that defined woman as socially, intellectually, and spiritually inferior. True to his own words, he once said, “I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). If any group of human beings was in need of a more abundant life, spiritually and socially, it was the women of his day. The humane and respectful way Jesus treated and responded to the Samaritan woman (as recorded in John 4:5–29) may not appear unusual to readers in today’s Western culture.