Christian Pathway

Gospel: John 4: 5-42
This week I feel like a man who is about to deliver a sermon on what childbirth is like, because what I am going to attempt is to highlight how certain texts have become victim to misogyny. So please excuse me while I attempt this journey and probably stumble over or miss things that stand out to the ladies in this reading, because I can’t experience misogyny I am a white male, living in a male-dominated, white society.

But the prevailing view of the woman at the well even for some of the most well-respected scholars who have taken the view of the woman at the well as a fallen or immoral woman, is in my view, total nonsense!

But I have seen even the most educated scholars really perpetuate nasty myths about this story, so I am going to attempt the jump to redefine it at least for us here.  Albeit like Evel Knievel my job is to attempt the leap maybe not land it, that’s for you to decide.

This text is a classic example of how texts can be twisted by societal pressures. In western Christianity, the woman at the well has become seen as immoral for two main reasons, one she was at the well at midday,  interpreted to hide her shame and two, she has had 5 husbands. The 5 husbands thing became a sign of a loose woman. 

That’s society attaching a load of ideas totally not supported by the text, which is what I intend to preach on? Hopefully to get you to maybe view her more kindly.

lets look at being at the well at midday first

People visited wells of clean water many times a day in hot countries, so she was just thirsty, or needing to water her animals etc. The reading attached no shame to her.   Jesus is mentioned as hot and tired , as it says “and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”  Jacobs well has been noted throughout history as clean fresh water fed by springs and filtered through rocks. Its also reliable even in a drought and was well known, it was 1500 years old by Jesus’ time and still reliable today. So it’s clean fresh reliable , 40 meters down away from the heat and so cool fresh water.

This well would have seen lots of traffic at all times of the day, and Jesus was here at noon, the hottest part of the day, every human would need 3-4 litres a day to stay hydrated, more if they were working and animals and children and husbands.  This is several trips a day at least.

So in reality there’s no shame in being thirsty, and even less in collecting water for your family.

Then we come to 5 husbands, and our Victorian side of us goes , Harlot, scarlet fallen woman, etc.  

This is also rubbish. 

The key is understanding how marriage worked in that world: 

1. women did not choose their husbands, 
2. They could not initiate divorce, 
3. in a world where people die you women were often caught in cycles of widowhood, levirate obligations, or being in need of protection
4. Lets face it men wanting a newer model is not unheard of today
5. When you put those factors together, five marriages becomes a sign of instability and vulnerability, not immorality

Jesus is pointing out her history not pointing it out as shameful. We  the reader did that without knowing her history

Then lets see see how Jesus treated her, 
He treated her with respect.
She asks intelligent theological  questions so much so its one of the few places where Jesus really clearly states , he is the messiah.  So he welcomed her much more than many others he encountered, indeed it’s the disciples who get the rebuke when they come back with his lunch. He gets quite cross with them when they try and get him to eat?
³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 

Ouch – this is a prickly jesus today

Then lets look at how the people that knew her from her community treated her when she asked them to come meet this chap who she had encountered

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

This is not how fallen women were treated, unclean or disregarded. In her own society she was treated with and known as a reliable witness. Her evangelism worked. So we can say.

•     She becomes the first evangelist in John’s Gospel.

•     Jesus reveals He knows her fully.

•     He treats her with dignity, not condemnation.
•     She speaks confidently with Jesus.

•     She asks intelligent theological questions.

•     She goes back to the town and her people listen to her.

•     Many Samaritans believe because of her evangelism.

So she isn’t silly , and she isn’t acting as one ashamed , and she isn’t treated as someone who has shame attached to her?

so with even a basic look at this story this shameful woman idea isn’t stacking up.  But this is western christianitys story the east typically shows more respect to women in scripture 

SO let’s look at  how eastern Christianity treats her. 

In that version she revered and  has a name – Photini

The name Photini means “the enlightened one” or “the luminous one.”

It reflects what happens at the well: she moves from confusion to insight to proclamation. In the East, this transformation is taken seriously, so she becomes in their telling of this story

• Saint Photini
• Equal‑to‑the‑Apostles
• The first evangelist in John’s Gospel
• A martyr under Nero

She has a feast day  which is celebrated on February 26 and again on the Fifth Sunday of Pascha (the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman).

also In the Eastern tradition:

•     She is baptised after meeting Jesus.

•     At baptism she receives the name Photini.

•     The name marks her transformation — she becomes a bearer of the “light of Christ.”

This is the same pattern as other early Christians who received new names at baptism (e.g., Saul → Paul).

This eastern Christianity version of her name and her alternate story didn’t appear out of thin air,  she gets her name because:

•     early Christians preserved her story  verbally

•     baptism gave her a new identity

•     her transformation is expressed in the name

•     the Eastern Church honoured her as a major apostolic figure

In fact, she is seen as equal to the apostles. 

Even if I haven’t totally convinced you poor photini  has been treated badly by the west, based on even the most literal understanding of scripture, she happily crosses the cultural divide with Jesus of jew  and Samaritan (they rub along uneasily to this day), she tries to get loads of people to come to Jesus, and her people respect her enough to follow.  The marriage thing can have many reasons mostly out of her control in this era, so she is s victim of her time, Jesus welcomes her and so should we. 

The story really is we should always look again at people society tries to get us to devalue, because in the bible nobody has this happen to them, and she has many points in her story that contradict a misogynistic view . 

When society asks you to take a dim view of anyone as a result of scripture we should always remember we each read the bible through the lens of our biases and weakness and social conditioning and then society amplifies them.

this story of the woman at the well, is definitely a case in point 

In my opinion she is actually a hero of our faith 

Photini