John 4:5

ἔρχεται οὖν … τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ. “So He comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar.” λεγομένην, cf. John 11:16; John 11:54; John 19:13, etc. In the Itinerary of Jerusalem (A.D. 333) Sychar is identified with ‘Askar, west of Salim and near Shechem, the modern Nablûs. The strength of the case for ‘Askar, according to Prof. G. A. Smith (Hist. Geog., p. 371), is this: “That in the fourth century two authorities independently describe a Sychar distinct from Shechem; that in the twelfth century at least three travellers, and in the thirteenth at least one, do the same, the latter also quoting a corrupt but still possible variation of the name; that in the fourteenth the Samaritan Chronicle mentions another form of the name; and that modern travellers find a third possible variation of it not only applied to a village suiting the site described by the authorities in the fourth century, but important enough to cover all the plain about the village”. The difficulty regarding the initial Ayin in the name ‘Askar is also removed by Prof. Smith. See further Conder's Tent-work, i. 71. Sychar is described as πλησίον … αὐτοῦ, near the “parcel of ground” (particella, little part; the Vulgate has “praedium,” estate) which Jacob gave to Joseph his son; according to Genesis 48:22, where Jacob says, “I have given thee one portion (Shechem) above thy brethren”; cf. Genesis 33:19. Shechem in Hebrew means “the shoulder,” and some have fancied that the shoulder being the priest's portion, the word came to denote any allotment. Gesenius, however, is of opinion that the word was transferred to a portion of land, on account of the shape resembling the back across the shoulders.