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]
19: The woman said to
him Sir I perceive that you are a prophet 20: Our fathers worshipped in
this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where [we] ought to
worship[8] 2
Chronicles 6:6 21: Iesous said to her Madam believe me the hour comes when you shall neither in
this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father 22: You worship
you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is from the Jews 23:
But the hour is come even is now when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father by [the] Pneuma[9]
and by [the] truth[10]
for the Father seeks such to worship him 24: Ho Theos is a Pneuma and
they that worship him must worship him by [the] Pneuma and by [the] truth 25: The woman said to
him I know that Messias comes which is called Christos when he is come
he will tell us all things[11] 26:
Jesus said to her I who speak to you am
he[12]
27: And upon this came his disciples and marvelled that he talked
with the woman yet none said What seekest thou or Why talk thou with her 28:
The woman then left her waterpot and went her way into the city and said to anthropos[13]
29: Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this Ho
Christos
30: Then they went out of the city and came to him 31: In the
mean while his disciples prayed him saying Master eat 32: But he said to
them I have food to eat that you know not of 33: Therefore said the
disciples one to another Has any one brought him [anything] to eat? 34: Iesous
said to them My food is to complete
that which has been determinedLuke 22:22 [by the one who] sent me and to finish the work. 35: Do not you say [that] There are yet four months and then comes
harvest look I say to you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are
white already to harvest 36: And reapers receive wages and gather fruit
unto life eternal that both sowers and reapers may rejoice together 37:
And herein is that saying true One sows and another reaps 38: I sent you
to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor others labored and you are entered
into their labors 39: And many of the
Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman[14]
who testified He told me all that ever I did 40: So when the Samaritans had
come to him they asked him if he would stay a while with them and he stayed
there two days 41: And many more believed because of his own word 42:
And said to the woman Now we believe not because of your saying [but] because
we have heard him ourselves[15]
and know that this is indeed ho Christos the Savior of
the world 43: Now after two days he departed from there and went into
Galilee
[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 are 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.
[8] Religion is the
strongest bond rulers can use to ensure the loyalty of their people, and that
is where the bad blood between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah was
deliberately solidified by Jeroboam, who had renounced David’s dynasty and
became the first king of Israel. Jeroboam introduced idol worship as a national
religion to Israel. Samaria, a part of Jeroboam’s kingdom, later, under Omri,
became the Capitol city of Israel and eventually became known as home to hybrid
Jews—ancient Israelites descended from Joseph [1/2 tribe of Ephraim] who later
interbred with Canaanites.
The basis of the Woman at the Well’s
argument about where to worship was an ancient argument and was deliberately
engendered by two of Israel’s kings, Jeroboam and Omri. The biblical history is
as follows: 1 kings 12:25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim
and dwelt therein and went out from thence and built Penuel 26: And
Jeroboam said in his heart Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David 27:
If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem then
shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord even unto Rehoboam
king of Judah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah 28:
Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said to them It
is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold your gods O Israel which
brought you up out of the land of Egypt 29: And he set the one in Bethel
and the other put he in Dan 30: And this thing became a sin for the
people went to worship before the one even unto Dan.
1 Kings 16:23 In the thirty and
first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel twelve years
six years reigned he in Tirzah 24: And he bought the hill Samaria of
Shemer for two talents of silver and built on the hill and called the name of
the city which he built after the name of Shemer owner of the hill Samaria 25:
But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were
before him 26: For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat
and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin to provoke the LORD God of
Israel to anger with their vanities
[9] It is only through the Holy Spirit that
we can know and worship God. The Holy Spirit must draw us, indwell us, and
empower us to worship God.
[10] Jesus is the way the TRUTH and the
life. No one comes to the Father but by him. Jesus said the written Word of God
as Truth—Thy Word is TRUTH—We must worship God according to his Word, through
his risen son, Jesus.
[11] Faith always supersedes theology. In
spite of the woman’s bad theology based on history, tradition, and outright
lies fed to her ancestors by evil rulers and no doubt by the contemporary
religious leaders of her day, nothing could squelch her faith in the coming
Messiah. God always honors faith.
[12] The scripture record shows that the
first person Jesus declared himself to, was a woman. If complementarian
male headship, as taught by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, is
true, then Jesus would have asked her to go fetch one of the male heads of the
city to stand beside her as he announced to the male who he was, as he knew
she—a woman—would immediately run into the city and begin preaching that the Savior had come. But he did not tell her to call
the men, first, before revealing his identify. He broke Jewish protocol
(shocked his disciples into stunned silence) and kept a divine appointment with
a woman. He then entrusted this woman, who was an absolute social
outcast and held to bad Samaritan theology, with the first announcement ever
that he was the long awaited Messiah.
[13] The unfortunate fact of translating the
word anthropos as men in this verse has slandered The
Woman at the Well, and forever sullied her reputation in associating her with being a
prostitute when there is no scriptural evidence to support this assumption.
When she went into the city to preach the gospel that Jesus was Messiah, there
is no reason to believe she went only to males. She more likely announced this
fact loudly and publicly to any person within earshot, and the crowd that came
out of the city to see Jesus was no doubt a mixed crowd of both men and women.
There is no textual reason why anthropos
should be translated as men in
this verse. The word is just as accurately translated as people or person and can refer to either females, males, or
mixed crowds of both, or to the human race in general; it all depends upon the
context. Although Greek is an androcentric (male centered) language—as is
English and most other languages—the Greek word, anthropos, is not unique to just males.
[14] The first woman on record to publicly
preach Jesus as Messiah, was Anna, the elderly prophetess (preacher) at the
temple. Later, there were women among the 120 at Pentecost preaching
(prophesying) the good news of Jesus in the street at Jerusalem. But the Woman
at the Well is indisputably the second woman on record to preach the gospel—loudly
and authoritatively—to a public audience composed of both men and women. And
Christian women have been following suit for over 2000 years, in spite of
fierce opposition from men determined to silence the Daughters of God from
fulfilling their callings. The Woman at the Well did not stop to ask male
permission before racing off and authoritatively declaring the good news of the
Savior in public (by any standard, that is preaching), and Jesus did not rebuke
her for it or tell her that preaching the gospel was a job for men only. The
early church recognized women apostles (Junia), women deacons (Phoebe), women
teachers of doctrine (Priscilla), women who preached and prayed publicly (Acts
2:17). It was not until later—as the church became politicized—that the
ordination of women was discouraged and finally forbidden. In more recent
times, The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and Moody Bible Institute ordained
and recognized women as pastors until the complementarian (male headship)
movement, which began in 1987 with the Danvers Statement, put a stop to it. Now
women are not even permitted to take pastoral courses at complementarian Bible
colleges.
[15] Do we detect a hint of misogyny in this
statement? Did their decision to believe that Jesus was Messiah have to be
qualified because of the low reputation of the person who had led them to him,
or was it simply because that person was a woman? “Now we believe “not”
because of what you said…” They had listened to her long enough for her to lead
them to the water of life—which they joyfully drank from—and then, as
respecters of persons, appear to have acted on a sinful need to distance
themselves from her. How many Christians, today, because of caste or low social
standing, feel outcast among God’s people—among those who call themselves
brethren? This should not be so among any who call themselves by the name of
Christ. Could this scene in John Chapter four be a brief glimpse into how the
new believers of Samaria were disinclined to let go of the familiar, yet destructive
and cruel, caste system for the seemingly new, but completely forgotten to
them, system of equality re-introduced by Jesus Genesis 1:27-28, 5:2?
Even Peter fell prey to strong—but utterly sinful and divisive—cultural
traditions Galatians 2:11-14 Could this scene at the Samaritan well be
an example of the war between the two natures of audawm—the physical and the spiritual? Were the people of Samaria
already rejecting their messenger of good tidings because of who she was? If
they were, we can be sure Jesus set them straight on that score, as he stayed
and taught them for two more days. No one comes to Christ except the Spirit
lead them—regardless of who the messenger is. To reject the messenger because
of reputation, or sex—or both—is wrong. And it appears the people of Samaria
were attempting to do just that. The act of coming to Christ is just the
beginning. Everyone begins their new life in Christ at the same place—as newly
born-again babes—and must grow spiritually from there. The ground is level at
the cross, and spiritual growth can only be accomplished through feeding from (and
obedience to) the Word of God—the Bible—as illuminated by the Spirit of God 1
John 3:27. Jesus said knowing the Word is never enough, but one must be a
doer of the Word as well Matthew
7:24-27.
... ... Chronicles
the early history of the women's rights movements, as well as the role of
church leadership in aggressive suppression of both women's rights and the
historical record of Christian initiatives within the movements. Through the
complementarian movement, many of the same arguments used to support the
institution of slavery, are still used today in suppressing the rights of
Christian women. This book documents identical arguments used by Christian
leaders against both movements, and is an unparalleled resource for all who
desire an in-depth study of gender equality from a Christian perspective. The
book also examines Bible commentary and
translation practices which have historically been
androcentric (male centered) and even misogynistic (anti-woman). These have
adversely effected understanding of the scriptures, relations between women and
men, the happiness of men and women, and hindered the work of the gospel. The
history of women’s rights is traced back [much further than usual] to the very
first feminists…who were Christians—godly women, who brought the issue
of women's rights to the forefront as they struggled to alleviate the suffering
of others, and found they were hindered in doing so for no other reason than
the fact of their sex. This work, provides valuable historical insight into
Christian initiatives in the movements for women’s rights, that are rarely
included in Christian literature.
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