John 4:16-18: “Go and call your husband, and come here!” A gender and sexist-critical rereading of the Jesus-Samaritan woman dialogue in John’s Gospel.

Abstract

Many an interpretation of the dialogue between Jesus and “the Samaritan woman” in the fourth chapter of the Fourth Gospel often pick on, and cast aspersions upon what is perceived as the person and character of the woman in question. Such views of her as a woman of easy virtue, while suggesting entrenched patriarchalism, are seen as justified at the point in the dialogue where the issues of husband and husbands are mentioned. With some gender sensitive outlook and through the prisms of ideological criticism, this article offers a re-reading of the text aimed at establishing the symbolism of the character named “the Samaritan woman”. It purposes “the redemption” of the wrongly maligned female character while buttressing the mission-theology message of the pericope.