Session 9: August 6, 2022
Scripture Reading: John 4:1-42 (I had posted that we would cover the whole chapter but that was just my ambitions getting the best of me)
Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee.
4 But he had to pass through Samaria. 5 Now he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.) 9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water? 12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” 17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Now at that very moment his disciples came back. They were shocked because he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?” 30 So they left the town and began coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest! 36 The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them. He stayed there two days, 41 and because of his word many more believed. 42 They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world.”
Samaria—Geography and History
Our discussion of the text must begin with an understanding of Samaria and its relation with Israel lest we miss some of the most shocking elements in the story.
Here is an abbreviated version of a Christian website’s explanation:
Samaria was both a region and a city that experienced many changes throughout biblical history. The city of Samaria was located in central Israel, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem and about 6 miles northwest of Shechem.
As the Israelites were dividing the Promised Land, the region of Samaria was given to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. King Omri, the sixth king of the northern kingdom of Israel, bought a hill in the Valley of Shechem in the region of Samaria and built the city of Samaria, which became his capital city (1 Kings 16:23–24). Eventually, the name of the capital was applied to the entire northern kingdom. Omri’s son, King Ahab, erected a temple to Baal in the city of Samaria (1 Kings 16:32).
[The woman at Jacob’s well] brought up a centuries-old controversy: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem” (verse 20). “This mountain” is a reference to Mount Gerizim in the central Samaritan highlands, the place where the Samaritans had built their own temple, which they considered the true temple of God.
The Jews of Jesus’ day disliked the Samaritans because of their religious syncretism and their mixed racial heritage. The temple in Samaria located on Mount Gerizim was destroyed in 129 BC by the Jews, adding to the hostility between the two groups.As a region, Samaria was significant in the Old Testament as being synonymous with the northern kingdom and in the New Testament as an idolatrous area Jews tried to avoid.
Here’s also a map that will be quite helpful:
From the brief explanation and map above there are some key points we should keep in mind:
The Bible passage emphasizes that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Other routes did exist. So, did he have to pass through Samaria because of a geographic reason (e.g., he was in a hurry and Samaria was the shortest route)? Or did he have a plan that required going through Samaria? Verse 23 tells us that “the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.” (Also, keep in mind how John uses the word dei (had to) in other verses, like John 3:14, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”)
The Jews would have considered the Samaritans as racially impure. Consider the following verses in 2 Kings 17:
1 In the twelfth year of King Ahaz’s reign over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria for nine years. 2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.
5 The king of Assyria marched through the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.
24 The king of Assyria brought foreigners from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites.
Therefore, the Samaritans were neither Jew nor Gentile. They were somewhere in between. This tension surfaced in many ways, from considering Samaritans unclean to outright military conflicts.
The Samaritans believed that the true holy mountain was Mt. Gerizim. That was a political and religious challenge against the Jews. To insult the Jerusalem temple was the greatest offense after insulting God himself (or perhaps there would have been little distinction between the two insults). Add to this the fact that the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BC.
The brief explanation above talks about religious syncretism. This means that Samaritans mixed their Judaism with pagan religions—the kind of offense that led to their destruction in the Old Testament. For our purposes, we must also be aware that of the Old Testament writings Samaritans only accepted a form of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). So, they rejected David and the Davidic line, but they expected the prophet of which Moses spoke.
The Woman at the Well and Gender Dynamics
In this story Jesus crosses a gender barrier that no longer exists in our culture. Because we can hardly imagine the scandal, I want to make a few points about the woman at the well and the gender dynamics of first century Israel.
According to Jewish sages, Jewish men were to avoid conversation with women. Although requesting water from strangers was expected if one’s need was urgent, a conversation of more than a few minutes between a man and woman would warrant the assumption of sexual intercourse. The conversation described in this story would be grounds enough to divorce a woman. The gentile world (Roman and Greek) had similar standards.
Even the Samaritan woman immediately identified the gender scandal amplified by the racial scandal. “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” Samaritan women were unclean, considered as menstruants “from their cradle.”
Imagine the following scene in a movie: A guy and a girl are walking in opposite directions in an office. They bump each other. She drops the papers she was carrying. Both immediately reach down to pick up the papers. Their faces nearly meet. They exchange some nervous glances and words. What’s going to happen? We all know the answer. This is how their romantic story begins. Believe it or not, there is a similar expectation at the well. Consider Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 24:12-14):
12 Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”
Consider also Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29:9-20, but I skip some verses):
9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and raised his voice and wept. 12 Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance. 18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her.
Finally, consider Moses and Zipporah (Exodus 2:16-21):
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. 18 When they came to their father Reuel, he said, “Why have you come back so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian saved us from [t]the shepherds, and what is more, he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 So he said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind? Invite him [u]to have something to eat.” 21 And Moses was willing to live with the man. And he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.
I am obviously not suggesting that that story between Jesus and the woman at the well is romantic. I am suggesting that John’s audience would have been immediately nervous upon hearing the setting of the story
The woman at the well was probably of disrepute. Consider the following:
The woman goes to the well alone in the hottest part of the day. This has led to much speculation, but it is quite likely that no one wanted to be around her. (The culture would have discouraged being around overt sinners.)
The woman had been divorced five times. The story does not say that she had been committing adultery, but five husbands had found some ground to divorce her. The most reasonable explanation is adultery.
The woman was living with a man who was not her husband. This would have been seen as sinful and socially unacceptable.
Main Themes in the Text
Now that the background of the story has been discussed, we can focus on its main themes and lessons. I am a little short on time, so I will set these out as bullet points:
The Gift of Living Water. Like the reaction of Nicodemus to Jesus’ requirement that one must be born again, the woman at the well is puzzled (or bothered) by Jesus’ offer of living water. Can Jesus be greater than Jacob? The woman’s tone is unclear. She might be responding in mockery. Keep in mind that that the woman probably emphasizes “our” in “our Father Jacob.” Apparently Samaritan tradition emphasized their descent from Jacob although they were aware of the Jews’ version of their ancestry (2 Kings 17).
Jesus’ offer of living water is not demeaning bodily needs for regular water. Jesus is using the source of the regular water—the sacred well—as a springboard to discuss something ever holier. Moreover, Torah was often compared to water and a good teacher to a well. But were wisdom (and here I am using wisdom and Torah nearly interchangeably) will make one hunger and thirst for more of it, the living water is enough to satisfy forever.
Living water is literally fresh, running water, which was the preferred water for purification. Additionally, water could refer to God (Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, The fountain of living waters, To carve out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That do not hold water.”) and to the blessings of the end times (Zechariah 14:8 “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem . . . .”).
Salvation Is from the Jews. The woman recognizes Jesus as a prophet. She was probably thinking of the Taheb, the restorer, who would be like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18) since Samaritans apparently did not believe in the prophets after Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus corrects her misunderstanding. The Jews are right, the Samaritans are wrong. Salvation comes from the Jews. This an affirmation of the Jewish sacred writings and prophesies within them. Christians are just as committed to the Old Testament as the Jews.
Worship in Spirit. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” That time is ending, Jesus tells her. Now we worship in spirit. I will quote the scholar Craig Keener at length here.
“John here refers to worship empowered by the Spirit. Some argue that the passage refers to worship with the human spirit, that is, passionate worship with one’s whole heart. But more natural expression for this existed in the LXX . . . . Moreover, the human spirit is hardly John’s usual sense of “Spirit”; apart from references to Jesus’ personal spirit (11:33, 13:21; 19:30), the only other probable exception, 3:6, includes a reference to God’s spirit, and fourteen undisputed references plainly refer to God’s Spirit .”
Also consider that the preposition “in,” as in “in Jersualem” or “in Gerizim” seems to retain its locative sense. “In spirit” probably means inside the power of or indwelling of the Spirit. Given the emphasis on prophetic inspiration in early Jewish conceptions, John’s audience probably understood the phrase in terms of inspiration as well.
Spirit and truth is most likely another hendiadys. Jesus is the truth. Similarly, the Spirit can be considered one with the truth.
The Mission and the Revelation. Jesus says, “But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.” She responds, “I know that Messiah is coming (the one called Christ); whenever he comes, he will tell us everything.” In the climax of the story, Jesus responds, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
You know I try to keep a scholarly tone, but wow. This is incredible. The prophesies are coming true. (The Samaritans seem to have believed that the era of divine favor (rahutha) ended soon after Moses. The era of divine displeasure (panutha) was upon them and would end with the Taheb, who would restore the era of divine favor.) And, as it turns out, the Taheb is looking for worshippers in the Spirit regardless of race, gender, or sinful past. And the wait is over. The Christ is not coming—he is here.
Question from Last Week
The Fate of the Unevangelized
Last week we discussed that Jesus did not come to judge but to save. (John 3:17) People are already condemned by their wrongdoings. (John 3:18) Christ offers a way to be reconciled with God, both in the sense of being forgiven and in the sense of one’s very nature being turned from darkness to light. So, the question naturally arose, what happens to those who never hear of Jesus?
This is a difficult question but it is a very important one. Honest Christians disagree. The answer will depend on several theological commitments. As you guys already know, I have been trying to avoid taking a position on most theological debates. To some extent I will do that here as well. I will present options. There is, however, one theological position that I must and will affirm. Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [him].” So, I will not discuss any position that denies the truth that Jesus’ sacrifice is the only way to be reconciled with God. Those views can simply be labeled as non-Christian. I do not mean that as an insult but simply as an accurate description. And non-Christian beliefs are not the focus of our Bible study.
I also need to give an extremely important introduction. The Christian conception of God is that he is perfectly good, perfectly just, and he loves us self-sacrificially. God has organized all of history in light of his plan of mercy and salvation for us. He wishes that no person should perish. (2 Peter 3) If God is who he says he is, then the question of the unevangelized is not as emotionally charged as it seems. I can trust that however it is resolved, it is done so in a loving and just way—indeed in a more loving and just way than I can even imagine. With that said, let’s move on to the possibilities.
Roughly, the answers to this question can be divided into five categories:
(1) Gospel Exclusivism. This is the view that people must hear the gospel to be saved. There is no way around it. (You can find an example here.) This view may seem unfair, but that is not necessarily the case. Many Christians believe that God unilaterally chooses those who are saved. Those who are not chosen could be placed in situations in which they will not hear the gospel, since they will not be saved anyways. A different way to argue for the fairness of “gospel exclusivism” is that God knows exactly who would and would not respond to the gospel message. Those who would respond in denial may be placed in situations where they will never hear it, since they would reject it if they heard it anyways.
(2) General Revelation Inclusivism. This is the view that people can react positively (in humility and faith) to the revelation they have received. Their faith in God brings them into salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. (Notice, this is not a different path to salvation.) Here’s an example of this view:
The Bible says that God wants all persons to be saved. Those who have never heard of Christ will not be judged on the basis of what they don't know; they'll be judged on the basis of what they do know. So what do people who have never heard of Christ know? There are two truths God has revealed to everyone, everywhere. First, he exists. We all know this by observing the natural world around us. And second, there's a moral law. We all know this by experiencing our conscience within us. Every one of us has a moral sense of right and wrong.
So those who never hear of Christ can still respond to the light they have been given in nature and conscience. On the basis of their knowledge of God and the moral law they can turn to God for forgiveness and new life. Just like people who lived prior to the time of Christ, they can be saved through Christ, even though they haven't heard of Christ.
(3) Postmortem Evangelism. This is the view that unevangelized persons will have the opportunity to respond to the gospel after death. An example of this view is found in Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death, by theologian James Beilby. The argument is simple. God desires every individual to be saved, and because a person can only be saved by placing conscious faith in Christ, God will make an opportunity in this life or the next for that person to respond in faith. Because the Bible and Christian theology do not give us a reason to think God can’t or won’t do this, at least so goes the argument, there is a strong possibility that there will be postmortem opportunities for the unevangelized and pseudoevangelized.
(4) Christian Universalism. By calling it Christian, I am not implying that this view is in fact correct. I add the word Christian to distinguish this form of universalism from a decidedly non-Christian one. Non-Christian universalism claims that there are many ways to be reconciled with God. Most religions, if not all of them, take us to the same place. That denies the exclusivity of Jesus, which is a core Christian tenet. On the other hand, there is a Christian form of universalism. It claims that all people, whether in this life or the next, will accept Christ as their savior. Notice that this is technically not a different view from the prior three. It simply adds a modal distinction—not only may people come to saving faith but they will. (If all will come to faith, how exactly they do so is not all that important.)
(5) Agnosticism. This is the view that we cannot know for certain. Notice, this is not only stating that one does not know but that one cannot know. Scripture does not tell us, is the claim.
I must add a couple of comments before I leave this discussion. First, I am not implying that all these views are equally likely considering scriptural data. Universalism, for example, has a great deal of trouble making sense of passages like Jesus’ description of the narrow gate to salvation (Matthew 7:13) and Jesus’ rejection of some hypocritical followers (Matthew 7:23). I am implying, however, that someone can hold one of these views and properly call themselves a Christian—even if they might be a Christian who is incorrect.
Second, notice the one unifying theme. Christ is the only way to salvation. Everyone reconciled with God, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, is saved through Jesus.
I hope this is helpful. We can discuss this matter further during the Bible study.