John 4:39-41

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

From Background Notes [BN] for March 17^th/18^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The reader is encouraged to review the entire story of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well in her hometown (John 4).

Powerful crosscurrents of culture, religion, and gender saturate this account. Our purpose here is to take note of how the woman and her townsfolk reacted to her encounter with Jesus. Clearly the story has layers, starting with the unexpected visit of Jesus, a Jew, to Samaritan territory. The long history of Jewish-Samaritan relations, like the present-day Israel-Palestinian quarrel, was steeped in hatred and violence. Samaritans were essentially Jews who did not go into exile with the majority in 587 B.C.E., but who remained in their land, intermarried with their non-Jewish neighbors, and developed a distinctive outlook on traditional Jewish faith. Even today there is a small enclave of Samaritans on Mount Gerizim who study Torah and follow certain aspects of the old ritual sacrifices. One of the manuscripts used to determine the text of the Hebrew Bible is called the Samaritan Pentateuch.

With so much history behind the story of John 4, we can understand the woman’s reluctance at first to talk with Jesus. He was the dark mysterious stranger sitting by her well on the outskirts of Sychar, the town where she lived. Yet he showed an extraordinary interest in drawing her into a conversation about matters affecting both their peoples. They talked about race, religion, and God. In every case, the woman found Jesus both challenging and cordial. Then the conversation turned to personal affairs — and they were really affairs. The woman admitted to five failed marriages, and then to her present unconventional live-in relationship. All of these facts Jesus uncovered without asking her to confess. He simply knew what he shouldn’t have known, and that led her to see him as a prophet extraordinaire. After further interaction about worship and things theological, the conversation turned to the Messiah and who he was. Among Samaritans, he was known as Taheb whose named meant “the one who restores.” Jesus tells the woman he is Messiah, at which point she quickly returns to the town and bears witness to Jesus among family and friends.  [BN, 9 & 10]

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