LIVING WATER (JOHN 4; 7:37-38)

 The construction below illustrating the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well was made using a collection of metal sewing machine attachments and the wooden box that they came in. 

Living Water (2004 assemblage)

The title of the piece is ambiguous and actually, in the Bible, it has two discrete meanings, one physical and one spiritual. We run into the literal meaning first during the time of the Exodus: “Fresh (living) water is miraculously provided notably at the rock of Horeb, where Moses strikes the rock and taps into a spring. God supplies living water even though the murmuring Israelites have complained bitterly about the rigors of their exodus.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

And in John's Gospel for example, Borchert explains: “Jesus' words concerning living water fit well with this Gospel's love for double-level language that so often demonstrated the people's misunderstanding of Jesus...As Jesus spoke, listeners often thought he was dealing with the physical or mundane level of reality when in fact his words pointed to the spiritual or eternal level of reality.” And that spiritual level actually has several dimensions to it.

Water for Purification and Healing

Bocher explains that “the anti-demonic purificatory and medicinal waters of lustrations (ablutions) is mostly in the 'living' (flowing) water of rivers and springs, more rarely the still water of cisterns and ponds.” Brensinger says, “Of related interest are the rare but picturesque occurrences in which hyh ['life'] modifies inanimate objects. “Living' water, unlike that which lies dormant in a cistern, flows and has a sense of freshness or purity to it...That which is alive has the ability to function and perform.

This concept of the purifying nature of running water helps to explain a number of biblical passages:

    The leprous Naaman is instructed by Elisha to bathe in the Jordan River in order to be healed. (II Kings 5)

    The Babylonian exiles meet on the outskirts of the city near flowing water, probably for worship. (Psalm 137:1-2)

    John baptizes in the Jordan River the people who come to him. (Matthew 3:13)

    On the Sabbbath, Paul looks for and finds a group of Jews worshiping near a river outside the city of Philippi. (Acts 16:15) As with Psalm 137:1-2, the idea is that they can best be freed from the pollution of those pagan cities in this manner.

In addition, surrounding the temple area in Jerusalem alone, archeologists have found to date 48 ritual immersion baths to serve the thousand of pilgrims who came to Jerusalem to worship on feast days. Each held the prescribed 75 gallons of water, water deep for a person to be completely immersed. Many of the baths were connected by small pipes to adjacent ponds containing ritually pure water. It would flow into the baths and then out by another pipe. In that way, the cleansing would be in living, rather than still, water. Similar ritual immersion baths dating to before the time of Christ have been found throughout Israel.

Water and God

Then Brensinger points out: “While the image of 'living water' has already been seen in describing actual water, Jeremiah applies it to God himself (Jer 2:13; 17:13). Yahweh is a fresh spring the water of which brings healing and salvation.”

Water and the Holy Spirit

“Fountains and springs also provide a traditional language for the movement of God's spirit within the individual [see Isaiah 12:2-3; 58:11]...Spiritual life and inner fountains are also identified in Jesus' offer to the Samaritan woman..The assurance in all this is that God's Spirit within is experienced as a mysterious ever-renewed source, upwelling in fulness of life.” (DBI)

Culpepper: “In John 4, well water is contrasted with 'living' or flowing water, spring water; and having water is a symbol for the new life in the Spirit of which Jesus is the giver and source. Living water sustains the new life, for once having drunk of it one is never thirsty again. Better than a fountain of youth.”

Morris says, “The meaning of our passage [i.e. John 7:37-39] then in accordance with such Old Testament prophecies [as Isaiah 55:1; 58:11; Ezekiel 47:1ff; Joel 3:16; and Zechariah 13:1; 14:8], appears to be that when any man comes to believe in Jesus the scriptures referring to the activity of the Holy Spirit are fulfilled.”

Water and Jesus

Bauder: “Hunger and thirst in the Johannine writings have a double meaning. Natural thirst (Jn. 4:13) and physical hunger (6:1ff.) convey the longing for life in general. Jesus seizes upon this longing in order to show that it is only through contact with himself, the life-giver, that it is satisfied (4:14f; 6:35...).”

Borchert: “Here [in John 4] the double level meaning concerns two senses of 'living water'...and she could not understand how this stranger could provide any water without a bucket and rope, let alone bubbling spring water. But she missed the point.” Eventually, Bocher adds, “The change in the woman is symbolized by the vessel she leaves behind (4:28).”

Bocher: “God himself henceforth pours out in Christ the water of life (Rev. 21:6). Jn 7:37f should be similarly understood...The scriptural word (Ezek. 47:1) is interpreted of Jesus (cf. also Isa. 44:3, 55:1; 58:11). This water quenches thirst for all time and, as a spring of life, flows out from the one who has previously drunk it.”

Water as Words of Wisdom

“The symbolism of the living water (vv. 10-15) has been related by tradition history primarily to wisdom (cf. Prov. 13:14; 18:4 [as well as later Jewish sources]. Jn. is acquainted with the symbolical correspondence of water and Spirit (cf. Jn. 3:5; 7:39). But Jn. 4:10,13f (cf. also 7:37f) do not seem to have been designed originally to express the once-and-for-all reception of the Spirit, but rather the continued working of the words of Jesus (cf. 6:63)...In Jn. 4:10-15 the striking hallomenou ('welling up', v. 14) refers back to the Moses tradition of Num. 21:16ff...” (Haacker)

Eschatological Implication

Enns: “Christ's offer of water in John 4:13-15; 6:35; 7:35...presents the desire to know God in terms of quenching of thirst (see also Ps 36:9; Jer 2:13; 17:13). Beyond the personal and immediate significance of these passages, they also carry decided eschatological overtones in that their thirst will be forever sated (John 4:14), and Jesus, in providing water to those who ask, implicitly claims to serve as the final point of OT law (Lev 23:34) and prophecy (Isa 55:1). These eschatological overtones are more explicit in Rev 7:17; 21:6; 22:17, where the faithful in the world to come are promised living water (see also Isa 49:10; Ezek 47; Joel 3:18; Zech 14:8)...This theme comes into sharp focus in the NT through the person and work of Christ, by whose invitation believers drink from the well of living water both now and for all eternity.”