THERE is not a district in 'the Land of Promise' which presents a scene more fair or rich
than the plain of Samaria (the modern El Mukhna). As we stand on the summit of the
ridge, on the way from Shiloh, the eye travels over the wide sweep, extending more than
seven miles northward, till it rests on the twin heights of Gerizim and Ebal, which
enclose the valley of Shechem. Following the straight olive-shaded road from the south,
to where a spur of Gerizim, jutting south-east, forms the Vale of Shechem, we stand by
that 'Well of Jacob' to which so many sacred memories attach. Here, in 'the parcel of
ground' afterwards given to Joseph, 1 which Jacob had brought from the people of the
land, the patriarch had, at great labour and cost, sunk a well through the limestone rock.
At present it is partially filled with rubbish and stones, but originally it must have gone
down about 150 feet.2 as the whole district abounds in springs, the object of the patriarch
must have been to avoid occasion of strife with the Amorite herdsmen around. That well
marks the boundary of the Great P lain, or rather its extensions bear other names. To the
left (westwards), between Gerizim (on the south) and Ebal (on the north), winds the
valley of olive-clad Shechem, the modern Nablus, though that town is not in view from
the Well of Sychar. Still higher up the same valley, the mud hovels of Sebastiyeh mark
the site of ancient Samaria, the magnificent Sebaste of Herod. North of the entrance to
the Vale of Shechem rises Mount Ebal, which also forms. so to speak, the western wall of
the northern extension of the Plain of Samaria. Here it bears the name of El 'Askar, from
Askar, the ancient Sychar, which nestles at the foot of Ebal, at a distance of about two
miles from Shechem. Similarly, the eastern extension of the plain bears the name of the
Valley of S halem, from the hamlet of that name, which probably occupies the site of the
ancient city before which Jacob pitched his tent on his return to Canaan. 3
1. The reference here is to Gen. xlviii. 22. Wünsche, indeed, objects that this application
of the pass age is inaccurate, and contrary to universal Rabbinic tradition. But in this, as in
other instances, it is not the Gospel, but rather Dr. Wünsche, who is inaccurate. If the
reader will refer to Geiger's Urschr. p. 80, he will find proof that the Evangelist's
rendering of Gen. xlviii. 22 was in accordance with ancient Rabbinic tradition, which was
only afterwards altered for anti-Samaritan purposes. On the other hand, this may be
regarded as another undesigned proof of the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel.
2. The present depth of the well is about seventy-five feet. Most travellers have given
more or less pictorial accounts of Jacob's Well. We refer here especially to Mr. King's
Report (Quarterly Stat. of the Pal. Explor. Fund, Ap. 1879), although it contains the
strange mistake that Jesus had that day come from Jerusalem, and reached Jacob's Well
by midday.
3. Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19.
At 'the Well of Jacob' which, for our present purpose, may be regarded as the centre of
the scene, several ancient Roman roads meet and part. That southward, to which
reference has already been made, leads close by Shiloh to Jerusalem; that westward
traverses the vale of Shechem; that northward brings us to the ancient Sychar, only about
half a mile from 'the Well.' Eastward there are two ancient Roman roads: one winds
south-east, till it merges in the main road; the other strikes first due east, and then
descends in a south-easterly direction through Wady Farâh, which debouches into the
Jordan. We can trace it as it crosses the waters of that Wady, and we infer, that its
immediate neighbourhood must have been the scene where Jesus had taught, and His