Samaritan woman at the well

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

 Ὕδωρ λαβεῖν ἐλθοῦσα τὸ φθαρτὸν γύναι,

Τὸ ζῶν ἀπαντλεῖς, ᾧ ῥύπους ψυχῆς πλύνεις.

The Samaritan woman at the well is a figure from the Gospel of John. John 4:4–42 relates her conversation with Jesus at Jacob's Well near the city of Sychar

Biblical account.

The woman appears in NRSV:

Now when the Lord knew that the pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed to Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sy'char, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 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." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 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 water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." 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. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

— John 4:4–26

This episode takes place before the return of Jesus to Galilee. 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. The two communities seem to have drifted apart in the post-exilic period. 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 in John 4:20.

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, this restriction had clearly been reversed later by the time of Matthew 28:19. Scholars differ as to whether the Samaritan references in the New Testament are historical. One view is that the historical Jesus had no contact with Samaritans; another is that the accounts go back to Jesus himself. In Acts 1:8, Jesus promises the apostles that they will be witnesses to the Samaritans.

Interpretations

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. 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. 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." Other scholars note significant differences between John 4 and betrothal type-scenes in the Hebrew Bible. 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. 12:3); Jesus is presented not as a bridegroom but as giver of living water."

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". 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.

Roger Baxter in his Meditations comments on this passage saying:

Consider the excellence of this living water, which is Divine grace, and which Christ promises to His faithful servants. " He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever." It quenches, therefore, forever, the thirst of the soul, and satisfies it. The soul then no longer thirsts after earthly waters, that is, the pleasures of this world. It becomes a fountain of all good to the soul, ever flowing and giving merit to our actions. " It springs up to everlasting life" (John iv. 14), elevating our thoughts to heaven and heavenly joys, of which it is a pledge. Say, therefore, with the Samaritan woman, " Give me this water, that I may not thirst."

Veneration

In Eastern Orthodox tradition, she is venerated as a saint with the name Photine (Φωτεινή), meaning "luminous [one]". In Catholic tradition, older editions of the Roman Martyrology list a martyr named Photina of Samaria on March 20, whom commentators have identified with the woman at the well.

In Eastern Christian tradition, the woman's name at the time of her meeting Jesus is unknown, though she was later baptized "Photine". She is celebrated as a saint of renown. 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. Her continuing witness is said to have brought so many to the Christian faith that she is described as "equal to the apostles". 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".

In Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, a celebration of the Samaritan woman takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent. The custom of the day involves churches, schools, and businesses giving away fruit drinks to passers-by.

Photini, The Samaritan Woman is honored with a Lesser Feast on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on February 26.

In music

Jesus Met the Woman at the Well, a gospel song dating from 1949 or before (earliest known recording by The Fairfield Four)

Lift Him Up That's All, a gospel song dating from 1927 or before (earliest known recording by Washington Phillips)

The Woman of Samaria, a sacred cantata of 1867 by the English classical composer William Sterndale Bennett

The Maid and the Palmer also known as The Well Below The Valley (Roud 2335, Child ballad 21)

"Woman at the Well", by Olivia Lane

"Jesus gave me Water", 1951 by Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers

In film and television

The Samaritan woman is played by Vanessa DeSilvio in the multi-season show on the life of Christ, The Chosen. Her meeting with Jesus concludes the first season. In the beginning of season 2, she is seen again, eagerly telling everyone around her about Jesus.

Excerpt from a speech by Saint Gregory Palamas

There was Jacob's spring, the well that he had dug. Tired of the journey, the Lord sat alone by the well and down naively, because his disciples went to buy food. There comes a woman from Samaria to get water and the Lord, being thirsty as a man, asked her for water.

She realized from his appearance that he was a Jew and marveled that a Jew would ask a Samaritan woman for water. If you knew, he told her, the gift of God, who it is that asks you to drink water, you would ask him and he would give you living water. The Lord affirmed that if he had known he would have become a partaker of truly living water, as he did and enjoyed later when he learned it, while the conference of Jews who clearly learned, then crucified the Lord of glory. It is a gift from God, because he considers everyone dear, even the gentiles hated by the Jews, and he offers himself and makes the faithful vessels receptive to his Godhead.

The Samaritan woman did not understand the greatness of living water, she wonders how she will find water without a bucket in a deep well. Then he attempts to compare him with Jacob, who calls him father, extolling the genus from the place, and singles out the water with the thought that no better can be found. But when he heard that the "water that I will give you" will become a spring that flows to eternal life, he left the word of a soul that yearns and is led to faith and asked to receive it so that he would not thirst again. The Lord wanting to reveal himself little by little, tells her to call her husband, knowing how many men she has had and the one she has now is not hers. But she is not upset by the control, but immediately understands that the Lord is a prophet and asks him for explanations on high matters.

Do you see how long-suffering and industrious this woman is? How much collection and knowledge did she have in her mind, how much knowledge of inspired Scripture? And immediately he asks him where God should be properly worshipped, here in this place or in Jerusalem? And then he receives the answer, that the time is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. He even knows that salvation is from the Jews, he did not say it will be, in the future, because it was he himself. The time is coming and it is now that true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.

Because the supreme and adored Father is the Father of self-truth, that is, of the only begotten Son and has the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit and those who worship him do so because they act through them. The Lord removes any physical sense of place and worship, saying: "God is a Spirit and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth." As the spirit that God is He is incorporeal, and the incorporeal is not located in a place nor described by local boundaries. As incorporeal God is nowhere, as God He is not everywhere, as continuous and containing everything.

God is everywhere, not only here on earth but also above the earth, Father incorporeal and indefinite in time and place.

Of course, both the soul and the angel are incorporeal, but they are not in a place, but they are not everywhere either, because they do not hold the universe together, but they need what is held together.

The Samaritan woman, as she heard these exquisite and divine words from Christ, refreshed, remembers the expected and desired Messiah, the so-called Christ who when he comes will teach us everything. Do you see how ready she was for faith? How would he know this, if he had not studied the prophetic books very wisely? Thus he anticipates about Christ that he will teach the whole truth. As soon as the Lord saw her so hot, he openly said to her: I am Christ, who is speaking to you. She immediately becomes a chosen evangelist and, leaving the water bottle and her house, runs and draws all the Samaritans to Christ and later with the rest of her light-like life (as Saint Fotini) she seals her love for the Lord with her martyrdom.

(Excerpt from a speech by Saint Gregory Palamas)

Functional texts

Kontakion

Ἦhos pl. d.

Faith, coming to the well, the Samaritan woman was seen, the water of wisdom in which I watered the cup, the Kingdom from above was drawn, eternally aoidimos.