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Samaritan Woman at the Well by Luca Giordano (c. 1697)
Photo: Matteo De Fina |
(Venice, Italy) I didn't know the story of the encounter between Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well when I first saw Luca Giordano's masterpiece at Palazzo Grimani. In fact, I wasn't really sure, exactly, what a Samaritan was. All I knew was that somewhere in the Bible a "good Samaritan" had helped a stranger in a time of need.
The look on Jesus's face captivated me. He seemed laid-back, yet intense. Was he flirting with the woman? Looking deep into her soul? And who were those two men in the upper left-hand corner? They seemed to be dishing the dirt about the scene taking place in front of them at the well.
To understand the complex scene, we must travel back to the Holy Land during the time of Jesus Christ. It would take a coffee table textbook to delve into the complex cultural dynamics—the geopolitics seem to be as complicated then as they are now. And there are many interpretations of Biblical stories, with all sorts of scholars from different religious backgrounds weighing in.
Here's one greatly simplified version after doing a bit of research.
Why was Samaria Taboo?
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her husband, Joseph, lived in Nazareth, a town in the northern region of Galilee. Supposedly, there was a census that required Joseph to travel to the hometown of his ancestors, the House of David, located in Jerusalem.
Joseph and a very pregnant Mary traveled south to Bethlehem, a town in the ancient Kingdom of Judea, about 80-90 miles (140-150 kilometers) away, and about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea.
In the most popular version of events, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in the south, but that was not his hometown. He grew up in Nazareth in the north in Galilee.
In between Galilee and Judea was Samaria, a region that Jews considered unclean and full of heretics.
In 722 BC, the Assyrians had conquered the land and forcibly deported thousands of Israelites. To fill the void, they resettled the territory with various other conquered people from their empire. Thus, the Jews from Judea and Galilee viewed the Samaritans as mixed-bloods who had intermarried with Mesopotamian settlers. Even casual contact was taboo.
For centuries, Jews despised the Samaritans so much that they would not take the direct route from Galilee to Jerusalem through Samaria, instead making a longer trip east of the Jordan River.
Samaria was bordered by Galilee to the north, Judea to the south, the Jordan River to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Today, Samaria is primarily located in the northern part of the West Bank.
The Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim, which they believed predated Jerusalem, and considered it their holiest site. Abraham, the original patriarch of the Old Testament, built the first altar at the base of Mount Gerizim. Samaritans believed it was God's chosen mountain.
The Jews worshiped on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just 50 kilometers (31 miles) away, where the sacred Second Temple was then located, and which the Romans would destroy in 70 AD. For Jews, Jerusalem was the religious epicenter.
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Jesus Christ took a direct route across taboo Samaria (white) instead of going around (red)
Map: Bible Study Fellowship |
Even though Samaria divided the territory, both Judeans and Galileans came from the same Jewish ethnic stock. Galileans were Jews who had migrated north from Judea and had developed a strong regional identity.
At the time that Giordano's painting takes place, Jesus Christ, a Jew from the northern region of Galilee, was heading back home after spending Passover in Jerusalem in Judea. While in Jerusalem, he got caught up in an unintentional baptism competition with John the Baptist.
To get back to Galilee, Jesus broke the rules and took the straight route through Samaria. About noon, he became tired and sat down by a well while his disciples were in town buying food.
The conversation depicted by Giordano between Jesus and the Samaritan woman took place at Jacob's Well, in the ancient town of Sychar near the base of Mount Gerizim, a location of great significance that stretched back to the very origins of Judaism itself.
Who was Jacob?
Now we must travel even further back in history, to about 2,000 years before Christ.
Long before he tricked his way into becoming one of the three Old Testament patriarchs, Jacob was a calculating strategist who entered the world clutching the heel of his twin, Esau. The twins' parents were Isaac, son of Abraham, and Rebekah.
The twins came from divine stock. Their VIP grandfather, Abraham, was the original patriarch who carried the Covenant, God's hallowed promise that he would be the father of a great nation. Abraham's descendants would receive the promised land of Canaan. Isaac inherited the sacred Covenant from Abraham before Esau and Jacob were born.
Isaac favored Esau, a manly, hairy hunter, who, as the firstborn, was destined to inherit the divine Covenant.
Rebekah favored Jacob, whose name meant "the deceiver" or "the supplanter." Rebekah and Jacob had their eye on the divine Covenant and schemed how they could hijack Esau's inheritance.
First, Jacob exploited Esau's impulsiveness to snatch his material birthright. As Esau stumbled home after a hunt, famished and exhausted, Jacob refused him a simple meal until Esau signed over his birthright as head of the family for a single bowl of red lentil stew. Rashly, Esau agreed.
Even so, Esau was still the destined heir to the spiritual claim of the divine Covenant, whose descendants would receive the promised land. That claim needed Isaac's blessing—the spiritual activation of the Covenant that only a father preparing for death could bestow.
Decades later, Rebekah overheard Isaac—by this time old, blind, and nearing death—tell Esau to hunt venison for the sacred ritual to pass on the Covenant. While Esau was gone, Rebekah cooked a substitute of goat meat and draped Jacob in hairy goat skins to mimic his brother's touch and scent. In disguise, Jacob fed his father fake venison and whispered lies to intercept the hallowed words meant for his brother, Esau, the firstborn.
The fallout was explosive. Esau vowed to murder his brother the moment their father died. To save Jacob, Rebekah sent him into exile. She would die before her favorite son ever returned.
The climax of Jacob's life occurred some 20 years later at the Jabbok River, a dark and lonely crossing where Jacob learned that Esau was coming to greet him with 400 armed men. Fearing the worst, he was alone and terrified.
Suddenly, what seemed to be a "man" attacked Jacob in the darkness. For hours, they fought to the death. The stranger struck Jacob's hip, dislocating it. Jacob refused to let go of what seemed to be a mysterious divine manifestation. "I will not let you go unless you bless me!"
The stranger demanded, "What is your name?"
Jacob said, "Jacob." By stating his name, which meant "the deceiver," Jacob was confessing his true nature and past actions, a necessary step before he could be transformed and receive the blessing.
The stranger declared, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
Jacob emerged from the battle with the mysterious entity—whom many scholars interpret as God—with a permanent limp and a new identity: Israel. Transformed, when Esau arrived, the twins reconciled their differences. Later, Jacob purchased a plot of ground in Shechem for 100 pieces of silver. It was there that he created the well, the physical anchor for his 12 sons, which would forever be known as Jacob's Well.
Today, Jacob's Well is a Christian holy site in a suburb of the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank. Over the centuries, different churches have been built over the same site where the well is located. Currently, it is inside an Eastern Orthodox church and monastery.
So, Jacob pilfered the blessing, but he earned the name Israel, "he who struggles with God," and is considered the father of the Israelites. The descendants of his 12 sons became the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
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Samaritan Woman at the Well by Luca Giordana (detail)
Photo: Cat Bauer |
Jesus Meets the Samaritan Woman at the Well
Around two thousand years later, Jesus was sitting by Jacob's Well at noon. His disciples were in town buying food. A solitary Samaritan woman approached. She was not with the rest of the women of the village, who would have drawn water earlier in the morning. Jesus asked, "Will you give me a drink?"
The woman was startled. Not only should a Jew not be in Samaria, but he should definitely not be speaking to a single female Samaritan. The woman questioned him. "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"
Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
The woman challenged him. "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said to Jesus, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Jesus told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
She replied: "I have no husband."
Jesus acknowledged her honesty. "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
The woman was astonished. "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
"Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know: we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."
The woman said, "I know that Messiah, called Christ, is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus declared: "I, the one speaking to you—I am he."
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| Disciples return (detail) |
Just then, his disciples returned and were surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman, as depicted by the men in the upper left-hand corner of the painting. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman dashed back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him...
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| Samaritan woman (detail) |
Call her by Her Name: Saint Photina
I was raised Roman Catholic (which, I have learned over the decades, is a bit different than Venetian Catholic) with a biblical knowledge limited to Bedtime Bible Stories and a Catechism taught by frightening nuns. But I am surprised that I have never heard the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well before—I've included the entire Gospel of John, Chapter 4 at the end of this post. It seems that she was the first person to whom Jesus openly revealed himself to be the Messiah.
The Eastern Orthodox faith definitely knows who the Samaritan woman is. She is Saint Photina, venerated as the first person to spread the Gospel of Jesus to her people, leading to many conversions. She is recognized as the first Christian evangelist.
In fact, the current Eastern Orthodox church that houses Jacob's Well is named the
Church of Saint Photina. It is considered by some to be the most authentic site in the Holy Land, depending on which religion is telling the story, "since no one can move a well that was originally more than 40 metres deep."
So, not only did ground-breaking Jesus Christ take the direct route through off-limits Samaria, he stopped to rest at the very well created by Jacob, aka Israel, the redeemed father of the Israelites. Then he upped the ante by having an intimate conversation with a Samaritan woman, to whom he revealed that he was the Messiah.
The Modern Journey of Giordano's Masterpiece: From Bankruptcy to Palazzo Grimani
In recent years, Giordano's painting had been part of a Venetian collection that fell into bankruptcy. Its future was uncertain. Then the Italian police stepped in.
One of the most fascinating units of the Carabinieri, Italy's military police, is the Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. Italy has an abundance of priceless art, and all sorts of shenanigans go on from those who would like to get their hands on it.
The Carabinieri discovered Giordano's painting at a Venetian bankruptcy auction in 2018. Its origins were unknown. It was purchased by the Italian Ministry of Culture in 2021.
Because of the connection between Cardinal Vicenzo Grimani (c.1652-1710), who was the Viceroy of Naples during the Hapsburg realm, and the Neapolitan Baroque artist Luca Giordano (1634-1705), it was decided that Palazzo Grimani, Cardinal Grimani's ancestral palace in Venice, would become the permanent home of the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Grimani was an important patron and collector of Giordano's work. The masterpiece has been carefully restored by Claudia Vittori, and is now in the dining room of Palazzo Grimani.
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Samaritan Woman at the Well by Luca Giordano
in the dining room of Palazzo Grimani
Photo: Cat Bauer |
Slowly but surely, the ancient Palazzo Grimani is returning to its former glory when it was a paramount cultural center in Venice. It is a brilliant example of how even the serpentine bureaucracy of the Italian Ministry of Culture enables Italy to regain its priceless heritage.
And that’s not all. In July 2025, the vibrant Dr. Marianna Bressan was confirmed as the director of a new Italian State institute in Venice, which was created in May 2024:
the National Archaeological Museums of Venice and the Lagoon.
The
Palazzo Grimani Museum is a crucial element of the new institution, which also includes the
National Archaeological Museum of Venice, the
Altino Archaeological Museum, and the future Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Laguna di Venezia, which will be out in the lagoon on the
Island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, also home to the Venice Immersive section of the Venice Film Festival. The institute will explore
the evolution and transformations of the city of Venice from antiquity to the present day.
In its new home in Palazzo Grimani, Luca Giordano's Samaritan Woman at the Well is a welcome masterpiece and a vital cornerstone for the future of Venice's new National Archeological Museums.
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Gospel of John, Chapter 4
4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If
you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you
would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t
you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you,
open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I
sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the
hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They
said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said;
now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is
the Savior of the world.”
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