I AM series “I am the Living Water” John 4:4-42 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SHECHEM (=SYCHAR ?) MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM, JACOB’S WELL Gathered by EJ Bakker

Note 1

Note 2: Shechem a. Abrahams travels

Genesis 12 Abraham in Shechem 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The L ORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the L ORD, who had appeared to him.

B. Genesis 33: Jacob in Shechem 18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. 19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. 20 There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel. Genesis 48: In Egypt Jacob gives Shechem to Joseph 21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. r 22 And to you I give one more ridge (Hebrew word: Shechem) of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

c. Joshua 24. After the conquest of the land 32 And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

Note 3: Jacob’s well, picture from ± 1900

Note 4 Samaritans A small population that had been deported to Assyria in 722 BC from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, were brought back by Shalmaneser, and they intermarried with gentiles. They kept/keep (!) only the 5 books of Moses as Gods revelation. 93

Genesis Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. 19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of living water there. Jeremiah 2(God to Israel through Jeremiah) 13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. … ” Note 5. Living water

Note 6: Deep well (32 m)

Note 7. Deuteronomy 11: 29 / 27:12-13 When the L ORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. 12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali…. ……And they shall say: cursed is anyone who makes an idol…or… …… But if you fully obey the L ORD your God you will be blessed in everything

Joshua 8. The covenant renewed in Shechem 30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the L ORD, the God of Israel…… 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the L ORD, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the L ORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

Mt. Ebal Shechem (now: Nablus) Mt. Gerizim

Mount Gerizim, where Samaritans had/have their place of worship

Worship in Jerusalem? Psalm Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; 68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. 69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

Worship in Jerusalem? Psalm The L ORD swore an oath to David, a sure oath he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne. 12 If your sons keep my covenant and the statutes I teach them, then their sons will sit on your throne for ever and ever.” 13 For the L ORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, 14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. …”