“A Husband for Adva” is the childhood story of the unnamed Samaritan woman that meets Jesus at the well. Some readers may know her as Photini, the name given to her at her baptism or at Pentecost, according to Orthodox religions. How Adva answers Jesus' questions in John 4 made me think, "This woman was different than most women of the first century. She had memorized the Torah, the first five books of the Bible known as the Books of Moses. No unclean woman of that day knew scripture. Her father had made an exception to the traditions of the Samaritan religion."
In writing this story, I became very aware of the concept of honor and purity. I also realized I had nothing in my life that was anything like these concepts with which they lived and practiced. It was very important that I write to understand their culture and not impose my culture on their family. I was very thankful for my sociology and anthropology classes in college. Understanding the Bible from the culture of their day is very different than understanding it from my American culture.
