There are two halves to Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman.
Part 1/2: In the first half Jesus and the woman discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of two waters. She looks to the water found in Jacob’s well. Jesus offers her his “living water” (4:7-15).
Transition: The issue of water disappears, however, when Jesus reveals that he knows more about her than any ordinary man (4:16-18).
Part 2/2: Now seeing him as a prophet, she raises the question of worship and its proper location. Jesus tells her a new era has dawned in which God looks not for the location but for people who worship in Spirit and Truth (4:19-26).
Though they differ in topic, the two halves are not unrelated. John intends us to see the water and worship together.
The Presence of Parallel’s in the Bible
Parallel arrangements are relatively common in the Bible. The Psalms exhibit a form of parallelism in which the second line repeats the basic idea of the first. Psalms 19:1 says,
The heavens declare the glory of the God
The skies proclaim the works of his hand.
Note how each part is linked to the second half, heavens with skies, declare with proclaim, glory with works and God with his hand.
Such arrangements are not exclusively found in the Psalms. They appear in the Bible’s narrative portions as well. The connections found in the days of creation is one example. The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is another.
The Well and the Mountain
Tradition: In the first half, the woman exalts the well’s status by connecting it with the Samaritans’ “father.”
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?”
In the second half, the woman exalts the status of the mountain, describing it as the place where the Samaritan “fathers” worshiped.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’
The linked word indicates that both the well and the mountain are to be understood as traditional locations.
Source: Both are places the Samaritan woman must continually come to draw. She is tied to a location because the location offers the source of water and worship respectively.
Surpassed: The well and the mountain have been surpassed by something which Jesus offers.
I was personally tipped off to the presence of a parallel in this conversation by the repeated word “father.’ In the first half, the woman exalts the status of the well and its water by saying it had been given by the Samaritan’s ‘father.’
The connection lead me to further ponder the connection between the well and the mountain.
suggested to me that the well and the mountain have something in common. How are the well and the mountain comparable?
- Both the well and the mountain are traditional.
- Both the well and the mountain are locations.
- Both the well and the mountain are sources.
- Both the well and the mountain are surpassed by something beyond tradition and location.
The well is a location of a traditional water just as the mountain is a location of traditional worship. We find that the well and the mountain are linked.
Jesus offer of “livin
g water’ in the first half of the conversation is likewise connected with worship in Spirit and in Truth in the later half of the conversation. Once again Jesus offers water which is the Spirit.
