The author gives the reason why Jesus returned to Galilee after being in Judaea for a time (4:1-4); Jesus had already aroused the suspicion and hostility of the Pharisees. In both the gospels of Mark and John, this opposition to Jesus is brought out from the beginning of his ministry (Mark 2:6). The time had not yet come for open confrontation with his enemies in Jerusalem. Jesus had to pass through Samaria to reach Galilee by the quickest route, travelling on foot.

The place where he met the woman, by Jacob's well, was significant. Jacob, renamed Israel (Genesis 32 :28), left his people a well of water to sustain them in their physical life; what Jesus offered to the woman as they talked was 'life-giving water' of a spiritual kind. Jesus was 'greater than Jacob' (4:12).

The Samaritans were despised by the Jews (4 :9) because of their unhappy history, although they followed much of the teaching of Judaism and had once built their own temple for sacrifice to God on Mount Gerizim, near where Jesus talked with the woman. That temple had been destroyed but the Samaritans still thought of Mount Gerizim as a holy hill, as did the Jews of Mount Zion. In John's gospel there are no explicit accounts of Jesus encountering Gentiles, such as we find in the synoptic gospels (Mark 7:26, Luke 7 :2) although there is a reference to Greeks asking to see Jesus (12:20).

It is possible that the government official of 4 :46-54 was a Roman but John says nothing to show this apart from mentioning that he served the (Herodian) government. These lacks of references to the Gentiles do not mean, however, that John ignores the foreshadowing of the universal mission of the Church in the ministry of Jesus-far from it. The encounter with the Samaritan woman points away from the Jewish context of the ministry of Jesus to those who were thirsty for? a spring which will provide life-giving water and give eternal life (4:4) and who were not counted as God's people. There is no account in the Synoptic gospels of Jesus' ministry in Samaria which brought a great response of faith from the Samaritans. They believed, not just because of the woman's witness but because they knew him to be the 'Saviour of the world' (4:42). In 4:35-38, the evangelizing of Samaria (Acts 8 :5,12) in the earliest days of the Church, is foreshadowed, and the future work of the disciples predicted. The work of salvation begins amongst the Jews (4:22) but goes out into the whole world.

In 4:1-12 the theme is 'the water of life' or 'life-giving water.' The dialogue moves from ordinary water which, however, can be described as water which brings life because without it comes death (Exodus 17 :3), to the deeper meaning of eternal, spiritual life, from 4: 13 onwards.

As in the dialogue with Nicodemus, what Jesus says is not understood by the one to whom Jesus speaks, and from the misunderstanding, teaching develops. It would be significant to John's readers that such profound teaching was given to such an insignificant and despised woman, seen to represent all who were in the power of sin. Jesus, tired, thirsty and hungry, met her as she came carrying her heavy water pot in the heat of the day. The love of God reached out to a woman who had known very little love in her life.

What Jesus says in 4:21-24 links with the significance of the cleansing of the Temple. The new worship of the Christian community is predicted, as well as the ending of the Temple worship. 'God is spirit and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is' (T.E.V.). 'God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.' (R.S.V.) (John 4:24). When Jesus tells the woman that he is the expected Messiah, she believes and goes back to the town to witness to him (4 :28-39). The basis of her belief is very simple (4 :29,17) but sufficient for God to work through her (4:39). Symbolically, her water pot was left behind at the well; she had found her 'water of life' in Jesus and wanted to bring the others of her community back to him so that they would 'never be thirsty again.'

While the woman was witnessing in the town, Jesus taught the disciples about what sustained him in his work; it was not food for the body but his total obedience to his Father who had entrusted him with the work of salvation (4:34).

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