When setting up the characters in this novel, several factors are considered:
1) The character’s gender, age, family, residence, upbringing, the meaning of their name, language, behavior, and historical background.
2) Why the character asks a particular question.
3) Why Jesus gives a specific response.
The first point is essential for establishing the character’s situation, and as you gather material, the character’s outline begins to take shape. Based on these details, you can then contemplate the reasons for points two and three. The more material you have for the first point, the easier it is to answer the second and third. However, sometimes this can lead to overly elaborate settings.
The Samaritan woman in this story is a character with just such an elaborate setup. I wanted to use her to reflect the historical, temporal, ethnic, and religious situation of Samaria. First, I portrayed her as having crossed eyes (strabismus), a metaphor for the Samaritans’ dual worship of God and foreign gods after the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyria. The Samaritans were descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel and the nations that migrated there. After the Assyrian conquest, many foreigners settled in the region, and because they did not fear God, lions were sent and caused continuous casualties. As a result, they decided to believe in God—but they continued to worship their original foreign gods as well.
“So they worshiped Yahweh, but also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.” (2 Kings 17:33, WEB)
“So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.” (2 Kings 17:41, WEB)
Because of this syncretic faith, the Samaritans were despised by the Jews. I used the image of her eyes that look in different directions to express the reality of Samaritans being disregarded for religious reasons.
The fact that she has had five husbands is also used to illustrate the relationships with the nations that conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. The first husband represents the time when they betrayed Judah and established their own kingdom. The second husband represents the time of the Assyrian conquest (including subsequent Mesopotamian dynasties). The third husband represents the time of conquest by Alexander the Great (including later Hellenistic dynasties). The fourth husband represents the time after being included in the Roman province of Syria under Pompey. The fifth husband represents the time under Herod, the Idumean king.
Incidentally, the words spoken by the man who is not the Samaritan woman’s husband in the next part are inspired by a Samaritan from Josephus’ Antiquities, who falsely claimed that Moses’ sacred vessels were found on Mount Gerizim.
Finally, portraying her as yearning for a man’s love was intended to evoke, through the geographical setting of Jacob’s well, the image of Leah, who longed for Jacob’s love but eventually praised God. This setting also reflects her history of having five husbands and now living with a man who is not her husband.
When creating such elaborate settings, I worry that I might end up telling a story unrelated to the Bible. I hope that you, wise readers, will understand and overlook this, as settings are just settings after all.
There is another point I would like to discuss regarding the Samaritan woman: the time at which she met Jesus. Generally, it is explained that Jesus met her at noon, based on the fact that the Gospel of John records the time as “the sixth hour.” This interpretation assumes that the sixth hour corresponds to noon in the Jewish time system. This understanding often leads to her being portrayed as a promiscuous woman who fetches water at noon to avoid the gaze of others. However, it is worth considering whether the Gospel of John truly uses the Jewish time system.
Looking at the account of Jesus’ trial, Mark’s Gospel states that Jesus was crucified at the third hour (9 a.m.), while John’s Gospel describes the trial as occurring at the sixth hour. If John’s sixth hour were interpreted as noon according to the Jewish time system, these accounts would contradict each other, suggesting that John might have used the Roman time system in this context.
Logically, it would be unusual for the same text to use two different time systems, so it would be reasonable to interpret the time of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman as either 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. However, from a theological perspective, since the event preceding this encounter was the nighttime visit of Nicodemus, John might have intentionally contrasted these two events. John’s Gospel is written not to chronicle Jesus’ life in chronological order but to convey the purpose of believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that through Him we have life.
Therefore, even though the time is recorded as the sixth hour, it is difficult to determine whether it refers to 6 a.m., noon, or 6 p.m. There is also the possibility that John initially used the Jewish time system and then switched to the Roman system. In any case, for the purpose of this novel, I have proceeded with the common interpretation that the meeting occurred at noon.
