Nicodemus | Samaritan Woman |
He is well-known | She is anonymous |
He scrupulously keeps purity laws | She is permanently unclean |
He is a religious leader | She is a religious outsider (even among Samaritans) |
He is a great teacher of truth | She believes Samaritan heresies |
He is a high government official | She has no power |
He is morally respectable | She is morally suspect |
He seeks out Jesus at night | Jesus seeks her out at noon |
He knows that Jesus is a teacher from God | She knows that Jesus is a Jewish man |
Jesus does not fully reveal himself to him | Jesus teaches her clearly that he is the Messiah |
He does not understand the living water | She asks Jesus for the living water |
He leaves lacking understanding | She leaves knowing who Jesus is |
He hides his belief | She tells her whole town about Jesus |
Notes:
Some rabbis believed that all Samaritan women were permanently unclean.
Jews viewed Samaritans as heretics: Samaritans only believed in the Pentateuch, which they had altered that to fit their beliefs, and Samaritans believed the correct temple was on top of Mt. Gerizim. There was also a history of violence between Jews and Samaritans.
Samaritans were probably not "half-breeds"; this view comes from assuming that the residents of Samaria mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah are the same residents of Samaria mentioned in the Gospels. However, they are probably not the same people. First-century Samaritans are probably a sect of Judaism, which is how they regarded themselves.
Here are some more posts on Nicodemus; here are some more on the Samaritan woman; and here are all my posts on the Gospel of John.
Thank you for helping me quickly see their contrasts as I prepare my sermon about them
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