Woman of Samaria
(John 4:1–30)

On the way from Judaea to Galilee Christ paused to rest by the spring called Jacob's Well outside the town of Sychar in Samaria. A Samaritan woman, an adulteress, who came to draw water was astonished at his request for a drink, not only because it would not be the custom for a Jew to address a strange woman but because of the traditional hatred between Jews and Samaritans which extended, John tells us, to their not using vessels in common. Christ used the occasion to teach in metaphor: "Everyone who drinks the water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never suffer thirst any more." The disciples, returning from the town, were surprised to find Christ talking with a woman. The scene is a well, often under a shady tree, where Christ is sitting. He is in conversation with a countrywoman who has a pitcher. In Italian art the woman is occasionally portrayed richly dressed with braided hair and perhaps one breast bare, the conventional attributes of the courtesan. In the background are the walls of the town. The disciples are seen approaching along a road.