Celtic Odyssey

John 4.5-42 (TIB [1] ; adapted): [Jesus] stopped at Sychar, a town in Samaria, near the tract of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph, 6 and Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus, weary from the journey, came and sat by the well. It was around noon. 7 When [Photini], a Samaritan woman, came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 The disciples had gone off to the town to buy provisions. 9 [Photini] replied, “You’re a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?” — since Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, “If only you recognized God’s gift, and who it is that’s asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink instead, and he would have given you living water.” 11 “If you please,” [Photini] challenged Jesus, “you don’t have a bucket and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get this ‘living water’? 12 Surely you don’t pretend to be greater than our ancestors Leah and Rachel and Jacob, who gave us this well and drank fr...

Maybe. I recently “re-discovered” a Bible translation that I’d forgotten about — The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation . I’m not sure when this translation first came on my radar and I don’t remember why I didn’t look into it more closely then, but here we are. Since the copyright of The Inclusive Bible states one must ask permission before quoting from it, I reached out to them and was granted permission to use it! For that, I am very grateful. “ The Inclusive Bible is a fresh, dynamic translation into modern English, carefully crafted to let the power and poetry of the language shine forth — particularly when read aloud — giving it an immediacy and intimacy rarely found in traditional translations of the Bible.” The Inclusive Bible was started by the Quixote Center , “a multi-issue social justice organization founded in 1976.” From their website : The Quixote Center supports gender equality, including ordination for women; the civil rights of gay, lesbian,...