Called by Jesus to be a disciple, she opened all of Samaria to the Word of Salvation
This series of Bible studies seeks to retell the stories of women who were divinely called and empowered to do great things. Many of them rose to the occasion, and a few very famously did not. Often, the tragedies and triumphs in their lives are missed, and their stories are told from perspectives other than with the honor and dignity they deserve.
After excavating their narratives from millennia of obfuscation, now meet the freshly restored, valiant, vivid (and sometimes villainous) women of the Bible.
Apostle to Samaria: Woman at the Well
The Woman at the Well, a nameless Samaritan, became evangelist to her hometown, beginning a spiritual revival that would eventually spread throughout the region of Samaria.
The Gospel of John depicts twelve apostolic elements in the calling of Jesus’s disciples, beginning with the Greek verb zeteō, to “seek.” All twelve elements are found in the calling narrative of five men in John 1, and in Jesus’ encounters with at least two women in later chapters.
In fact, the second time this calling narrative is seen is with the woman at the well in John chapter 4. (The second time is with Mary of Magdala in John 20.) John’s inclusion of women’s stories could be incidental or may be in response to the relative absence of women disciples, and women in apostolic ministry, in Mark’s and Matthew’s Gospels.
The high view of Christ and of the scriptures will lead modern Christians to hearken to John’s portrayal of both women and men in Jesus’s apostolic mission, and thereby support Christ’s work in calling both men and women to leadership in the church today.
This thirty-page book includes the retelling of the Samaritan woman’s story, a fifteen-question Bible study, and link to a twenty-minute multi-media presentation of the woman at the well’s account.
Just a Conversation, or a Call to Discipleship?
Considering the weight of all twelve apostolic elements from John’s description of Jesus’s first disciples appearing in the account of the Samaritan woman, it seems clear John intended her to be viewed as a disciple and apostle of Jesus.
Because she is called γυνή | gunē, “woman,” rather than by a name, John further extends the corollary to all women who believe Jesus, worship in Spirit and in truth, and bear witness of Christ. Such an encounter with Jesus “should continue to transform women’s culturally gendered roles and empower them. If the Gospel does not free women from their gendered roles today, then it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”[1]
Like the disciples before her, and unlike Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman moved from conversation with Jesus to conversion, to co-laboring with Jesus in his ministry. Jesus came to Samaria to transform this woman at the well into a disciple and an apostle.
[1] Musa W. Dube, “Grant me justice: Female and male equality in the New Testament,” Journal of Religion and Theology in Namibia 3, no. 1 (2001), 93.
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