Then he (Yehoshua/Jesus) came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Yaakov/Jacob gave to his son Yoseph/Joseph. Now Yaakov’s/Jacob's well was there. Yehoshua/Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat at the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water Yehoshua/Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink". (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to get supplies.) Then the woman of Samaria responded to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, are asking me for a drink when I am a woman of Samaria?
COMMENT: It is and always has been common for people everywhere, especially in non-urban areas, to recognize people from surrounding areas by their dress. Here the Samaritan woman expresses no doubt in identifying Yehoshua/Jesus as a Jew, most likely due to the tsitsit he is wearing.
Yehoshua/Jesus answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink; you would have asked to receive from him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman answered him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then would you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Yaakov/Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, together with his children, and his cattle?"
Yehoshua/Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. Whoever drinks of the water that I give them shall never thirst. The water that I give them shall be in them a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
The woman said to him, "Sir, give this water to me, that I never thirst, neither have to come here again to draw.
Yehoshua/Jesus replied to her, "Go, call your husband, and then return here."
The woman answered and said, "I have no husband.”
Yehoshua/Jesus said to her, "You have answered well, saying, 'I have no husband'. For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. You have spoken honestly.
The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
COMMENT: The author of the book, Yochanan/John, does not claim to have heard this conversation. He states for the record that none of the disciples of Yehoshua/Jesus were present. In this way he indicates quite clearly that Yehoshua/Jesus himself repeated this conversation to him and, no doubt, the other disciples. In other words, the author of the book is indicating that this is the way that Yehoshua/Jesus, and not a later source, wanted this dialogue to be recorded.
Every teaching that purports to be based in the Torah of the G-d of Israel, (that purports to be Biblical), is read either with the mindset of an outsider or of an insider. The commentators through the ages on this conversation between Yehoshua/Jesus and the Samaritan woman have read it almost always with the mindset of outsiders listening in, outsiders from a greater or lesser distance. As such, they have heard it as being a conversation primarily about Yehoshua/Jesus and who he might be. While not dismissing this audience, it is also possible to read the conversation in a way to understand it as an insider, ( like the Jews and Samaritans involved in the story), might have understood it. Insomuch that one may have the very same Biblical awareness and concerns as those Jews and Samaritans represented here, it is even possible to listen to the dialogue as being oneself an insider.
Listening as an insider, we can understand that the person relating the conversation, and it is indicated here that this person is Yehoshua/Jesus himself, wants it to be understood that the central subject of the conversation is the relationship of Jews and Samaritans. And what is said about that subject is not immediately expressed in the question of how it is that a Jewish man might be talking to a Samaritan woman, but is brought out in its most immediate and pronounced form in the question that is evoked in the Samaritan woman’s mind, which goes back to the division of the twelve tribes in relation to the house of David, and which she articulates: "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Yehoshua/Jesus answers her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when you shall neither (be able to) worship in this mountain, nor worship the Father at Jerusalem."
COMMENT: Yehoshua/Jesus begins teaching her, as he promised he would if she were to ask him, speaking of the coming great galut/exile.
"You worship you know not what. We know who we worship. For salvation is of the Jews."
COMMENT: This statement is a definitive statement of Yehoshua's/Jesus' faith. We find it recorded in a conversation he had with a Samaritan. We are pressed by this to give attention to the question of why the record of Yehoshua's life provided by his talmudim/disciples, and then subsequent history, shows so much association between the Jew, Yehoshua/Jesus, and the nations. In response to that pressure we can look at the conclusion of the dialogue between Yehoshua/Jesus and the Samaritan woman and see how it might inform us about this. Speaking to the Samaritan woman, Yehoshua/Jesus continues:
“The hour is coming, and has already begun, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
COMMENT: Yehoshua/Jesus continues to inform her that there will be a way in the coming galut/exile that it will still be possible to worship the Father, even though it will not be possible during that time to do so in complete fulfillment of the commandments to go up to Jerusalem. He does not correct her in saying that as a Jew he holds to the commandments and that G-d will ultimately be worshiped in Jerusalem. Rather, he indicates to her that there is a rectification of the human heart that needs to occur and that in the great galut/exile there will be a redemptive effect upon the heart to purify the worship of G-d.
The woman then said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will reveal all things to us.”
Yehoshua/Jesus said to her, "I who am speaking with you am he.”
COMMENT: Yehoshua/Jesus does not say this to make himself the subject of the communication. He does so in order to respond to her implied doubt concerning the teaching he has offered her. Indeed, we have here the question before us of why he would say directly to a Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah that she has been taught to expect but to his own people, the Jews, whether Judean’s or Galileans, he refuses always to state this.
I believe that the reason for this is be found in the spirit of G-d’s answer to Samuel concerning Israel’s desire to have a king like unto the rulers of the nations. It is, as I understand it, as though G-d said to Samuel, “It is alright. I will deal with it. It is not you they have rejected. It is me. It is to be expected. I have already said through Moshe that this would happen, but also that I will be hidden from them just enough for them to know what they have lost and ultimately turn to me in pure, whole-hearted faith.” For me, this is the messianic message of Yehoshua, that Israel, like Adam broke the special, sanctified relationship that G-d chose to have with her, but he, in turn, will never break it with her, but instead will turn her very wanderings into her salvation. And for this very reason Yehoshua expressed his message throughout the Galilee region, then culminated it in Judea and Jerusalem, sending it out then to Samaria and to all the ends of the earth, wherever the tribes of Israel wandered.
Read more notes and commentary on the Book of Yochanan/John here.
