Dualism In Samaritan 4

Jesus interacting with the Samaritan women would have been something interesting to witness. Jesus was known for doing things that went beyond the social norms of his society. He did this to further the kingdom and there is a lot we can learn from it. In order to fully understand what Jesus means in John 4, we need to look at different perspectives as well as the literary context and the historical context. A feminist and womanist source will be crucial for this. Starting out with more of a traditional approach from Strauss, here he talks about how it was shocking that Jesus, a respected male Rabi would be talking to an unknown woman. Strauss notes the similarities between this encounter and the one with Nicodemus. There is a spiritual analogy …show more content…
There is definitely dualism with the story of Nicodemus. He is a well off Jewish religious leader but comes to Jesus in the middle of the night. The Samaritan women encounters Jesus in the high noon. Nicodemus is denounced by Jesus and points ahead to the women in chapter 4. This dualism is of light and dark; “Jewish, male, privileged, religious leader and Samaritan, female, underprivileged, non-Jewish religious leader- symbolizes the Johannine community’s reversal of the ‘this-world’ (196).” We also learn from this perspective about how the gender boundaries are important. Jesus talking to a woman in public would have been bad for the woman. In Roman culture wives speaking publicly with a women reflected flirtatious attitude. This can even be seen today in Middle Eastern cultures where social interaction between unrelated men and women is almost the same as sexual intercourse. The disciples would have seen the interaction and were amazed. The woman is bold, outspoken, not concerned about Jesus revealing her life shows the intelligent conversation they were having. The disciples could have sent her away but saw the conversation and it relates back to the “this world”. She was not sent away because of the intelligent