Jesus the Samaritan: Ethnic Labeling in the Gospel of John

In Jesus the Samaritan: Ethnic Labeling in the Gospel of John, Stewart Penwell examines how ethnic labels function in the Gospel of John. After a review of the discourse history between the Jews and the Samaritans, the dual ethnic labeling in John 4:9 and 8:48 are examined and, in each instance, members from the Jews and the Samaritans label Jesus as a member of each other’s group for deviating from what were deemed acceptable practices as a member of the Jews. The intra-textual links between John 4 and 8 reveal that the function of Jesus’s dual ethnic labeling is to establish a new pattern of practices and categories for the children of God (1:12; 11:52) who are a trans-ethnic group united in fictive kinship and embedded within the Judean ethnic group’s culture and traditions.