ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – LIVING WATERS – MIA CHI  מיא חיא Mem Yod Aleph   Cheth Yod Aleph

John 4:10: “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink;’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

Genesis 26:19: “And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water.”

The word for living in the Aramaic and springing in the Hebrew are the same word, chi’im which is the word for life. There is a double meaning in this. Living waters means waters that are flowing or moving like spring water.  My father grew up in the country in an actual log cabin. There was no indoor plumbing and not even a well.  They met their water needs by locating a spring.  He said they always looked for water that was moving, especially flowing over rocks as they knew that was pure water.   

We don’t understand our dependence upon water in our culture because water is right at the tap.  We are never thirsty for water and we forget how life giving water is.  Doctors warn, especially us seniors, that we must beware of dehydration.  As you get older you do not always feel thirsty when your bodies need water, but if you don’t stay hydrated, you could die.  People in the Mesopotamian area in ancient times understood very well the need for water and how the lack thereof could be fatal.  Thus the word chi’im became associated with spring water. Moving, flowing spring water was known as life giving and sustaining water. 

Living waters became an idiom to the ancient Hebrews for the revelation of knowledge from Torah (Rabbi Eliezer Shore).   Every Jew in Jesus day as well as the Samaritans knew this association or Hebrew idiom. The Samaritans in particular knew this because Jacob’s well in Genesis 26:19 was located in Samaria, in fact there was a certain woman who made daily use of this well. She also would have known the story behind the well. The story which was very well known to the Jews and the Samaritans told how Abraham dug the well and then it was sealed up with earth (dirt) or impurities by the Philistines (Genesis 26:15).   Isaac redug the well and again it was sealed over.  Finally Jacob unsealed the well and gave it to Joseph.   The sages taught this was a representation of the revelation of Torah which is sealed up by the impurities of the earth.  These impurities or    earthly passions keep one from understanding and experiencing the revelations of God. 

Note how in John 4:10 Jesus is taking a very rabbinic approach to talking with the woman at the well. As a rabbinical form of teaching, Jesus was leading this woman to self discovery by saying: “If you knew.” The word knew is yada’ in Aramaic which means an intimacy. “If you were intimate with the gift of God and with who it is (God) that is saying: “Give me to drink…”

This may seem like a situation where Jesus is talking about something spiritual and the woman at the well was missing the point entirely. That is not true. He was very straight forward with her and she was responding as any good student would to a rabbi. The impropriety wasn’t so much that Jesus was speaking to a woman, He spoke to women all the time like the woman with the issue of blood, the woman seeking healing for her daughter, to Mary and Martha,  etc.,  What was unusual was that He was engaging a woman in a form of midrashing or Bible study which could only be done with her husband. This is why it was appropriate for Jesus to ask her to call her husband before he continued with any further teaching.  

When Jesus said “living water” the woman at the well instantly knew what Jesus was talking about. As a good student she picked up on a natural illustration to discuss a spiritual issue.  Her response could very well have meant: “What do you have that is so special that you can remove the impure shells that keep us from getting this living water.  Are you greater than Jacob who removed the impure shells for this well?”  Jesus response was very intense.  You drink of the water of Jacob you will thirst again.  In other words “You listen to the teaching of your fathers and you will always go to them for more. On another level, you keep seeking fulfillment in relationships and when you found a husband who was not a ba’al an abusive husband, you are still not satisfied, you still thirst again for more in that relationship. “But the water I will give you will be in you a “well” of living water springing up into the everlasting life.”  This “living water” or revelation of God will not come from the teachings of your fathers, but from within you and it will lead to eternal life.  “Eternal life” to the Jewish and Samaritan mind was not heaven but was that state of peace and oneness with God. What this woman was trying to fulfill in her earthly relationships could only have fulfillment in peace and oneness with God. 

This is what I am trying to accomplish with Chaim Bentorah Ministries.  Not to reject the teachings of your church but to expand on those teachings through a deeper study of the Word of God, to drink from the Living Waters yourself.  I am reaching out to those who have attended church for years and listened to hundreds of sermons and teachings. You have become bored but are afraid to admit it for you feel it is a sign of lack in your spiritual life.  What it is, is a hunger for a Word from God. You have matured to the point where the milk of the Word is not enough, you long for more but you can only get that from the Holy Spirit. Chaim Bentorah Ministries wants to teach you to search Scripture using the tools of the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.  We have dedicated ourselves to give you the tools so you can dig you own well into the Living Waters.