Jesus and the Woman from Samaria
This is a follow-up to a previous article in which I offered the hypothesis that Jesus came from an Israelite/Samaritan background, was therefore not strictly speaking a Jew. What follows will make most sense if you are familiar with that.
My hypothesis was based on two passages in John’s gospel, 1.47 where Jesus is delighted to see a true Israelite (Nathanael) when he is among the Jews, and 8.39–48 where some Jews assume that Jesus must be a Samaritan, after he accused them of following the wrong religion.
I’ve received two thoughtful responses from someone writing under the pseudonym of Whose mind is stayed on Thee (henceforward referred to as WMISOT). He or she thinks I am overcomplicating matters, that “Jesus preached against the Pharisees for their hypocrisy”, and that the Pharisees calling Jesus a Samaritan was merely an insult, not therefore to be taken literally.
Most interesting from my perspective, WMISOT referred to a further episode in John’s gospel (chapter 4. 6–26) where Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well: “The Samaritan woman recognized him as a Jew, asking how it was that a Jew was requesting water of a Samaritan when Jews have no dealings with Samaritans”. “Not only did the Samaritan woman recognize that Jesus was a Jew, but he confirmed it to her by saying that Samaritans (not ‘we’, including himself as a Samaritan) worshiped what they don’t know, but that salvation was from the Jews”.
This episode could therefore represent a serious challenge to my hypothesis. I therefore feel duty bound to offer a response. I would be grateful for replies to let me know how convincing it is.
The first thing that can be said is that this incident almost certainly never happened, at least not to the extent recorded in the text. Who could possibly have been there to write down the precise details of this private conversation between two individuals? How could such details survive until the gospel was written down several decades later?
The second problem is that John’s gospel is so different from the Synoptics. There we are told that, following Peter’s recognition of him as the Messiah, Jesus “sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone” (Luke 9.21, see also Matthew 16.20, Mark 8.30). This occurs well into his ministry. Are we therefore really supposed to take seriously the claim that, near the start of his ministry, Jesus openly declared his Messiahship to a Samaritan woman? The text notes here that “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans”. Does that mean that Jesus was a Jew? Possibly not, for the NRSV editors have added a note that “other ancient authorities lack this sentence”. This suggests that it was a later edit, not part of the original text, perhaps by someone without a full understanding, or with an agenda of their own. (I note that WMISOT included this in his or her quote as evidence that Jesus was a Jew.)
All that is in no way an attempt on my part to diminish the importance of the conversation, which is obviously of fundamental importance in its author’s eyes. My suggestion is therefore that this episode is the creation of the author, not something which actually happened. It has all the appearance of a teaching story, such as can be frequently found in Buddhism and Sufism. If that is the case, we are intended to understand the message that the story is intended to convey, not believe that it actually happened.
The theme of the conversation is the gradual awakening of the woman from a state of ignorance until she receives the ultimate revelation that she is in the presence of the Messiah. In that context, the fact that she believed Jesus to be a Jew at the beginning could be symbolic of her state of ignorance. Part of Jesus’s reply is “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you…” He is suggesting that she does not know who he truly is.
Her ignorance continues, since she fails to understand what Jesus means by “living water”, thinking that it is literally water at the bottom of the deep well. Jesus has to explain that he is offering “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”.
Then Jesus demonstrates his psychic powers by knowing all about her life without having previously met her, and the woman thereby recognises that he is a prophet. The process of awakening is therefore beginning to happen. However, she still says that “you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem”. This presumably means that she still thinks Jesus is a Jew. He contradicts her, however: “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”. Jesus does indeed say “salvation is from the Jews”, but immediately goes on to say: “But the hour is coming, and is here now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him”. The meaning of this is not completely clear to me, but is it possible that Jesus is contrasting true worshippers with the Jews?
What is the intended meaning of this (dare I say fictional?) episode in the eyes of its author? It seems to me that John is having Jesus declare that there is a universal spiritual truth available to all, beyond the differences between various religions. That is why he chooses to declare it first to a Samaritan woman. This is highly significant in that the Jews at the time were known to be antagonistic towards Samaritans and foreigners in general, and given the patriarchal culture of that era. He is also announcing that he has come to teach this message.
One further observation is that in John’s gospels there are two types of passage; some seem to relate to events in the life of a historical personage, and there are others where Jesus seems to speak as the Logos, the Word of God, or if you prefer the awaited Messiah. This episode with the Samaritan woman, while apparently an example of the former, is actually an example of the latter.
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In the list of readers tagged below I’ve included some names of people who have started to follow me, but whom I’ve been unable to contact because they haven’t written any stories yet.
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