February 1 / John 4:1-14

John 4:1-14

“Notice what you notice.” I remain intrigued by the care John takes in his geographical and chronological narrative. He begins chapter 4 pretty much right where he left off in chapter 3. He notes that Jesus left Judea and headed to Galilee by way of Samaria only after He heard that the Pharisees had heard about Him and His disciples baptizing more disciples than John. That is, John the writer has Jesus still in Judea and now headed back to Galilee within a relatively short time frame from when He first made Himself known through the cleansing of the Temple and Nicodemus’ visit.

I’ve imbedded below a map that shows almost all the major locations we know of Jesus’ travels. He and His disciples were probably baptizing opposite Jericho (lower right on the map). You can see a road going north from Jericho through Samaria toward Sychar, a journey of some 25-30 miles from the Jordan River opposite Jericho. If Jesus got an early start and walked at a good clip, he could have arrived at Sychar at noon, tired (v. 6)! No major Gospel insight here, just my fascination with John’s geography and chronology. Moving on…

I’m sure we have heard many times about Jesus and the Samaritan woman – that proper Jewish men had nothing to do with Samaritans and were not to engage with a woman unless her husband was present. Jesus broke both of these standards that Jewish leaders would follow.  But I wonder if “common” Galilean Jews were different from Jerusalem Jews.  I’m mostly at a loss for anything more to add. Others?

Slava Bohu!!