Samaritan woman

at the well

The Water of Life Discourse between Jesus and the Samaritan

Woman at the Well by Angelika Kauffmann, 17–18th century

The Samaritan woman at the well is a figure from

the Gospel of John, in John 4:4–26 . In
Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions,
she is venerated as a saint with the name Photine
(also Photini, Photina, meaning "the luminous
one" from φως, "light").

Biblical account

Eastern Orthodox icon of Saint Photine meeting Christ

The woman appears in John 4:4–42:

But he had to go through
Samaria. So he came to a
Samaritan city called Sychar,
near the plot of ground that
Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. Jacob's well was there,
and Jesus, tired out by his
journey, was sitting by the well.
It was about noon.

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."[1]
This episode takes place before the return of Jesus to
Galilee.[2] 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.[3] The two communities
seem to have drifted apart in the post-exilic
period.[4] 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 at 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,[5] 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. Note that in Acts 1:8, Jesus
promises the apostles that they will be witnesses to the
Samaritans.[6]

Interpretations
Scholars have noted that this story appears to be
modelled on a standard betrothal scene from Hebrew
scripture, particularly that of Jacob in Genesis
29.[7] 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.[2]

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".[8] 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.[9]

In Eastern Christian tradition, the woman's name

at the time of her meeting Jesus is unknown,
though she was later christened "Photina". 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.[10]

Cultural references
In visual art

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Samaritan woman at the well 1651 by Gervais
Drouet

Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Duccio di

B
Buoninsegna

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, by

Giacomo Franceschini
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Stefano
Erardi
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Jan Joest
van Kalkar
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, by
Guercino
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Josef von
Hempel
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Lucas
Cranach the Elder
 Woman at the Well by Carl Heinrich Bloch

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
"Fill My Cup Lord", a hymn written by
Richard Blanchard in 1959 [11]

"Live to Praise", modern worship song, written

by Lisa Troyer and Dawn Yoder, LifeWay
Worship, Nashville -
https://soundcloud.com/user-
548929069/live-to-praise

See also
Asian feminist theology
Domnina (daughter of Nero)
Jesus' interactions with women
 List of names for the biblical nameless
Parable of the Good Samaritan

Notes
1. "John 4:4–26 NRSVA - But he had to
go through Samaria. So he - Bible Gateway" .
biblegateway.com. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
2. Lincoln, Andrew T. (2005). The Gospel
According to Saint John . Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson Publishers. pp. 170–1. ISBN 1-
56563-401-2. OCLC 61129929 .
Retrieved 3 June 2013.
3. V. J. Samkutty. The Samaritan Mission in
Acts (Library of New Testament Studies 328; A
& C Black, 2006) . p. 81. Retrieved
19 October 2015. See also Alan David Crown,
Lucy Davey, and Guy Dominique Sixdenier,
eds., Essays in Honour of G.D. Sexdenier: New
Samaritan Studies of the Société D'études
Samaritaines (Studies in Judaica 5; Sydney:
Mandelbaum / University of Sydney, 1995),
134; Jonathan Bourgel, " John 4 : 4-42:
Defining A Modus Vivendi Between Jews And
The Samaritans", Journal of Theological Studies
69 (2018), pp. 39-65
(https://www.academia.edu/37029909/Bourg
el_-_JTS_-_John_4_4-
42_The_terms_of_a_modus_vivendi_between_Jew
s_and_the_Samaritans ).
4. Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early
Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
p. 534.
5. V. J. Samkutty, The Samaritan Mission in
Acts (Continuum, 2006), page 85.
6. V. J. Samkutty, The Samaritan Mission in
Acts (Continuum, 2006), pages 100–101.
7. Kevin Quast, Reading the Gospel of John: An
Introduction (Paulist Press, 1991) page 29.
8. Pontifical Council for Culture; Pontifical
Council for Interreligious Dialogue (2 March
2003). Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of
Life: A Christian reflection on the "New Age" .
Vatican City: Internet Office of the Holy See.
9. Barrett, C. K. (1978). The Gospel
According to St. John: An Introduction With
Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (2nd
ed.). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. p. 12.
ISBN 0-664-22180-7. Retrieved 3 June
2013.
10. "La Samaritana 2011 en Oaxaca" (in
Spanish). Vive Oaxaca. Retrieved 3 June
2013.
11. https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/ns/340
Unannotated references

Photine of Samaria at orthodoxwiki.org

External links
Media related to Samaritan woman at the well
at Wikimedia Commons

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