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The Inclusive Nature of Jesus’ Community

Proper setting for the dialogue (4:1–6)

The Lord came to know that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (4:1).1 However, the narrator clarifies that Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did (4:2). As there was a possibility for the Pharisees to kill him (cf. 7:1), Jesus left Judea to go again to Galilee (4:3).

It was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria, the normal route for anyone to go to Galilee from Judea (4:4). Samaria is a region that lies in between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north.2 Strict Jews hated Samaritans (cf. 4:9) and avoided going through Samaria to enter Galilee. The Greek word edei (“it was necessary”) refers to the divine necessity for Jesus to pass through Samaria so that he could meet a Samaritan woman and bring salvation through her to many Samaritans. Thus, Jesus crossed the racial, religious, and geographical barriers to enter into Samaria and the gender barrier to have a dialogue with a woman. He went to Sychar, a city in Samaria, and sat beside a well, built up in the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (John 4:5–6; cf. Gen 33:19; 48:22; Josh 24:32).

After Pompey, the Roman general who captured Palestine (63 BCE), Sychar replaced Shechem as the most important Samaritan city.3 Jacob had erected an altar, called El-Elohe-Israel (“God, the God of Israel”), in the land of Shechem (Gen 33:18–20) and he would have dug also a well (literally “a spring of water”). Out of tiredness and thirst, Jesus sat down to rest in about the “sixth hour” (12 noon) near the well, which was called “Jacob’s Well” (4:6), probably by leaning on the wall built around the well. The indication of time is not only to highlight the historical reliability of Jesus’ ministry in Samaria, but also the fact that it was a high day when living beings needed water to quench their thirst (cf. Gen 29:7). Jesus’ weariness and thirst (4:7) prove his full humanity and his supernatural knowledge (4:1) proves his full divinity (cf. 1:47–48; 2:23–25).

Jesus’ self-revelation to the Samaritan woman (4:7–26)

A woman of Samaria came to draw water from the well. She came alone in the midday, when usually not many women come to the well. This shows that the woman had been isolated from other women because of her perversion from moral standard (cf. 4:16–18). Jesus takes the initiative to start his dialogue with her by asking for water (literally “Give me to drink”; 4:7). Truly Jesus needed water to quench his thirst, but at the same time it is ironic that the one who can supply living water to quench her thirst forever is the one who asks her for water to drink (4:14; cf. 19:28). At this point, John comments that Jesus’ disciples had gone away into the city to buy food (4:8), providing to the dialogue a relevant setting.

As the woman found Jesus to be a Jew, she said with astonishment, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Then the editor clarifies that the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (4:9). This indicates that there was hatred among the Jews against Samaritans, to the extent that they would not use the vessels used by the Samaritans for purity reasons.4 The rabbis taught the Jews not to eat Samaritans’ cooking or to have any ritual contact with them.

The Samaritans were the people consisting of five nations whom the Assyrians brought in when they captured Samaritan cities in the eighth century BCE. After a priest, at the command of the Assyrian king, came and lived in Bethel to teach them the law of Yahweh, the Samaritan religion became a mixture of the worship of Yahweh and of different gods brought in by the foreigners. Consequently, there was no fear or obedience to Yahweh and his commandments (2 Kgs 17:24–34, 41). The Jews, who returned from exile in 538 BCE, found the Samaritans political rebels who had corrupted Jewish religion with unacceptable practices.5 Obviously the Samaritans could not be fully regarded as Jews. The destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean ruler, in 128 BCE deepened the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. The Jews perhaps considered the Samaritans as demoniacs (8:48; cf. 7:20). Since the woman was well aware of such a political and religious background dividing the Samaritans from Jews, she got astonished at a Jewish man’s request for water. Initially she, like Nicodemus, understood Jesus purely at human level.

Jesus turns her attention to heavenly things. He points out her non-understanding of the person who is asking for water and then discloses himself as the one who would have given her “living water” had she recognized him as the Christ and asked him (4:10). In the OT, God is described as the “fountain of living waters” from which his people would have received life had they not forsaken him (Jer 2:13; 17:13). The term “living waters” also denotes the life of the end-time, when God will be King over all the earth (Zech 14:8–9). This implies that the gift of God Jesus identifies as “living water” is eternal life, a life with God in heaven, and that it has a flowing nature.

In John “water” mostly symbolizes the Holy Spirit, who gives heavenly life as a present possession and also as future life with God to those who believe in Jesus (John 3:3, 5, 8; 7:37–39; cf. 19:34; 20:22; 1QS 4.21). The water Jesus gives is the life of the Holy Spirit, which, as a spring, wells up to eternal life (4:14), the eschatological life that is available even now. Jesus encourages the Samaritan woman to believe in him as the one who comes from God and as the fountain of living waters that gives heavenly life. Such life satisfies the one who receives it so that they have no further thirst. Even death cannot overcome this life (cf. 11:25b–26a).

The woman questioned the greatness of Jesus by asking where he could get the living water, as Jesus had nothing to draw water from and this well’s depth could have been around a hundred feet?6 Was he greater than “our father” Jacob, who gave this well and drank water out of this himself, his sons and his cattle? (4:11–12). Both questions are ironic in the sense that Jesus’ power to give life and his greater status than that of Jacob are unknowingly confessed by a Samaritan woman. Jesus gives to the one who believes in him the rivers of living water (7:37–39), and he is greater than Abraham (8:53, 58) and logically than Jacob. The words “our father Jacob” show not only the common origin of Jews and Samaritans, but also the woman’s knowledge of the Pentateuch.

The heart of the dialogue lies in 4:13–14: “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The water from Jacob’s Well is physical and hence will quench thirst only temporarily. But the water given by Jesus, being the gift of the Holy Spirit, has a twofold function:

1 It will permanently satisfy the thirst of anyone who drinks of that water, for it provides everlasting existence with God to the one who receives it (cf. Isa 49:10; Rev 7:16);

2 As the water given by Jesus has an outflowing nature (Isa 44:3–4), it will be a fountain of life within the one who receives it and will reach out others to lead them to “eternal life” (cf. Ps 1:3; Ezek 47:9–12).

On hearing these words, the woman progresses in her understanding of Jesus and addresses him as kyrie (“sir” or “master” or “teacher”; 4:15). However, she misunderstands him, thinking that he is referring to the earthly water that has magical power, and so she asks him for the water that will never make her thirsty (cf. 6:34). Jesus immediately asks her to go and bring her husband (4:16). Jesus’ command means that receiving “living water,” the gift of the Spirit, will not be possible for anyone who has affinity with the things of the flesh (cf. 3:5–6). Therefore Jesus expects those who ask for living water to acknowledge first their life attached with earthly things. Otherwise, they cannot understand the things of the Spirit. Jesus seeks to help the woman to acknowledge that her lifestyle is socially and morally unacceptable. The woman honestly accepts that she does not have a husband.

Jesus first appreciates her truthfulness, by stating, “You said well” (4:17), and then unveils her past life, saying that she had had five husbands and that the man she is living with now is not her husband. Jesus had foreknown the truth about the woman’s perverted life and therefore he states, “You have said this truly” (4:18). Some argue that the woman might not have been an “immoral person,” for she might have married five husbands who all died in succession, or she might have divorced her previous husbands, or they might have divorced her one by one. However, the woman’s plain statement “I have no husband,” while she had a man whom she could not call her husband, makes this conjecture unacceptable. The word “now having” is deliberate to indicate that she was not living with a legally married person. In conformity with the oriental view on morality, the Samaritans also must have considered frequent remarriages as dishonorable and illegitimate.7 Jesus touched the core of her life because he wished to give eternal life to the marginalized woman and admit her into God’s new community.

The woman took Jesus’ disclosure of her private life positively and saw Jesus in a new light and said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet” (4:19). She came to recognize Jesus as a prophet who had divine knowledge and words, for in Samaritan tradition prophecy was closely connected with the power to know what had happened in the past and what was still to come.8

The woman’s initiation to discuss about worship on Mount Gerizim confirms her understanding of Jesus as a taheb, the “coming one,” for the Samaritans believed that the taheb will come to restore true worship by purifying Mount Gerizim from all defilement caused by the Jews. For them, Mount Gerizim was the most holy of all mountains (cf. Ant. 18.4.1).9 Her statement “our fathers worshipped on this mountain” (4:20) may imply the OT patriarchs and those who started worshipping on Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans built the temple ca. 388 BCE (cf. Deut 11:29; 27:12–13). However, the Jews regarded Jerusalem as the holy site where one should worship (Deut 12:4–7, 21; 14:22–26; 1 Kgs 14:21; 2 Chr 12:13). The long-time conflict between Jews and Samaritans on the place of worship is visible in the woman’s statement, “And you [i.e., the Jews] say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship” (4:20b).

In response, by politely calling her “O woman” (cf. 2:4; 19:26), Jesus invites her to believe him and his message (4:21a). Jesus calls her first to listen to his message and then mentions the importance of how and whom one should worship rather than where one should worship. The phrase “an hour is coming,” in which “hour” is used without the definite article, means that this coming hour will see a change in the worship of God, with both Gerizim and Jerusalem losing significance after “the hour,” the time set by God for Jesus to suffer, die, rise from the dead and finally to ascend to the Father.10 Jesus’ cross, which will bring a revival in worship, is anticipated here.

Jesus’ reveals that the object of worship is God the Father (4:21b). In the coming hour, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, true worship will be offered to the Father in “spirit and truth” (4:23–24). The Samaritans worshipped Yahweh alongside foreign gods, and never as the Father with whom believers can relate as children. As God is spirit (4:24), he cannot be limited to any building or place. Jesus challenges that the Samaritans (plural “you”) do not experience an intimacy with God as Father, whereas the believing Jews (“we”) experience an intimate relationship with God by the salvation they received in Jesus (4:22). By the neuter “what we know” (4:22), Jesus means the believers’ intimate relationship with God as Father. Salvation came to all human beings in Jesus, a Jew, born in the tribe of Judah and in the line of David (T. Dan 5:10; T. Naph. 8:2; T. Gad 8:1). In this sense, salvation is from the Jews (cf. Ps 76:1; Isa 2:3; Rom 9:4–5). Thus, Jesus links worship with God’s work in Israel’s history, especially with the incarnation of Christ. The place of worship has no significance, but it is the worshippers’ personal relationship with the Father that matters.

Jesus explains the manner of worship by using the word “an hour” that is coming and by adding the phrase “and now is” (4:23). He means that the opportune time to worship God, expected to happen at the end-time, has already come by virtue of his death, resurrection, and ascension. The eschatological worship can now be offered only in the church, God’s new community, which knows God as Father. This community is constituted by “true worshippers” who will worship the Father in “spirit and truth.” God is looking for such people as those who worship him. The word “spirit” denotes not the human spirit,11 but the Holy Spirit, and this is clear from the phrase “God is spirit” (4:24). The believing community is a worshipping community that is comprised of members who are born of the Spirit, and their new birth enables them to rise above the earthly level and worship God with right attitude.12 The God who is spirit can be seen and worshipped only in the spiritual realm. The word “truth” is knit together with “spirit” by a single preposition, “in.” The OT concept of truth denotes God’s faithfulness to his covenant relationship, and in John it was revealed in Jesus (1:14). Thus, true worship happens when the worshipper lives in the spiritual realm and accepts the faithfulness of God to his covenant revealed in Jesus.

The woman, who had believed in the coming Messiah, now speaks of the Messiah, who will come and declare everything related to the temple and worship (4:25). The Samaritans believed that the coming Messiah, the taheb, as the spokesman for God, would reveal the truth by declaring the divine will.13 As Jesus was declaring the things connected with worship, the belief dawned within her that Jesus could perhaps be that Messiah. As Jesus perceived her inner mind and also foreknew that his dialogue with her was reaching its culmination, he eventually revealed himself to her as the Messiah by saying, “I, I am, the one who is speaking to you” (4:26).

In John the word “I am,” used by Jesus for himself, indicates that he is the Christ, the revelation of the one God who is “I am that I am” (Exod 3:13–14). The prophet Isaiah uses this name to affirm both the uniqueness of Yahweh in relation to all other gods of Babylon and his relationship with his people as their God (Isa 41:4; 42:8; 43:10, 11, 13, 15, 25). By saying, “I am he,” Jesus expresses his uniqueness in comparison with other deities of the Samaritans, as the Messiah in whom the only God revealed himself. Jesus, the bearer of God’s presence, is the place where one can worship God. Jesus, as the new Temple, replaces the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and also the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.14 Although the woman’s perception of Jesus attains its climax now, at first she had only a tentative belief in his messiahship.

Jesus’ injunction on his disciples’ mission (4:27–38)

While Jesus was revealing his identity as the Christ, his disciples came back to him with food. When they saw their teacher talking alone with a woman, they were astonished, but no one had the courage to question Jesus about why he was conversing with a Samaritan woman or what his needs were (4:27). Jewish custom prohibited rabbis from talking with women, even with their own wives, in public places (m. Nid. 4:1). At this time the woman dramatically goes away from the scene. In her extreme enthusiasm of having met with the Messiah, she forgot all about the earthly water and left her water jar at the well to go to her people in the city (4:28). She went away to call her people to come and see whether or not the man who supernaturally disclosed her life history could be the Messiah (4:29).

The woman’s encounter with Christ gave her courage to invite others to come to Jesus. In Greek her question, “Can this be the Christ?,” begins with a negative particle mēti, expecting the answer “no.” However, this particle, in 4:29, “puts a suggestion in the most tentative and hesitating way.”15 Before she believes in Jesus fully along with other Samaritans (4:42), she wanted them to ensure whether Jesus could be the long-awaited Christ. The fact that many of them came to believe in Jesus through the woman’s word of testimony (4:39) shows that her faith in Jesus was genuine.

While the Samaritans were coming to Jesus (4:30), the disciples were persuading him to eat the food they had brought (4:31). Just like Jesus did not drink the earthly water from the woman, so also he did not eat the earthly food. In conformity with the non-understanding of Nicodemus and of the Samaritan, his disciples too did not understand the spiritual truth in Jesus’ statement, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (4:32). They understood it at the human level and therefore questioned among themselves, “Did anyone bring him food to eat?” (4:33). John’s literary pattern where Jesus makes a statement, which is misunderstood, prompting him to speak further for clarification, becomes visible again.16 Jesus now clarifies by saying, “My food is that I may do the will of him who sent me and may accomplish his work” (4:34). His source of life was in the accomplishment of the Father’s work.

The sending of the Son by the Father into the world is a familiar theme in John. The Father sent his Son (cf. 3:17, 34; 6:38; 7:18; 9:4). That is, the Son was sent from heaven (6:38) to save the world. However, John particularizes Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as the means by which he accomplished the work of the Father (cf. 5:36; 17:4; 19:28, 30). Just like food nourishes all living beings, so also accomplishing his Father’s plan of salvation gives nourishment to Jesus (cf. Deut 8:3).

Jesus now unveils to his disciples the present possibility for them to fulfill God’s mission of bringing many into God’s new society (4:35; cf. 20:21). He does this by reminding them of a common saying that there are yet four months for the harvest to come (4:35a).17 Normally it took four months from the end of sowing to the beginning of harvest.18 However, in the case of God’s mission, the opportunity to liberate people from bondage and to bring them into the new community is already present. The metaphorical saying of Jesus, “Lift up your eyes and see the fields that they are already white for harvest” (4:35b), is to give awareness to his followers of the existing opportunity for ministry. The “fields” may indicate the people and “being white for harvest” metaphorically implies their readiness to receive Jesus’ words and believe in him. The word “harvest” denotes the currently available season to involve oneself in Christ’s work of compassion (Matt 9:36–38; Luke 10:2). The “harvest” time also indicates the time of judgment given to the evildoers at the end-time (Matt 13:24–30, 36–43; Mark 4:26–29). The salvation in Jesus contains in itself also condemnation for those who do not believe in him. Jesus calls his followers to participate in the harvest.