This study 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 Gospel episode assume the reader’s familiarity with these Torah texts? If so, what sort of interpretation of them is presupposed, and what significance does this have for the exegesis of the Gospel pericope?
What comes to light is a complex interrelation which does not fall neatly into a single category. There are numerous literary parallels, but in the Johannine rereading these have come to be thematically refocused, and intertwined with words and actions of Jesus. The resultant dynamic invites readers to interpret John 4:1–42 in light of three passages from the Pentateuch, and vice versa.
Eric John Wyckoff teaches Sacred Scripture in the Faculty of Theology (Jerusalem Campus) of the Salesian Pontifical University (Rome) since 2012. He has taught previously at its Affiliated theological center in Tlaquepaque, México (1999–2003, 2009–12). This monograph is based on his doctoral research, defended in March 2020 at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem under the direction of Alessandro Cavicchia, Alessandro Coniglio, Edward L. Greenstein, and Francis J. Moloney.