1: When
therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Iesous made and baptized
more disciples than John 2: Though Iesous himself baptized not but his
disciples 3: He left Judaea and departed again into Galilee 4:
And it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria[1]
5: Then came he to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near to the
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph[2]
6: Now Jacob's well was there Iesous therefore being wearied with
his journey[3]
sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour 7: There came a
woman of Samaria to draw water Iesous said to her Give me to drink 8:
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food 9: Then said
the woman of Samaria unto him How is it that you being a Jew ask drink of me
which am a woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans 10:
Iesous
answered and said to her If you knew the gift ho Theos and who it is that says to you
Give me to drink you would have asked of him and he would have given you living
water 11: The woman said to
him sir you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep from where then have
you that living water 12: Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave
us the well[4]
and drank of it himself and his children, and his cattle 13: Iesous
answered and said to her Whoever drinks of this
water shall thirst again 14: But whoever drinks of the water that I
shall give them shall never thirst but the water that I shall give them shall
be in them a well of water springing up into everlasting life 15: The woman said to
him Sir give me this water that I thirst not neither come here to draw.[5]
16: Iesous said to her Go call your husband
and come [back] here 17: The woman answered and said I have no
husband Iesous said to her You have well said I
have no husband[6]
18: For you have had five
husbands and he who you now have is not your husband in that you answered honestly[7]
[1] There
was a woman there he needed to see. He was going to reach out in love to a
woman who was outcast and desperately lonely.
[2]
This fact must have come from spoken tradition as the Hebrew scriptures record
the coat of many colors given to Joseph by his father, Jacob, and the jealousy
of his brothers, but nothing about a parcel of land. The question is, was the land
given to Joseph while he was still young, before he was sold into slavery by
his brothers (at age 17), or was it bequeathed to him later while they were all
still in Egypt?
[3]
Statements like this give us a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus. He had
walked a long way. He was tired. His feet probably hurt. He was thirsty. He sat
on the well. It felt good to sit down. God became just like us. He experienced
everything we experience Hebrews 5:15.
[4]
The Samaritans descended from Jacob through his grandson, Ephraim, one of the
two sons of Joseph.
[5]
This woman suffered so much from the treatment she received of others that she
waited until she could be reasonably sure that no one else would be at the well
when she arrived, so she came in the heat of the day to draw her water. This
well was apparently not in the middle of town at a convenient location, so the
walk to and from it was better made when the sun was not yet high. Yet here was
this woman at high noon only just arriving at the well. The cruel treatment she
received from others, who came to the well during the cooler times of the day,
must have been unbearable for her. The town well also served a second purpose
as a social hub for the women as they came together to draw water each morning
(we see an example of this in the Book of Ruth, where the well was the place
Naomi reunited with the town’s women when she returned to Bethlehem-Judah from
her long sojourn into Moab). But it was not for this un-named Samaritan woman
to enjoy a morning visit with other women who met together in the cool of each
morning. She apparently had few friends among these women. She was not an
accepted part of a crowd who no doubt snubbed or jabbed at her with painful,
malicious remarks. She was a social reject. She likely felt rejected by God as
well. But she wasn’t. And Jesus went out of his way, into territory hated and
avoided by respectable Jews, to tell her this. It was to a woman who was
outcast in her community that Jesus felt compelled to travel through Samaria to
see.
[6]
What would have happened if the woman had not been honest with Jesus about her
marital status? Would she have run back to town to fetch her “husband” only to
find no one at the well waiting for her when she returned? Jesus made the first
move. He started the conversation that changed this woman’s life—If she could
pass the honesty test. He reached out to her with full knowledge of the fact
that she was living in sin with a man she was not married to. But before he
would continue, he required honesty. She had to come clean in order for Jesus
to reveal the truth that would set her free.
[7] There
a few things to note about Jesus’ answer. The gentleness with which Jesus
confronted her sin is an example we should learn to emulate. Her honest answer about
her marital status wasn’t a confession really, but she did not pretend to be a respectably
married woman when she wasn’t. Even had she offered the details of her sin, she
would not have been condemned for it—as we know from the rest of the discourse.
It is commonly asserted
that this woman had been divorced. There is no basis to assume whether
that was the case or not. She could have been. Assuming that she was a divorced woman—as is almost always asserted—it is important to note that Jesus
acknowledged each of her five marriages as legitimate
by saying she had, had five husbands. He did not suggest that
she had anything to ask forgiveness for regarding any of her five marriages.
This does not suggest she had never been divorced, but if she had been divorced, then
Christians need to ask themselves why one of their most common words of “comfort”
to divorced brethren are, “God forgives divorce” when Jesus said no such thing
to this woman who had been married five times. Whether she had ever been divorced or not, most
Christians have been taught that the woman at the well was a divorced woman. It
is important to understand that all divorce is not sin. There are scriptural
grounds for divorce, and it is an erroneous and smug position to assume that divorce is always sin when dealing with Christians who have experienced the pain (and undeserved shame
heaped on them by other Christians) of it.
The woman at the well could
very well have been widowed five times and been considered anathema as a wife.
She could have been “put away” by her last husband, and therefore
unmarriageable due to the fact that, though he cast her off, refused to legally
divorce her in order to avoid paying a divorce settlement. This was a common
practice in those days and before. God had harsh things to say through the
prophet Malachi about men who dealt treacherously with wives they grew tired of
by casting them off. Many Jewish wives were put away but never set free from
the marriage by a legal divorce. This forced them to either live in limbo for
the rest of their lives, or to marry again, anyway, bringing the label of
adulteress on themselves, or to live with a man without being married to him.
Regardless of what the case was with the woman at the well, the scriptures do not
say “God hates divorce.” It is written that God hates shalachH7971
the putting away (sending away or casting off). Shalach (casting off) without a bill of keriythuwthH3748 (bill of divorce) is not the same as a
divorce. The prophet Jeremiah3:8 wrote that God himself cast off Israel
and gave her a bill of divorce
for adultery against him. The salient points in this verse are 1.) Jesus
confronted the woman’s sin but complemented her honesty and dealt gently with
her 2.) The scriptures do not record whether her previous marital status was
divorced or widowed. It is commonly taught that the woman at the well had been
divorced at least once but perhaps multiple times, yet Jesus acknowledged the
legitimacy of each of her five marriages and demanded no repentance from her on
the issue of adultery/divorce.
Special Features of the HHBC
1. The main body of scripture
text in this commentary is based on the Received Text (Textus Receptus) of the
NT and the Ben Chayyim Masoretic text of the OT as found in the Original *Strong’s
Concordance, 1894, by James Strong, and compared diligently with the work of
respected scholars.
2. Archaic language
is updated in most cases, but The AV is followed unchanged where the language
and sense of the translation is clear to the modern reader.
3. Where a Hebrew or
Greek word has no good English equivalent, the original word is left
untranslated, in italics, and, in
some cases but not all, with the *Strong’s Greek [G] or Hebrew [H] reference
number notated beside it (see list of untranslated words below).
4. Where the Old
Covenant is quoted in the New Testament, the Hebrew words may be used and left
untranslated
5. In New Testament
quotes of Old Testament that include the word “Lord” in referring to Jehovah
[YHWH], the word LORD will be capitalized
6. Proper names and
the names of God are often left untranslated
7. The names and
titles of God are in bold print
8. The words of Jesus
are in bold print
9. Scripture cross-references
are noted in line with the text
10. There is little punctuation
used in the main body of the scripture-commentary text
11. Brackets [ ]
indicate alternate rendering or short commentary
12. Longer commentary
is located in footnotes
*20th
Century editions of this work, such as, The New Updated Strong’s, and, The
Strongest Strong’s, are not referenced in the HHBC as they do not correspond to
the Textus Receptus or the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text this commentary is based
upon.
List of Untranslated Words used in this passage of the
HHBC
Ho G3588 definite
article corresponding to: the; this; that. Other usages include: of; etc.; who;
which
Iesous pronounced Ee-ay-soos
G2424 translated Jesus: Yeshua is the
Hebrew name, and its English spelling is “Joshua.” Iesous is the Greek transliteration of the
Hebrew name, and its English spelling is “Jesus.” Thus, the names “Joshua” and
“Jesus” are essentially the same; both are English pronunciations of the Hebrew
and Greek names for our Lord. For examples of how the two names are
interchangeable, see Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 in the
KJV. In both cases, the word Iesous refers to the Old Testament character Joshua
Theos G2316 Deity; god; The reason the word, Theos, is largely left untranslated in
this commentary, is to put to rest erroneous teaching that the word must be
prefaced by the definite article, “ho,” in order to be referring to Yahweh. In fact, most New Testament
scripture references to Theos are not
introduced using the definite article, “ho,” but even so, it cannot be argued
when the Almighty is being referenced—especially in the case of John 1:1, where
John, a Jew who would never commit blasphemy by following anyone who was called
“A” god, calls Jesus God. John was specifically stating that Jesus is YHWH
[Yahweh].
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