Why is Genesis 24, Genesis 29, Exodus 2, and John 4 the same scene?

They are the same scene because the Hebrew narrator built a template at Genesis 24, repeated it at Genesis 29 and Exodus 2, and the Gospel of John writes the final instance with the patriarchal well named directly in the text.

The template has six beats:

1. The traveller arrives east, fleeing or seeking.
2. He stops at a well.
3. A woman appears with water or with a flock.
4. Water is drawn.
5. The woman runs to tell her family.
6. The traveller is received into the father's house — and a marriage follows.

Every beat is in Genesis 24 (Eliezer finding Rebekah for Isaac). Every beat is in Genesis 29 (Jacob finding Rachel). Every beat is in Exodus 2:15–22 (Moses fleeing east to the well of Midian, watering Zipporah's flock, taken into Reuel's house). The lexical anchors carry across the three Hebrew scenes — the noun be'er (H875, «well») and the verb shaqah (H8248, «to give to drink») both recur in each one.

The Genesis 29 scene is the densest of the three. The narrator names «well» (H875) seven times in the first ten verses — the densest cluster of the word anywhere in Genesis. He names «stone» (H68) five times. And the action is staged so that Jacob does single-handedly what three shepherds together had said could not be done:

וַיִּגַּ֣שׁ יַעֲקֹ֗ב וַיָּ֤גֶל אֶת־הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מֵעַל֙ פִּ֣י הַבְּאֵ֔ר וַיַּ֕שְׁקְ אֶת־צֹ֥אן לָבָ֖ן

va-yiggash Yaaqov va-yagel et-ha-even me'al pi ha-be'er va-yashq et-tson Lavan

"Jacob drew near, rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered Laban's flock." — Genesis 29:10

Then comes the fourth instance — and John names the patriarchal site directly:

ἦν δὲ ἐκεῖ πηγὴ τοῦ Ἰακώβ ὁ οὖν Ἰησοῦς κεκοπιακὼς ἐκ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ἐκαθέζετο οὕτως ἐπὶ τῇ πηγῇ

ēn de ekei pēgē tou Iakōb ho oun Iēsous kekopiakōs ek tēs hodoiporias ekathezeto houtōs epi tē pēgē

"Jacob's well was there. Jesus, then, being wearied from his journey, sat thus at the well." — John 4:6

The Greek noun for «well» shifts — πηγή (G4077, «spring») and φρέαρ (G5421, «cistern») both appear in John 4 — so the lexical bridge from Hebrew is weak. The bridge is structural. John 4 carries every beat of the type-scene, but now inverted at the decisive point.

In Genesis 24, Eliezer draws water; in Genesis 29, Jacob draws water; in Exodus 2, Moses draws water. At each of these wells the bridegroom-figure waters the bride-figure. At John 4, Jesus does the opposite. He asks her for the drink:

δός μοι πιεῖν

dos moi piein

"Give me a drink." — John 4:7

And then he offers what no patriarch could offer:

ὁ δὲ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

"Whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst forever." — John 4:14

The pattern goes further. The Samaritan woman has had five husbands and is living with a man who is not her husband (John 4:18). The other betrothal-type-scene women are unmarried daughters of the household; this one is the inverse — a woman with too many husbands and no husband. She runs to the city the way Rebekah ran to her father's house at Genesis 24:28 and Rachel ran at Genesis 29:12. The pattern keeps the verb «she ran.» But the city she runs to is a Samaritan city that comes to believe (John 4:39).

What this means is that John 4 is not a stand-alone story about a tired Jesus and a thirsty woman. It is the eschatological consummation of a type-scene the Hebrew narrator opened at Genesis 24. The bridegroom is at the well; the bride is the un-bride, the woman with no husband; and the water flows the other way.

For the full reading — including how the Greek verb for «roll away» the stone over Rachel's well returns at the Messiah's tomb, and how the «hated» wife in Genesis 29 becomes the mother of both the priesthood and the royal line — read Leah and Rachel: The Hated Wife and the Line of Messiah.