Sandra.SCHNEIDERS – The story of Samaritan woman is remarkable for the clarity and completeness of its presentation of this revelation process in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus' self-revelation to the woman as the Messiah whom the Samaritans expect (4,25) is given in the “I am” formula that has such christological importance in this Gospel. It is the first use of this absolute formula in the Gospel , and its impact on the woman is that she immediately leaves her water jar where it is and hastens into the town to bear witness to Jesus as the expected Messiah, that is, the One who would tell them all things (4,25-29). We should not fail to note the feminine version of the standard Gospel formula for responding to the call to apostleship, namely, to “leave all things “ , especially one's present occupation , whether symbolized by boats and nets (Mt 4,19-22), or tax stall (Mt 9,9), or water pot. The witness that the woman bears is quite clearly apostolic in the Johannine perspective. First, its effect is that those who hear her “come to Him”(4,30), which is the Johannine expression for the first movement of saving faith in Jesus (6,37). In 4,39 we are told explicitly that many Samaritans “believed in Him because of the word of the woman witnessing”.The force of this expression as apostolic identification of the woman appears when we compare it with Jesus ' prayer in 17,20 ,describing , in essence, the apostolic mission: “I do not pray for these only (...those present at the supper) but also for those believing in Me through their word”. John ascribes the convertion of a least one Samaritan town ( probably symbolizing the whole Samaritan mission) to this woman apostle, who acts out of her belief in Jesus ' self- revelatory word and whose own witnessing word brings others to believe in Him. That her apostleship is fully effective is indicated by 4,41-42, according to which the Samaritans come to full faith in Jesus as Savior of the world . They claim that their faith is no longer dependent on the words of the witness but is now based on Jesus' own Word. In John's perspective the witness of a believing disciple brings a person to Jesus, but then disciple fades away as the prospective believer encounters Jesus Himself (1,35-41). Anyone who believes is personally called by name by the Good Shepherd (10,3) and becomes a branch directly enlivened by the True Vine (15,4-5). Essentially, no one mediates betwen Jesus and his own (10,3-5) in this Gospel's perspective , for the immediacy of their relation-ship is patterned on that of the Father and the Son.(10,14-15).
-->The third item of note in this account is the reaction of Jesus'disciples who return from their errand in town and discover Jesus conversing with the woman (4,27). We are told that they “marveled” or “wondered”. R. Brown is undoubtedly correct to translate it “ they were shocked”. They are no shocked , as we might expect, because Jesus was violating the religious prohibition against a Jew conversing with a Samaritan. By the time this Gospel was written converted Samaritans were an integral part of the Johannine community. But if the members of the community were well beyond anti-Samaritan prejudice, some were evidently not beyond the cultural patterns, characteristic of Semitic societies in general, of excluding women from public affairs. It seems more than a little likely that this detail about the disciples being shocked at Jesus' dealing with a woman, since it is no way necessary to the story itself, is aimed at those traditionalist male Christians in the Johannine community who found the indipendence and apostolic initiative of Christian women shocking. The point is quite clearly made, however, that they knew better than to question the profound purposes (indicated by the verb “to seek”) of Jesus for his women disciples. Jesus alone decides to whom He will reveal Himself and whom He will call to apostleship. Jesus is evidently filled with joy at the woman's work , which He recognizes as a realization of His own mission to do the will of the One who sent Him(4,34), and as an anticipation of the later work of the other disciples (4,38).
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
S. FAUSTI - "If you knew the gift of God," Jesus says to the Samaritan woman. He asks to her: "Give me something to drink",so that she would ask him. "Give me this water." It is the living water, the love of the Father and of the Son, Jesus longs to donate to each OF his sister and brother. After the prologue, where John sings the praises of the Word (Jn 1,1-18), the real protagonist of the story of the Gospel is water, the origin of life. But there is water and water, as there is life, and life. In fact there is backwater ,stagnant, and another one moved by the breath of the love welling up into eternal life. In chapter1st there is the water of the baptism of John and that of Jesus' Baptism in the Spirit; in the 2nd the Evangelist speaks about the water of the purifications and of the beautiful wine; in the cap. 3rd there is the birth by the water and by the Spirit; Now, in chapter 4th we see Jesus and the woman which talk about thirst and water; in chapter 5th, to the Bethzatha pool, we have the healing of one of the "dried" crowd, waiting the prodigious water that will come back at the chapter 7th, after the gift of the Bread (c.6). Along with water the Evangelist says also about water and fire, Spirit and light. What is man if not mixed heart mixed with water and enlivened by the breath of God, That wanted him to be like Itself, partaker of Its joy ? What is the thirst of man, if not happiness and fullness of being with Him whose is the other part? The encounter between Jesus and the woman happens in solitude. That Jesus speaks, it rouses surprising to herself, as well to the disciples. They go to the well in the cool hours of dawn and of dusk. Why does this woman come at noon, when she is sure not to meet other women? What kind of water she wants in the hour of heat and of thirst? The question that Jesus addressed seems strange to the Samaritan woman . It sounds like the advances of someone who wants to board her. She has understood it right. It is just the beginning of a courtship. Tired and abandoned on the well, He manifests His weakness. He also is thirsty, as the woman who comes to draw. Besides the well with the material water, there is that of the law, the water of which is the Word of life. But there is also that deep pit that is the woman, and her heart, which, in turn, leads to a even more abysmal mystery, from which every existence flows. The scene is a meeting between man and woman: two wishes stay face to face , each of which is the thirst of the other and the water to the other. The figures and the symbols that come into play are impressive and speak for themselves: the thirst and the water, the man and the woman, the Bridegroom and the various husbands, the temple in Spirit and Truth and the various temples, the food and God's will, the fatigue of sowing and the joy of the harvest. They are fundamental reality that everyone knows and over which they misunderstand themselves. Each one in fact has limited experience and his own, different from that of the other.
-->The story is a love story, a dialogue in which Jesus wants to bring the woman to know His gift. The Bridegroom is traveling, coming from far away, in search of the bride. This, at last, that has abandoned Him at the twilight of the first day, she finds Him at midday,at the sixth hour, the "hour" when everithing is accomplished . The story is a dialogue between the Word and the listener, represented by the woman, this has changed many husbands, but she has not yet met the Groom, whose she is thirsty too. And the Bridegroom, source of living water, encounters her at the well. Jesus begins the dialogue with her: His thirst is quenched when the woman has a thirst for the water that He desires to give. The words of Jesus are a polite mention to her disappointment in love: the intent is not to report but highlight a thirst that anything can satisfy but the gift that Jesus wants give to her. The woman then recognizes Him as a prophet and asks how to meet God, the Bridegroom, where do they worship? Jesus announces to her that the time has come, and it is "now", in which the Messiah is present - it is He Himself who speaks to her! - And it begins with Him the new worship to the Father in Spirit and Truth. The woman, received the revelation of Jesus abandons well and pitcher, to run into town to announce her discovery. Meanwhile the disciples who had absented to buy food, Jesus speaks to them of His food of Son, which is the love of the Father to bring to His brothers. The abundant harvest of Samaritans who come to Him, is the result of His mission. In fact the crowds go out of the city towards the well and they find the gift. They draw from the fountain of living water, and believe in Him, the Savior of the world.
Sandra.SCHNEIDERS – The story of Samaritan woman is remarkable for the clarity and completeness of its presentation of this revelation process in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus' self-revelation to the woman as the Messiah whom the Samaritans expect (4,25) is given in the “I am” formula that has such christological importance in this Gospel. It is the first use of this absolute formula in the Gospel , and its impact on the woman is that she immediately leaves her water jar where it is and hastens into the town to bear witness to Jesus as the expected Messiah, that is, the One who would tell them all things (4,25-29). We should not fail to note the feminine version of the standard Gospel formula for responding to the call to apostleship, namely, to “leave all things “ , especially one's present occupation , whether symbolized by boats and nets (Mt 4,19-22), or tax stall (Mt 9,9), or water pot.
RispondiEliminaThe witness that the woman bears is quite clearly apostolic in the Johannine perspective.
First, its effect is that those who hear her “come to Him”(4,30), which is the Johannine expression for the first movement of saving faith in Jesus (6,37). In 4,39 we are told explicitly that many Samaritans “believed in Him because of the word of the woman witnessing”.The force of this expression as apostolic identification of the woman appears when we compare it with Jesus ' prayer in 17,20 ,describing , in essence, the apostolic mission: “I do not pray for these only (...those present at the supper) but also for those believing in Me through their word”.
John ascribes the convertion of a least one Samaritan town ( probably symbolizing the whole Samaritan mission) to this woman apostle, who acts out of her belief in Jesus ' self- revelatory word and whose own witnessing word brings others to believe in Him.
That her apostleship is fully effective is indicated by 4,41-42, according to which the Samaritans come to full faith in Jesus as Savior of the world . They claim that their faith is no longer dependent on the words of the witness but is now based on Jesus' own Word.
In John's perspective the witness of a believing disciple brings a person to Jesus, but then disciple fades away as the prospective believer encounters Jesus Himself (1,35-41).
Anyone who believes is personally called by name by the Good Shepherd (10,3) and becomes a branch directly enlivened by the True Vine (15,4-5). Essentially, no one mediates betwen Jesus and his own (10,3-5) in this Gospel's perspective , for the immediacy of their relation-ship is patterned on that of the Father and the Son.(10,14-15).
-->The third item of note in this account is the reaction of Jesus'disciples who return from their errand in town and discover Jesus conversing with the woman (4,27).
RispondiEliminaWe are told that they “marveled” or “wondered”. R. Brown is undoubtedly correct to translate it “ they were shocked”.
They are no shocked , as we might expect, because Jesus was violating the religious prohibition against a Jew conversing with a Samaritan.
By the time this Gospel was written converted Samaritans were an integral part of the Johannine community. But if the members of the community were well beyond anti-Samaritan prejudice, some were evidently not beyond the cultural patterns, characteristic of Semitic societies in general, of excluding women from public affairs. It seems more than a little likely that this detail about the disciples being shocked at Jesus' dealing with a woman, since it is no way necessary to the story itself, is aimed at those traditionalist male Christians in the Johannine community who found the indipendence and apostolic initiative of Christian women shocking.
The point is quite clearly made, however, that they knew better than to question the profound purposes (indicated by the verb “to seek”) of Jesus for his women disciples.
Jesus alone decides to whom He will reveal Himself and whom He will call to apostleship.
Jesus is evidently filled with joy at the woman's work , which He recognizes as a realization of His own mission to do the will of the One who sent Him(4,34), and as an anticipation of the later work of the other disciples (4,38).
Gospel JN 4:5-42
RispondiEliminaJesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
S. FAUSTI - "If you knew the gift of God," Jesus says to the Samaritan woman. He asks to her: "Give me something to drink",so that she would ask him. "Give me this water." It is the living water, the love of the Father and of the Son, Jesus longs to donate to each OF his sister and brother.
RispondiEliminaAfter the prologue, where John sings the praises of the Word (Jn 1,1-18), the real protagonist of the story of the Gospel is water, the origin of life.
But there is water and water, as there is life, and life. In fact there is backwater ,stagnant, and another one moved by the breath of the love welling up into eternal life.
In chapter1st there is the water of the baptism of John and that of Jesus' Baptism in the Spirit;
in the 2nd the Evangelist speaks about the water of the purifications and of the beautiful wine;
in the cap. 3rd there is the birth by the water and by the Spirit;
Now, in chapter 4th we see Jesus and the woman which talk about thirst and water;
in chapter 5th, to the Bethzatha pool, we have the healing of one of the "dried" crowd, waiting the prodigious water that will come back at the chapter 7th, after the gift of the Bread (c.6).
Along with water the Evangelist says also about water and fire, Spirit and light.
What is man if not mixed heart mixed with water and enlivened by the breath of God, That wanted him to be like Itself, partaker of Its joy ?
What is the thirst of man, if not happiness and fullness of being with Him whose is the other part?
The encounter between Jesus and the woman happens in solitude. That Jesus speaks, it rouses surprising to herself, as well to the disciples. They go to the well in the cool hours of dawn and of dusk.
Why does this woman come at noon, when she is sure not to meet other women? What kind of water she wants in the hour of heat and of thirst?
The question that Jesus addressed seems strange to the Samaritan woman . It sounds like the advances of someone who wants to board her. She has understood it right. It is just the beginning of a courtship.
Tired and abandoned on the well, He manifests His weakness. He also is thirsty, as the woman who comes to draw.
Besides the well with the material water, there is that of the law, the water of which is the Word of life. But there is also that deep pit that is the woman, and her heart, which, in turn, leads to a even more abysmal mystery, from which every existence flows.
The scene is a meeting between man and woman: two wishes stay face to face , each of which is the thirst of the other and the water to the other. The figures and the symbols that come into play are impressive and speak for themselves: the thirst and the water, the man and the woman, the Bridegroom and the various husbands, the temple in Spirit and Truth and the various temples, the food and God's will, the fatigue of sowing and the joy of the harvest.
They are fundamental reality that everyone knows and over which they misunderstand themselves.
Each one in fact has limited experience and his own, different from that of the other.
-->The story is a love story, a dialogue in which Jesus wants to bring the woman to know His gift.
RispondiEliminaThe Bridegroom is traveling, coming from far away, in search of the bride.
This, at last, that has abandoned Him at the twilight of the first day, she finds Him at midday,at the sixth hour, the "hour" when everithing is accomplished .
The story is a dialogue between the Word and the listener, represented by the woman, this has changed many husbands, but she has not yet met the Groom, whose she is thirsty too. And the Bridegroom, source of living water, encounters her at the well. Jesus begins the dialogue with her: His thirst is quenched when the woman has a thirst for the water that He desires to give.
The words of Jesus are a polite mention to her disappointment in love: the intent is not to report but highlight a thirst that anything can satisfy but the gift that Jesus wants give to her.
The woman then recognizes Him as a prophet and asks how to meet God, the Bridegroom, where do they worship?
Jesus announces to her that the time has come, and it is "now", in which the Messiah is present - it is He Himself who speaks to her! - And it begins with Him the new worship to the Father in Spirit and Truth.
The woman, received the revelation of Jesus abandons well and pitcher, to run into town to announce her discovery. Meanwhile the disciples who had absented to buy food, Jesus speaks to them of His food of Son, which is the love of the Father to bring to His brothers.
The abundant harvest of Samaritans who come to Him, is the result of His mission.
In fact the crowds go out of the city towards the well and they find the gift. They draw from the fountain of living water, and believe in Him, the Savior of the world.