The Savior’s encounters with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman are two well-known historical accounts in the Gospel of John. Yet when we talk about them, we often treat them as isolated incidents with no connection outside of “Jesus talking to someone.” But if we look a little closer, we may see that the Samaritan woman is more than a reminder to be kind to society’s outcasts, and Nicodemus does more than deliver us the famous passage of John 3:16. The two are closely, and intentionally, connected.
But first, let’s get on the same page about what we’re reading (and how we need to read it).
Reading John as it was meant to be
A common misconception about the Bible is that it’s a cold, lifeless series of words. Even when 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us Scripture is “God-breathed,” we treat the Bible as authoritative and true while divorcing it from the people God used to write such a unique book. We read the text but often have little consideration for the context of the words and the humans who wrote them.
God could have delivered His word through angelic messengers, tablets of gold, or by speaking directly to us. Yet, for all the means He could have used, our perfect God chose to deliver His word through human writers. We must pay attention to a writer’s words, remembering they wrote them at a specific time with a particular goal. Although God’s word is far above any purely human writing, we must also respect what we read as we would any writing – starting at the beginning, paying attention to what the author adds (and excludes), and sticking with it until the end.
John is one such example of why this is important. When we flip straight to the account of the Samaritan woman, we must realize that it takes place in a larger body of text. This account happens after John’s introduction and the groundwork he lays while telling his account of Jesus. The Samaritan woman (chapter 4) also comes shortly after Jesus’s encounter with Nicodemus (chapter 3). It’s also worth noting that John didn’t take all of Jesus’s interactions, put them in a hat, and randomly draw a few to write about. The existence of these two accounts in such proximity isn’t a coincidence but a conscious choice of the writer who knew it would serve his bigger purpose.
What was John’s purpose? Unlike most biblical writers, he plainly states his goal toward the end of the book:
Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30-31 LSB)
John wrote to people nearly 2,000 years ago with a clear goal: to show them who Jesus is so they could place their faith in Him for salvation. We want to use the same lens as we read these words today.
So, with all that in mind, how do the accounts of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman connect to show who Jesus is?
Narrative contrasts and Christ’s knowledge of man
Chapter and verse numbers benefit students of God’s word who want to quickly track something down in a book that spans hundreds of pages. And while these divisions can be helpful, we must never forget that they aren’t divinely inspired. When John wrote these words, his original audience read it like we would read any non-fiction account: they started at the beginning and stopped at the end, treating the entire thing as a unified whole.
This is important because, while chapter divisions usually signify a clear break in the narrative, they sometimes cause readers to unconsciously separate the chapters from one another. I think we see this when we start the accounts of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman in John 3:1. Instead, let’s look at what immediately precedes the introduction of Nicodemus and see if it informs what we’re about to read:
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, when they saw His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. (John 2:23-25 LSB)
This statement lacks context and may even make us scratch our heads trying to figure out why John needed to point it out. However, it makes more sense if we read it as a lead-in to what John is about to write rather than as a conclusion to what he just said.
John’s broad purpose is to show who Jesus is. He is about to do that by showing two specific interactions with two wildly different people. Yet despite the differences between them, the theme is the same: Jesus is the Messiah who has a supernatural knowledge of the people He engages with. While each interaction is loaded with value for readers, seeing how John sets these two encounters against one another creates a deeper appreciation for what John is doing as a writer, showing us the majesty and complexity of God’s word.
Let’s now look at how John intentionally wrote about Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman in contrast to one another.
Two hostile nations
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast (John 2:23a)
So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (John 4:5)
Nicodemus came to Christ while He was in Jerusalem, while Jesus engaged the woman in Samaria.
Jerusalem was the place for the Jews. Jerusalem once housed God’s presence in the temple before He withdrew from them. It was the location of the rebuilt temple where they would worship God. In the Jewish mind, Jerusalem was the central hub of their religion and an area of great honor.
In contrast, Samaria was gross. While most Jews wouldn’t think highly of a typical pagan country, there was at least a clear line between “us” and “them” in such locations. Samaria, however, was a place of traitors, impure marriages, and compromise.
We often think of Samaritans as good people who the Jews wrongly hated. And indeed, there was an element of hating the current inhabitants for the sins of their fathers. However, 2 Kings offers heartbreaking insight into the foundational beliefs of the Samaritans and why the Jews so fiercely rejected them:
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. Now it happened at the beginning of their settlement there, that they did not fear Yahweh; therefore Yahweh sent lions among them which were killing them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have taken away into exile and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are putting them to death because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.”
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you took away into exile and let him go and live there; and let him instruct them the custom of the god of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had taken away into exile from Samaria came and settled at Bethel, and instructed them how they should fear Yahweh.
But each nation was still making gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, each nation in their cities in which they lived. And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of the Sepharvaim. They were also fearing Yahweh and appointed from among all of themselves priests of the high places, and they were acting for them in the houses of the high places. They were fearing Yahweh and serving their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been taken away into exile.
To this day they are acting according to the earlier customs: they are not fearing Yahweh; they are not acting according to their statutes or their judgments or the law, or the commandment which Yahweh commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom Yahweh cut a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor worship them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them. (2 Kings 24:35 LSB)
Ezra 4 also shows that the Samaritans wanted to take part in rebuilding the temple but were rejected by the Jews (likely because they still mixed pagan worship with Judaism). In response, we see the Samaritans turn against God’s people and try to disrupt the rebuilding of Jerusalem, a sacred task given to Israel by God Himself.
This gives us some vital context about the Samaritans by telling us that they:
- Were comprised of pagans who intermarried with Jews
- Had been judged by God for worshiping false gods in His land
- Received the chance to turn from their idolatry when the king of Assyria sent a Jewish priest to instruct them
- Practiced a syncretic religion, mixing paganism with worship of Yahweh (in the same way we might see someone today mix witchcraft with Christianity)
- Were rejected by the Jews because of their syncretism and responded by trying to sabotage the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem
When John writes that Jesus “came to a city of Samaria called Sychar,” centuries of hostility aren’t readily apparent to modern readers. However, John’s audience would have been well aware of the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans, and especially the deep-seated animosity over the Samaritans’ ancestors trying to sabotage Jerusalem’s rebuilding. And this contrast between Nicodemus in Jerusalem and the woman in Samaria carries the rest of John’s narrative.
Two places of worship
“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:20-22 LSB)
Closely linked with the animosity of the Jews and Samaritans is how they handled worship. Modern readers may already know that the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, the location of their rebuilt temple. With their mixture of paganism and Judaism, Samaritans had many places of worship for their various gods. Because they weren’t welcome in Jerusalem, the Samaritans even built their own temple to God on Mount Gerizim.
John’s inclusion of her statement says much through what it doesn’t say. Although it serves as a launching point for Jesus to teach about true worship, John silently reminds us how different these two people were. As a known Pharisee, Nicodemus represented a classic understanding of Judaism that John’s readers likely understood as the “correct” one. The center of this would have been the temple where God once dwelt (and hopefully would again). In contrast, the Samaritan woman worshipped at a false temple due to her people’s false understanding of God.
But what does Jesus do? He affirms that salvation comes from the line of David (namely, Himself) but corrects her misunderstanding about worship. Jerusalem? Mount Gerizim? God won’t be bound to a single location like the Jews and Samaritans think. Here, we see John once again fulfilling his purpose in these narratives by showing Christ’s authority to declare how He, as God and Messiah, will be worshipped by those who place their faith in Him.
The named man and the nameless woman
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus (John 3:1a LSB)
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. (John 4:7a LSB)
The overall tone of Nicodemus’s narrative is negative. This Jewish leader should have been ready to receive the Messiah he’d spent his life teaching others about. Yet his understanding is so unformed that Jesus can’t take the time to explain more significant truths. We don’t see how Nicodemus responds, but John’s silence implies that he keeps this secret meeting to himself.
In contrast, John paints the Samaritan woman positively. She has lived her life in ignorance, is initially hostile (or at least suspicious) of Jesus, tries to deceive Him about her romantic life, and even tries to catch Him in a trap by bringing up an ancient dispute between Jews and Samaritans. Yet she is the one who asks meaningful questions, believes Jesus is the Messiah, and even goes to deliver this good news to others.
Names matter in any story. They’re often the difference between the featured character and a random passerby. Yet John uses irony in who he names. This Samaritan woman received the Savior after centuries of her people worshipping a variety of gods and being rejected by the Jews. The narrative initially shows Nicodemus to be cowardly and ignorant. Yet he is the one who is named while this noteworthy woman, who serves as a contrast to Nicodemus, remains nameless on this side of Heaven.
Social standing
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1 LSB)
A woman of Samaria… “for you had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband” (John 4:7a, 18a)
Nicodemus enjoyed some of the greatest social standings God’s people could hope for. First, he was an ethnic Jew and part of a long line of God’s chosen nation. Second, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, holding one of Israel’s most significant leadership roles. Third, beyond just being any Pharisee, he was a “ruler of the Jews” as one of the 70 members of a special council known as the Sanhedrin. Lastly, he was a man and enjoyed all the privileges of his gender at that time.
In contrast, the woman seemed like the walking picture of dishonor to a Jewish mind. We’ve already seen everything Jews held against Samarians. Yet even among Samaritans, she may have been an outcast as a five-times divorcee and currently living with a guy she wasn’t even married to. And to top it all off, as a woman, she was of a lower class and value than the Samaritan man she was living in adultery with.
Darkness and light
this man came to Jesus by night (John 3:2a)
It was about the sixth hour. (John 4:6b)
John likes to employ the poetic contrast of light and dark. We see this at the beginning of the gospel, in these two accounts, and throughout his writing.
Although no one forbade the Pharisees from interacting with Jesus, Nicodemus still felt the need to visit Him at night. As always, night is the time for secret deeds. By waiting for the cover of darkness, Nicodemus shows himself as a man who knows there’s something unique about Jesus, yet he refuses to let someone see the Pharisee seeking Him out. He felt shame, embarrassment, or fear in visiting Jesus.
In contrast, Jesus confronts the woman in broad daylight. Although there’s some disagreement about whether “the sixth hour” refers to Roman time (about 6 in the evening), John’s contrast narrative makes it more likely that this took place according to the Jewish measure of time. If so, this occurred around noon, the day’s brightest and most illuminated part. In contrast to Nicodemus hiding his meeting with the Messiah, Jesus Himself engages this Samaritan woman in broad daylight, even to the later shock of His followers who see it happen.
The initiators and the response
Let’s briefly consider a simple but important point. Nicodemus sought out the Messiah, yet it seems apparent that whatever he believed about Him, this Pharisee didn’t let others in on what he learned. Meanwhile, the Samaritan woman likely would have been content not to speak to the Jewish man at the well, yet Jesus initiated the conversation. The result of Christ seeking her out is her belief in the Messiah and an overwhelming desire to tell others about Him.
The length of the interactions
Another interesting contrast is Jesus’s dialogues with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Nicodemus has a whopping three lines of dialogue. He starts by stating his assumption about Jesus, tells Jesus he doesn’t understand how an adult man can be “born again,” and then ends by essentially saying, “I still don’t get it.” Compare that with Jesus’s literal paragraphs of dialogue toward the Pharisee and it’s evident that Nicodemus came to Jesus thinking he was on equal footing and left realizing that, for all his acclaim, he didn’t truly understand the things of God.
The woman, by contrast, carries her conversation with Jesus all the way to the end. She doesn’t fade into the background but instead ends their back-and-forth by doing what Nicodemus should have done – boldly proclaiming the coming of the Messiah.
The tone of the sinners
“Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2b)
“How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” … “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and cattle?” … “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come back here to draw.” … “Sir, I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” (John 4:9, 11-12, 15, 19-20)
Nicodemus arrived with cordiality and respect. The New American Commentary points out that by referring to Jesus as “rabbi, “ Nicodemus assures Jesus that this Pharisee sees them on the same level. This is hilarious considering both who Jesus truly is and the “dressing down” He gives this teacher of Israel. From here, Nicodemus makes two other statements, showing that he doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about (at least not yet). Nicodemus arrives with politeness but fades into the background of Jesus’s teaching without any meaningful input or sign of belief.
On the other hand, the woman immediately responds as one would expect a Samaritan to react to this odd Jewish man. She continues to keep her defenses up, possibly even responding with some sarcasm, all the way until a lightbulb switched on (or, to be historically consistent, a candle ignited). From here, her disposition toward Jesus completely shifts as she hurries back to town to tell the people that the Messiah they’d been waiting for was here at last.
The tone of the Savior
Jesus, “knowing what is in man,” has two very different discussions with people on two very diverse spiritual journeys.
Nicodemus arrives secretly and may even be a bit prideful as he treats Jesus as his equal. Jesus doesn’t hesitate to teach this man who came to learn from Him, yet He gives Nicodemus what he needs to understand. Jesus isn’t mean about it but is very direct in dismantling Nicodemus’s religious assumptions and dominates their time with lengthy teaching segments on the basics of salvation. Yet even in the basics, Nicodemus’s silence loudly proclaims to the reader that he wasn’t ready for what Jesus offered.
In contrast, His interaction with the woman carries the back-and-forth markers of a genuine conversation. They don’t even start with a spiritual discussion. Yet, it naturally flows in that direction as Jesus teaches a woman who is ready to believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing she may have life in His name (again, reinforcing the overall theme of John’s Gospel). Jesus is gentle in His teaching, knowing this woman was ready to believe in this final interaction between them:
“I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (John 4:25-26 LSB)
Similar lines, different receptions
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, and you do not accept our witness. (John 3:11)
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)
In the middle of both accounts, John clarifies that he intends to link these two interactions.
The language is similar, yet Jesus is talking about two different things. With Nicodemus, Jesus uses “speak,” a term we may best associate with teaching. With this, Jesus seems to point out that He and His followers teach the truth, but Nicodemus (and the Pharisees) aren’t ready to accept it.
He later speaks to the Samaritan woman about worship, a concept we must remove from our poor modern definition. In the Bible, we can better understand worship as someone’s allegiance, service, and lifelong dedication to something. Singing is a part of that, but worship through singing is just one means of declaring our devotion to God.
In other words, Jesus speaks to the woman about genuinely worshiping God. She thought she served God by doing things according to her nation’s terms; things that we now know were mixed with paganism and idolatry. Jesus broke down that barrier to tell her that God’s people will only worship Him by His standards, and the Messiah was the means of doing so. The reader sees her take this to heart when she realizes He truly is the Christ, whereas we are left with no response from Nicodemus.
The pivot point between the two
If John wanted to link these two interactions, we might expect them to occur one after the other. Yet between these two interactions, John seems to rabbit-trail his readers into the final moments of John the Baptist’s unique ministry. If we assume John placed this here purposefully, the logical question is, “Why?”
I’ll leave it to you to read John 3:22-36. And as you puzzle out why it exists, keep one word in mind: escalation.
Before Nicodemus, we don’t see much from Jesus. John tells us about Him in Chapter 1, and we know a bit about Jesus’s interactions at the wedding, emptying the temple, and calling disciples. But really, as the audience reads the Gospel of John for the first time, they’d likely be holding their breath as they waited for the central character to take center stage.
Jesus’s dialogue with Nicodemus sets a theological foundation for the rest of the book. John gave us the state of the world that Jesus entered into. John shows his readers who Jesus is, what He came to do, and what everyone must do to escape the judgment they deserve and inherit eternal life.
Having laid that out, John the Baptist reiterates that Jesus is the Messiah and says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John’s exit escalates the narrative from “Let’s talk about the Messiah” to “Let’s see the Messiah in action.” John the Baptist is a pivot between these two linked accounts, showing what it looks like for people to heed the words Jesus said to Nicodemus and believe in Him.
And of any moment that could have satisfied the audience’s desire to see Jesus fully interact with the people He came to save, God inspired John to write about Christ’s interaction with a Samaritan woman living in sexual immorality.
An important point about Nicodemus
If we were reading John for the first time, he moves the narrative forward while leaving us with an unanswered question: What happened to the Pharisee? Yet when we remember that Chapter 3 is a small section of a greater piece, we’ll see John teach what it means to trust Christ. While we may not see the Samaritan woman again, John’s not done following Nicodemus.
He appears again in chapter 7 when he advocates for Jesus, reminding his fellow Pharisees that even Jesus must be treated fairly according to their laws. It’s not a bold statement about following the Messiah, but it’s considerably more public than his first appearance in the narrative. In chapter 19, we see Nicodemus’s true allegiance as he assists in taking Jesus’s body off the cross and honoring it when they lay Him in the tomb.
Though beyond the scope of this article, it’s worth noticing what John does with Nicodemus. This teacher of the Jews should have had the Samaritan woman’s response, eagerly running out and telling people about the Christ. Yet, while he didn’t experience such a radical change, God slowly brought him to believe in Jesus. The Gospel of John shows all sorts of ways and speeds that people realize the same core truth: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they may have life in His name.
Nicodemus contrasts the Samaritan woman, yet we can praise God that we’ll meet both in eternity.
Closing thoughts
This article didn’t introduce any new teaching or revolutionary insights. However, I hope it provides value to God’s people in other ways.
First, I hope it encouraged you to think more deeply about your Bible reading. These connections aren’t immediately apparent. Yet when we see them, we can see why it’s crucial to be good students of God’s word. The Bible isn’t meant to be obscure or untouchable by those who aren’t pastors or scholars. At the same time, we can appreciate that the book also has no lack of depth for those who desire to devote themselves to understanding the most vital book in existence.
Second, I hope it helps you better appreciate what the Bible is. Rather than approaching the Bible as a series of disconnected sentences broken up by chapter and verse numbers, we’ve seen the value of reading it as a unified whole. Though it’s helpful to know and quote specific verses, we can never forget that God intended us to read those individual verses as part of a larger narrative. Whether Old or New Testament, gospel or epistle, God inspired His writers to create a unique and valuable work that contributes to the entire, divinely inspired Bible.
Finally, I trust God’s people have found a moment to be thankful for Christ’s saving work. God saved some during their first exposure to the gospel, perhaps after a lifetime of living away from anything remotely godly. Others spent a lifetime surrounded by the truth yet were still slow to recognize Christ as their Savior. Regardless of how we view the timing of our salvation, these two contrasting accounts assure us that God’s timing is always perfect.
Ultimately, I pray that God’s people will desire to draw ever closer to the One they worship by seeking to know His word.
