new
10th – that worship should be on Mt. Gerazin, which they inexplicably also believed was the highest
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mountain in the world. This issue was a huge divider. John Hyracanus had destroyed their temple in 128BC
and enslaved the Samaritans. The temple was never rebuilt. It was in ruins in Jesus’ day, and those ruins
were a constant reminder of the difficulties between the two groups. Samaritans had snuck into the Jewish
temple and defiled it with bones from the dead. The Samaritans believed their mountain had not been
covered by the flood. Against all of this, Jews regarded Jerusalem and Israel as the holiest places on earth.
There are tons of mythical tales related to the holy land. Just one: Any Jew who died and was buried outside
of the holy land would have to roll underground all the way to Israel before they could be resurrected.
Those buried in Israel would be resurrected first, and then those in the diaspora that had rolled by way of
underground conduits back to Jerusalem. The land was terribly important. This is why the large numbers of
non-Hebrew/Aramaic speaking Jewish widows. The Jews were returning in droves to Jerusalem from all
over the world to be buried in Jerusalem. So important was that city! And the Samaritans were just wrong!
This woman challenges “the prophet.” Jesus isn’t going to discuss this one – at least not for long.
4:21 – This response by Jesus isn’t at all what she expected, I’m sure. He isn’t really interested in all of the
past arguments about these things. Where they worship may have been the 400 year issue. Jesus is only
concerned about how people worship (Bruce). Or better stated, Jesus is introducing a whole new paradigm
related to worship. Holy places were very important to ancient people. Remember, John’s audience lived in
a town centered on religious tourism – tourism that was connected to a holy place. Jesus is quick to say
where one worships is unimportant. He begins by giving her a command: Believe me, woman, an hour is
coming when either this mountain or Jerusalem will be where the father is worshipped. This sets up the
coming new kingdom. Most people couldn’t imagine a location not having meaning. Jesus is pushing her to
a new way of thinking about worship. First, he puts an end to the general issues dividing Jews and
Samaritans. He simply says the Jews are right, they know what (whom) they are worshipping. Samaritans
don’t know. They can have a form of Godliness but the end of the path is destruction. Then Jesus quantifies
the situation: “The time has come” for true worshippers to worship God in “spirit and in truth.” We have to
come to terms with these concepts. They can be difficult to unravel but, again, he is saying something to this
woman that could not be imagined. No difference between anyone on where they worship; the how is now
important. The whole earth is now filled with his glory and his worthiness to be honored. And he says they
will be honored at a place of honor in the heart, in the spirit and in truth. This is a powerful point in what
was important to God. If she followed his direction into a closer walk with God, he would be present in her
life in a way thought unimaginable by earlier Jews. He is announcing a new teaching – a new way of seeing
what was happening.
4:21-24 – Jesus goes on to explain this new idea. Jesus speaks in a form of realized eschatology “a time is
coming yet has now come.” In other words, what I am about to say is possible now even though it has only
been longed for and looked forward to up to now. Worshipping in spirit is worship which is empowered by
the Spirit. It is not fueled by man’s desires or a physical location. It is worship which derives its direction
and power from God’s presence in the worshipper and the worship in truth is another way to say “by the
power of the one who can lead us into true worship – the Spirit. This is a way to say the same thing twice.
We can come up with modern notions about this phrase, but Jesus was emphasizing the kind of
worshippers God desires – the kind John saw in his vision – those whose entire existence centers on the
presence of God. To worship in Spirit and in truth is to worship in the power and presence of God’s Spirit
within us not related to some location or practice around us. Jesus’ reference to God being Spirit would
have been understood by this woman – that he is not physical in any way – but his point was that God in
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being Spirit does not in any way relate to mankind through a physical locale. He must be worshipped
(which is the way it was argued with reference to location – he must be worshipped in Jerusalem; he must
be worshipped on Mt. Gerazin) in Spirit and truth – in the power and human importance – in a way which
strips away all ultimate control over all things including even the ability to worship him.
4:25 – I don’t think the woman fully grasped this. She says something next which implies two things: (1)
confusion and (2) she wasn’t sure about Jesus. She says, “I know the Messiah, the one being called Christ is
coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us.” This use of Messiah (called the anointed one) is
her giving credence to the Jewish notion of a Messiah. The Samaritans called the one coming Taheb, which
means “restorer,” the one who would restore what was lost in Eli’s day or, more specifically, what was lost
with Moses’ passing. They were not looking for a Messiah like the Jews. This statement is more of a way for
her to say, I am looking forward to the one who is coming because he’ll make sense of the whole thing for us.
What Jesus had said must have made her confused. “The Christ will explain all things (i.e. spiritual things)
to us.” She was looking forward to that explanation because this person, Jesus, was confusing her with this
kind of talk – no more worship in Jerusalem or Mt. Gerazim – worshipping in Sprit and truth. What was this
all about?
4:26 – Jesus then gives the most direct self-identifying statement about himself in the gospel so far. Others
have testified; Jesus now testifies openly. I am the one speaking to you. The word the woman used to say he
will explain literally means “announce or declare” (anagello). What Jesus does here is announce and declare
all that she needs to know – everything – that he is the Christ. John is not as careful as we may think with
his use of ego emi – the name God gives himself in the Septuagant. Isaiah 52:6 was the primary passage in
the Greek – “My people shall know my name – ego emi. Jesus’ use of this will be a big problem later. The
phrase was a common way to say “I am he” or “I am” or “it is I” in regular speech, but it was also a loaded
phrase when used in a spiritual way. Jesus uses it here to tell the one whose name is to be worshipped in
Spirit and truth. He is the Christ. He is explaining everything to her. He is declaring and announcing “all
things” because all things are wrapped up in Him. No matter what she took from this has moved her into
action. But something else was happening.
4:27 – The disciples are returning and John, who was there, says they were all amazed to find him talking
with a woman – any woman was the issue. This one, had they known anything about her, would have made
things more questionable. John’s statement that no one asked him the operative questions, What do you
want? (He’d have had to want something or he wouldn’t have needed to talk to her) or Why did you speak
with her? which would have begged all of the reasons men didn’t talk to women. This refusal to ask the
questions shows, in their context, great trust in their teacher. There were stories about Rabbis being highly
trustworthy – one in particular about a Rabbi R. Joshua who was locked in a house with a beautiful woman
and no one questioned his integrity. For the disciples to ask the questions was to question his integrity.
Notice that their return was an interruption that took place at the real climax of this story - Jesus
announcing his Messiahship. It is an appropriate time for this interruption. Not only has Jesus made a grand
statement, we see his disciples responding to very unusual and dangerous-for-his-reputation
circumstances with complete trust. This in itself gives weight to his identity. If we can’t trust the Christ to be
alone for a few minutes with a woman, who can we trust? This isn’t a pattern for others. It was a fact of the
character of Jesus because he is the Messiah!
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Weekly Class Study:
1. Sept. 17 - Introduction
2. Sept. 24 – Chapter 1:1-3
3. Oct. 1 – Chapter 1:4-11
4. Oct. 8 – Chapter 1:12-15
5. Oct. 15 – Chapter 1:16-23
6. Oct. 22 – Chapter 1:24-34
7. Oct. 29 – Chapter 1:35-51
8. Nov. 5 – Chapter 2:1-22
9. Nov. 12 – Chapter 2:23-3:15
10. Dec. 3 - Chapter 3:16-30
11. Dec. 10 – Chapter 3:31-4:4
12. Dec. 17 – Chapter 4:5-27
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