ided by the Jewish pilgrims, who preferred
making in their journeys the long detour through Perea, rather than
expose themselves to the insults of the Samaritans, or ask anything of
them. It was forbidden to eat and drink with them.[2] It was an axiom
of certain casuists, that "a piece of Samaritan bread is the flesh of
swine."[3] When they followed this route, provisions were always laid
up beforehand; yet they rarely avoided conflict and ill-treatment.[4]
Jesus shared neither these scruples nor these fears. Having come to
the point where the valley of Shechem opens on the left, he felt
fatigued, and stopped near a well. The Samaritans were then as now
accustomed to give to all the localities of their valley names drawn
from patriarchal reminiscences. They regarded this well as having been
given by Jacob to Joseph; it was probably the same which is now called
_Bir-Iakoub_. The disciples entered the valley and went to the city to
buy provisions. Jesus seated himself at the side of the well, having
Gerizim before him.

[Footnote 1: Now Nablous.]

[Footnote 2: Luke ix. 53; John iv. 9.]

[Footnote 3: Mishnah, _Shebiit_, viii. 10.]

[Footnote 4: Jos., _Ant._, XX. v. 1; _B.J._, II. xii. 3; _Vita_, 52.]

It was about noon. A woman of Shechem came to draw water. Jesus asked
her to let him drink, which excited great astonishment in the woman,
the Jews generally forbidding all intercourse with the Samaritans. Won
by the conversation of Jesus, the woman recognized in him a prophet,
and expecting some reproaches about her worship, she anticipated him:
"Sir," said she, "our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth."[1]

[Footnote 1: John iv. 21-23. Verse 22, at least the latter clause of
it, which expresses an idea opposed to that of verses 21 and 23,
appears to have been interpolated. We must not insist too much on the
historical reality of such a conversation, since Jesus, or his
interlocutor, alone would have been able to relate it. But the
anecdote in chapter iv. of John, certainly represents one of the most
intimate thoughts of Jesus, and the greater part of the circumstances
have a striking appearance of truth.]