Samaritan more than sinful? Rethinking how we teach and preach about the woman at the well 

Elective presented at the 2024 Priscilla & Aquila Centre conference.
Speakers: Tom Habib and Talar Khatchoyan.
The woman at the well (John 4) has become a staple for sermon series, evangelistic talks and pastoral conversations. Here is a woman who, so it is said, was in every way an outsider in her culture: a woman, a Samaritan, an adulterer shunned by her own people, and someone who was looking for happiness in all the wrong places, but who found forgiveness, acceptance and real satisfaction in Jesus.
But is this really what John 4 is about? Is the woman’s sin or satisfaction really the focus of this passage? This elective will challenge some of the popular readings of the Samaritan woman, while also considering more recent feminist readings of John 4. Looking again at this precious chapter of Scripture, Tom Habib and Talar Khatchoyan reconsider what John is saying, and how we should teach and preach about the woman at the well today.
To find out more about the Priscilla & Aquila Centre conference, visit
paa.moore.edu.au/