Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 4:1-42, A Samaritan woman at Jacob's well
Tired at noon, Jesus sits on Jacob's well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. They talk about living water, her husbands and the right mountain for worship, and her town comes out to meet him.
John 4:1-42, in every translation this tool compares.
Traveling from Judea to Galilee through Samaria, Jesus sits by Jacob's well near Sychar at about noon while his disciples go to buy food. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water, and he asks her for a drink; she is astonished that a Jew would ask a Samaritan woman. He offers her living water, tells her about her five husbands and the man she now lives with, and when she raises the old question of Gerizim or Jerusalem, says a time is coming when the Father will be worshiped in spirit and truth. She speaks of the Messiah to come, Jesus says he is the one, and the townspeople she tells come out, ask him to stay and call him the Savior of the world.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/women-in-public\/","n":"Women in public","s":"Custom kept unrelated men and women apart in public. Teachers warned men against talking much with women, a stranger was not to speak with a woman alone, and a woman's word counted for little in court. Most women were also taught far less than men, so a call for women to learn stood out.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-by-touch\/","n":"Unclean by touch","s":"Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/prophet-like-moses\/","n":"The prophet like Moses","s":"Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like him. In Jesus' day people asked whether a new preacher was the Prophet, and some expected the manna and the wonders of the exodus to return with him.","r":""}
Jews could go around Samaria, but most commonly took the short route through it (the cultural backgrounds notes). Women usually drew water together, so a woman alone at noon, the hottest hour, suggests she was not welcome among them (the cultural backgrounds notes); Bailey adds that she may have been looking for travelers. Jewish tradition held a Samaritan woman to be unclean, so drinking from her vessel would defile (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Her five husbands are read differently: as widowhood or divorce, either seen as shameful (the cultural backgrounds notes); as a sign of her sexual history (Keener); as probably divorce, with Wright unsure whether she sinned more than she was sinned against; or as a statement that was technically true but meant to mislead (Bailey). Mount Gerizim stood in view, and she speaks of worship there in the past tense because a Jewish ruler had destroyed the Samaritan temple long before (Keener and his notes; Josephus). Samaritans awaited a prophet like Moses, the Taheb, not a son of David (Keener and his notes). The emperor claimed to be savior of the world (the cultural backgrounds notes).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 4:4, 4:6, 4:9, 4:10, 4:12, 4:18, 4:20, 4:25, 4:40 and 4:42
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 4:7, 4:9, 4:18, 4:20 and 4:25-26
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13.9.1, trans. William Whiston
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 15, The Woman at the Well, sections 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 4:9 and 4:20-21
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 4:9
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, comment on John 4:16-26
