The Samaritan Woman’s Challenge To Jesus

John 4:7–26 records Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman. In verses 16–18, Jesus revealed to the woman that he already knew about the shameful part of her life. Her response is recorded in verses 19–20:

John 4:19–20 ESV The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

It is popularly thought that the Samaritan woman was just trying to change the topic in order to avoid embarrassment. However, instead of redirecting the conversation somewhere else, Jesus interacted with what the woman had said (vv. 21–24), and his response resulted in the woman coming to faith in him as the long-awaited Messiah (vv. 28–30). Surely, her choice of topic was not insignificant!

A Brief History of the Samaritans

John 4:9 expresses the state of relations between Jews and Samaritans during the time of Jesus: “For Jews do not deal with Samaritans.” This deep-rooted enmity originated long ago in History.

After King Solomon died in 931 BCE, the United Kingdom of Israel was split into two kingdoms: The Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom occupied the northern region of of the land of Israel, which came to be known as Samaria. The term “Samaritans” refers to the occupants of the land of Samaria.

In 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire conquered Samaria and brought an end to the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:6). The king of Assyria subsequently introduced other non-Israelite peoples into the land from other parts of his empire (v. 24). As a result of this, the population of Samaria became mixed, and many Samaritans were part-Israelite and part-foreign in their genealogies. Nonetheless, the Samaritans still considered themselves Israelites; descendants of Jacob. That is why the Samaritan woman called Jacob as “our father” (John 4:12).

Controversy over “the Place”

In the biblical law, God had commanded the Israelites that after they had entered the Promised Land of Canaan, they were not to offer sacrifices to God anywhere else except “in the place where YHWH your God shall choose.” (Deut. 12:14) But where exactly is this “place”?

According to the Jews, this “place” was none other than the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:29; 9:3; 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Chron. 7:16; 33:7; Ezra 6:12). However, some time after the Assyrian conquest of Samaria, the Samaritans became convinced that this “place” was Mount Gerizim, and so they built their temple there.

As it turns out, the Samaritans had a very different version of the Bible than the Jews. Right after the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1–17, the Samaritan version contains the following passage:

והיה כי יביאך יהוה אלהיך אל ארץ הכנעני אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה והקמת לך אבנים גדלות ושדת אתם בשיד וכתבת על האבנים את כל דברי התורה הזאת והיה בעברכם את הירדן תקימו את האבנים האלה אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום בהר גריזים ובנית שם מזבח ליהוה אלהיך מזבח אבנים לא תניף עליהם ברזל אבנים שלמות תבנה את מזבח יהוה אלהיך והעלית עליו עלות ליהוה אלהיך וזבחת שלמים ואכלת שם ושמחת לפני יהוה אלהיך בהר ההוא בעבר הירדן אחרי דרך מבוא השמש בארץ הכנעני הישב בערבה מול הגלגל אצל אלון מורה מול שכם

And it shall be, when YHWH your God shall bring you to the land of the Canaanite, which you are coming there to possess it, you shall set up for yourself big stones and plaster them with plaster, and you shall write on the stones all the words of this law. And it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones which I command you today on Mount Gerizim. And you shall build there an altar to YHWH your God; an altar of stones. You shall not use an iron tool on them; with whole stones you shall build the altar of YHWH your God. And you shall raise on it burnt offerings to YHWH your God, and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and you shall eat there and you shall rejoice before YHWH your God in that mountain across the Jordan, after the way of the setting of the sun in the land of the Canaanite who dwells in Arabah, before Gilgal, beside Elon Moreh, before Shechem.

So that was where the Samaritans got the idea that “the place” was Mount Gerizim and not the Jerusalem—their Bible told them so! In fact, apart from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the Samaritans rejected the other books of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) because all those books acknowledged that “the place” was the Jerusalem rather than Mount Gerizim.

Thus, the enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews developed. Both sides asserted that they were practicing the true religion which God instituted in the Bible. Both sides accused the other of corrupting the text of the Scriptures, changing the words of God in order to fit their beliefs. Both sides insisted that their temple was built in the correctly-identified “place”. Neither side ever backed down, even until this day.

The Test of a Prophet

With the historical background of the Jewish-Samaritan conflict as context, let us now look back at the Samaritan woman’s response to Jesus. Notice that she mentioned “the place where people ought to worship.” (v. 20) She was talking about “the place where YHWH your God shall choose”, spoken of in Deuteronomy 12:14. But why does she bring up the controversy over “the place” here?

Take a look at the previous verse. The woman had said, “I perceive that you are a prophet.” (v. 19) A prophet is a spokesperson for God, and hence a true prophet would always speak the truth according to God. It does not matter how many miracles a person can perform; he can perform all the miracles in the world, but if he does not speak in accordance with God, then he must be a false prophet (Deut. 13:1–5). Therefore, the most biblically-sound test of a prophet would be conformity to the Scriptures, and not miracles, signs and wonders.

The Samaritan woman was testing Jesus to see if he were a true prophet. In her mind, a true prophet would affirm that “the place where people ought to worship” was Mount Gerizim, and not Jerusalem. Thus, like many other people he would meet throughout his ministry, the Samaritan woman had set a trap for Jesus in order to test him. On the one hand, if Jesus had said that Jerusalem was “the place”, then he would be considered a false prophet by the Samaritans, and he would lose his witness to the woman. On the other hand, if he had agreed with the Samaritans that Mount Gerizim was “the place”, then he would be contradicting the Jewish Scriptures which he so often affirmed as the words of God!

Samaritans vs. Jews—Jesus Wins!

In his wisdom, Jesus does not fall into the trap—like he never does! Instead, he wisely responded:

John 4:21–24 ESV Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

“Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” (v. 21) With both sides claiming that they were worshipping God the right way; the way God wants to be worshipped, Jesus declares that both sides were wrong!

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (v. 22) Jesus affirms that the Jews have at least got something right: they have correctly identified the right “place” to sacrifice offerings. In this regard, the Samaritans were wrong.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (v. 23). However, Jesus also affirms that the Jews have also gotten something wrong, along with the Samaritans: Both the worship systems of the Jews and the Samaritans focused on location and legalism rather than spirit and truth.

In her challenge, the Samaritan woman had rightly said to Jesus that “you [Jews] say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” (v. 20) The Greek word for “ought” here is dei. In his response to the woman, Jesus used that same Greek word when he told her that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (v. 24)