Sychar

Biblical Text

Sychar is a town in the region of Samaria that appears in the New Testament only in the Gospel of John, chapter 4. John 4:5 records that Jesus, leaving Judea on his way to Galilee, came "to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar." Nearby lay the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, along with Jacob's well.

Wearied from the journey, Jesus sat by the well and asked the Samaritan woman, who had come to draw water, for a drink. They then spoke about living water and about worship. The woman left her waterpot, went into the town, and told the people about Jesus. The townspeople asked Jesus to stay with them, and he remained there two days; many believed and confessed him to be "the Saviour of the world" (John 4:39–42).

Background

• Connection to the Old Testament: John's account draws on three Old Testament records: Jacob's purchase of a field before Shechem, where he built an altar (Genesis 33:18–20); Jacob's giving Joseph an additional portion (Genesis 48:22); and the burial of Joseph's bones in the land of Shechem (Joshua 24:32). Jacob's well itself is not mentioned in the Old Testament.
• Location: The exact location has not been determined. One view identifies Sychar with the present-day village of Askar near Nablus; another view, held since ancient times, is that Sychar refers to Shechem itself. Near Nablus is a well traditionally held to be Jacob's well, over which an Orthodox church has been built. The meaning of the name is uncertain.
• Jews and Samaritans: The text adds, "for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Jews looked down on the Samaritans as a people who had intermingled with foreign settlers after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans regarded themselves as the authentic heirs of Israel and worshiped on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem. The woman's reference to "this mountain" (John 4:20) is commonly understood to mean Mount Gerizim.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Sychar narrative is set on the land and at the well of the patriarch Jacob. The woman asks, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob?" (John 4:12). Jesus speaks of water that gives eternal life, in contrast to the water of the well, and declares that true worship is a matter not of place but of worshiping "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:20–23). He also reveals to the woman that he is the Messiah (John 4:26). This scene of Samaritans receiving the gospel anticipates the later spread of the gospel to Samaria in Acts 8.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Drawing water at noon: Because the woman came "about the sixth hour" (John 4:6), preachers often say that she came at midday to avoid being seen by others. The text, however, gives no reason. Some reckon this hour as 6 p.m. rather than noon.
• Five husbands: The woman has traditionally been read as a notably sinful person. Because the text does not disclose circumstances such as widowhood or divorce, however, some interpreters refrain from drawing a firm conclusion. There is also an allegorical (symbolic) interpretation that links the five husbands to the gods of the five nations mentioned in 2 Kings 17.
• Living water: On the basis of John 7:38–39, the living water is widely interpreted as the Holy Spirit. Some traditions also connect it with baptism.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, expressions such as "the woman of the city of Sychar" (Sugaseong yeoin) and "by the well of the city of Sychar" are common in sermons and hymns. The New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong), however, renders Sychar not as a "city" (seong) but as a "town" (dongne). This passage is frequently used in evangelism sermons, and the woman, who immediately told her town about the Jesus she had met, is presented as a model of evangelism.