Jacob's Well

The Jacob's Well is a well in Samaria at the foot of Mount Gerizim near Shechem ( Nablus today ). The local tradition goes back to information from the Bible (Gen 33.18 to 19 EU).

Biblical tradition

Tanakh (Old Testament)

The Israelite patriarch Jacob bought according to Gen 33:19 EU land near Shechem at the foot of Gerizim. This property he transferred his favorite son Joseph and his descendants, including Ephraim (Gen 48.21 to 22 EU). On the same grounds Josef later found his final resting place ( Jos 24:32 EU).

Mount Gerizim is theologically beyond significant because were uttered by Deut 27 EU and Jos 8.33 EU from the rest of the mountain Gerizim blessing words about the meeting of the tribes of Israel. From the slope of the opposite court, however, Ebal words were threatened.

New Testament

According to John's Gospel (Jn 4.5-6 EU) Jacob is said to have dug a well on this property. This fountain is otherwise not mentioned in the Bible only in Deut 33,28 EU Israel is referred to as " Jacob's well ". Even extra-Biblical there is no evidence for its existence.

In John 4 EU tells how Jesus is on the way from Jerusalem to Galilee. He rests here at Jacob's well in Sychar from. There it comes to an encounter with a Samaritan woman, which opens into a theological conversation with the woman as the representative of her people, the religious group of the Samaritans, appears. In conversation, the relationship between Jews and Samaritans in addition to the significance of Jesus as " living water " discussed. The southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, for which the name " Joseph " is a synonym were enemies after the split of Israel since the time after Solomon. The Jews in New Testament times were the Samaritans because of mixing with other religions as quasi- pagan (cf. Lk 10:30-37 EU). Often the revealed by Jesus in John relationship of the woman to five husbands (John 4.16 to 19 EU) is interpreted as a symbolic expression of this religious debauchery. To that extent, also the scene of symbolic quality to be attached, as Jacob's well in the ancestor Jacob ( = Israel ) represents the common past of the whole people of Israel and Jesus, the woman disclosed therein as the Messiah of both the Jews and the Samaritans (John 4, 23-26 EU).

Ecclesiastical tradition

In the tradition of the Orthodox Churches, the unnamed woman in the Bible is known from Jacob's well as PhotinaTM.

Since the 4th century AD. was the well - integrated into five Christian church building - with interruptions. An early Byzantine church was probably destroyed in the Samaritan rebellions of the 5th century. In the 6th century a new church was built under Justinian I and was probably at least to the 9th century, their exact fate is unknown. A third church in the western architectural style was built probably in 1175 by the Crusaders and is already destroyed again twelve years later by the Islamic conquerors. 1860 bought the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the terrain, and rebuilt a church that in 1927 an earthquake fell victim. After a reconstruction project, led by the local priest Abuna Justinus today is a fifth, again Greek Orthodox church on the site. The fountain has fallen over the centuries and is located in the crypt of the church, a few meters below the ground level.