The gospel of John features a number of human interest stories rich in the little nuances they offer into Jesus' thinking or into the cultural understanding that can't be translated without adding a lot of other words That is certainly the case in the story of the woman at the well.
The first 41 verses of John 4 highlight the story. There are four junctures that perfectly show how Jesus leads the Samaritan woman to a full awareness of who he is. They build one on the other, stair-step fashion.
The first incident is one that has appeared in sermons many times (and rightfully so). In verse 9 Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water as she draws from the well. The woman answers, "Why do you, a Jewish man, ask from me, a Samaritan woman?" The cultural nuances behind that question have applied to situations all over the globe since every culture seems to have to deal with discrimination in all of its forms even in religion. Jesus' answer lets the woman know he is more than your average Jewish man (realization #1) and offers her life-giving water.
The woman is sharp, so she asks if Jesus is greater than their ancestor Jacob whose well Jesus is sitting on, especially since he doesn't have a water bucket to put into the well. Jesus tells her that he can give her life-giving water and she will never be thirsty again. Now, Jesus has the woman's attention. One can see that the woman doesn't believe him because she attempts to call Jesus' bluff (to prove that he isn't greater than Jacob) and says that she wants that kind of water. What appears to be an abrupt change of topic is a way to meet her objection because the life-giving water he has requires belief in who Jesus is. So, Jesus asks the woman to bring her husband out to him.
Jesus want to jump the level of awareness doubly. Not only is he greater than Jacob, but he knows that she has had 5 men before the one she is living with now. It worked. She sees that Jesus is a prophet (realizations #2 and #3 simultaneously). The word used is προφητης (prophet) which is the word used in the Greek world for an oracle's attendants, priests and priestesses, like the ones at the famous oracle of Delphi. The word applies to those who see the future. John seems to have had this idea in mind since he knew the Old Testament apparently both the Septuagint and the Hebrew because in the Old Testament, the translation for נּבּאּ (seer) was prophet in Greek. Jesus's "seeing" the woman's marital status without being told about it gives the impetus for using the word προφητης.
This seer quality ups the ante to the higher realization Jesus wants her to have. However, the woman isn't so quick to jump on board with her new realization. She is coy, cross-checking to see if this prophet is as special as she may think he is. She begins a statement to introduce a question. "Our people worship on this mountain... Your people worship in Jerusalem..." Jesus didn't let her continue. He understood the question without its being asked. "The father seeks true worshipers to worship him in spirit and truth," he replied.
Now, something got the woman's attention with that statement. Maybe it was Jesus' authority with which he spoke. Maybe it was such spiritual, non-judgmental handling of the implied question. Maybe it was something unwritten. The woman gets an inkling that this prophet may be someone very special, but she wants to reserve judgment until she asks one more cross-checking question. The woman says that a Messiah would come and tell his people everything they need to know. He would be the authoritative one for her to listen to.
Here's the tasty morsel. Jesus says, "Εγω ειμι." A Jew or Samaritan wouldn't miss what Jesus just said. They are the people that knew the name of God, YHWH, I AM. That's just what Jesus said, "I am." Translations use, "I am he," which may be accurate, if and only if "he" is implied and that was the customary form of the expression. However, in this case the predicate nominative is stated as, "Ο λαλων σοι" (the one speaking to you), not "he." The woman surely missed a heartbeat or two as she studied his eyes for truth value. "Did he just say, 'I AM - the one speaking to you?' " (realization #4).
You know the rest of the story. The woman ran into the town and grabbed everyone who would listen to her to bring them out to meet the one who said that I AM was speaking to her.
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