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When the Samaritan woman finally accepts Jesus' offer of living water, he says to her: "Go, call your husband and come here." (John 4:16)

Why doesn't Jesus just give her his living water?

The new focus on her husband and marital status seems abrupt – out of place. It’s raised suddenly with no connection to what precedes it. Nothing in the conversation would seem to suggest that Jesus should be concerned with her marital status. And just as quickly as it's raised it's dropped.

Why does Jesus want the Samaritan woman to go and call her husband?

Matthew Miller
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The topic of marriage is not a change in subject. Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman is all about marriage. Here are four things most interpreters miss or simply don’t want to talk about.

Jesus is a Bridegroom

Jesus encounter with the woman by the well comes immediately after John the Baptist calls Jesus the “bridegroom.” Read John 3:28-30:

You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.

And this isn’t the first time in John that Jesus has been described as the groom. A chapter earlier, Jesus miraculous supply of wine at the wedding leads the headwaiter to tell the bridegroom that HE has supplied the best wine. There’s nothing wrong with that assumption. The groom was indeed responsible for the supply of wine. So Jesus in suppling the wine has acted as the bridegroom!

Marriage Happens When Men Meet Women by Wells

This isn’t the first time in scripture a man goes to a foreign land, sits down by a well of water, meets a girl and asks for a drink. In fact it happens quite a few times in the Old Testament with the same surprising result.

Genesis 24, Genesis 29 and Exodus 2:15-22 also recount the story of a man meeting a woman at a well. And in each it leads to the two getting married. In Genesis 24 Abraham’s servant finds a bride for Isaac, in Genesis 29 Jacob finds his future wife Rachel and Moses, in Exodus 2, meets his future wife Zaphora.

John 4 parallels these stories on several points. Here’s how Lyle Eslinger breaks it down in his article “The Wooing of the Woman by the Well.”

  • The future bridegroom (or surrogate) journeys to a foreign land (vv. 1-6)
  • There he meets a girl at a well (vv. 6-7)
  • Someone, the man or maiden, draws water from the well (vv. 7-15)
  • The maiden rushes home to bring news of the stranger (vv. 28-30, 39-42)
  • a betrothal is arranged, usually after the prospective groom has been invited to a betrothal meal (vv. 31-38).

Sound familiar? Well of course Jesus encounter with the woman doesn’t overtly parallel all of these items. Numbers 3 and 5 are a little out of sync. Unlike Rebekah, Rachelle and Zaphora, the Samaritan woman never draws water from the well. Or does she? Read 4:15 and 4:28. Likewise, there is no specific mention of an arranged marriage. But there is that invitation for Jesus to stay with the Samaritans.

Lyle Eslinger also finds a unique link to each of these Old Testament stories.

  • Vv. 1, 3, 6 (Exodus 2,14-15): like Moses, Jesus believes that the Pharasees (cf. Pharaoh) have heard about his actions and he leaves his country to avoid them. On his journey in a foreign land he sits down by a well and there meets a girl.
  • V. 6b (Gen 29.7) Both Jacob and Jesus come to the well at noon.
  • Vv. 7, 9 (Gen 24.17-18). Like Eliezer, Jesus says give me a drink. Unlike Rebekah, the Samaritan woman does not immediately comply.

Meeting a woman by a well is a biblical type-scene. In the same way we know that princes who kiss comatose women causes them to wake up, so the ancient reader understood that men who meet woman by wells end up getting married.

This is the same plot of ground where Dinah was raped

This plot of ground (that Jacob gave to his son Joseph) is mentioned three times in the Old Testament (Gen. 33:19, 48:22 and Josh. 24:32). In the later two instances its just mentioned in passing. The first time, however, it’s the backdrop and catalyst to a very heated story. Read Genesis 33:18-34:4:

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

That’s the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Keep reading.

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”

Hamor rapes Dinah and wants to marry her. But that’s not the end of the story!

When the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

The son’s of Jacob plot revenge! They promise to intermarry among the people on the condition that they all be circumcised according to there own family custom. The people agree. But on the third day, after all the males have been circumcised, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, storm the city and kill all the men.

In addition to the geographic reference, note the similarities between this story and Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman.

  • The Samaritan woman goes out (Gen. 34:1, John 4:7)
  • She meets Jesus, a foreign man (Gen. 34:2-4, John 4:6-7)
  • They have an illicit exchange (Gen. 34:2-4, John 4:9)
  • The disciples return and find out about what went down. (Gen. 34:7, John 4:27)

Of course there’s no rape in the story of Jesus encounter. What might John be driving at? By referring to the plot of ground, John wants us to see this scene in light of its sinister history. The story in part shows the bad blood that exists between the Jews and the Samaritans. When the Samaritan woman comes out of town and finds the man sitting by the well, we hold our breath and cross our fingers, hoping that things will turn out differently this time around.

And it does!

But its interesting that the desire to marry is once again at the heart of this story. Once again the allusion suggests that Jesus is looking for a bride.

Does the Samaritan woman know what Jesus is up to? It all depends on what she thinks Jesus means by “water”.

Water could be interpreted as Double-Entendre

You’ve heard of a double-entendre, right? It’s a spoken word or phrase that can be understood in two different ways. The first is simple and safe, the second risqué. For instance, a double-entendre is central to the following sentence. “A nudist beach is place where men and women go to air there differences.”

Could a double-entendre lay at the heart of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman? Might she think that Jesus is asking her for sex?

Now I’m not saying that Jesus is offering her sex. I’m merely suggesting that the woman perceives him to be. Here’s why.

For starers, there’s the repeated allusion to sex and marriage in this scene.

  • Jesus is described as the groom to whom the bride belongs just before he meets the woman.
  • The meeting echoes the pattern of several engagement scenes in the Old Testament.
  • The location where the meeting occurs is specifically connected with a story of rape and marriage.

Secondly, water is a metaphor for sex in the bible.

Read Proverbs 5:15-18.

Drink water from your own cistern and fresh (living) water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone and not for the strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Now read Song of Solomon 4:12 and 15:

a garden locked is my sister, my bride, a rock garden locked, a spring sealed up… you are a garden spring, a well of fresh water (i. e. living water).

In other words she’s a virgin.

And we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Jesus, a man, is talking with a woman ALONE. Do all these details go unnoticed by the woman? Or Jesus for that matter? It may very well be that the woman is picking up a different vibe from the one Jesus is sending.

Jesus’ request for a “drink” leads the woman to comment on His forwardness. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman”, she reminds him. “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

According to Eslinger, the Greek word for “dealings” can mean, “to associate with.” But it can also mean “to be intimate with,” or “to have sexual intercourse“.1 Another double-entendre.

Given the facts above, it’s not hard to see how the first part of their conversation could be read in a more sexualized fashion. And it might even be easier.

Jesus: “Give me a drink.” Woman: “How is that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealing with Samaritans.” Jesus: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink, ‘you would have asked Him, and he would have given you living water.” Woman; “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do you get that living water? you are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus: “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Woman: “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way her to draw.” Jesus: “Go, call your husband, and come here.” Woman: “I have no husband.” Jesus: “You have well said, ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

The double-entendres render the sudden, seemingly out of place “Go, call your husband” less jarring. Jesus’ command lays to rest any misunderstanding.

Why all the subtle references to sex and marriage? What might Jesus and John be up to? This fits into a larger marriage motif in the Gospel of John. In fact, every time Jesus engages with a woman there are Old Testament allusions to marriage.

1 "The Wooing of the Woman at the Well: Jesus, the Reader and Reader-Response Criticism" by Lyle Eslinger. This originally appeared in Literature and Theology 1/1 (1987) pp 167-83. This claim is covered on pg 176-177, with an extensive footnote at the bottom of the page which lays out the case for the sexual overtones in this word. The author cites a number of additional sources.

Steve can help
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Matthew Miller
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    Thanks for adding the link, and my apologies - I think I had missed your reference to the Eslinger article in the original answer. Just FWIW and why I haven't voted: To me, directly citing the other academic sources you mention that back up statements that are not either completely obvious or uncontroversial would strengthen the argument. I'm more comfortable as a reader if it is made explicit what are new postulates and what is published research (and by whom). Because that's how things are written that convince me of things. :-) – Susan Mar 07 '15 at 03:35
  • (The above was partly in response to your comment in chat expressing concern about people's motivations for not voting on this.) – Susan Mar 07 '15 at 03:46
  • e.g. "water is a metaphor for sex in the bible." You've included a few verses in defense of that, but to show that this is a pervasive theme throughout "the bible" (?!) (and therefore applicable to the text at hand) would take more work. Quite possibly someone else has done that work, and citing it would allow you to make that claim as part of your own argument. I'm being obnoxious here, mostly to try to convince you that at least my reason for refraining from voting is different from what you've supposed. – Susan Mar 07 '15 at 04:00
  • @Susan the idea that water could be interpreted as sex is found in the context of John 4. All I need to show from the Old Testament is that its possible - which it certainly is. The clear references and allusions to marriage in John 4 do the rest. With respect - I mean it - you have not convinced me. It seems your reluctance to vote for my post is not based on a lack of evidence but because it's something that's in conflict with the way you think this passage should be interpreted. – Matthew Miller Mar 07 '15 at 04:07
  • “in conflict with the way [I] think this passage should be interpreted”: yup, because it’s not in any scholarly commentary I’ve read. (It may be there! Show me!) As such, I need references for your claims citing published research done by experts in the field in order to consider it a solid argument. If you want to do original exegesis, it needs to be qualified as such and distinguished from previously published ideas. (I realize this is a somewhat high bar; I’m still trying to explain a [lack of] vote - not criticizing for the sake of it.) – Susan Mar 07 '15 at 05:07
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Matthew Miller Mar 07 '15 at 05:19
  • @MatthewMiller I think your case for the scene of a man and a woman meeting alone at a well being a sort of type, reminding us of famous betrothels in the past, is very strong. I'm not sure about the Dinah and water as euphemism points. They are worth being included as possibilities, but your answer needs to contend with how Jesus knew the answer to his question already. How she was shocked and calls him a prophet to the town. To me that line of logic is more important. Your marriage points add nice context and help us understand the setting, but doesnt answer the question by itself. – Joshua Apr 13 '15 at 01:59
  • @JoshuaBigbee why is it more important? It seems to me the traditional answer, "Jesus did it to reveal the woman's sin", has lead people to totally miss the bigger point. They're two halves of this conversation. The first half deals with a comparison and contrast between a traditional source of water ("father" Jacob's well) and Jesus' offer of living water. That imagery is symbolically mirrored in the second half when the conversation shifts to traditional site of worship (our "fathers worship on this mountain") which is contrasted with Jesus' call to worship in spirit and in truth." – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 02:20
  • @JoshuaBigbee Jesus' command for the woman to "go call your husband and tell him to come here" is what breaks this conversation into these two halves. The bigger point in the immediate context is for the reader to connect the imagery in the first half of the conversation with the imagery in the second. Father Jacob's well is traditional worship in solitary location while living water is universal worship in spirit and in truth. In telling the woman to go call her husband, Jesus is neither changing the subject nor is simply dealing with the woman's sin. – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 02:47
  • @JoshuaBigbee perhaps I should add that I agree with the traditional "Jesus did it to reveal the woman's sin" interpretation. I just think its a rather simplistic interpretation which totally misses much of what's going on in John 4. – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 02:52
  • @MatthewMiller More important only because I feel it is still the primary purpose. Even in the context of Christ being the bridegroom of the church, the bride prepares with white garments. Repentance of sin is still necessary. I just don't think the marriage context is the bigger point. Maybe answer this, just what exactly is the final purpose of the marriage references? We get the point in him revealing her sin and it seems more important. In light of your marriage points, can you concisely state Jesus' purpose in asking the question? Because I still only understand it as context.Not purpose. – Joshua Apr 14 '15 at 03:14
  • @JoshuaBigbee I don't think there's one simple answer for why Jesus asks that question. (1) I think Jesus is revealing his power. (2) I think he's highlighting the marriage theme. (3) I think he's moving the conversation towards the mirrored second half. I don't disagree that repentance of sin is necessary! Nor do I disagree that Jesus does in fact reveal the woman's sin. But the revelation of her sin only seems to play a minor part. Where in John 4 does the woman actually repent of all her marriages? Where in John 4 does Jesus actually forgive her? – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 04:07
  • It seems to me the primary point of the whole encounter is in the unification of Jew and Samaritan under the Messiah, the "Savior of the World." – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 04:08
  • Your (2) doesn't include a reason for highlighting the marriage theme. What is the point in doing so? That's what I'm trying to get at. Why go out of his way to highlight it at all with a Samaritan woman? – Joshua Apr 14 '15 at 04:26
  • @JoshuaBigbee Marriage is union. I just said the point of John 4 is the unification of Jew and Samaritan (think Gentile) through the ministry of Jesus - the bridegroom. The whole point of John 4 is that we are no longer bound to ritual and tradition and holy sites but that in Jesus we have the living water of the Spirit springing up where ever the believer in Jesus goes. The Worship of God is for everyone and everywhere. – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 04:48
  • This marriage theme is consistently emphasized in John every time Jesus engages with a woman. Marriage like the new birth is central to John's teaching about salvation. Would you like me to elaborate? – Matthew Miller Apr 14 '15 at 04:54
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Jesus asks her to call her husband to demonstrate his power. He knows that she will tell him she has no husband, and so it's simply a setup for him to prove that he has divine power because he already knows everything about her life. It just so happened that he chose the subject of her marriage, but he could have just as easily asked about something else because the subject of the question wasn't really the focus.

After he tells her about her marriage situation, she immediately responds "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet." and then moves the conversation to religious because she knows he is someone with divine power who can give answers.

She then says "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." to which he replies “I who speak to you am He.”

She then goes back to the town and tells everyone "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?". She probably wouldn't have believed him if he didn't prove his power by telling her about her life.

sam
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  • +1 Welcome to BH! Spot on with the standard interpretation. I think its missing something though. – Matthew Miller Feb 28 '15 at 03:00
  • @MatthewMiller I'm guessing the piece you consider missing is a direct answer to this question: "Why doesn't Jesus just give her his living water?" Correct? – Mr. Bultitude Mar 01 '15 at 03:56
  • @Mr.Bultitude No. I don't think Jesus is bringing up the woman's marital status to display his power and reveal her sin. He is doing that but that's not his point. As you can see in my answer to the question, I think the issue of marriage is fundamental to the conversation. Jesus is looking for a bride. – Matthew Miller Mar 01 '15 at 04:12
  • @MatthewMiller: Jesus was not "looking for a bride"; he was seeking and saving the lost. Jesus began that work in Samaria by introducing himself to one lone Samaritan whose witness in Samaria started a chain reaction of faith in Jesus the Messiah. To get sidelined into an interpretation of the text which is about as far from John's purpose in writing his Gospel as is possible to go is to pursue a tangent which diverges from the truth. John wrote his Gospel "so that [his readers] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing [they] may have life in His name" (20:31). – rhetorician Mar 03 '15 at 16:12
  • @rhetorician Cery true! But why does that exclude jesus looking for his bride in the people he is saving? Isn't that what the NT says he is doing elsewhere? The wedding/marriage imagery is a metaphor of salvation. I still haven't seen you engage with the evidence I have presented. Your ignoring and not offering any rebuttal. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 17:19
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    @ Matthew Miller. Jesus is figuratively called the "Lamb of God" John 1:29 (NASB) " The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Jesus was not lookong for a human wife, who then is the bride? Revelation 21:9 reads:(NASB) It is a spiritual wife in heaven: "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls [a]full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." – Ozzie Ozzie Jan 16 '19 at 20:57
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    @Mathew Miller:The bride is Jesus spirit annointed followers called New Jerusalem who will share with him, in His heavenly rulership. Rev. 14:1-5. Also Rev. 21:2 (NASB)reads And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband – Ozzie Ozzie Jan 16 '19 at 21:00
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Jesus' instruction to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, "Go, call your husband and come here" was perfectly apropos and was neither "abrupt" nor "out of place," as you suggest in your question.

The ostensible topic of conversation between Jesus and the woman was water. The woman was thinking primarily of physical water, whereas Jesus was on a higher, spiritual plane and spoke of something he called "living water" (v.10). The actual topic to which Jesus steered the conversation, then, was the human quest for personal fulfillment and true satisfaction, neither of which this woman had found.

Like many women today (and men, too) who are “looking for love in all the wrong places,” the Samaritan woman was looking for love, and she had been married and divorced five times by the time she met Jesus in the heat of the midday sun. She was likely drawing water at that time in order to avoid the town gossips who gathered at the well to draw water in the early morning coolness.

Jesus asked her to bring her husband to the well because he knew what her current living situation was. Moreover, Jesus knew she was looking for true satisfaction but would never find it without changing her modus operandi. Jesus’ comment about thirsting again and again for physical water was his way of pinpointing her need for the living water of which he spoke, the only water which would quench the spiritual thirst she felt within her inmost being, and not only in the here and now, but also in eternity (see vv.13-14).

As for the answer you provided to your own question, Jesus was indeed looking for a bride, but not in the way you suggest. In order to find a bride, Jesus first had to lay the groundwork for marrying his bride. He did so by finishing the work his Father gave him to do; namely, to redeem a world of sinners through his death, burial, and resurrection. Only when the sins of the world had been atoned for through the shedding of Jesus' blood would his bride be ready for the wedding. As Paul said in Ephesians 5,

”Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [in death], to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (vv.24-27).

The wedding of Jesus, the bridegroom, to his bride, the church universal, has yet to take place. The apostle John gives us a glimpse, however, of this yet future and joyous event:

”Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him [viz., the Lord our God, Almighty], for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he [viz., the angel] said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God” (Revelation 19:7-9 NASB Updated).

In conclusion, for a lovely and informative summary of the various points of comparison (or analogs) between what and how Jesus went about securing his bride and what and how a Jewish man in Jesus' day went about securing his bride, see the website here.

rhetorician
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  • I make no suggestion. I'm pointing out the facts. Fact: Jesus is called the bridegroom immediately before this scene. Fact: Jesus conversation with the women by well is consistent with an OT betrothal type scene. Fact: Jesus encounters the woman at the same plot of ground which led to the rape of Dinah. Fact: Water is a euphemism for sex in the Old Testament. Fact: Jesus raises the issue of the woman's marital status. I'm not suggesting, the facts are suggesting that something regarding marriage is going on. And this is also consistent with a larger marriage motif in John's gospel. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 01:04
  • Ephesians 5 suggests that the marriage between Christ and his Church has already taken place. The same is true with the Gospel of John. Every time Jesus engages with a woman there are allusions to marriage. That includes Mary and Martha before the tomb of Lazarus. It includes Mary encounter with Jesus in the Garden and it includes the appearance of the mother of Jesus at the Crucifixion. The piercing of Christ side is in fact an allusion to the creation of Eve. The first birth and marriage to occur in the bible. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 01:16
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    @MatthewMiller: Your hermeneutic is certainly, uh, unique! Mine is informed by a middle-of-the-road, mostly conservative Evangelicalism. Accordingly, I look at Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well as the consequence of his being led by the Spirit to this particular woman at this particular time, so that the good news of the kingdom could take root not only in her heart but also in her fellow townspeople. Very possibly, the success of Philip the evangelist among the Samaritans years later was attributable to the seeds Jesus had sowed in the 2 days he spent in Sychar (see Acts 8:5-25). – rhetorician Mar 03 '15 at 01:59
  • For an interesting and informative verse-by-verse exposition of John 4, check out this site: https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/282-jesus-and-the-samaritan-woman. Don – rhetorician Mar 03 '15 at 02:00
  • I'm an evangelical too. And my hermeneutic is by no means unique. It's actually quite common among scholars even evangelical ones. I read the gospels as literary constructs. While they are based on historical events they are not the events themselves. They are arranged, edited and interpreted through the spirit inspired author. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 02:10
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    @MatthewMiller: Guess we'll need to agree to disagree agreeably. I cannot honestly see any good in coming from your approach to Scripture. It seems fanciful, highly subjective, highly symbolic--allegorical, even, and is not supported by a commonsense reading of the text. Granted, there is a depth to the Scripture which none of us will ever plumb, and no single method of interpretation can unlock all its treasures. Nevertheless, a spiritualizing hermeneutic can often--and has!--become a "slippery slope" which leads to an erratic and risible, even, approach to interpreting the Bible. – rhetorician Mar 03 '15 at 03:42
  • may I ask why you find it subjective? I didn't come up with many of these connections. Scholars have been noting them for the past forty years. And they were noted in the early church. But don't you think that subjectivity is diminished with a pattern of consistent evidence? That's what we have here. Allusions are a fundamental tool of John. You believe that John 1:1 alludes to Genesis 1:1, right? Which connection that I've pointed to do you disagree? – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 04:16
  • @MatthewMiller: The allegorical approach has been around for millennia. Midrashic hermeneutics had its Sod (sood or sawd) approach to Scripture, which looked for hidden, secret, and mystical meanings in ways which would make the biblical writers scratch their heads incredulously and say, "But I didn't mean that!" When Jesus explained (i.e., "hermeneuticked") to Cleopas & the other disciple on Emmaus Road "the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures," do you REALLY think he interpreted those "things" allegorically? Email me (see my profile) & I'll send you Jesus' sermon outline! Don – rhetorician Mar 03 '15 at 04:17
  • my approach isnt allegorical. I'm focused on authorial-intent. I wouldn't read every biblical author this way. But I read John this way for a number of reasons deriving from his writings. John invites he's readers to read his gospel this way. He does first through the misunderstands and through his metaphors. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 04:24
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    one more thing. You said it's not a common sense reading of the text. That certainly begs the question whose common sense. John wasn't written for our 21st century American multimedia fed culture. It was written for a first century, largely illiterate culture with many beliefs that are absolutely foreign to our own. They heard and read texts in ways that is not at all common to our world. – Matthew Miller Mar 03 '15 at 04:42
  • @MatthewMiller: You're right! The evangelist's Gospel wasn't written for 21st century Christians. It was written for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th . . . 20th, AND 21st century Christians. While not discounting the linguistic and cultural aspects of John's gospel which are foreign to us today, we must also remember that John articulated some timeless truths. Another contributor to the SE used a term recently which I'm beginning to appreciate more and more: presentism. By that s/he means that we in the 21st century think that we're so superior and advanced today by virtue of our – rhetorician Nov 28 '15 at 16:06
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    simply living in the 21st century. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ever-present and time-insensitive aspects of living as a human being in this or any other age are part of the reason God gave us his living word. To be sure, timing is very important to God (Galatians 4:4) and we need to immerse ourselves, so to speak, in the history, language, and culture of the times in which Scripture came into being. However, the Bible expresses timeless truths which, though they may at times take considerable effort to interpret--and some more than others, are evergreen for all generations. – rhetorician Nov 28 '15 at 16:15
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  • He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. John 4:16-19

    The King of Assyria Populates Israel with Foreigners - The king of Assyria brought foreigners from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. When they first moved in, they did not worship the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them and the lions were killing them. The king of Assyria was told, “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.” 2 Kings 17:24-26 New English Translation (NET Bible)

    Under the Roman Empire, Samaria became a part of the Herodian Kingdom, Herodian Tetrarchy and with deposition of the Herodian ethnarch Herod Achelaus in early 1st century CE, Samaria became a part of the province of Judaea.

    The sixth 'husband' refers to the jews, were not a truthful husband.

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    Hello Betho, welcome to BHSE, glad to have you with us! If you haven't done it already, please make sure to take our tour to see how we are a little different than other sites you may know. Thanks! hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/tour – sara Sep 19 '19 at 06:32
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You find the same structure in the previous and flowing accounts. It is actually quite simple: until people realize they need a savoir they will not need a savior. For Nicodemus, he needed to know that he need a new life: to be born from above. The woman needed to know that Jesus knew all about her and was still willing to give her living water. For the man at the pool, he needed to know that Jesus could do what only Jesus could do: heal him physically and spiritually.

Jim Webb
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He is not shifting the subject at all, but on the contrary, does exactly what you deny Him to do: starts giving her the "living water", for what is the "living water" but a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, through Whom we understand Jesus' God-ness or Divinity (cf. 1 Cor. 12:23). Here also, Jesus by starting to tell her about all her former husbands and even the fact that the one she calls now a "husband" is not a lawful one, He tells her that His knowledge is not that of an ordinary man, but at least prophetic, which she initially believed. That was already an initiation of her into a mystery of His incarnation, thus the start of giving a "living water" to her. But if one takes just a 'sip' of the Holy Spirit's initiation, then it will become a source of infinite growth in this person, so as to the "rivers of living water (aka Holy Spirit) will flow from his heart" (John 7:38).

And, of course, it would be impossible for her, in the process of her more and more imbibing of the knowledge that came from Jesus during this conversation, to think even that He was merely a prophet or a prophetic Messiah, for He did not say "God will give you living water (aka Spirit)", but "I will give you the living water". This is crucial: the Spirit is equal to God, for He knows all the depths of God (1 Cor. 2-10), and the fulness of the invisible depth of the invisible God-the Father who is Spirit (John 4:24) can be known only by somebody equal to Him, God-the Holy Ghost, who is also likewise Spirit, for in this realm knowledge (epistemology) is inseparable from the essence and activity (ontology), and full knowledge thus implies full coincidence of the essence and activity, the fullness of divinity commonly shared.

But if Jesus Himself vouchsafes by authority God-the Holy Ghost, the "living water" by saying in a sovereign way "I will give you the living water", it means that He is at least equal to the Holy Ghost He is authorised to dispense; but He cannot be greater than the Holy Ghost, for nobody is greater than the one who knows the infinite depth of God-the Father and is equal to the Latter, for there is no more infinite to the infinite, while the Holy Ghost knows infinitely the infinity of God-the Father. Indeed, Jesus also shares in the fullness of this infinity mutually shared by God-the Father and God-the Holy Ghost, for He also encompasses the Holy Ghost without measure, that is to say, infinitely (John 3:34). Thus, Jesus, who is no less than God-the Holy Ghost who is equal to God-the Father, is likewise equal to God-the Father.

Therefore, by taking the very first sip of the Holy Spirit ("the living water") from the words of Jesus, through seeing that He knows all her past, without having been able to have humanly known about it, the woman would have been led, by the necessity of truthful inferences and the Holy Spirit-guided dialectics, to the fullness of cognition of the mystery of the Tri-Une God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Thus, having been educated by the Spirit that proceeds from the Father (John 15:26), the Samaritan woman came to the mystical wedding of the Father's - the King's - only-begotten Son - the heir - (Matthew 22:3), that is to say, to the faith and acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord and her true mystical bridegroom, for He is the mystical bridegroom of His believers, the Church (Revelation ch. 21-22). The soul of the Samaritan woman, as soul of every human being regardless gender or race, had a divinely sown principle of insatiable craving towards the Divine and Infinite, the craving not to be satisfied by anything created and limited, by any earthly interest or "husband", but only by the Infinite Himself, who came from the Infinite Father, talked to her at the well and dispensed to her the Infinite Holy Ghost, that she may not thirst henceforth (John 4:14).

Levan Gigineishvili
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If the woman would have drunk water and crucified her flesh in the evening, instead of drinking wine with men, she wouldn't have had so many of them.

Gal 5:24 (NIV) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So, yes, like with all the other believers in the crucifixion of the flesh, the woman at the well would also become Jesus' [spiritual] bride; if she only understood the way.

John 12:23,24,27,32 (NIV) Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Gal 3:1 (NIV) Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

Gal 2:19,20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

Constantthin
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I think, when He asked her to call her husband that He knew she was believing HIM about the water of life that He was telling her about. He wanted her husband to have the opportunity to hear truth along with her. Marriage between two believers is better than when one is saved and one is not. Jesus commended her first for being truthful, but He also told her the truth about herself,in detail. She diverted to religious jargon saying that He must be a prophet. The fact of the matter is that Jesus just let her talk freely to Him. Usually, when people allow others to express themselves, it makes them feel accepted. Jesus accepted her and told her profound truth that would be recorded for people to read, believe, and be saved. Her story is simple..she was a sinner, she needed a Savior, and He came to her personally. She made history with Jesus. She became a witness to others in the city, and they invited Jesus to stay with them. Many others were saved as a result. Her reputation was bad, no doubt, but God used her anyway and many were born again because of her witness of Christ. We all sin...some of us more than others, but Christ can redeem us all if we will just come to Him. I think the disciples actions upon returning to Christ, seeing him speaking to a Samaritian woman, closed the deal for her. He was respected among his men. She recognized authority. The Samartian woman sought love in the wrong way, but Jesus showed her love in the right way. He told her the truth. Her witness was believed by others which means she had some credibility. However, I think the reason he told her to call her husband was so they could be heirs of life together where both the man and the woman acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Jesus wanted to save her husband too. He wanted to bring the real love both of them needed to succeed in life as well as marriage. He wants us to be whole, in every area. He wanted this man and woman to know real love, and let Him be the head over the marriage. Jesus redeemed this woman, and most likely her husband.

E. Hamilton
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  • Hello Hamilton, welcome to BHSE, glad to have you with us! If you haven't done it already, please make sure to take our tour to see how we are a little different than other sites you may know. For example, we are interested in references backing up the thoughts you share in this answer. Thanks! hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/tour – sara Sep 19 '19 at 06:32
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The word that means "man" is usually translate "man" according to the Blue Letter Bible online resource(s).

Thus, I question, is there ANY way to KNOW that the woman EVER had been married - if she EVER had a husband at all.... or just a man , living with her or otherwise ?

Also, could the previous men have been even legitimate husbands, and died? Thus having one then another when one died, would not be as inappropriate as people think, or seem to think - maybe not inappropriate at all ?

Thanks to Yahweh in Heaven, and His Shalom to the households of all who look to Him , jeff

jeff
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Why does Jesus tell the Samaritan woman to “Go, call your husband”?

The Samaritan Woman.

John 4:15-18 (NET Bible)

15" The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”[d] 17 The woman replied,[e] “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said,[f] ‘I have no husband,’[g] 18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with[h] now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

15" The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus now appears to change the subject and,

16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” 17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.”

Just imagine the Samaritan woman, how shocked she must be, to hear Jesus knowing her marital past,then:

Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with[h] now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

Now she realizes the true meanings of Jesus sayings, she shows that she has interest in spiritual things, and in amazement she says:

19 "The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,[j] and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

The Samaritan woman was obviously greatly impressed that Jesus treated her with dignity and showed an interest in her. His insight into her personal situation moved her to accept him as a prophet and to tell others about him.

The Jews and the Samaritans had no dealing among them.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water[o] to drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. 9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common [t] with Samaritans.)

The notes below are from the footnotes of the NET Bible [ 9t]

The background to the statement use nothing in common is the general assumption among Jews that the Samaritans were ritually impure or unclean. Thus a Jew who used a drinking vessel after a Samaritan had touched it would become ceremonially unclean.

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Ozzie Ozzie
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Jesus addressed her adultery and she was honest and admitted to it, and then He gives her the revelation of the Holy Spirit and Himself. Living Waters is the Holy Spirit and Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer. He who forgives sins and makes us into new creatures. Jesus always addresses the person on a personal level. Jesus reveals your condition and then presents the solution; Himself. The Savior of the world.

Tiago Martins Peres
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John
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Question #1 - Why Doesn't Jesus Just Give Her His Living Water?
As with all of the events John includes, there are layers of meaning. In this case the initial answer is, it was not yet available:

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7 ESV)

As John explains later, the living water which Jesus offers is the Spirit which had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. In terms of the different events John describes, what was still unavailable at the Feast of Tabernacles had been unavailable at Jacob's well. Regardless of her marital status, she, like the disciples and everyone else, must wait.

What Jesus could do at that moment is to promise to give her what He offered, when it became available. This promise would have the same condition He gave at the Feast of Tabernacles: who ever believes in me; exactly as He told Nicodemus earlier:

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3)

The words Jesus would have spoken to the woman had she been married and brought her husband are only hypothetical. But there are things which must be included. (1) The living water spoken of in the Scriptures would given after the Son of Man was lifted up (2) The woman would have to believe in Him.

The requirement to believe in the Son of Man, as the Scripture has said is a serious issue for the woman. As a Samaritan, her Scriptures are the Pentateuch: she does not accept Daniel as Scripture. With respect to Scripture, she must change her mind from her Samaritan belief.

This is obvious from the direction Jesus takes the discussion:

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)

Even a "religious" Samaritan does not worship as they should because salvation is from the Jews. It is not unreasonable to understand correct worship as one of the conditions Jesus would have given the woman (had she been married and brought her husband).

Question #2 - Why does Jesus tell her "Go call your husband?"
Obviously Jesus knows the woman is living with a man who is not her husband. Nevertheless, He responds to the woman's request for living water as if she were married.

To understand the nature of this request, it must be seen within the context of Scripture without encumbering it with her actual condition.

The Law of Moses restricts a woman's ability to make a vow to the LORD:

6 “If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, 7 and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. 8 But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the LORD will forgive her. (Numbers 30)

In commenting on Numbers 30, Nili S. Fox begins by explaining the legal difference between a vow made by a man and one made by a woman:

A sworn statement in the name of God defines the seriousness of the pledge (Exodus 20.7; Deuteronomy 5.11). Vow and oath obligations differ from each other in that a vow is conditional. It binds the devotee only after God fulfills the requested blessing...This initial statement [verse 3] is simple. Since all men are independent, they are thus responsible for for their vows. The rest of the chapter deals with women's vows; the status of these depends on the status of the woman, particularly if she dependent on a man, that is, under his legal authority, specifically her father or husband.1

If she were to make a vow, the absence of her husband would have legal ramifications. Therefore, Jesus asks her to bring her husband before promising to give her the living water in the future.

Like many of the aspects to John's description of events the woman's answer has two meanings. The one many commentators focus on is her living with a man outside of marriage: she needs to repent. Another more significant is: I have no husband. Under the Law of Moses I am not under the authority of any man. I can speak for myself. No man can annul a vow I make to You.

Additional Consideration
The encounter with the Samaritan is rich in meaning. The woman's honesty about living with a man who is not her husband, seemingly moves the exchange away from the legal husband-wife dynamic. The reader is left to consider "what if she did have a husband?" John often uses irony which is true here. Because she is living with a man she is not married to in violation of the Law of Moses, the Law makes her free to speak for herself!

In fact, the LORD is referred to as the husband of Israel. The earliest statement of this betrothal is found in Hosea, which Samaritans do not accept as the Word of God!

18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (Hosea 2)

One may only marvel at the extent to which God goes to place Truth within His Word. Hosea, written to Judeans about the apostasy of the Northern Kingdom, contains the promise of the LORD's everlasting betrothal of Israel. Yet in Jesus' day, the Judeans who accept the promise reject Samaritans, the very ones the LORD made His promise of marriage! The foolishness of the human condition open for all to see. Judeans who claim the promise of betrothal reject those to whom the promise was first given. Those who first received the promise, reject it because it was not placed in what they have chosen as their Scripture.

The encounter with the Samaritan woman shows the ultimate authority with the ability to annul a vow rests with God. This may explain John's curious description of the woman's response:

28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? (John 4 KJV)

She goes and tells the Samaritan men, as if to say the LORD has betrothed us all!

1. Nili S. Fox, The Jewish Study Bible, Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, Oxford University Press, 2004, pp343-344.

Revelation Lad
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He knew she needed to repent of her adultery before being counted worthy of the blessing.

Supporting verses:

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you who are double-minded. (James 4:8)

Let us draw near with a true heart full of faith, since our hearts have been sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. (Heb 10:22)

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Greta Hoostal
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