THE LOCATION OF SYCHAR, AND THE DATE OF OUR LORD'S VISIT TO SAMARIA.
(See vol. i. Book III ch. viii.)
1. The Location of Sychar.
Although modern writers are now mostly agreed on this subject, it may be well briefly to put before our readers the facts of the case.
Till comparitively lately, the Sychar of St. John iv. was generally as representing the ancient Shechem. The first difficulty here was the name, since Shechem, or even Sichem, could scarcely be identified with Sychar, which is undoubtedly the correct reading. Accordingly, the latter term was represented as one of oppobrium, and derived from 'Shekhar' (in Aramæan Shikhra). as it were, 'drunken town,' or else from 'Sheqer' (in Aramæan Shiqra), 'lying town.' But, not to mention other objections, there is no trace of such as alteration of the name Sychar in Jewish writings, while its employment would seem wholly incongruous in such a narrative as St.John iv. Moreover, all the earliest writers distinguished Sychar from Shechem. Lastly, in the Talmud the name of Sokher, also written Sikhra, frequently occurs, and that not only as distinct from Schechem, but in a connection which renders the hypothesis of an opprobrious by-name impossible. Professor Delitzch (Zeitschrift für Luther. Theol. for 1856, ii pp. 242, 243) has collected seven passages from the Babylon Talmud to that effect, in five of which Sichra, is mentioned as the birthplace of celebrated Rabbis - the town having at a later period apparently been left by the Samaritans, and occupied by Jews (Baba Mez. 42 a, 83 a, Pes. 31 b, Nidd. 36 a, Chull. 18 b, and, without mention of Rabbis, Baba K 82 b Menach. 64 b. See also Men. x. 2, and Jer. Sheq. p. 48 d). If further proof were required, it would be sufficient to say that a woman would scarcely have gone a mile and a half from Shechem to Jacob's well to fetch water, when there are so many springs about the former city. In these circumstances, later writers have generally fixed upon the village of 'Askar, half a mile from Jacob's Well, and within sight of it, as the Sychar of the New Testament, one of the earliest to advocate this view having been the late learned Canon Williams. Little more than a third of a mile from 'Askar is the reputed tomb of Joseph. The transformation of the name Sychar into 'Askar is explained, either by a contraction of 'Ain 'Askar 'the well of Sychar,' or else by the fact that in the Samaritan Chronicle the place is called Iskar, which seems to have been the vulgar pronunciation of Sychar. A full description of the place is given by Captain Conder (Tent-Worker in Palestine, vol. i. pp. 71 &c., especially pp. 75 and 76), and by M. Guérin, 'La Samarie,' vol. i. p. 371, although the later writer, who almost always absolutely follows tradition, denies the identity of Sychar and 'Askar (pp. 401, 402).
II. Time of our Lord's Visit to Sychar.
This question, which is of such importance not only for the chronology of this period, but in regard to the unnamed Feast at Jerusalem to which went up (St. John v.1), has been discussed most fully and satisfactorily by Canon Westcott (Speaker's Commentary, vol. ii. of the New Testament, p. 93) The following data will assist our inquires.
1. Jesus spent some time after the Feast of Passover (St. John ii. 23) in the province of Judæa. But it can scarcely be supposed that this was a long period, for -
2ndly, in St. John iv. 45 the Galileans have evidently a fresh remembrance of what had taken place at the Passover in Jerusalem, which would scarcely have been the case if a long period and other festivals had intervened. Similarly, the 'King's Offer' (St. John iv. 47) seems also to act upon a recent report.
3rdly, the unnamed Feast of St. John v. 1 forms an important element in our computations. Some months of Galilean ministry must have intervened between it and the return of Jesus to Galilee. Hence it could not have been Pentecost. Nor could it have been the Feast of Tabernacles, which was in autumn, nor yet the feast of the Dedication, which took place in winter, since both are expressly mentioned by their names (St. John vii. 2, x. 22). The only other feasts were: the Feast of Wood-Offering (comp. 'The Temple,' &c., p. 295), the Feast of Trumpets, or New Year's Day, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Esther, or Purim.
To begin with the latter, since of late it has found most favor. The reasons against Christ's attendance in Jerusalem at Purim seem to me irrestible. Canon Westcott urges that the discourse of Christ at the unnamed Feast has not, as is generally the case, any connection with the thoughts of that festival. To this I would add, that I can scarcely conceive our Lord going up to a feast observed with such boisterous merriment as Purim was, while the season of the year in which it falls would scarcely tally with the statement of St. John v. 3, that a great multitude of sick people were laid down in the porches of Bethesda.1
But if the unnamed Feast was not Purim, it must have been one of these three, the Feast of the Ingathering of Wood, the Feast of Trumpets, or Day of Atonement. In other words, it must have taken place late in summer, or in the very begining of autumn. But if so, then the Galilean ministry intervening between the visit to Samaria and this Feast leads to the necessary inferences that the visit to Sychar had taken palce in early summer, probably about the middle or end of May. This would allow ample time for Christ's stay in Jerusalem during the Passover and for His Judæan ministry.
As we are discussing the date of the unnamed Feast, it may be
as well to bring the subject here to a close. We have seen that the only three
Feasts to which reference could have been are to the Feast of Wood Offering,
the Feast of Trumphets, and the Day of Atonement. But the last of those could
not be meant, since it is disignated, not only by Philo, but in Acts xxvii. 9,
as 'the fast,' not the feast