John #8

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- Peace, Linda.

As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written that you may believe: Encountering Jesus in the fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.

Background reading to study #8 Written that you may believe chapter 8.

The Gospel of John #8 – Feminism in John 06/10/10

Women are important figures in John’s Gospel. While there have been many oppressed groups, women within these groups have been an even more oppressed minority. The Bible has both condoned this oppression and spoken out against it. The Bible makes an option for the poor and oppressed, and in so doing gives oppressed peoples a voice. But the text itself is pervasively androcentric and patriarchal, frequently sexist and at times even misogynist. In many ways it has been responsible for serious oppression of women (think the blaming of Eve). This has led some feminist scholars to declare the text irredeemable.

The meaning of the Biblical text is constrained by the ideology of those interpreting it. Everyone has an ideology and until recently all Biblical scholars were predominantly men and leaders of patriarchal churches. A characteristic of ideology is that it is invisible to those propagating it. Women have an advantage (paradoxical) because they can see the way interpretation works oppressively and can be freed up for other understandings. They are in a unique position to rescue the text. For example: identifying texts with liberating potential such as Martha sitting at the feet of Jesus – a technical phrase implying discipleship.

In John 4:1-42 we have the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. A traditional, superficial reading portrays a somewhat flighty, promiscuous woman who has had five husbands strangely in conversation with Jesus. A more careful exploration of the text would lead us to the realization that it is improbable that a woman at that time would have out-lived 5 husbands. (With childbirth mortality the reverse would have been more likely.) Another meaning for these five relationships should be sought….

The Samaritans were close to the Jews, but were considered heretical. They were neither racially nor culturally pure. 2 Kings 17:24-34 tells of the introduction of peoples to the kingdom of northern Israel after its destruction by Assyria. The Israelites had been deported and other displaced peoples settled in their place. These imported peoples came from five different nations. The Assyrian king sent a Jewish priest back so that the Jewish God would be honored and look favorably on the foreign immigrants, but the new settlers continued also to worship their own gods. The Samaritans therefore were a mixed race who recognized the Jewish faith, but who had according to the Judeans polluted this faith with that of the gods of five other nations. When Jesus speaks of husbands he is talking as a prophet. For the biblical tradition the Lord was the husband of the people, the bridegroom of Hosea and Jeremiah, and by implication other gods are adulterous husbands. The woman at the well understands that he is talking in this vein about the Samaritan faith (not her personal life): “Sir, I see that you are a prophet”.

She continues the conversation “Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem”. Jesus replies by saying that the Samaritans worship what they do not know, the Jews what they do know. The Jews have the true relationship, the one that leads to a true knowledge. Jesus goes on to say that true worship is not linked to a place, but takes place in spirit and truth. The Samaritan woman begins to relate to this. “I know the Messiah is coming…he will proclaim all things to us”. Jesus answers “I am he” – the first time in the Gospel he has used the divine “I am”. She is the first person to receive the full revelation of Christ in the Gospel. She leaves her water jar (like the disciples leaving their nets) and becomes the initiator of the mission to the Samaritans. She goes to the town and says in v. 29 “Is he not the Christ?”- i.e. a rhetorical assertion and invitation. This is the original Greek – a more positive reading than the NRSV translation: “he cannot be the Messiah, can he?” The latter makes her sound more ditzy, less assured. Our reading shows how this woman has been undermined by both poor translation and a misunderstanding of the meaning of the text.

When the disciples return their uneasiness reflects the concern of the emerging male hierarchy at the stage when the gospel was being written. That Jesus should be in theological conversation with an unmarried woman is shocking. The woman is arguing and thinking like a rabbi, or at least a rabbi’s student – like Mary of Bethany sitting at the feet of Jesus. She is also a woman who adopts the role of apostle, carrying the gospel to a community that has not heard it before. In contrast the story is placed in John’s Gospel after the story of a man, Nicodemus – who does not present well in comparison.

It is not clear whether this was an historical event. It is an archetypal biblical story – the meeting between a man and a woman at a well. Isaac, Jacob and Moses all had such meetings at wells. Wells were places where women and men could meet without comment. They were places where wooing took place. In the Johannine story Jesus meets the woman at the most famous of all wells – Jacob’s well. Jesus is depicted as the true bridegroom. He comes to claim Samaria. He reaches out to embrace all those on the outside – Samaritans and women.

The story may be a literary device that validates the influence of newly converted Samaritans in the Johannine community. After Stephen was killed in Jerusalem many Christians left Jerusalem. Some of these started a mission in Samaria. They were Hellenistic converts and did not demand circumcision or conform to the Jewish dietary laws. This story reflects the spreading of the gospel in Samaria. The woman also may have been a literary creation representing generic “woman” – as is found elsewhere in the Gospel.

That a story that presents women so positively was written at all indicates the highly respected status of women in the Johannine community. It implies that women were accepted in roles of leadership and authority.