Michael W. Martin on Betrothal Journey Narratives

Michael W. Martin, ‘Betrothal Journey Narratives’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 70, 3 (2008), 505-23.

The betrothal journal narrative is ‘an archetypal narrative pattern repeatedly employed in biblical literature, often with important innovations, by different writers for different artistic purposes’ (505).

The climax of the pattern is when the suitor meets the bride-to-be at a well and a betrothal is arranged (a ‘type-scene’ [recurrent narrative episode] famously identified by Robert Alter), but Martin argues that the betrothal itself is situated in a larger narrative framework.

The commonly-recognised elements of the betrothal type scene include:

1. The groom-to-be travels to a foreign country.
2. He meets a young woman or young women at a well.
3. Someone draws water.
4. The young woman/women rush home with news of his arrival.
5. A betrothal is arranged, usually in connection with a meal.

Martin augments these with seven more elements (indicated in italics) (508-509):

1. The groom-to-be travels to a foreign country, either in flight from or commissioned by his kin.
2. He meets a young woman or young women at a well.
3. Someone draws water.
4. A gift is given or a service is performed that ingratiates the suitor with the woman and/or her family.
5. The suitor reveals his identity.
6. The young woman/women rush home with news of his arrival.
7. Someone from the family returns to greet and/or invite the suitor.
8. A betrothal is arranged, usually in connection with a meal.
9. The suitor resides with his bride’s kin, sometimes begetting children.
10. The suitor returns, usually commissioned by the bride’s kin.
11. The suitor is received by his kin at the end of his journey.
12. The suitor resides with his kin, sometimes begetting children.

Martin observes this expanded ‘betrothal journey narrative’ schema in accounts related to Isaac (Genesis 24), Jacob (Genesis 29), Moses (Exodus 2:15-21), Ruth, Saul (1 Samuel 9:11-12), David, Tobias (the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha), sometimes with significant innovative departures from the pattern (509-19).

He also applies his fuller schema to the betrothal type-scene in John 4, noting (among other things) Jesus’ departure from Judea after conflict in Jerusalem (2:13-25) and because of the threat from the Pharisees (4:1), the moment the ‘suitor’ offers a gift (4:10-15), the revelation of his identity (4:25-26), etc., before returning home to Galilee and being welcomed there (4:43-45).

Martin notes: ‘If there is conformity to the traditional schema, there is also innovation. Usually, the suitor travels to the land where his father’s relatives reside and marries a relative, so that the resulting children can preserve the family bloodline. Jesus, however, has taken a Samaritan “bride,” and his “increase” consists of Samaritans and Gentiles.’ (522)

Martin also points out that Jesus’ betrothal journey does not begin when he leaves Judea for Samaria in 4:4; rather, like all betrothal journeys, he begins and ends in the same place – Galilee (2:1; 4:54). In fact, the departure for Samaria is a return trip to Galilee. The suitor appears to be returning home empty-handed when, in Samaria, ‘the anticipated encounter at the well finally occurs, though in an unintended place’. ‘Hence, the traditional story of endogamy is turned on its head, and the boundaries of Jesus’ family are extended to encompass Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile’ (523).

David S. Dockery on John 4

David S. Dockery, ‘Reading John 4:1-45: Some Diverse Hermeneutical Perspectives’, Criswell Theological Review 3.1 (1988), 127-40.

Dockery begins (128-30) with some general and well-worn observations on John 4 – the contrasts between the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus; the structure of the passage in terms of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman on water (4:6-18) and worship (4:19-26), and the dialogue between Jesus and the disciples (4:31-38) set between two paragraphs describing the witness of the woman to her own people (4:27-30, 49-45).

He also highlights some of the challenges facing interpreters of John 4 – the importance of taking into account background, the intended audience, the issue of historicity, and the identification of genre (130-32).

The bulk of the article, however, looks at John 4 from the three perspectives of (1) an author-oriented approach, (2) a text-oriented approach, and (3) a reader-oriented approach (132-38).

The author-oriented approach ‘seeks to discover what the text meant in the mind of the original author for the intended audience’, seen as threefold in this case: ‘to proclaim the gift of the “living water”… to prioritize the worship of the Father “in Spirit and in truth,” and… to explain the mission to non-Jews’ (132).

The text-oriented approach (133-35) ‘focuses upon the text, its context and broader biblical texts’ and highlights such features as irony and double meaning in the story (who is giving what kind of water to whom?), parallels with John 19, and intertextual links to Old Testament stories which follow a similar pattern in which a man meets a woman at a well. This last feature, though long-recognised, remains highly suggestive. In Old Testament accounts (e.g., Gen. 24:10-61; 29:1-20; Exod. 2:15-21), the pattern is that: (1) a man is travelling in a foreign land; (2) he goes to a well; (3) he meets there a maiden; (4) water is given; (5) the women hurries home to tell; (6) the man is invited to stay; (7) a betrothal is concluded. In John 4, Jesus (the bridegroom, 3:29) ventures into a foreign land, meets a woman at a well… except, of course, this woman is no maiden – having been married five times already and currently living with a man not her husband.

The reader-oriented approach, for Dockery, embraces allegorical, existential, pastoral, and feminist perspectives (135-38).

On the issue of how the three approaches relate, Dockery makes a distinction between exegesis (which is limited to the authorial level) and hermeneutics (which seeks to understand the meaning of the text for contemporary readers, and thus considers the other two levels) – the key being whether the ‘meanings’ in levels two and three are ‘consistent developments of the author’s purpose’ in level one (139, his italics).

Apart from its brevity, Dockery’s essay is twenty years old now, and thus lacks the nuance of subsequent discussions in hermeneutics. Even so, it provides a helpful reminder to take account of the three ‘worlds’ of the text along with some application of those concerns to John 4.

The Ws in John 4

I know it can be cheesy, but I like alliteration in sermon headings – when it’s not forced, and when it does justice to the themes arising out of the passage itself.

English translations of John 4 provide a few suggestive Ws to play with: woman, well, water, worship, work, witness. Here’s a first, provisional go:

1. The water the Christ gives (4:4-18)
2. The worship the Father seeks (4:19-26)
3. The witness the woman bears (4:27-30, 39-42)
4. The work the Son does (4:31-38)