{"id":5293,"date":"2020-01-01T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T00:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2021-10-15T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T03:23:09","slug":"224-nablus-jacobs-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=5293","title":{"rendered":"239. Jacob\u2019s Well at Nablus"},"content":{"rendered":"

7\u00a0<\/sup>A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, \u201cGive me a drink.\u201d\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>The Samaritan woman said to him, \u201cHow is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?\u201d (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered her, \u201cIf you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.\u201d\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cSir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?\u201d\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus said to her, \u201cEveryone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.\u201d\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cSir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.<\/span><\/strong>\u201d [John 4:7-15<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Greek Orthodox\u00a0St. Photini<\/a>\u00a0Church<\/em>\u00a0at Bir Ya’qub\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jacob\u2019s Well<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s Well is in the Palestinian controlled area of West Bank. It is situated a short distance from the biblical Shechem, the archeological site of Tell Balata in the Samaria, and now part of Nablus metropolitan area.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Greek Orthodox Church which is part of a monastery complex, stands over the Well. Access to the Well is by way of a flight of stairs to the crypt below.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of religious significance, the four religions \u2013 Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim \u2013 all associate the Well with Jacob. Jacob was the patriarch\u00a0who\u00a0was given the name\u00a0Israel<\/em>\u00a0after he\u00a0\u201cwrestled with the angel\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(Genesis 32:28<\/a>\u00a0and 35:10). Descendants of Jacob came to be called Israelites. These eventually formed the\u00a0 Twelve Tribes of Israel\u00a0 descended from the\u00a012 sons<\/a>\u00a0of Jacob<\/a>\u00a0and his two wives,\u00a0Leah<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rachel<\/a>, and two\u00a0maidservants<\/a>,\u00a0Zilpah<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Bilhah<\/a>. They ultimately formed the\u00a0kingdom of Israel<\/a>, and from there came the name of modern-day\u00a0State of Israel<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considered one of the most authentic sites in the Holy Land, Jacob\u2019s Well is 41 meters (135 feet) deep and is a working well. The caretaker of the place held us spellbound in a demonstration by pouring a dipper of water into the well, urging us to keep silent while we waited for the sound of the splash when the water hit bottom. When the distant-sound of splash was heard, we all uttered in unison a sigh of shocked-amusement, for it sounded \u201cso deep\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

With unveiled delight and amazement, many of us took turns to wheel up a bucket of water, and everyone took a drink of the crystal clear and clean spring water from this ancient well. As we did so, we remembered Jacob and the love of his life Rachel, and Jesus and the Samaritan woman who gave him a drink and then asked him for his living water.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/u><\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

For most all of us in the group, this visit to Jacob\u2019s Well was one of the highlights in our pilgrimage to the Holy Land and we were truly grateful for its inclusion in the itinerary.<\/span><\/p>\n

For ourselves in particular, our minds kept pulling back to the two biblical stories, one each in the Old and the New Testaments, of Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29), and of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (John 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Jacob and Rachel<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob first met Rachel at a well at noon time (Genesis 29:1-28). <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He did not win her immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, Jacob had to work hard to finally gain Rachel as his wife.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took some doing, fourteen years of hard work to be exact for Rachel\u2019s father to finally relent and let Jacob marry Rachel. Jacob knuckled down and did it. Rachel would become the love of his life and the mother of the children he dotted on.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first seven years were a trick from Laban who broke his promise and gave not Rachel but her elder sister to Jacob under the cover of the night. Determined, Jacob stayed on Laban\u2019s land to work another seven years in exchange for Laban\u2019s consent to give Rachel to him for marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s determination is remarkable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally remarkable, and current church regulations notwithstanding, is the fact that in Jesus\u2019 ancestry, Jacob had two wives (and two maidservants as concubines) and it was considered perfectly fine. That, too, is biblical, which teaches us not to be too \u201cdogmatic\u201d in our approach towards other people who are caught in circumstances (and traditions) we today so dismissively label as \u201cirregular\u201d relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Pope Francis, we must also learn to listen<\/em> to their stories before throwing the law books at them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis has learned well from the Lord Jesus, that is, to consider the human person ahead of the law.<\/span><\/p>\n