As Jesus fled from the Pharisees, he came to the city of Samaria, which was near the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph (John 4:5-6; cp. Joshua 24:32). He was weary from the journey, and because both he and his disciples had to leave Judea in such haste (John 4:1-3), they didn’t have time to buy food for their journey. Therefore, while his disciples went into the town to buy supplies (John 4:8), Jesus rested at Jacob’s well (John 4:6).
It was about noon (the sixth hour),[1] when a Samaritan woman came to get water, and Jesus asked her for a drink (John 4:7). The woman was probably surprised that Jesus spoke to her, because it was evident that he was a Jew, and Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In fact, they were considered unclean (John 4:9), but it was for this very reason that Jesus needed to go through Samaria on his way from Judea to Galilee. Most Jews, especially those who were fastidious in keeping the purification laws, would skirt Samaria, whenever they traveled north to Galilee from Judea or south from Galilee to Judea. They would take the longer route by journeying through Perea and the Decapolis, avoiding Samaria altogether. So, if the Pharisees were seeking Jesus in order to do him harm, they would have naturally presumed he would have taken the normal route to Galilee from Judea.
So, the woman was surprised that Jesus spoke to her at all, much less to request a favor from her. Therefore, she mentioned the oddity to Jesus, wondering why he would act differently than all other Jews (John 4:9; cp. 4:27). In reply, Jesus, immediately, began speaking to her of spiritual matters, using his request for physical water to point to a spiritual thirst, which was satisfied only by the Spirit of God (John 4:10; cp. 7:37-39). Of course, the woman wasn’t able to pick up on the change of theme in the discussion, so she, like Nicodemus, earlier (John 3:4, 9), continued the discussion, as though Jesus spoke of literal or physical matters (John 4:11). She inquired of him how he could possibly draw water from the well without a container. Then, she mentioned Jacob’s well, asking if Jesus thought he was greater than Jacob (John 4:12), thus, opening the door for Jesus to go deeper into the spiritual theme of the discussion.
Therefore, Jesus went on to tell the woman that drinking from Jacob’s well only temporarily satisfied one’s thirst, but the spiritual drink that Jesus could give would be itself a well within man that would spring up to satisfy one’s (spiritual) thirst constantly (John 4:13-14). Jesus’ words, though expressed in a different theme are actually very similar to what he told Nicodemus (John 3:3, 5-8). There he claimed that, unless a man is born again, he is unable to even perceive the Kingdom of God (John 3:3), and it is only through the Spirit of God that one is able to enter that Kingdom. Flesh is flesh, pointing to its temporary nature (cp. John 4:13), while spirit is spirit and doesn’t decay like the flesh, so continues the parallel between the two discussions (John 3:5-6; cp. John 4:14).
Interestingly, the woman responded favorably to Jesus’ words, asking for that drink that he alone could give (John 4:15; cp. 4:10). In contrast, however, Nicodemus, and those he claimed to represent (cp. John 3:1-2), continued to doubt Jesus’ words (John 3:4, 9). While they knew he was sent by God (John 3:2), they didn’t believe his teaching, and wouldn’t simply accept his word as true and seek his help to understand better (John 3:11-12). One simply cannot perceive the Kingdom of God without trust (faith). A better education, while helpful in many ways concerning matters of this world, is unable to help one either perceive God’s Kingdom or understand spiritual matters. Hence, the woman who simply accepted Jesus’ word, because she perceived he was a prophet (John 4:19), was in a much better position than the elite authorities in Jerusalem, who filtered Jesus’ words through their own understanding (John 2:20; 3:4, 9).
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[1] It has often been theorized that the Gospel of John tells time differently than do the Synoptics, because Mark claims Jesus was crucified about the third hour of the day (cir. 9 AM in modern terms), while the author of John’s Gospel claims Jesus was sentenced by Pilate at about the 6th hour (John 19:14). The eastern method of telling time began at sunrise (cir. 6 AM) to sunset (cir. 6 PM; cp. John 11:9); afterward the hours of the night were numbered. Nevertheless, the Roman legal time began at midnight, so the sixth hour of John 19:14 was actually about 6 AM as we count time today. However, everything agrees, if all four Gospel narratives measure time alike, according to the eastern method of telling time. Thus, the sixth hour of John 4:6 is noon, not 6 AM. When we get to John 19:14, it refers to the hour in which Pilate sentenced Jesus. This would have been recorded in Pilate’s annals and submitted to Caesar. It referred to time of an official judgment in a Roman legal document. Therefore, it would have followed the Roman method of recording time. All other mentions of time in the Gospel of John (John 1:39; 4:6, 52) follow the eastern method of telling time.
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