Archaeological Discoveries Related to Jesus

February 17, 2024

—Here are the highlights from a story in John 4 that you’ll probably recognize quickly. Jesus engages a Samaritan woman at a well outside the city of Sychar near Shechem. Jesus turns the conversation to the woman’s need for living water, and soon even explains to her that he is the Messiah. The woman is convinced and hurries back into town to tell the men of the city. It’s a powerful story with great implications, but for now let’s take a deeper dive into the history of that well where the woman and Jesus met.

—We often talk about how exciting it would be to stand where Jesus stood. Jacob’s Well is located inside a Greek Orthodox church that was purposely built over and around it. It’s the very same well that Jacob built after he purchased the surrounding tract of land for himself and his family in Genesis 33, and today you can visit the church and even draw water from the well. You CAN stand where Jesus stood! Or more precisely you can sit where Jesus sat. John 4:6 reads, “Jesus therefore being wearied from His journey sat thus by the well.”

—Jacob’s Well is not a popular stop for modern tour groups because of its location in the heart of the West Bank, but Samaritans, Christians and Muslims alike acknowledge its authenticity. There are at least three reasons why all three groups are so confident about it.

—First, it matches the descriptions given in the Bible. In particular the well is located at Shechem just as the Bible suggests. But John 4:11 adds a small detail that is really quite significant, noting that the well is deep. Modern measurements of Jacob’s Well in Shechem show it to be between 135 and 150 feet deep just as one would expect.

—Second, early Byzantine and Crusader churches once stood where the modern church now stands. This long-standing tradition of honoring this site and well shouldn’t be dismissed easily.

—Third, over the last two thousand years pilgrims to the Holy Land have written about the well, and some have even chosen to be baptized with water from the well. Jerome, a well-respected theologian and historian, mentions the well as early as the fourth century.

—Jacob’s Well is one site in Israel that I haven’t yet visited, and perhaps I’ll be able to travel there as early as this summer and taste the water for myself. But one thing I can say with certainty! After drinking water drawn from Jacob’s Well, I will surely be thirsty again by day’s end, but how blessed I am to say that in 1978 Jesus offered me a drink of living water that has satisfied me to this very day.

—Daniel McCabe