FUNCTIONAL FAITH
The Wording

The Woman at the Well

John 4:1–26

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1

When Jesus realized that the Pharisees were aware He was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John

So when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had been told that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—

2

(although it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples),

though it was not Jesus himself who baptized them, but his disciples—

3

He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

4

Now He had to pass through Samaria.

Now he had to pass through Samaria.

5

So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph,

6

Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

and Jacob’s spring was there. So Jesus, tired with his journey, sat down just as he was by the spring. It was about noon.

7

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

8

(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

For his disciples had gone into the town to buy some food.

9

“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that a Jew like you asks a Samaritan woman like me for a drink?” For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.

10

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Jesus answered, “If you knew what God has to give, and who it is that said to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11

“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water?

She said to him, “You have nothing to draw water with, sir, and the well is deep. Where can you get your living water?

12

Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

Are you a greater man than our forefather Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, with his sons and his flocks?”

13

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

Jesus answered, “Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14

But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

but anyone who drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty, but the water that I will give him will become a spring of water within him, bubbling up for eternal life.”

15

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The woman said to him, “Give me this water, sir, so that I may never be thirsty, nor have to come all this way to draw water.”

16

Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

He said to her, “Go and call your husband and come back here.”

17

“I have no husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband.

The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her,

18

In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

“You are right when you say you have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the man you are now living with is not your husband. What you say is true.”

19

“Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet.

The woman said to him, “I see that you are a prophet, sir.

20

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Our forefathers worshiped God on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that the place where people must worship God is at Jerusalem.”

21

“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem.

22

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

You worship something you know nothing about; we know what we worship, for salvation comes from the Jews.

23

But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

But a time is coming—it is already here!—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and sincerity, for the Father wants such worshipers.

24

God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in sincerity.”

25

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming—he who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us everything!”

26

Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

Jesus said to her, “I who am talking to you am he!”

Functional Faith Reading

The Greek behind verse 10 is precise: hydōr zōn — living water — which in Hebrew idiom means flowing, spring-fed water, not the stagnant water sitting in a cistern. The woman hears it literally; the Pioneer means something far deeper than plumbing.

Most readings skip past the exhaustion to reach the doctrine, but the exhaustion is the doctrine. A genuinely weary man sits at Jacob's well at noon — not performing tiredness, not inhabiting tiredness as a costume, but actually worn out from walking. The Pioneer gets thirsty. His feet ache. This is not incidental color.

What the Functional Faith reading recovers here is why the weariness matters theologically. Only a genuinely creaturely being can be genuinely tired. Jehovah does not need to sit down. The Pioneer does — and that shared creaturely condition is exactly what qualifies him to speak to a woman exhausted by five broken relationships and a life lived at the wrong hour of the day. He is the Father's firstborn, made of the same substance as the people he came to reach, and that common ground is where the conversation becomes possible.

If the Pioneer crossed every boundary — ethnicity, gender, religious enmity, social shame — to offer living water to one thirsty person, then the Way has no gatekeepers.

Sit with this

Who have you quietly decided is too far outside the well for you to offer what you yourself have received?

Sources

SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)License

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition

Copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software.

Licensed CC BY 4.0.

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