Elizabeth Schick 

Marquette University

Of Wells, Women, and Widows: The Scriptural Basis for Ephrem’s Interpretation of the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Many interpreters, including St. John Chrysostom, believe the Samaritan woman has a morally questionable background and that her coming to belief in Jesus as Messiah involves a conversion from her so-called immoral and promiscuous lifestyle. Others, beginning with an anonymous 13th-century scribe, understand her merely as a symbol of all Samaritans, with the men representing their various religious cults. But some, including St. Ephrem the Syrian in his 22nd Hymn on Virginity, have suggested that she is a widow, like Tamar of Gen 38 and Sarah from Tobit. This paper outlines the various interpretations before turning to a detailed analysis of the scriptural roots of Ephrem’s interpretation, arguing that Ephrem’s interpretation is plausible and that the woman should be interpreted firstly as an individual, five-time widow, whose marital history, like that of Hosea, symbolically represents the religious infidelity of the Samaritan people to YHWH and whose dialogue with Jesus, wherein he leads her step by step to belief in him, is, as Ephrem puts it, a type of our humanity.