John 4:35

ἔτι τετράμ. κ.τ.λ. This cannot be a proverb. No such proverb is known; and a proverb on the subject would have to be differently shaped; e.g. ‘From seedtime to harvest is four months;’ ἔτι points to a single case. So that we may regard this saying as a mark of time. Harvest began in the middle of Nisan or April. Four months from that would place this event in the middle of December: or, if (as some suppose) this was a year in which an extra month was inserted, in the middle of January. The words form an iambic verse.

ὅτι λευκαί εἰσιν. In the green blades just shewing through the soil the faith of the sower sees the white ears that will soon be there. So also in the flocking of these ignorant Samaritans to Him for instruction Christ sees the abundant harvest of souls that is to follow. Ὅτι should be taken after θεάσασθε, behold that, not as A.V. ‘for,’ or ‘because.’ The punctuation is very uncertain, as to whether ἤδη belongs to this verse or the next. The balance of authority gives ἤδη to John 4:36; but in punctuation MSS. are not of great authority, and ἤδη at the end of John 4:35 seems intended to balance ἔτι at the beginning of it. Comp. 1 John 4:3.