Texts in Conversation
Song of Solomon describes a woman as a spring of living water and a well of fresh streams. In John, Jesus draws on this Jewish marital imagery at Jacob’s well, promising living water that becomes an internal spring of eternal life.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Song of Solomon 4:15
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain. 13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits: henna with nard, 14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with every kind of spice, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. 15 You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.
John 4:14
New Testament
13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Search:
Notes and References
"... Moreover, John enhances the literary artistry of the scene through the use of banter spiced with what the Gospel's readers would have recognized to be sexually suggestive: references to wells and cisterns, fountains and living water, especially when made by a man and a woman at a well, are overflowing with innuendo. Proverbs advises young men: "Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?" (5:15-16); Song of Songs refers to a woman as "a well of living water" (4:15). ..."
Levine, Amy-Jill
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
(pp. 131-132) Harper San Francisco, 2006
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.