The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." John 4:15-18
I've wrestled with this text. Not just these few verses but trying to keep the narrative together while still calling out the essence of John's viewpoint in small snippets so we can meditate on it.
These verses hold a couple of perspectives from theologians and scholars and are all worthy of understanding (and we'll cover each). I recognize how often I have approached Scripture with the posture of needing to know what to do or how to apply the text practically instead of from a posture of interacting or encountering God relationally.
Over many years, I have learned to pay attention to the world (and Scripture) with the left side of my brain: the analyzing, assessing, and judging modes. I would see Scripture at a distance but fail to engage with Scripture in the present moment with my right side of the brain. When we are too left-brain oriented, we begin to see people and their sins as problems to be fixed (i.e., puzzles that need to be solved) instead of simply being with people who need to be loved (including ourselves). I am not a neuroscientist, but if you want to add an excellent book to your library, The Soul of Desire by Dr. Curt Thomspon is a must-read to help you better understand how an integrated, community-oriented mind is part of having a renewed mind (Romans 12:2).
So, as we read these verses, let's not jump into judgment mode about this conversation, the woman or rush to get to an "outcome" of what to believe. Let's understand (as best as we can) what might have been at play as John pens this and approach the reading with curiosity, a Christ-centered justice, and the desire to courageously co-create beauty.
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." John 4:15-18
Some interpreters of this Scripture have noted that the Samaritan woman is unnamed and, therefore, believes she's more of an abstraction or a symbol of Samaria itself.
The thinking goes (if she is a symbol) that the five husbands could represent the five locations in Samaria where settlers are supposed to have come, according to 2 Kings 17:24. If we continue with this interpretation, we come to the fact that Jesus and the Samaritan woman meet at a well -- and not just any well, but Jacob's well where he met Rachel in Genesis 29. In a traditional Jewish context, weddings occur after well-meetings.
So, the interpreters who see this story of the Samaritan woman as indeed symbolic look at it like this: Jesus is the bridegroom (an image used in John 3), the one who is more significant than Jacob, who will gather a people to worship and transcend the divisions that have kept Jews and Samaritans at odds for centuries. This specific interpretation helps us see God's deep desire for faithfulness and unity.
Other interpreters believe the use of symbolism robs the Samaritan woman of her actual existence and its message.
Jesus directly asks her to go and get her husband, already knowing that she has had five husbands and currently lives with a man to whom she isn't married.
Unless Samaritan law was wildly different from Jewish law, and their culture likewise radically different, there is little possibility that this meant that the woman had divorced five men. Women could not initiate divorce in Judaism (more about how modern Judaism deals with this here). In this patriarchal cultural context, a woman who divorced a couple of husbands would not be likely to be taken as the wife of yet another (McGrath, New Testament Studies). So, it is more plausible that the woman has been widowed multiple times.
Keep in mind that divorce, remarriage, and concubinage were not considered immoral in this cultural context. So, the popular slandering of the Samaritan woman from the story is inappropriate.
Remember how we stated earlier that weddings occur after well-meetings in a traditional Jewish context? There's a whole post here that speaks to the historical context of the well-meeting pattern started by Issac and Rebekah (Genesis 24), Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29), and Moses and Zipporah ((Exodus 2), and it leads us to another interpretation of this section of Scripture. In each of these well-meeting instances, the pattern goes like this:
Journey: Someone journeys to a foreign country.
Woman at the well: The man encounters a woman at a well.
Draws water: Someone draws water from the well.
News: The woman hurries home to bring news of the visitor.
Hospitality: The visitor stays with the woman's family, and there is mention of a meal.
Joining: The two parties joined as one.
What can we draw from this pattern as we look at these verses in John?
Journey: Jesus journeys toward his hometown but passes through Samaria first.
Woman at the well: He encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. The author says that it was "Jacob's well" (v. 6), further linking this story with the meeting of Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29).
Draws water: The woman comes to "draw water," following the typical well-meeting pattern, but there is a twist in that Jesus says he came to give her "living water."
News: We'll see this in future verses, but the woman leaves her earthly water jug and shares the news of the Messiah.
Hospitality: We're told Jesus stayed two days (v 29-40), and a meal is mentioned.
Joining: Instead of being united with a single person, this is about Jesus joining himself to those outside of Israel.
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." John 4:15-18
Here, we have the text inserted a third time, and now we have a few interpretations. Take a few moments for your own reflections based on various interpretations. Again, remember that the relationship and conversation with God are more important than your result of reading this blog post or what you're going to "go do better" now that you've read it.
Here are a few of my reflections as I studied:
I, like the woman, am a person who is presently in need of love.
I am thirsty to know and to be known more. As expressed in Psalm 42:7, "deep calls to deep," and my deep needs want to collide with God's all-sufficient presence.
Jesus desires to be my friend and wants me to become more aware of the areas of my character that contain "wax (i.e., not sincere) so that the Potter can further shape me as I yield (Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18).
Feel free to your own reflections in the comments!