Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
WAS THE WOMAN AT THE WELL A LADY OF NEGOTIABLE VIRTUE?
The language gives a clue
It is not a short read.
Brace yourself! This is more of a teaching blog than an entertaining one. It may not be an easy read because there is more here than a normal, well adjusted person would generally want to know. But the time will be well spent. The detail which makes me a boring person brings the Bible alive for me. If, however, you happen to like what you read, there’s more to be found here.
[NOTE: Important words analysed below are identified with Hebrew/Greek transliterations into English and Strong’s Numbers so that whoever wants to can check them out — the recommendation is that you do. I use the Blue Letter Bible (https://www.blueletterbible.org/ BLB)]
Is the Well well known?
The episode of the woman at the well, in John 4, is likely well known by every reader. (If not, that is easy to remedy in less than five minutes.) But how well known? Does the English do justice to the intended narrative?
Town slut has to go to the village in the hottest part of the day because no respectable woman folk would associate with someone like that. (Remember “Harper Valley PTA” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZPBUu7Fro ) But Jesus met her where she was and had a tremendous impact on her and her village.
Ho hum. We’ve heard this so many times.
But are we victims of alternative facts?
Have we really picked up what was going on?
Short interlude: Necessary background about words
Dr. John Bechtle of The Ezra Project, (https://ezraproject.com/about/ ) describes the difference between having no knowledge of the Bible Languages, and just a working knowledge, as the difference between watching a match of your favourite sport (or ballet) on a grainy old 1950s TV and a 3-D laser projector where you can feel yourself in the midst of the action. I can vouch for that. The website is worth a visit. For what it’s worth coming from me, there is no better value for money for this type of product.
In general, there are two important things about words.
- One word can have multiple meanings. It can be seen in the figure there is a cluster from which to choose.
2) There is only one correct meaning for each context. The trick is to choose the correct one.
With the Bible there is a third important thing. Despite what the Intelligentsia postulates, the Holy Spirit holds the Intellectual Rights to the Bible, and He chooses His words carefully. The task of the Saints is not to say a better (original) word should be used. Our job is to investigate why He chose that particular word out of all those others available. Choosing different words for translation is another matter entirely.
Let anyone who disagrees with the Divinity of the Scriptures explain the contents of this post:-
And there is much more such evidence available if anyone desires.
Back to business
The conversation turns to the woman’s husbands — and she’s had a bunch of them so she must be a tart. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. But what was ACTUALLY said? Let’s pick things up near the end of that part of the conversation.
John 4:18 || For thou hast had five husbands (G435 — anēr); and he (G3739 — hos ) whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that you said truly.
To be any good to us, Jesus must not lie. (You will find that in many places when you look.) He doesn’t use euphemisms like, “affair” for “adultery”. [There’s a lot more to say on John 8:1–11 in another post. So many nuggets — so little time.] When Jesus says, “husbands,” he means “husbands.” He passes no judgement on the legality of her relationship with those men — or even with her current one. He makes no reference to sin as he did in John 8:1–11.
• Parsing her partners
G435 — anēr noun. It refers to a general man and woman relationship. There are 16 Unique Forms of inflections (spelling, hence, meaning) of the root word in textus receptus. Of those 16 choices, why did the Holy Spirit choose that particular one? It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Go to it.
G3739 — hos relative pronoun. The choice of this different word separates him from the other five. Her current partner is a de facto. There are 49 Unique Forms of the root word in textus receptus. Again, why this word? Again, go to it.
How can I be sure of this?
I can’t!!!!
How can we be sure of the traditional rendition?
We can’t!!!!
LET’S REFER TO THE WHOLE COUNCIL OF GOD.
Levirate marriage in the bible
We read all the way through Scripture how much value women placed on having children. The last one being Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. (Before anyone’s blood starts to boil, don’t try to paint yesterday’s canvas with today’s favourite colours. Neither you nor I know if those women valued getting up to her children in the middle of the night any less than you do answering an e-mail. If you are caused grief by this attitude, best you skip the rest of this post and cancel me. But if you do, you’ll miss something wonderful.)
The term levirate marriage, from the Latin levir meaning husband’s brother or brother-in-law, refers to marriage between a widow and her deceased husband’s brother. The whole thing had to do with the inheritance of the Children. The Religious Glitterati tried to trick Jesus on this subject in Luke 20:27–38. It is explained in Deuteronomy 25:5–10. It is mentioned in Genesis 38:6–11 and, surprisingly, the Book of Ruth. We are the beneficiaries of a levirate marriage, as demonstrated in this post:-
More on the Levirate Marriage later.
There’s a lot we don’t know about this woman
She may have been an over-friendly girl but, from what I can glean, the grammar of the Greek and the Holy Spirit’s choice of words does not imply that. Of course I could be wrong, having no theological qualifications.
It may have been that the relationship with her current beau was platonic. There is no clue from the words inspired by the Holy Spirit, and putting words into His mouth is dangerous. He tells us what is necessary.
Was she unable to have children for some reason? This could lead to her being legally divorced a number of times as part of a Levirate Marriage situation, or individual husbands rejecting her because she was barren? Because of the divorce laws, she had been rejected by five men in a mysoginistic culture. [Feelin’ the love. Control your rage a little longer.]
There may have been other reasons but I don’t know them and neither do you.
There’s a lot we don’t know about the Bible
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Nobel Laureate for his non-fiction book, “Gulag Archipelago,” made the comment, “The Bible is more known about than known.” Unfortunately, there is too much consensus Bible study. That is, “Let’s vote on what we think is a plausible meaning,” But plausible is not necessarily true. Or, “I don’t need to read the Bible, I already have an opinion.” There is a line in William Goldman’s, ‘The Princess Bride,’ a variation of which aptly describes the level of Biblical Literacy in today’s church in my part of town, “The Bible is my favourite book in all the world, though I have never read it.” I’m open to correction, but the bulk of contributors to Medium seem to reside in the USA. If you read the letters of the Founding Fathers (even the non-believing Patriots) to see the amount of Scripture contained in their every-day language, you would be astounded. (Perhaps many of you already have.) My Nation, Australia, has also become a desert. There is a famine of the Word in my Land. After 15 years of searching I had to go off-shore [to America — God always keeps His Remnant] to find Bible Teaching with grunt. What a shameful situation for my Nation.
There is one thing that a reasonable person could deduce about the psychological state of the woman.
You don’t need a PhD in Psychology to feel the vibes that she is in the pits. (I have a DhP in Reverse Psychology.) Whether she was a naughty girl or misjudged, sneaking out of the house, EVERY DAY, in order to gather the essential of life, must have been unbearable. She was a social outcast. Could Jesus put Himself in her sandals?
It is written in the Messianic Psalm 69:8–12
I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children; Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, That became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate speak against me, And I am the song of the drunkards.
His siblings thought he was a nutter. The drunks sang dirty ditties about Him in the pub. (It would be surprising if Mary wasn’t included. She was a gutsy woman. Joseph’s courage should also be acknowledged. The days of cheap Christianity are fading fast.)
Hebrew Hermeneutics
For anyone who may not know, Hermeneutics is simply the approach and guidelines used to interpret a text. There are four levels in Judaism.
1) Peshat, the literal, direct meaning;
2) Derash, the homiletical, or practical application;
3) Remez, an allegorical significance; a hint of something deeper;and
4) Sod (rhymes with road), the mystical or hidden meaning.
The¿mystical meaning?
We don’t know, but just say her problem was one of not being able to produce children. She had gone through her adult life carrying the same social stigma as Sarah (OT) and Elizabeth (NT) but now she had met Messiah, a Man Who did not want to screw her in any shape, form, or fashion and she instantly began to produce newly born (G5040 — teknion) into the Family of Heaven.
God has an Eternal Perspective on matters.
How do I know? Jesus told His inner-circle of four disciples (I can’t find the verse that names them) that, “Not a hair on your head would be harmed.” But tradition tells us that three of them were brutally murdered.
Back to the Levirate marriage
In the Epistle to the Ephesians (5:32) Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ and the church when discussing “two becoming one flesh.” And there are references to Israel being God’s Wife in the OT as well as the Bride of Christ and the Groom in the NT. YHVH also chides Israel for lusting after other gods in the OT. There is more to marriage and sex than God being an old killjoy. (But that’s another story.)
Mystery, G3466 — mystērion, does not mean the same as today’s English. That is, not something that can’t be known but something that was previously kept secret but now made available.
It is only the husband who is able to divorce the wife except under some rare cases. Again I’m not going to indulge in the usual arguments but, if marriage is the model of the Union between Christ and His Bride, the Church, and the Wife can’t divorce the Husband, it is yet another pattern for Eternal Security. Concerning divorce, She can’t and He has made clear that He won’t. Read the Book of Hosea.
Finally, Brethren.
(only five pages to go using Apostle Paul’s clock)
Is what I have said correct? I don’t know. What I do know is that using the original Bible language provides more depth than the thought bubbles which have been circulating so far. If anyone wishes to post a challenge, please go ahead. But do so with evidence and logic. Not the emotional, amorphous, nebulous, Gnostic, navel gazing, pseudo-intellectual slap-down that emanates from the Atheist side (Apatheists don’t bother to argue.)
Why is the default position, especially for Christians, to think the worst. Of course we are commanded to make righteous assessments but we are also commanded to exercise judgement with the information available (read Proverbs). Love is only one component of that. If you form an opinion without knowing all of the information, the opinion shows more about you than the woman.
And in conclusion
There is a tradition that the Woman at the Well went and did other things. That may well be true, the pattern fits, but I can’t make any comment.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
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