The Samaritan Woman: An Example of Courage and Humility

I was assigned to teach a class on the Samaritan woman. Before I started, I had a few assumptions about her based on things I had heard others teach my whole life (or that I had seen recently on The Chosen):

• was likely living in adultery (or at least sexual immorality)

• She was an outcast in her society

• She probably wasn’t religious

  
  

So I will go through John 4 and explain some of the context to give us a better understanding of the context of the situation of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and show how I may have been mistaken in believing what I have heard about her.

Sychar is likely Shechem

V. 4-6 Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there.

Sychar is likely another name for the ancient city of Shechem, in the pink oval on the map below. It’s in between mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Jacob’s well and Joseph’s tomb are nearby on the map.

The pic below is Jacob’s well, a cathedral was built over it to protect it, you can still get water from it.

Living Water: Who’s is Best?

Verse 6-7: says that Jacob’s well was there. The word in this verse, paga, is not a “well” but a “spring” or “fountain”. (So this was Jacob’s fountain/spring) .Jesus sits down by Jacob’s spring (paga). *and It was the 6th hour (noon)

A Samaritan woman comes to the spring to get water, and Jesus asks her for a drink of water

This woman’s meeting with Christ at the well may remind us of the stories of Rebekah (Gen 24), Rachel (Gen. 29), and Zipporah (Exo.2), who all met their husbands: Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, when they came to a well to get water. These encounters that happened at wells were very important in the history of God’s people. So what is going to happen at this one?

As for this being noon time, mentioning the time of day could be there as it emphasizes Jesus’s tiredness and thirst from travelling.

I’ve always heard people say that she was going alone at noon because nobody else would be there and she didn’t go with the other women earlier in the day - because she was looked down on because of her marital status or immoral lifestyle.

Does the Scripture say that? Does John give any commentary about her reputation? John never claims that the Samaritan woman was an outcast! but many preachers readily conclude that she is.Does the Scripture give the reason why she went to the well at noon? YES.

The reason was: she came to get water, she needed water for something. They didn’t have kitchen sinks and tap water. You need water, you have to go to a well. There could be a million reasons why she ran out of water and needed some more, and it’s not controversial to need water!

V. 9-10 So Jesus and the woman have an exchange. she is surprised he is asking her for a drink of water, because Jews and Samaritans don’t have interaction with each other. Jesus says to her if you knew who I was and the gift of God, then you would be the one asking me for living (flowing) water.

*Living water: not “alive”, living water means water that moves or flows - came from rain, a spring/fountain or even the ocean because of tides.Water that was still, stagnant or in a pond, was not “living water”.So water from the spring that was at the bottom of Jacob’s well was considered “living water” because it was continuously fed from an underground spring, you can still get water from it today.

V. 11-12. The woman asks Jesus 2 questions about the living water he says he can give her. She says How are you going to reach the flowing/living water all the way down there ? The hole is deep and you don’t have a bucket. (the hole is 75 ft. deep) Are you greater than (smarter than, wiser than) our father Jacob who gave this well to us?

*first of all this lady has some guts! when she asks “are you greater than our father Jacob”, the Samaritans considered themselves to be descendants of Jacob, descendants from the northern 10 tribes of Israel, some of whom were not deported to Assyria, but left behind.

They have done genetic studies on the people who identify as Samaritans, and the male Jews and Samaritans share a common male ancestor within the last few thousand years, 2-3000 years ago. So that matches up with both Jews and Samaritans being descended from Jacob, as his 12 sons were the 12 tribes of Israel.

V. 13: Jesus answers her: “Whoever drinks this water” [this flowing/living water from Jacob’s fountain/spring] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again. That water will be in him a fountain/spring (paga) of water, leaping/gushing up into eternal life.

So basically yes: He is saying he IS greater than Jacob. Jesus’ living/flowing water is greater than Jacob’s living/flowing water. Jacob’s water is physical, but Jesus’ water is spiritual.

Instead of having to go to a physical location of this spring to get this living water that will quench your thirst for a little while, you can have the fountain of Jesus - inside you that gives you everlasting life and quenches your spiritual thirst.

Go Call your Husband: Another Possibility

V.15 The woman asks Jesus to give her this water, and he tells her: Go call your husband and come back.

Most of the reasons I’ve heard for why he asked her to go get her husband is because he wanted to condemn her for not having a husband - But I also read that in first century Jewish culture, it was improper for a man to give a woman a gift without her husband there. So he says, come back with your husband and then I will give you this gift.

Divorce & Marriage under Old Covenant Laws

V. 17-18 Then she is honest in her reply when she says I don’t have a husband. And Jesus says you’ve spoken truthfully, you’ve had 5 husbands and the man you have now is not your husband.

The Passage Does Not Say HOW She Had Five Husbands

According to Deuteronomy 24, only men had the legal right to issue a certificate of divorce; women did not.

This means that if the Samaritan woman had five husbands, the decision for separation was never in her hands. Another explanation comes from the practice of levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5–10). If a man died without children, his brother was obligated to marry the widow in order to continue the family line. This was a deeply ingrained cultural and legal practice in both Jewish and Samaritan communities.

So it is possible that the Samaritan woman’s five husbands were brothers, each marrying her in turn after the previous one died. This would align with the Sadducees’ question to Jesus in Matthew 22:23-29, where they described a widow who had seven husbands. (let’s read Matthew 22:23-29).

Seen this way, her multiple marriages may have been a matter of survival and duty, not sin. In that passage, is the woman condemned as immoral or an adulteress? That woman had 7 husbands and this woman has had 5. It does not automatically indicate immorality.

- If the woman had truly been an adulteress, as many assume, how could she still be alive? According to Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22, both adulterers and adulteresses were to be put to death. In the New Testament, the Pharisees still referred to this law when they brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus (John 8:4–5).

Therefore, if the Samaritan woman had been living a publicly sexual immoral life, her community would not have tolerated it.

The Samaritans were - and are - very strictly religious. Samaritan traditions, both historically and in the modern community, are known for being extremely strict regarding marriage, family purity, and adherence to the Pentateuchal laws. The fact that she was alive suggests her situation was not adultery but something different — possibly abandonment, widowhood, or dependence. (but it’s also possible she was living in immorality in secret).

There’s another important cultural detail to consider: in that society, women could not live alone. A woman without the protection of her father, husband, or a male relative would immediately be labeled immoral.

Historical records describe how women were expected to live under male authority and protection, a woman’s honor was tied to her household and her male guardian. (Philo of Alexandria, and Josephus (Against Apion 2.25),

For many women who were widowed or divorced by their husbands, this meant becoming servants or dependents in the household of another man, not by choice but by necessity. or she could have been living with a male relative, like a brother or a son. Mary and Martha lived with their brother, Lazarus. and Peter’s mother in law, lived in his home.

In John 19:25-27, we learn that Jesus told John to take Mary as his mother (many version add the word “home”, for our understanding.) Was she immoral?

Thus, when Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “The one you now have is not your husband” (John 4:18), He may have been pointing to her reality of survival, not condemning her for sin. If Jesus’ mother Mary lived in John’s home, he wasn’t her husband.

Whatever the case, assuming that she was sexually promiscuous can’t be proven. And Jesus does not say anything about sin here or accuse or condemn her of sin or immorality, so whether she was or not, we can only guess.

Who’s Bible is Right?

V.19-20: the woman says ‘I see that you are a prophet!’ So she asks him about the biggest divide between the Jews and the Samaritans: where to bow down to God. She says “our fathers bowed down on this mountain - but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where one should bow down.”

*in most of our English translations, the word “worship” is used a lot in John 4, but the Greek word here, proskyneo, means to bow down, so that’s what I’m going to be using instead of the word “worship”.

The woman says: *our fathers bowed down on this mountain” they are right at the foot of Mount Gerizim, that’s where Jacob’s well is.

Surprising fact about Samaritans #1:

The Samaritans have their own Bible, their own Torah - it’s different from the Jewish Torah! (the one that we Christians use). Torah refers to the first 5 books of the Old Testament. In the Samaritan Torah, at the end of the 10 commandments in Exodus 20, theirs says ‘you are to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim and bring your sacrifices there.”

So that’s where Samaritans had been going for hundreds and hundreds of years, believing that was God’s chosen place. Because it was written in their Bible. (How or when it was written in there is debated, Jews say Samaritans added it, they say Jews removed it.)

In the Jewish Torah, this is not in the 10 commandments . Deut. 16 says Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. In Deut. 26 it says when they would go to that chosen place (which would eventually be Jerusalem) they were to bow down at the altar there.

So who is right? Both Jews and Samaritans accused each other of making changes to God’s word. she’s not only asking him which is the right place to bow down - she’s also asking a bigger question: who’s version of the Bible is correct?

Neither place will matter soon

V. 21 Jesus replies: an hour is coming when neither on this mountain [Mt. Gerizim] or in Jerusalem, will people bow down to God.

this command to go to Jerusalem 3x per year and bow down was part of the Old Covenant in effect at that time, and the new Covenant hadn’t been put into effect yet, because that’s what would happen through Jesus’ death - a new covenant was put into place, the one that we are under as Christians, so we don’t have to do that stuff that they were required to do under the old covenant.

Historically in 70 AD the temple was demolished by the Romans. But even while the temple was still standing, we have new testament authors like Peter and Paul saying that our bodies are now God’s temple under this new covenant, so we don’t have to go to a chosen place, we are a chosen people.

There’s no longer a chosen place that we have to go to on earth, where God’s spirit dwells, because God’s spirit dwells inside of us, not in a temple. (1 Cor. 3:16, 1 Cor. 6:19, 2 Cor. 6:16, Eph. 2:21-22, 1 Peter 2:5)

As for the Samaritans one day not bowing down on Mt. Ger., over the centuries there have been many times where the Samaritan religion was outlawed (starting in the 3rd/4th) century and they were barred from going to Mt. Ger. by various rulers. There are about 900 Samaritans today, the men still go to Mt. Ger. 3 times per year, you can watch it on Youtube. They still follow their torah.

Here is a pic of them below bowing down on Mt. Gerizim for Passover in 2016.

You don’t know God:

V. 22 Jesus said: You bow down to who/what you don’t know: but we know who/what we bow down to, for salvation is from the Jews.

You bow to who/what you don’t know:

Here is the 2nd surprising thing I learned about the Samaritans:

Their version of the Torah (Genesis - Deuteronomy) was their entire Bible - they rejected anything written after that, i.e. the rest of the 34 books of the Old Testament after Deuteronomy, because they believed that Moses was the last prophet with God’s authority. (and Moses died at the end of Deut.)

There is a lot of history in there and communication in the 1400 years between the end of Deut. (Death of Moses -) and the first century A.D.

The Samaritans added various ethnic sources of history from the peoples around them to their beliefs to supplement their lack of knowledge about history. But, Jesus is pointing out that Samaritan theology is incorrect and that the Jews had the correct and complete scriptures. They didn’t know God because they rejected anything He said after Moses.

BUT - the Samaritans were looking for a prophet that would come one day, similar to the Jewish idea of the Messiah, based on Deut. 18.. where Moses said God would one day raise up a prophet like himself from among the people.

For the Samaritans, this was Not a political figure or a king who would overthrow the Roman govt (like the Jews assumed the messiah would be), everybody had their own ideas about who the messiah would be. But the Samaritans believed in a messiah and were looking for him too, this “prophet”- who they believed would come from the line of Joseph (not the line of Judah).

But when Jesus says “salvation is from the Jews”, he’s basically telling her that their Samaritan beliefs are wrong - that the Messiah won’t come from the Samaritans, he will come from the Jews.

That’s a lot to take in, if you’re the Samaritan woman. Jesus doesn’t come out and just say “you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong” - but that’s what he’s implying.

V. 23 Jesus says that God is looking for the people who will bow down to him in spirit and in truth.  (this is usually translated as "worship" in spirit and truth)

This phrase is similar to something else, that was also said in Shechem (but the Samaritans wouldn't know about that, because it happened after the death of Moses.)

Joshua gathered all Israel together to make a covenant with them in Shechem in Josh. 24. 

Joshua said that to them - your fathers, all the way back Abraham’s father Terah - your ancestors served other gods.

Then Joshua says Fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity [uprightly/wholly/blamlessly/undefiled] and truth, and put away the gods that your fathers/ancestors served. 

Choose this day - whom you are going to serve: you can serve God who is the true God, or you can follow in the tradition of your ancestors and serve false gods and idols.

Joshua is basically saying you have to choose between truth and tradition. And this is what the Samaritan woman is also learning that she and her people are going to have to choose between: the traditions they have been following (even though they believe they were serving God correctly - or the truth that Jesus is revealing to her. 

(And this is what we today have to deal with within the churches of Christ in particular, our goal is hold the truth of God’s word above everything else, especially man-made traditions and doctrines, because we want to believe and practice what the first century Christians did.

But sadly this is not the mindset of the generic” Christian” world around us, tradition is more important, and given more authority than God’s word.  

We can point people to what the Bible says, but sadly people will say that’s not what my church/pastor teaches, or my family has always been ____. It’s SO hard to get untangled from tradition, because all tradition feels “right” and “comfortable”, unless we have reason to believe otherwise.)

But what the Samaritan women does next and how she responds to this, I think she deserves some credit here.

I don’t think any of us react well when someone tells us or implies that we’re wrong. She could have been easily offended at what Jesus was saying to her. She could have told him off. She could have left/stormed off in anger. It’s hard to swallow your pride and admit that maybe you and your ancestors had been wrong about things for all these years - all your traditions were wrong.

But her response to him was very humble, her response to him saying’ in verse 22: you don’t know (eidō) God’, her reply was to say what she did know: she said ‘I know (eidō) that the messiah is coming. And Jesus said “I am he”.

V. 28-30 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ [the anointed one]?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

( this is not the end of the story, there is more! In verses 31-38 is Jesus talking to his disciples, we will come back to that.)

The Faith and Humility of the Samaritans

V. 39 “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word. 42 Then to the woman they said: no longer through your words do we believe - we ourselves have heard and believe, that this is truly the savior of the world.”

* note about verse 42: the KJV, NKJV, ASV and 20 other Bible translations say: “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him”.

This way of translation (interpretation) seems to be an attempt to discredit this woman’s reputation and testimony by translating it as “Now we believe, NOT because of what you said” - Instead of no longer do we believe [just] based on what you said’. (And by the way, we who believe in Jesus today have never heard/seen Jesus in person, we take people's word for it, the authors of the Bible, we believe in Jesus because of their words and the words of Jesus they recorded).

Did the Samaritans reject or believe her claim that she had met a prophet, possibly the anointed one? Go back and read verse 39.

They believed because of her words. Jesus had not yet come to the city and spoken to them when they believed. It seems as if this woman had credibility. If she was shunned or looked down on or rejected, people would not consider her to be a credible person. Or a credible witness. why take her word that something crazy or impossible had happened, especially that she had found the long awaited messiah, if her reputation was questionable.

on credibility: I watched a documentary recently where a woman went to the police with a memory card she found. She said it had pictures and videos of crimes being committed. The deputy assigned to talk to her said he recognized this woman’s name, her knew her situation and her reputation, she had had a few run ins with law enforcement, been arrested for prostitution in the past.

so he assumed that she wasn’t really seeing what she thought she saw. (he didn’t believe her, because of her reputation). Does it seem like the Samaritan woman had a bad reputation, if people believed her so easily and didn’t doubt at all that she had seen what she said she had seen??

V. 40 So Jesus went back to the city and stayed with them 2 days. (and they listened to his words).

The Samaritans had to be devastated when they learned that many of the traditions they practiced and things they believed to be true, were not true. 3 1/2 out of the 5 pillars of their faith were incorrect:

- Moses wasn’t the last prophet,

- their version of the Torah (Bible) was wrong,

- Mt. Gerizim wasn’t God’s chosen place

- and most importantly, the messiah was not from the line of Joseph. (tribes of Ephriam or Manesseh)

But what they were right about is that there is one God and that a messiah would come one day.

V. 41-42 But after 2 days [of listening to Jesus’s words, many more believed because of His own word. they said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of your words about him - we have heard him too, we also believe that this is truly the savior of the world!

*V. 42 I think the Samaritans deserve some credit here too for their attitude and their humility. They believed that they were right and that the Jews had departed from the true faith and gone cuckoo. But it was actually they themselves that had departed from the true faith and gone cuckoo. But in spite of learning that they were wrong, the Samaritans were humble enough to believe and know that he is the savior (sōtēr) of/to the world.

Verse 22 Jesus says salvation (sōtēria) is of/from the Jews (that is the source that salvation is going to originate from) is from the Jews. But the Samaritans understood Jesus wasn’t a savior (soter) just for the Jews only - he was their savior too, the savior for everyone.

Back to the Disciples and the character of the woman

Let’s shift focus here and go back to verse 31: and talk about the disciples. it says the disciples returned from getting food and they saw that Jesus was talking with a woman, and they marveled (wondered) at this - but no one asked him anything, like what are you doing and why are you talking to her.

They were probably shocked, but even brash, bold Peter doesn’t say a word.

Questions asked by disciples: 0

Questions asked by Samaritan woman: 4-5

I was curious to see which individual person asked Jesus the most questions: this is what chat GPT pulled up:

This woman functions almost like a philosophical dialogue partner, similar to Nicodemus in John 3, allowing Jesus to explain deeper theological ideas.

They have a lot of back and forth. When the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers asked Jesus questions, they either got an answer that left them speechless or Jesus answered their question with a question that they couldn’t answer, and often ‘No one dared ask him any more questions’.

But the situation with this woman is different. She might be better ranked #3, I think she asked 4-5 questions.

But as far as the dialogue and interaction in a single encounter, look at who’s #1 on the chart below!

Also note that there are 2 other women on this list, Martha and the Canaanite woman who said that even dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table.)

Summary of Likely personality/character Traits of the Samaritan woman:

Curious - asks multiple layered questions

Intelligent and sharp - able to think on her feet

Assertive - challenges Jesus directly

Direct Communicator - engages in straightforward questioning

Religiously informed - raises major theological disputes

Reflective - her understanding changes during conversation

Socially bold - later speaks to the entire town

Humble - doesn’t argue or lash out at Jesus for disagreeing with her traditions

my personal notes: I think I would have liked this woman! I enjoy friendships with people who are outspoken, straight shooters - direct and assertive and gutsy! No-nonsense women with this kind of personality are respected, are they not?.

I feel like I wanted to spend time talking about the positive aspects of this woman’s personality and lifting her up and defending her, because I’ve only heard bad things about this lady, and maybe she doesn’t deserve that.

In Summary:

The standard view that this woman was “immoral”, subtly downplays women in theological discourse - by stressing the Samaritan woman’s marital situation and assumed sin, instead of her questions, her intelligence, her courage and her humility.

I personally don’t know why it’s hard to think about this woman as maybe not being guilty of immorality, perhaps it’s because it’s what I’ve heard all my life - that the reason Jesus talked to her was to expose or condemn her as a sinner ???

What if that's not the reason John includes her? Does it make us feel better about ourselves to condemn her, (while neither Jesus nor John condemn her, nor is she condemned by her townspeople?).

I dunno, but I feel like Jesus took her questions seriously - and didn’t shame her for asking them.

Women are valuable to God, and so are our questions.

And we can be valuable in sharing the good news of Jesus with others, just like the Samaritan woman did.

Also, divorce and/or remarriage do not automatically mean disobedience to scripture if the divorce is scriptural - neither are they necessarily an indication of a loose moral life. Therefore, women in the church (and men) who are scripturally divorced, should be treated with love and respect like any other member of the church, in spite of social stigmas against them.

Thanks for reading this! Comments are welcome!