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The Samaritan woman at the well is a figure from the Gospel of John. John 4:4–42 relates her conversation with Jesus at Jacob's Well near the city of Sychar or Shechem.
This episode takes place before the return of Jesus to Galilee. Some Jews regarded the Samaritans as foreigners and their attitude was often hostile, although they shared most beliefs, while many other Jews accepted Samaritans as either fellow Jews or as Samaritan Israelites. The two communities seem to have drifted apart in the post-exilic period. Both communities share the Pentateuch, although crucially the Samaritan Pentateuch locates the holy mountain at Mount Gerizim rather than at Mount Zion, as this incident acknowledges in verse 20, "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem".
The Gospel of John, like the Gospel of Luke, is favourable to the Samaritans throughout, and, while the Matthaean Gospel quotes Jesus at one early phase in his ministry telling his followers not at that time to evangelize any of the cities of the Samaritans, this restriction had clearly been reversed later by the time of . Scholars differ as to whether the Samaritan references in the New Testament are historical. One view is that the historical Jesus had no contact with Samaritans; another is that the accounts go back to Jesus himself. In , Jesus promises the apostles that they will be witnesses to the Samaritans.
This Gospel episode is referred to as "a paradigm for our engagement with truth", in the Roman Curia book A Christian reflection on the New Age, as the dialogue says: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know" and offers an example of "Jesus Christ the bearer of the water of life". The passages that comprise are sometimes referred to as the Water of Life Discourse, which forms a complement to the Bread of Life Discourse.
Roger Baxter comments in his Meditations on this passage, saying:
Consider the excellence of this living water, which is Divine grace, and which Christ promises to His faithful servants. "He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever." It quenches, therefore, forever, the thirst of the soul, and satisfies it. The soul then no longer thirsts after earthly waters, that is, the pleasures of this world. It becomes a fountain of all good to the soul, ever flowing and giving merit to our actions." It springs up to everlasting life" (John iv. 14), elevating our thoughts to heaven and heavenly joys, of which it is a pledge. Say, therefore, with the Samaritan woman, " Give me this water, that I may not thirst."
In Eastern Christian tradition, the woman's name at the time of her meeting Jesus is unknown, though she was later baptized "Photini" by the Apostles, because she understood Jesus' identity as the Messiah. She is celebrated as a saint of renown. As further recounted in and , she was quick to spread the news of her meeting with Jesus, and through this many came to believe in him. Her continuing witness is said to have brought so many to the Christian faith that she is described as "equal to the apostles". Eventually, having drawn the attention of Nero, she was brought before him to answer for her faith, suffering many tortures and dying a martyr after being thrown down a dry well. She is remembered on the Sunday four weeks after Easter, which is known as "the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman".
In Oaxaca, Mexico, a celebration of the Samaritan woman takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent. The custom of the day involves churches, schools, and businesses giving away fruit drinks to passers-by.
Photini, The Samaritan Woman is honored with a Lesser Feast on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on February 26. In that tradition, her year of death is given as circa 67.
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