A Samaritan Messiah

The backdrop to the account of the woman at the well in John 4 is the Samaritan understanding of the Messiah. The Samaritan people considered themselves to have the true Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and only used their writings as the basis of their religious practices. They did not see the prophets and their writings as authoritative. This information sheds a little light on the reaction and responses of the Samaritan woman in John 4. With such limited writing and information, they were missing a large portion of information spoken by the prophets that had been recorded.

The Samaritan people based their idea of the Messiah largely on scripture, such as Deuteronomy 18:15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” With this limited information in the Samaritan mind, the Messiah was simply a great and mighty teacher who would come and set things right regarding religious teaching. He would speak as a prophet and teach them the ways of God in a more perfect manner.

With this in mind, the responses of the woman at the well are more understandable. It likely explains why when Jesus was speaking to her regarding living water, spiritual matter, and eternal life, she still seemed to miss the point and wanted the water so she would no longer be thirsty and have to make the trip to draw water. It also may explain why when Jesus told her of the things regarding a husband in her life that she seemingly had not told Him, she responded with simply, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”

This encounter shows that a limited understanding of God’s word makes it harder to comprehend who Jesus is. The more we study what Christ has revealed about Himself, the more clearly we can see Him for who He truly is.