Historical Clarification

Can someone suggest some books that would give historical clarification and background to people and situations in the Bible... For example. More understanding of leprosy in Biblical times, or Tax Collectors, things like that. So when I tell the story about the Samaritan "Woman at the Well" I can have a little historical background about Samaritan women and why they she was gathering water... Does anyone know what I mean?

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Rosie Perera

Kelly, welcome to the Logos forums. FYI, this Suggestions forum is primarily for us users to communicate our suggestions to Logos for new features and resources we would like them to offer. You can ask questions on any of the other forums. General or Logos 4, for example, are good for things like this.

But I'll go ahead and give you a suggestion here anyway. Check out some of the titles under the Bible History and Culture section on the Comparison Chart of what resources are in the base packages. You probably have a number of these already, depending on what base package you bought. The dot colors indicate which base packages the resources are included in.

There are also some other forum threads where people have asked similar questions, and you'll find some more ideas here:

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/28794.aspx

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/25807.aspx

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/25752.aspx

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/215851#Comment_215851

Kelly,

The three resources I would recommend most would be:

IVP Bible Background Commentary (OT and NT), available only as part of the Essential IVP Reference Collection.
Dictionary of New Testament Background, also available in the same collection
Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (OT and NT).

The first and last are organised by scripture reference, the middle one is organised by subject (and is much more detailed). To take your example of John 4, here's a few extracts:

IVP Bible Background

In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus’ gift of the Spirit supersedes the ritual waters of John the Baptist (1:26, 33), ceremonial purification (2:6), proselyte baptism (3:5) and the Feast of Tabernacles (7:37–39; 9:7). It also apparently supersedes water having other religious symbolism associated with holy sites, such as healing sanctuaries (5:2–8) and Jacob’s well (4:7–26). For John’s readers, who have the Spirit but lack many of the rituals of their opponents, these contrasts would constitute an encouragement.

4:7. That this Samaritan woman comes to the well alone rather than in the company of other women probably indicates that the rest of the women of Sychar did not like her, in this case because of her sexual activities (cf. comment on 4:18). Although Jewish teachers warned against talking much with women in general, they would have especially avoided Samaritan women, who, they declared, were unclean from birth. Other ancient accounts show that even asking water of a woman could be interpreted as flirting with her—especially if she had come alone due to a reputation for looseness. Jesus breaks all the rules of Jewish piety here. In addition, both Isaac (Gen 24:17) and Jacob (Gen 29:10) met their wives at wells; such precedent created the sort of potential ambiguity at this well that religious people wished to avoid altogether.

4:8. Pharisees considered many of the foods of the Samaritans unclean.

4:9. The woman first confronts this encounter in racial terms: under Jewish law, even her water vessel (same term as in 2:6) was considered unclean for Jewish drinking. Ironically, in John’s Gospel only non-Jews recognize Jesus’ Jewishness (here and 18:33–35).

4:10. “Living water” simply meant “fresh” or “flowing” as opposed to stagnant or well water, but given John’s propensity for double meanings (see 3:5), here the term may also mean “water of life.”

Some scholars have pointed out that the rabbis spoke of Torah, the law, as God’s gift and as living water. But John uses the symbolism differently to refer to the Spirit (7:37–39). The background here is God as provider of the source of genuine life (Is 12:3; Jer 2:13).

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds

(In addition to this text, there are also two photographs of the modern site of Jacob's Well. Earlier in the chapter there's also a map of Samaria.)

Samaritan woman came to draw water (4:7). Apparently, the woman is from the district, not the town, of Samaria (the town of Samaria is located several miles north of Sychar). If Sychar is ‘Askar, it is surprising that the woman does not go to the well there (Ain ‘Askar). Perhaps that well did not always flow or the woman lives closer to the well of Jacob. Women were more likely to come in groups to fetch water (Gen. 24:11; Ex. 2:16) and to do so either early in the morning or later in the day when the heat of the sun was not so fierce (Gen. 24:11: “toward evening”). By contrast, this Samaritan woman comes alone, and she comes in the heat of the midday sun. Both observations suggest that this woman is looked down upon in her community on account of her low reputation (see 4:16–18).

Will you give me a drink? (4:7). By asking a woman who has come to the well alone for a drink, Jesus, himself being alone (4:8), breaks all rules of Jewish piety (see comments on 4:9). His taking the initative is open to the charge of acting in a p 44 flirtatious manner. Also, the fact that Isaac and Jacob met their prospective wives at wells (Gen. 24:17; 29:10) creates the sort of precedent that would further have cautioned devout Jews.

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food (4:8). Apparently, Jesus and his disciples carry little or nothing to eat on their journeys (Matt. 12:1 par.; 16:6–7 par.; cf. 10:9–10 par.). Rather, they bring with them the necessary money to buy what they need on the way (cf. John 12:6; 13:29). Purchasing food, together with the preparation and cooking of food and waiting on tables, were common tasks of disciples. That Jesus and his disciples are willing to purchase food from Samaritans indicates a certain freedom from the self-imposed regulations of the stricter Jews, who would have been unwilling to eat food handled by Samaritans. As Rabbi Eliezer (c. A.D. 90–130) used to say, “He that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine” (m. Šeb. 8:10). Moreover, with certain dry foods, there was no conveyance of defilement.

You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (4:9). Generally, Jews avoided contact with Samaritans, especially Samaritan women, although there would have been a certain spectrum depending on locale, class, education, and other factors. Some Jews were willing to eat with Samaritans (m. Ber. 7:1; 8:8), but many were not because of ritual defilement. Samaritans were thought to convey uncleanness by what they lay, sat, or rode on, as well as by their saliva or urine. Samaritan women, like Gentiles, were considered to be in a continual state of ritual uncleanness: “The daughters of the Samaritans are [deemed unclean as] menstruants from their cradle” (m. Nid. 4:1). Apart from these ethnic sensibilities, men would generally not want to discuss theological issues with women. Hence the woman’s surprise: Did Jesus not know that even her water jar was considered unclean by his fellow-Jews?

The gift of God … living water (4:10). On a literal level, the expression “living water” refers to the much sought-after fresh spring water, as opposed to stagnant water (Gen. 26:19; Lev. 14:6; Jer. 2:13). Ultimately, God is known to be the source and giver of life. In Numbers 20:8–11, an incident to which Jesus may allude in the present passage, water gushes out of the rock, supplying the Israelites with much-needed refreshment. In Jeremiah 2:13, God laments that his people have forsaken him, “the spring of living water.” In Isaiah 12:3, the prophet envisions the joy with which people “will draw water from the wells of salvation” in the last days.

For the ancient Jews, the greatest “gift of God” was the Torah (the law). Other “gifts of God,” apart from the lights in the sky and rain, were considered to include peace, salvation, the land of Israel, and divine mercy (Gen. Rab. 6:5; attributed to Yoḥanan ben Zakkai [c. A.D. 70] and other rabbis). Rabbinic thought associated the provision of water with the coming of the Messiah: “As the former redeemer made a well to rise [cf. Num. 21:17–18], so will the latter Redeemer bring up water” (Eccl. Rab. 1:9; see comments on 6:31).

In John, Jesus is identified explicitly with God the Creator and Life-giver (John 5:26) and shown to dispense the gift of “living water,” later unveiled as the Holy Spirit (7:37–39). This end-time blessing, bestowed after Jesus’ exaltation, p 45 transcends John’s water baptism (1:26, 33), Jewish ceremonial purification (2:6; 3:25), proselyte baptism (cf. 3:5), and the torch-lighting and water-pouring symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles (chs. 7–8). It also supersedes nurturing or healing waters such as Jacob’s well (ch. 4) or the pools of Bethesda and Siloam (chs. 5 and 9). In fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic vision (Ezek. 47:9; Zech. 14:8), Jesus has inaugurated the age of God’s abundance.

IVP Dictionary of NT Background

It has a long article on the Samaritans, and also refers to John 4 in articles on the language(s) Jesus spoke, Purity and Judaism. Here's two short extracts from the Samaritan article:

In NT times the Samaritans were a substantial religious group inhabiting parts of the central hill country of Samaria between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south, but with Diaspora communities in addition. Physically, they focused on Mt. Gerizim, close to the ancient town of Shechem, while religiously the focus of their faith was on a form of the law of Moses, the Pentateuch, which differed only slightly, but in one or two respects crucially, from the form of the Pentateuch familiar to us from its Masoretic recension.

Sources and Their Difficulties
Origins and Early History
Varieties of Samaritanism and Principal Beliefs
Jewish-Samaritan Conflicts and Polemics
Samaritans in the Gospels
Samaritans in the Book of Acts

[and the Samaritans in John, which is part of section 5]

5.2. John. It is John 4 that gives the most extended account of an encounter of Jesus with the Samaritans (the only other reference in this Gospel being Jn 8:48). Despite its popularity, the title “woman of Samaria” is misleading. The incident takes place at Sychar (Jn 4:5), clearly identified as being close to Shechem and Mt. Gerizim (cf. Jn 4:5–6, 20; Gen 48:22 [LXX]). The parenthetical comment in John 4:9 about Jewish-Samaritan relations following the woman’s expression of surprise that Jesus should ask her for a drink is probably not a general statement, but reflects a halakic ruling (mid-first century?) that “the daughters of the Samaritans are menstruants from their cradle” (b. Nid. 31b) and hence that the vessels which they handle are unclean. If so, the comment may reflect more the time of the Evangelist than of Jesus himself, and the woman’s surprise may not have been so specifically motivated. The woman’s question about the right place to worship (Jn 4:20) is, as we have seen, entirely appropriate as reflecting the issue that stood at the heart of Samaritan identity and is just the kind of easily grasped popular polemic which someone of her status might have been expected to raise. Her response to Jesus’ reply (Jn 4:25), however, is more problematic; talk of a “messiah” would probably have been foreign to a Samaritan (though our earlier caveat about diversity in this particular area of eschatology must be borne in mind). If historical tradition lies behind the saying, its present expression must be regarded as a Johannine paraphrase for his more Jewish-orientated readership. A reference to the prophet like Moses in the context of a discussion of the right place and mode of worship would have fitted well here, as is clear from our earlier discussion. [H. G. M. Williamson]