Jacob's Well

Jacob's Well (Biʾr Yaʿqūb; Fréar tou Iakóv; Beʾer Yaʿaqov), also known as Jacob's fountain and Well of Sychar, is a deep well constructed into the bedrock that has been associated in religious tradition with Jacob for roughly two millennia. It is situated inside an Eastern Orthodox church and monastery, in Balata village on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank. Bromiley (1982) claims that Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim traditions associate the well with Jacob, but only mentions examples of Christian pilgrimage and Western research. Samaritan and Christian interest in the site is supported by Gurevich & Harani (2017), who refute any Jewish interest in it. There is no reference yet in this article apart from Bromiley in favour of Muslims associating the well with Yakub. According to Gurevich & Harani (2017), "Judaism does not attribute any significance to the site", citing Yitzhak Magen (2009), Flavia Neapolis: Shechem in the Roman Period, vol. 1, p. 32. This contradicts Bromiley (1982), who states that "Although the OT does not refer to it, Jewish, Samaritan, Moslem, and Christian traditions associate this well with the patriarch Jacob." No well of Jacob is specifically mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (the base of the Old Testament); only states that when Jacob returned to Shechem from Paddan Aram, he camped "before" the city and bought the land on which he pitched his tent and erected an altar. Gurevich & Harani write that "[t]he Samaritans believe that the well was purchased by Jacob the Patriarch." The present-day church containing the well has been built close to the archaeological site of Tell Balata, which is thought to be the site of biblical Shechem. Some Biblical scholars contend that the plot of land is the same one upon which Jacob's Well was constructed. Other Biblical scholars have made note of the well discovered in the "open country" of the "land of the Kedemites" in Genesis 29 where Jacob meets his future bride, Rachel.