The Samaritan Woman - heartbreaker or broken?
John 4:4-42 The Samaritan Woman I was recently introduced to Sheila Gregoire (to her work, not to the woman herself sadly), an amazing writer and women's rights advocate, particularly in the church sphere. She wrote a fascinating piece about Queen Vashti ( read it here ) and it blew my mind. She was hopelessly positioned as the villain of the piece rather than the disrespected sex slave she ultimately was. It got me thinking about other times when women have been misrepresented in bible accounts. Bathsheba is one (she was not on the roof ok!) but the other one I recently discovered was the Samaritan woman at the well. I have to be honest and say this one hit me in the gut because I have believed those misrepresentations of this woman. She has been held up as the woman who had 'many husbands' and was currently living 'in sin' with a man who was not her husband. The implication being that she had left these men one failed marriage after the other. We are taught that s...