1. Jesus took the direct route north from Jerusalem to Galilee through Samaria, in contrast to most Jews who took the longer, indirect route east of the River Jordan through Peraea because of their hatred for the Samaritans.
2. Jewish-Samaritan animosity began in the sixth century b.c. upon the return to Israel of Jewish exiles, who believed the Samaritans had lost their status as children of Israel with the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. That tension led to the temple on Gerizim being destroyed by either John Hyrcanus in the second century b.c., according to Josephus, or by Simeon the Just, according to the Talmud.
3. A pun. "Living water" means "running water."
4. Mount Gerizim.
5. John in particular uses a number of "I am" responses that can be read as "I am he" or as an invocation of a name of God, the "I am." See appendix in Raymond E. Brown's The Gospel According to John (Anchor/Doubleday v29 of the Anchor Bible).
6. The Samaritans seem to have been far more receptive and open-minded than most of the Jews to whom Jesus ministered. Almost none were ready to accept him as messiah.
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