by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
As stated last week, we shall tackle the “I AM” declarations in the order they appear in John’s Gospel. The very first occurrence of these words is found in John 4:26. Here is the Greek verse and my literal translation:
λέγειαὐτῇὁἸησοῦς· Ἐγώεἰμι, ὁλαλῶνσοι.
Jesus says to her; “I AM HE, the one speaking to you.”
The context is the Lord’s encounter and conversation with the Samaritan woman. To properly get the big picture, one should read the entire narrative related to this verse, namely John 4:1-42.
From the text, we could actually make 4 studies that complement one another while focusing on one particular aspect of the narrative. It is that rich! Here is my take on 4 different but related studies that we can get from John’s narrative related to the location of that place and its importance, the Samaritans, the woman and the self-disclosure of our Lord Jesus:
- John 4:4-6 Historical Background of Sychar, Shechem, Mt Ebal, Mt. Gerizim and the Samaritans;
- John 4:4-15 Living Water;
- John 4:16-18, 28-30, 39-42 The Person of the Samaritan Woman; and
- John 4:19-26, 39-42 The Person of the Messiah.
The first topic is a must to get a proper context. We will briefly touch on the other topics but emphasize the last one – the Person of the Messiah. Hopefully, this Bible Study would encourage us all to do a rereading of the whole Samaritan woman episode.
Shechem (Hebrew שְׁכֶם), is identified as the ancient ruins in present-day Tel Balata in the Palestinian West Bank, in Israel. Beside Shechem is Sychar, on the foot of Mt. Ebal.
Sychar (Greek Συχάρ) is not found in the OT but in the New Testament (NT) where it is only mentioned once (hapaxlegomenon) in John 4:5 as a town in Samaria. In the time of our Lord Jesus, Shechem was already a heap of ruins for more than a century.
Shechem is a very ancient place of great Biblical importance mentioned more than 60 times in the Old Testament (OT) starting with Genesis 12:6. Geographically, it is situated in between Mt. Ebal to the northwest and Mt. Gerizim to its southwest.
In Joshua 20:7 the command of the LORD God in Deuteronomy 19 to establish Cities of Refuge in Canaan was fulfilled. Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim was one of those 6 cities. A city of refuge is where one can flee after he had unintentionally (no malicious intent) killed a neighbor. He would be safe there from the avenging relatives of the one killed. In any Biblical map of the allotted lands to the 12 Tribes of Israel, Shechem is already cited. It became part of ancient Samaria.
While not explicitly mentioned in Deuteronomy 11:26-30 and 27:1-13 the place in between the proclamation of curses at Mt. Ebal and blessings at Mt. Gerizim is recognized as ancient Shechem. In Joshua 8:30-35, the fulfillment of the the LORD God’s instructions regarding the proclamation of curses and blessings at the foot of Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim, respectively, could only have been in the vicinity of Shechem.
Joshua 24:1, 25-27 narrates that the site of the renewal of the covenant was done at Shechem. Further down in the same chapter, In Joshua 24:32 it is explicitly said that Joseph’s bones taken away from Egypt throughout the Exodus journey were finally interred at Shechem (Joseph’s Tomb).
In John 4:4-6, 11-12 Jacob’s well, the site of the Lord’s conversation with the Samaritan woman, is also situated in the area of Shechem. This assertion gets its OT attestation from Genesis 33:18-20 and Joshua 24:32 cited above. Hence, not only Joseph’s bones were in Shechem but also Jacob’s well. And Shechem, in between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim, was the site of covenant renewal ceremony as narrated in Joshua 24.
Now let’s look at the Samaritans. Upon the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (capital: Samaria) at the hands of the Asssyrians in 722 BC, the northern tribes were said to have been destroyed, deported or lost or assimilated into the Kingdom of Judah. The Assyrians brought in various peoples into the territory of the Northern Kingdom who eventually intermarried with the remnant of Israelites there. The resulting people were derisively regarded by the unconquered (until 586 BC) southern Israelites (Judahites) as half-breeds or mixed race people.
But from the point of view of the emerging people, who would be later on called “Samaritans” of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel, they were the “keepers” of the true faith. They referred to themselves as the “shomrim” (Hebrew שֹֽׁמְרִים֙). This means keepers, watchers, observers, guardians, preservers, watchmen or the ones performing the acts of keeping, watching, preserving the faith, and so on. The Samaritans believed they were the true Israelites; the keepers of the covenant with God and were a faithful surviving remnant of the northern tribes after the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They held on to a 4-fold creed: One God (יְהוָֹה),One Prophet (Moses),One Book (Torah), and One Place of Worship (Mt. Gerizim). Thus, from the Jewish point of view, the Samaritans were not only a mixed race but woefully deficient in scripture, the faith and the covenants and were Jew-haters.
From the Samaritan viewpoint, they believed that their version of the Torah (Pentateuch) was the real thing. Scholars now recognize that some variations exist in the Torah versions coming from the mainline Masoretic Text (MT), the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), the translation found in the Septuagint (LXX) and also the Samaritan Pentateuch. A good example of this is Deuteronomy 27:4. The Samaritans believe that the LORD God chose Mt. Gerizim to be the place where(memorial) stones would be set up; not Mt. Ebal. Interestingly, Dr. James H. Charlesworth, a Princeton Professor and one of the world’s foremost experts on the DSS, presented in 2008 a framed image of the Dead Sea Scroll fragment that supported this Samaritan claim to the Samaritan High Priest. I checked this verse in my Hebrew Bible (BHS) and saw that there was indeed an entry in the critical apparatus saying that instead of Mt Ebal, the Samaritan version specifies Mt. Gerizim!
Because Mt. Gerizim was so important and sacred to the Samaritans, they built their temple there. This Samaritan templeon Mt. Gerizim was destroyed in the time of the Maccabeans in the 2nd century BC by the Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus; who later on leveled Shechem itself. Whether the destruction of this temple and Shechem was due to utter contempt by the Jews of the Samaritans or to force the Samaritans to worship only in Jerusalem or some other reason is subject to debate. However, the result was the same: contempt and hatred for the Jews by the Samaritans. Thus, mutual animosity characterized the relations between Jews and Samaritans throughout the centuries and was still simmering during the first century AD when our Lord Jesus came to Sychar as narrated in John 4.
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.