Jesus Encounter with the Samaritan Woman

by | Oct 7, 2021 | Bible

Jesus’ Encounter with the Samaritan Woman in Its Narrative Context
Most of the episodes in the first of part of John’s Gospel, the so-called Book of Signs (1:19-12:50), involve Jesus’ interaction with Jewish religious authorities and institutions. Jesus’ self-revelation through “signs,” John’s word for Jesus’ miraculous acts, and through sayings, particularly the “I am” discourses, occurs in the context of critical and often hostile interaction with Jewish religious authorities. Consider how John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (4:1-42) fits within a narrative that presents a sustained critique of Jewish religious authorities and institutions.

  1. Note how Jesus turns the Samaritan woman’s remark about the religious reason for division between Jews and Samaritans into a critique of religion institution in general. How do Jesus’ comments about worship in Jerusalem relate to his action at the temple and his proclamation about it in chapter 2?
  2. How do Jesus’ comments about the Jerusalem temple in chapters 2 and 4 relate to testimony about the activity of God’s Logos in the prologue (1:18)? Note the statement, “The Word (Logos) became flesh and lived among us” (1:14; NRSV). The Greek word translated “lived” literally means “pitched a tent.” For a discussion of what this means in a Jewish context, see Dorothy Ann Lee’s comments in NIB One Volume Commentary, p. 713. Note the reference to “my tent” in Sirach 24:8, in the midst of verses describing the work of Wisdom. In the sections “Christology” and “Background of the Prologue” in Introducing Jesus and the Gospels (277-279), Murphy discusses parallels between the work of Wisdom in Jewish scripture and Christ’s work as the Logos. Consider how John’s Gospel affirms the universal scope of the redemptive work of the Logos in contrast to Sirach’s description of God creating a dwelling place for Wisdom in the Jerusalem temple.
  3. Comparing Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman with his encounter with Nicodemus. Does the Samaritan woman understand Jesus’ testimony about himself and his work any better than Nicodemus? How does her action after her encounter with Jesus compare with that of Nicodemus? Consider how this episode focuses on the relation of faith to understanding, a theme that arises later in episodes involving Jesus interaction with his disciples (6:60-71) and his brothers (7:1-8).
  4. Note the interpretative comment for 4:16-19 in NISB. Based on your analysis of how 4:1-42 functions within narrative structure of John’s Gospel, do you agree with Gail O’Day’s judgment that John’s account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman “has been consistently misinterpreted”? If this judgment is correct, why is it? Is Jesus’ critique of religious authorities and institutions in John’s Gospel relevant to Christian churches today?

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Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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