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In the crypt of a contemporary Greek Orthodox church in Nablus, West Bank, is the location of Jacob’s Well, where Jesus gave a Samaritan woman “life water” after asking her for a drink. Since no one is able to move a well that was once more than 40 meters deep, it is frequently regarded as the most genuine location in the Holy Land.
The well is connected to Jacob in Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim traditions alike. The position is 2 kilometers to the east of Nablus, at the beginning of a mountain pass that connects Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It is around 63 kilometers north of Jerusalem and close to Tell Balata, an archaeological site that is supposed to represent the biblical Shechem.
The location
2 kilometers to the east of Nablus located at the beginning of a mountain pass that connects Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It is around 63 kilometers north of Jerusalem and close to Tell Balata, an archaeological site that is supposed to represent the biblical Shechem.
Jacob, the patriarch, purchased “the ground on which he had pitched his tent” at Shechem (Genesis 33:19). Jesus was reminded by the Samaritan woman that Jacob “gave us the well, and we drank from it with his sons and his herds.” He told her he was the promised Messiah, and she and many residents of her village believed in him. (John 4:5-42)
By entering the Church of St. Photina and going down the stairs to the crypt in front of the iconostasis, one may access Jacob’s Well.
The Samaritan woman’s name in Orthodox tradition is Photina (Svetlana in Russian). She is revered as a martyr who was thrown down a well in Rome and flayed alive by the emperor Nero.
The well’s mouth is surrounded by a masonry construction. A pulley with a metal frame and a rope coil long enough to reach the water is mounted on it.
The shaft is hewn through solid rock and has a neck part that is about 50 cm wide and 1.2 meters deep.
Samaria was frequently a “no-go” area for Galileans traveling to or from Jerusalem due to tensions between Jews and Samaritans.
According to Luke’s Gospel (9:51–55), a Samaritan community rejected Jesus because he was headed to Jerusalem (on that occasion two of his disciples wanted to bring fire from heaven down on the village).
Although Samaritans have Jewish roots, they worship on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem, as the woman at the well pointed out to Jesus in John 4:20.
The third-century Christian reverence of Jacob’s Well is mentioned in the chronicles of pilgrims. The anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux, the earliest source, recalls a bath (predicted to be a baptistry) that drew its water from the well.
The first of several churches built over the well was a cruciform structure constructed around 380. The map of Madaba from the sixth century includes one of them.
The crypt restoration project was started in 1860 after the Greek Orthodox Church bought the site. Both the 1927 earthquake and the 1917 Russian Revolution, which cut off Russian finance, made it more difficult to build a new church.
During the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005, Nablus served as a battlefield between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Force, although it has since been restored as a major industrial and economic hub.
Jacob’s Well has furthermore witnessed conflict and bloodshed. A Zionist organization declared it to be a Jewish holy site in 1979 and asked that crosses and images be taken down. A week later, the church was desecrated and the custodian, Archimandrite Philoumenos, was murdered in the crypt. He was never found guilty of being murdered. The right chapel of the Church of St. Photina is dedicated to the veneration of Archimandrite Philoumenos’ remains.