Samaritan Woman at the Well
4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.(a) 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.(b) The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling 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 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (a) That is, about noon (b) Greek forever --John 4:4-26, English Standard VersionThe Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Summary
The gospel of John describes an incident between Jesus and a woman from Samaria at a well outside the Samaritan city of Sychar. In this incident, Jesus is alone having sent his disciples into the city for food. When the unnamed woman comes out to the well to draw water, Jesus asks her for a drink. Her response is surprise that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. 1 They verbally spar over the differences between Jewish belief and that of the Samaritans, culminating in Jesus challenging the woman to bring her husband to him. When the woman says she has no husband, Jesus agrees and points out that she has had five husband and is living with a man now who is still not her husband. She recognizes him as a prophet and asks him about the Messiah, a title to which Jesus confirms himself.
1 Some interpretations suggest that her surprise was not that Jesus would speak to a Samaritan but that he would ask to drink from a Samaritan vessel, as the Jews were banned from sharing eating and drinking vessels with Samaritans due to the Samaritan laxness regarding ritual cleanliness.
Historical Basis
A few weeks before Jeshua's crucifixion by the Romans, Jesus stopped near Sychar and sent his disciples into the city to get food. He lingered by the well outside, mostly people watching and took note of a woman who approached the well to fill her jar. While most humans would have identified her as nothing more than human, Jeshua recognized the scent of another free-born angel. He opened their verbal sparring with a request for water, a traditional request between angels given their greatly reduced caloric needs.
The angelic woman, Esther had heard about Jeshua and his ministry, suspected him of also being an angel. She engaged in him banter for a while before they both broke human "character" long enough to share an inside secret: she flashed her eyes and he flashed back, a mannerism impossible for humans.
Esther remained friends with Jeshua for the remainder of his time on Earth.
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