Jacob's Well Was There -John 4:1-6

John 4:1-6
1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.


He leaves Judea before the Pharisees are able to arrive. It's not time to contend with them. There would be time enough for that in the days to come.

In verse 4 we read He "had to pass through Samaria". While true this land lay between Judea and His destination, He could have gone around and avoided that territory, but He was here for a purpose. He had come into the world that all might be saved. He would pass through other barriers of division as well, such as between clean and unclean, man and woman, and Jew and Gentile. It is in this sense He "had to", for the salvation of man.

The first word used in this account for well is translated from the Greek word πηγη or pege which means more than a hole dug in the ground to reach water, but is in fact a source of flowing water, a spring. As the story continues, the woman lowers her vessel into a well based on the Greek word for pit or well, (φρεαρ phrear;). Just as there is a contrast in the Greek words used here by John, Jesus will speak to the woman of the contrast between water she draws and the living water He offers. He is weary and hot and rests beside the well. She carries a heavy burden as well.

"Whoever gives a cup of water to the least of these", He would later tell us will be blessed. So it was with this woman.

Joshua 24:32
As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

James 2:1
1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.