The Samaritan Woman as Model Disciple

by Doug Ward



One particularly dramatic episode in the Gospel narratives is Jesus' encounter with a woman at Jacob's well in the Samaritan village of Sychar. The well, a site significant for both Jews and Samaritans, was located near a plot of land that the patriarch Jacob had given to his son Joseph (Jn 4:5; Ge 48:22).

 

As readers we wonder how their conversation will go, given the tensions that existed between Jews and Samaritans in the first century. The woman quickly raised that subject when Jesus asked for water. Would Jesus, a Jew, be willing to accept a drink from a Samaritan water jar (vv 7-9)?

 

As readers we also know that when a man meets a woman at a well, a marriage may ensue (Ge 24, 29; Ex 2). Jesus is presented in the previous chapter as a bridegroom (Jn 3:29), but in a spiritual sense. He brought up the topic of water to reveal himself as the source of "living water" that will satisfy humanity's thirst for God and lead to eternal life (vv 10-14). This living water is the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:37-39).

 

The prophets often use such "living water" imagery (Isa 12:3; 44:3; 55:1-3; Jer 2:13; Eze 47:9; Zec 14:8). Since the Samaritans only accepted the five books of Moses as Holy Scripture, the woman was likely unfamiliar with these references. She may have been familiar with Numbers 24:7 ("water shall flow from his buckets ... "), a passage in the Torah often seen as Messianic. At any rate, she desired the water that Jesus offered (Jn 4:15).

 

Jesus then went a step further by telling the woman details about herself that a stranger would not know (vv 16-18; cf. Jn 1:47-49). Perceiving that he was a prophet, the woman asked about the major point of contention between Jews and Samaritans: Was God's designated place of worship at Jerusalem, as Jews believed; or was it at Mount Gerizim, as Samaritans claimed (vv 19-20)?

 

Jesus explained that it was the Jews who had received God's genuine revelation (see Ps 76:1-2). However, going forward, true worship would not depend on location. Instead, it would be guided by the Holy Spirit and follow Jesus as "the way, and the truth, and the life" (vv 21-24; Jn 14:6).

 

The woman recognized messianic implications in what Jesus was saying. She expressed her faith in the coming of the Messiah to convey true teaching, based on Deuteronomy 18:15-18. Jesus then answered that he was the one for whom she had been waiting (vv 25-26).

 

Excited, the Samaritan woman rushed to tell the people of Sychar that she had met the Messiah, leading many to seek out Jesus for themselves (vv 28-30; 39-42). She may not have given Jesus a drink of water, but her evangelism served to satisfy his real hunger and thirst (vv 31-38). She planted seeds that subsequently bore fruit when the apostles carried the Gospel to Samaria (Ac 1:8; 8:4-25). A few centuries later there would be a church near Sychar, and the well would be used to fill a baptismal pool.

 

A Model Disciple


A contrast is evident in the third and fourth chapters of John's Gospel. In John 3 Jesus is approached by Nicodemus, a Jewish leader and respected teacher (3:1); while in John 4 Jesus talks with one of the Samaritans, a group despised by many Jews (8:48). Nicodemus comes secretly at night (3:2), while Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman at noon (4:6), a significant detail given John's frequent use of the symbolism of light and darkness (1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 12:35, 46). The woman asks Jesus good questions and embraces his message, while Nicodemus is slower to receive that message. The woman is even the first in John's Gospel to refer to Jesus as Kyrios (4:11, 15, 19), the Greek word usually rendered as "Lord" and used to translate the divine name (1:23).

 

John sends the message that spiritual receptivity is not determined by social status. Nicodemus is held in much higher regard by Jews than is the Samaritan woman, but John presents her as a model disciple.

 

It is possible, though, to overstate the woman's lowly status. Interpreters have often inferred from the Samaritan woman's marital history (4:16-18) that she was a sinful prostitute and a societal outcast.1 This characterization is questionable for both biblical and historical reasons.

 

In John 4 the woman's neighbors were quick to listen to her testimony about Jesus, implying that she enjoyed credibility in her community and was no outcast. Moreover, in a society where life expectancies were short and women could not initiate divorces, the woman's five marriages could have been more a consequence of unfortunate circumstances than of sinfulness. It is possible that her sixth relationship was a long-term one but involved a man with whom a legal contractual marriage could not be obtained-e.g., a man of illegitimate birth, a slave, or a Roman soldier.2 Note that she was not told to "sin no more" as were some others in John's Gospel (5:14; 8:11).

 

In the biblical "woman at the well" motif, the woman finds a husband. This is true in a spiritual sense for the Samaritan women, who becomes a disciple of Jesus the bridegroom. Christians have often seen the six men in her life in symbolic terms, representing stages in her journey to a seventh man, the Messiah.3 In one version, the six men represent the five books of Moses and the teachings of the Samaritans. In another, they represent the five senses and human reason. In a third version, in which the woman symbolically acts out the history of the Samaritans, the six men represent five gods of the peoples settled in Samaria by the Assyrians (2 Ki 17:29-33), along with the God of Israel.

 

Like the woman at the well, we may have had complicated spiritual journeys. Whatever the details of those journeys, Jesus offers us the same living water that was accepted by the Samaritan woman (Jn 7:37-38). Following her example in embracing the Messiah and sharing the good news, we look forward, as the bride of Messiah, to the marriage of the Lamb (2 Co 11:2; Rev 19:7).


Footnotes:

1See Caryn A. Reeder, The Samaritan Woman's Story, InterVarsity Press, 2022, Chapters 2-4.

2Ibid, Chapter 6.

3Ibid, Chapter 7.

Issue 39

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