JACOB’s WELL (πηγὴ̀ τοῦ ̓Ιακώβ). A well near Sychar in Samaria where Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman.

There is just one reference naming Jacob’s Well in the Bible (John 4:6). Jesus had to pass through Samaria and in so doing “came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there” (4:5, 6).

There is a problem with the town named Sychar. The modern Askar, which sounds most like it, though in the vicinity, is not near enough to the well. Furthermore, Askar has its own spring. Perhaps it is that Sychar is an evolution of the name Shechem. Genesis 33:18 states that Jacob came to Shechem (Heb. for “parcel,” “portion” or “lot”) and bought the land on which he was camped. There is no OT record of him digging a well there, but that he should do so is certainly reasonable and expected (cf. Gen 48:22).

Shechem (Sychar of John 4) is now generall agreed to be Tell Balatah. Bir Ya’aqub as the Well of Jacob is presently called, is c. one m. E of this tell. This is also at the foot of Mt. Gerazim to which the Samaritan woman alluded (4:20).

According to her statement the well was deep (v. 11). Today it is c. seventy-five ft. deep, but it has prob. been filled with much debris over the years since it was dug. There are hardly any sites that have less doubt as to their authenticity than the site of Jacob’s Well. All traditions agree on this as being the scene described in John 4, and with this the Biblical details fit perfectly. Through the centuries, churches have been built over the well, as various medieval pilgrims have recorded. Today the well is in a cave, or crypt, under the floor of a Greek Orthodox church, that has never been finished above the exterior walls.

Jacob’s Well is known for its soft, or light, water that is supplied in two ways—through underground sources that make it a true well and by percolated surface water, which makes it a cistern, as the Gr. word φρέαρ, G5853, indicates (4:11). This may have prompted Jesus’ remark about living water in v. 14.

Bibliography G. H. Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways (1935), 212-215.