Q&A Home > S > Samaritan Woman

Although the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to the Samaritan Woman, she still asked the people "could this be the Christ?" What does Your Grace think?

The Holy Gospel of St. John 4:26 states: Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the Samaritan Woman. He is telling her, I AM who speaks to you. "I AM" is the name of God; He is using it here as a theophany or revelation of God. This is the first instance in the Holy Gospel of St. John that self-revelation is used. He is indeed the Incarnate God Himself.

In verse 29 of the same chapter, "Come see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" The Samaritan woman in this context is not asking a question of doubt concerning  the identity of the Lord. Rather, it is a rhetorical question confirming what The Lord has told her. The Samaritan Woman is actually evangelizing or testifying to the advent of the Lord and bringing others to Him. The Church considers her the first Evangelist.

According to an early church tradition, after the Holy Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, she was baptized and given the Christian name "Photini," "the enlightened one." Along with her two sons and five daughters she went to Carthage to spread the Holy Gospel. There the family was arrested, taken to Rome under Nero, imprisoned, and later martyred. According to tradition, St. Photini, who first met the Lord Christ beside a well, was martyred  by being thrown into a well. We honor St. Photini on March 20 of every year.