The Virtuous Samaritan Woman: No Adultress

Excellent argument by Lynn Cohick in Christianity Today that the woman almost everyone calls

 "the sinful woman"

 or "adultress" was 

neither:

Was the Samaritan Woman Really an Adulteress?

See also  :  
               these links (note most written by women!)

• --Cohick on this same passage in the book, "Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life" here 

• Was the woman at the well a "bad girl?" by Sue Edwards 
• "Revisiting the Woman at the Well" by Caryn Reeder
• Was the Samaritan Woman in John 4 a Moral Outcast? |
•   Clueless preaching about the Samaritan woman misses the point
• Reconsidering The Samaritan Woman
• The Nasty Woman Who Persisted: The Samaritan Woman of John 4
  
• was_the_woman_at_the_well_a_bad_girl?

• Rethinking the Samaritan Woman

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Also consider this:

Scholars have noted that this story appears to be modelled on a standard betrothal scene from Hebrew scripture, particularly that of Jacob in Genesis 29.^[7] This convention, which would have been familiar to Jewish readers, is subverted by presenting Jesus as the Bridegroom of the Jewish people, following on from an earlier scene in which John the Baptist compares his relationship to Jesus with that of the friend of a bridegroom.^[2]

This Gospel episode is referred to as "a paradigm for our engagement with truth", in the Roman Curia book A Christian reflection on the New Age, as the dialogue says: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know" and offers an example of "Jesus Christ the bearer of the water of life".^[8] The passages that comprise John 4:10–26 are sometimes referred to as the Water of Life Discourse, which forms a complement to the Bread of Life Discourse.^[9]

In Eastern Orthodox tradition, the woman's name at the time of her meeting Jesus is unknown, though she was later christened "Photini". She is celebrated as a saint of renown. As further recounted in John 4:28-30 and John 4:39-42, she was quick to spread the news of her meeting with Jesus, and through this many came to believe in him. Her continuing witness is said to have brought so many to the Christian faith that she is described as "equal to the apostles". Eventually, having drawn the attention of Emperor Nero, she was brought before him to answer for her faith, suffering many tortures and dying a martyr after being thrown down a dry well. She is remembered on the Sunday four weeks after Pascha, which is known as "the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman".

In Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, a celebration of the Samaritan woman takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent. The custom of the day involves churches, schools, and businesses giving away fruit drinks to passers-by.^{[10]  link}