Jesus talk to Samaritan woman has different meaning than modern scholars suggest

Christian Concepts Daily ^ | May 4th, 2012 | Dr Murray D. Gow

[se99tp]

Many writers focus here on what they consider to be the moral failings of the woman making her out to be an immoral loose woman but this reads into the text what is not there. In reality, the focus is on the failure of the men in her life. We are simply not told how she came to lose her husbands; was she divorced or was she widowed? In view of social practices in ancient Samaria, it is not unlikely that the woman was married more than once to men very much her senior in which case she could well have been widowed two or three times. Then too we should bear in mind that in her society it was men, not women who found it easy to divorce. So, regardless of whether she had been bereaved or abandoned, either way, she had been disappointed by men. Male commentators have frequently focused on what they consider to be her racy sexual history, but if the text makes no such judgment, then neither should we.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not sure how "distorted" this passage is.

One of the key points here is that the woman is a Samaritan, and as such was an outcast in Jewish society at the time. This theme comes up repeatedly throughout the Gospels, and should not be overlooked in a passage like this. During this discourse the woman questions Jesus because he seems to be contradfcting well-established Jewish protocols regarding conversing with Samaritans and even showing up in Samaria as a "prophet."

At the end of this passage, Jesus stays in Samaria for two days and many Samaritans accept him as the Messiah. This is basically a rebuke to those "real Jews" who did NOT accept him.

[guitarplayer1953]

Next they will say the woman caught in adultery was not her fault or some other silly reasoning.

[tang-soo]

Clearly this women was an outcast from her peers - implied because of her past. In the 6th hour is not the time to come to the well unless you didn't socialize with the other women, who did so during the cooler morning hours. The 6th hour was the hottest part of the day. The morning gathering of water was a social event for the women of the area - unless you had reason to avoid the other women.

Thank God for her position in the community, because it provided her the opportunity to meet Christ.

[muawiyah]

Yin and Yan. The first shall be last. The last shall be first. This woman was, at best, a charity case ~ a woman repeatedly married to elderly men who had the wherewithal to care for her. She is there at the well alone ~ so where are her children?

I don't think you could be more alone and outcast in the Classical World than to be a woman without support, on her own, and with no children.

Yet this lowest of the low in a community (the Samaritans) looked down upon by every Jew ~ met God Himself at the well ~ just asking her for a drink of her water.

That message is there in highly compressed form ~ but what does it mean?

In other passages Jesus discusses what that means and ties it to Classical standards of morality as well as personal salvation. Sermon on the Mount comes to mind.

There's the widow who gave her mite ~ which was her all. SImilar to this woman ~ she has nothing to give but a drink of water which she does without question ~ then Jesus reveals his identity to her.

I said I'd leave the feminist deconstruction for later, but it's there in compressed format ~ and by drawing out the message from the text Jesus is illuminated. He is not just compassionate, he is just, and he's also some fellow who asked for water ~ from the "least of these".

I begin to see a comprehensive unity of the message in the Gospels ~ and what I will need to do to find out how to hang onto it. And tell others.

There is much work to be done before my next, and probably final, bout with blindness.

[nonsporting]

How important is knowlegde of Jewish/Samaritan culture for the understanding of the Bible?

Little. One needs to read the whole narrative (the woman at the well), which culminates at 4:42. The Bible itself explains the significance of the narrative's elements. Verses 4:34-4:38 appear to begin something new, but we see in 4:39-4:42 "sowing and reaping". It all began by Jesus sharing the gospel with a woman of low class while resting at a well. He sowed. She sowed. She reaped. He reaped.

"...look at the fields for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together." I am encouraged to open my mouth and share the gospel -- if not a reaping then a sowing.