John 4:1-42 among the Biblical Well Encounters: Pentateuchal and Johannine Narrative Reconsidered

In this study, Eric John Wyckoff proposes a new approach to an ongoing scholarly discussion. How can the relationship among the encounters at wells narrated in the Pentateuch (Genesis 24 and 29, Exodus 2) and the New Testament (John 4) be defined? Does the latter assume the reader’s familiarity with the former? If so, then what sort of interpretation of the Torah texts is presupposed, and what significance does this have for the exegesis of the Gospel pericope? The author analyzes the literary parallels and investigates textual clues as to how these came to be intertwined with words and actions of Jesus and thematically refocused in the Fourth Gospel. What comes to light is a complex interrelation which does not fall neatly into a single literary category, inviting readers to interpret the Johannine Samaria narrative in light of three passages from the Pentateuch, and vice versa.