542 Lars Kierspel the Samaritan mountain and Jerusalem (4,20.21). Jesus’ response about new worship relativizes not just temple worship but the holy city, God’s residence on earth. Part of this trajectory might be the location of the first two miracles which happen not in Jerusalem of Judea, the esteemed center of all religious life and future hopes (7,41.52), but in Cana of Galilee, an insignificant village on the margin of Israel’s sacred space. When Jesus does arrive in Jerusalem, he publicly criticizes the main institution of the established religion (2,13-22). (c) In addition to John 2, Jesus addresses the worshiper and the proper conditions of participating in “spirit and truth” (4,23.24). Whether pneu'ma refers here to the human spirit (small ‘s’, so most translations)(71) or whether pneu'ma refers to God’s Holy Spirit (capital ‘S’ in TNIV, CEV) (72) — the statement names a new requirement by which the believer is to approach God at a new holy place. (d) If Jerusalem and Gerizim are both replaced with a third alternative for worship, then the enmity between Jews and Samaritans is pointless and a new common ground for one messianic community becomes possible. That explains the additional missiological and ecclesiological input of John 4,31-38 (73). Altogether, Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman functions well as a narrative commentary and logical conclusion of the temple cleansing (74). (e) One might object that Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman is positioned in chapter 4 not because of its parallels with the temple cleansing in John 2 but because of its contrast with the preceding Nicodemus story in John 3, thus suggesting a linear progressive reading as opposed to a circular concentric one. Carson and Köstenberger, for (71) The text thus points to an inward worship based on God’s incorporeal being, see ASV, NAS, RSV, NRS, KJV, NKJ, ESV, CSB, NET, NLT. (72) The expression thus refers to the new eschatological life given by the Holy Spirit. For a discussion of various interpretations for “Spirit and truth” (4,23.24) see especially now THETTAYIL, In Spirit and Truth, esp. 123-165. (73) The Jewish temple “expressed an ideology of separation” by keeping the Gentiles at a distance in the outer court. KEENER, The Gospel of John, I, 524. Consequentially, the replacement of the temple removes not just religious but ethnic boundaries and logically opens the community for Gentile members. Thus the invitation of the explicitly Jewish Jesus (4,9.22) to the Gentile woman carries out a necessary implication of the temple cleansing. (74) THETTAYIL (In Spirit and Truth, 9) explains that “the relationship of John 4,19-26 to the cleansing of the temple in John 2,13-22 is almost a direct one since both have worship as a prominent theme” and follows shortly after with a quote from C.K. Barrett, “the theme of 2,13-22 is thus reopened in a wider context of worship”.