Forming Faith Blog

Samaritans and Jews (John 4a)

Posted on January 20 2026 by Gregory Rawn
  • Date: February 1, 2026
  • Bible Reading: John 4:1-42 
  • The Point: Even outsiders have access to God’s abundant grace through Jesus Christ.
  • Unit Theme (January 25—February 15): Invitation to Abundant Life

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well reminds us of the importance of understanding the historical and other contexts when we read and interpret Scripture.

A well outside house. Jesus and the Samaritan woman met at a well.
Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels.com
John So Far

The Narrative Lectionary now brings us to the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John. Before Christmas, we heard about the Divine Word becoming flesh and living among us. After Christmas, we have heard the testimony of John the baptizer, the invitations by and for Jesus’ first disciples, the wedding at Cana, Jesus cleansing the temple, and his conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus.

In one of the only passages we have skipped so far, Jesus and his disciples were in the Judean countryside baptizing (though John 4:2 makes it clear that it was only Jesus’ disciples, not he himself, baptizing people). Curiously enough, the first two verses of chapter four tell us that Jesus left the Judean countryside because the Pharisees learned that he (they) were baptizing. I’m not sure what that’s about.

Nonetheless, the important thing is that Jesus is traveling back to Galilee, passing through the region of Samaria. It is there that he encountered a woman by a well.

The Importance of Context

Bible translators do amazing work. It is their job to take the received texts that have been copied and recopied many times in ancient languages, make sense of what those manuscripts say in their original, ancient languages, and express those meanings in a modern language. While there is much more to say about that process (including the unavoidable biases in the act of translation), there is much that is missing that cannot be conveyed in a translation. That is: context.

A while back, my mom started sending my family daily jokes via text messages. Especially when keeping my semi-adult kids in mind, I’ve realized how much background information matters in jokes. For example:

My favorite allergy is blowin’ in the wind, by Peter Pollen Mary.

Whether it’s ever funny can be debated, but you definitely wouldn’t get it if you didn’t know who Peter, Paul, and Mary were or their song “Blowin’ in the Wind” (assuming that everyone knows the connection between allergies and pollen).

Or, how about:

Child: Can Johnny come out to play?
Mom: He’s currently correcting a behavioral problem by facing the junction of two walls in a 90 degree angle.
Child (deep sigh): Must be tough having a mom who’s a math teacher… 

What do you need to know here? You probably need to be aware of the (old) practice of sitting a child in a corner as a punishment for bad behavior, and that “90 degree angle” is a math concept (for a corner).

Unfortunately, in humor, an explanation generally ruins the joke.

Who Were the Samaritans?

Fortunately, in Bible study, explanation helps. A lot. That’s true in any Bible passage, but it’s especially obvious here. The list of questions related to context or background information (before you even get to the meaning) can be pretty long. 

The first is simply: who were the Samaritans? While the history is fascinating (at least to me), a “simpler” explanation can be as follows:

Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, the kingdom composed of the twelve tribes of Israel split apart, with most of the tribes forming a northern kingdom (unhelpfully called Israel) and the tribe of Judah (and a few others) forming the kingdom of Judah. The capital of Judah was Jerusalem, and the capital of Israel became Samaria. [The connection between my biblical history lesson and our text becomes clearer… ]

The leaders in both kingdoms were disobedient, but the leaders in the northern kingdom were worse. Eventually, this led to the northern kingdom being conquered by the Assyrian Empire. Importantly, when the Assyrians conquered a nation, they took most of the people into exile, scattering them around the empire and settling a hodgepodge of people in the conquered land, since a random assortment of people has a harder time revolting (cruel, but efficient). So, some of the Israelites got to stay in their land, and people from all over (Gentiles) replaced the rest. Eventually, the Israelites and the Gentiles intermarried, combining cultures and some religious practices. These became known as the Samaritans. The facts that:

  1. The Samaritans started out as Israelites like the people of Judah (now Judeans or Jews), but married Gentiles (expressly forbidden in the Hebrew Bible), making them unclean and disobedient.
  2. The religion they practiced was (in the minds of the Jewish people) a bastardization of the True Faith (according to the Book of 1 Kings, the northern kingdom started out that way).

These (and other) factors led to a rift between the two peoples, making some (at least on the Jewish side) think that Samaritans were worse than Gentiles (other non-Jews), including the Roman Gentiles who were oppressing them.

Also, it’s important to know that Samaritans still exist!

More Context

There is, of course, a lot of other important background information, including:

  • Social rules about the interactions of men and women.
  • The differences in worship practices between the Jews and the Samaritans.
  • The significance of Jacob’s well.
  • The significance of a woman drawing water from the well at noon.
  • What the Samaritans believed about the Messiah.

Something I learned today is that Samaritans, Galileans (like Jesus and several of his disciples), and Judeans all spoke different dialects of the Aramaic language group (as well as some Hebrew and likely some Greek)! They were able to understand each other (mostly), but there were many differences. 

The Importance of Education

It drives me a bit crazy when people tell people new to the Bible to “just read it.” Without some sort of external resources (study Bible, Bible commentaries, classes, sermons, etc.), people will not understand (and misunderstand) a lot of what they read. This is why Christian education is an important part of faith formation (though they aren’t the same).

This is, of course, where I tout the benefits of our Narrative Lectionary faith formation products for all age groups, including a resource called Contexts & Connections (I bet you can’t guess what that’s about).

In God’s Messiah,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Note on Free Resources

I typically have prepared an activity from one of our products as a free download. Due to my workload and a low number of downloads, I will be discontinuing this practice, at least for a while. If you would like me to bring this back, please email me using our Contact Us form and let me know. 

Order Faith Formation Resources

Lent is coming very quickly! Order the Spring Quarters of our various resources and download them immediately. And it’s not too late to order Winter Quarters, too. Our Narrative Lectionary (Year 4, 2025-2026) and Revised Common Lectionary (Years C & A, 2025-2026) resources are online, ready to order, and available for immediate download! If you don’t have much time for full-length children’s Christian education, then check out our Kids Mini Lessons for the NL and RCL. If you don’t use a lectionary, check out our non-lectionary Living the Word: Classroom (PK-2nd, 3rd-6th).

BRAND NEW! I’m excited to announce a new product series for Spirit & Truth Publishing: Taking Faith Home. Taking Faith Home is a set of weekly devotional resources (often distributed as worship bulletin inserts) that follows the Revised Common Lectionary. Originally published by Milestones Ministry, they handed it off to us as of January 1, 2026. We offer it as a Church Year (Dec. 2025 to Nov. 2026) and a Program Year (Spring & Summer 2026 and Sept. 2026 to May 2027). You can also purchase by quarter (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall). Learn more here!

Are you looking for resources for Lent, VBS, topical Sunday school, family/intergenerational events, retreats, and more?

Learning Together is a series of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive. Each unit can be used at any time in many different settings, but here are a few suggestions:

+ Lent: The I AM Statements of Jesus (free!), Travelers (Immigrants and Refugees), Do Justice
+ VBS: Paul’s Adventures (NEW!), Celebrations, Created to Care, God’s Gift of Water, Heroes of the Bible
+ Education/Events: Women of the Old Testament, Bible 101

Our unit Celebrations is a recommended VBS curriculum by Building Faith (and the only curriculum they reviewed from a small, independent publisher)!!! You can read outside reviews on both our Do Justice and Created to Care units!

I am very honored to announce that I was a guest on the premiere episode of season 3 of the Around the Table podcast! The topic: how faith formation is different than Christian education. Check it out at Around the Table S03E01.

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