John 4.25-30.
After meeting Jesus and realizing he’s a prophet, this Samaritan woman he met at Jacob’s well tried to get him to settle which temple was the correct one— the one at Shechem or the one at Jerusalem. Jn 4.20 Jesus pointed out it’s neither. Jn 4.21 God wants worshipers “in spirit and truth,” Jn 4.22-23 who can worship him anywhere. In temple, out of temple; in church, out of church.
But since Jesus didn’t give her the answer she was expecting, and kinda appeared to side with the Judeans, Jn 4.22 the Samaritan did the intellectual equivalent of shrugging her shoulders:
- John 4.25 KWL
- The woman tells Jesus, “I know Messiah” (i.e. Christ) “comes;
- when this man comes, he’ll explain everything.”
“Yeah, you don’t know. But Messiah will know. And when he arrives, he’ll tell us which temple is the right one.”
As I’ve said previously, Samaritans didn’t believe in a Judean-style Messiah. Their bible only went up to Deuteronomy, so there were no actual Messianic prophecies. They believed in the Tahéb, a prophet-like-Moses Dt 18.15 who’d come at the End Times and sort everything out. And since the Tahéb was sorta anointed by God, the word “anointed”
(ܡܫܺܝܚܳܐ/mešíkha
in Aramaic/Syriac, χριστός/hristós in Greek) would be a valid synonym for Tahéb. Maybe the Samaritan did say Mešíkha, which is why John rendered it μεσσίας/messías, “Messiah.” Maybe she said Tahéb and John translated it. Doesn’t matter. After all, Jesus is the prophet-like-Moses; Ac 3.22-26 he is the Tahéb. So we’re fine either way.
Hence Jesus’s response to her apathetic statement. When Messiah arrives, he’ll tell you which temple is the right one? Well Messiah has arrived.
- John 4.26 KWL
- Jesus tells her, “I’m him.
- I’m speaking to you.”
Mic drop.
Yeah, various skeptics insist Jesus never actually called himself Messiah. They insist Jesus never made any such claim about himself, never even hinted he might be Messiah; that it’s an idea added to Christianity decades later by overzealous apostles. Probably Paul. They really like to blame Paul for all the parts of Christianity they don’t like.
Thing is, Paul wrote his letters before his fellow apostles wrote the gospels. He wrote ’em in the 40s and 50s CE; the gospels were written in the 60s. The circulation of Paul’s teachings were simultaneous with the circulation of Jesus’s teachings; they still are, ’cause they usually get bound together in the New Testament. But when the ancient Christians first heard about Jesus, it was usually in the context of something Paul taught or wrote. Because they go together. It’s not “Jesus said this, but Paul said that”; it’s “Jesus said this, and here’s Paul’s commentary”—they uphold each other. Can’t have Christ without his Christians.
Okay yes, Jesus never literally says the words, “I’m Messiah” (or ἐγώ Μεσσίας, or
ܐ݈ܢܳܐ
ܡܫܝܚܐ)
in the gospels. Largely because if he did say that, he could get arrested and killed for treason against Rome. But he functionally says the very same thing: “I’m him. I’m speaking to you.” It’s as close to “I’m Messiah” as we’re gonna get from Jesus, and the Samaritan clearly understood him—and ran with it.
Literally ran with it: She abandoned her water jar, went into the Samaritan city which she had been deliberately avoiding all this time, and told everyone.
The students return and wonder.
As the gospel of John relates, at the point Jesus told the Samaritan who he was, his kids came back from the city after getting food. Jn 4.8 And they wondered why their Master was speaking with some strange woman. But didn’t ask.
- John 4.27 KWL
- At this time, Jesus’s students come,
- and are wondering why he’s speaking with a woman.
- Yet no one says, “Whom do you seek?”
- nor “Why do you speak with her?”
Preachers are really fond of pointing out the students didn’t ask the woman anything. Because they presume the students were racist and sexist. Sometimes that’s because the preachers themselves are kinda racist and sexist, and figure Jesus’s students share their prejudices—historical evidence to the contrary.
Racism first. You recall Israelis and Samaritans didn’t get along, and had nothing to do with one another. Jn 4.9 Jesus’s kids were Israeli, and no doubt had some of their parents’ hangups about Samaritans, and didn’t wanna talk with any heretic Samaritan. But this hangup is entirely about religion; it’s about the fact Judeans and Samaritans considered each other heretic. Kinda like Pharisees saw Sadducees and vice-versa, but way less tolerant.
But racist preachers presume the Judeans’ hangup was racial—that Samaritans were gentiles, because they were descended from the people-groups the Assyrians had seeded in northern Israel. The racists might know those people-groups had intermarried with the northern Israelis, and that’s who became the Samaritans… and they might not care, and figure Samaritans are “half-Jews,” and therefore somehow not Jews.
Samaritans are just as much Abraham and Jacob’s descendants as all the white European Jews and black African Jews who moved into Israel in the 20th century. But again, racists don’t care. Nationalists definitely don’t; they get mighty fixated on “racial purity,” and insist all that “foreign blood” pollutes the Samaritans entirely. Ignoring the fact that if that were true, King David should never have been king: His great-grandmother was Ruth the Moabite, Ru 4.21-22 and the LORD had banned Moabites from worship for 10 generations. Dt 23.3 Scholars still debate whether the LORD meant 10 generations from the first Moabite ancestor, or 10 generations from Deuteronomy—but either way David would be a problem. Unless of course we apply God’s grace; then there’s no problem at all.
We Christians, especially we gentile Christians, should be aware God doesn’t care about bloodlines. He cares about whether we trust Jesus to save us, because that faith is what justifies us. He cares about repentance and obedience. If he cared about bloodlines, only Jews would be saved. But he wants to save everyone. Racists and nationalists, not so much.
Now for the sexists. And it’s entirely possible Jesus’s students were sexist, ’cause Pharisees certainly were; ancient Judean and Greek and Roman cultures definitely were; and today’s Evangelicals usually are. To certain Pharisees, women were to be avoided because you never knew when a woman might be ritually unclean. It might be her time of the month; Lv 15.19 it might be one of her friends’ time of the month, and if she touched her it’d make her unclean too. Pharisees wanted to stay in a state of constant ritual cleanliness if they could, so they regularly steered clear of gentiles and women. Just in case.
First, you oughta recall Jesus didn’t care about Pharisee standards of, and teachings on, ritual cleanliness. To him, their cleanliness practice was pure hypocrisy; they cleaned the outside when God cares far more about the inside. Lk 11.39 To him, their cleanliness practice made outcasts of people whom he wants to save. So he’s gonna talk with women. He’s gonna talk with Samaritans. He’s gonna talk with anyone. As should we.
Second, Jesus obviously has no problem with women sharing the gospel. This Samaritan was gonna do that, Mary Magdalene was gonna do that, the apostle Priscilla was gonna do that; Jesus still calls women to minister his word as he sees fit, and God help any sexist who claims otherwise, because they’re resisting the Holy Spirit who empowers those women.
Funny how the sexists who preach about this passage know full well Jesus has technically sent this Samaritan to her people to tell them Messiah is come, and sometimes actually rebuke Jesus’s disciples for dismissing her… and yet, out the other side of their mouths, say women ought not do such things anymore, but let men do it. Blind guides, who strain out gnats and swallow camels.
Evangelizing the Samaritans.
Before Jesus’s students say anything to their master, the woman leaves. Leaves her jar too.
- John 4.28-30 KWL
- 28 So the woman leaves her jar
- and goes into the Samaritan city and tells the people,
- 29 “Come! See a person who tells me everything I do.
- Might this be the Christ?”
- 30 The Samaritans come out of the city
- and are coming to Jesus.
I’ve said before that calling someone Messiah might get that person killed for treason, which is why Jesus avoided outright saying, “I’m Messiah.” And maybe the Samaritan did as well, and didn’t literally say “Christ”—she said Tahéb, which John translates as “Christ” because it functionally means the same thing. But maybe she did say Christ. We can’t say for certain—and it doesn’t really matter. Whatever she said, got the Samaritans’ attention.
So out they came to check out Jesus for themselves.
