I. JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN: JOHN 4:1-26. In this first phase we see how Jesus succeeds in awaking faith in a soul which was a stranger to all spiritual life. The historical situation is described in John 4:1-6.... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John_, 2, _though Jesus did not himself baptize, but his disciples_, 3, _he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee._ ” John 4:1. explains the motive which leads Jesus to leave Judea: A... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND SECTION: 4:1-42. JESUS IN SAMARIA. The first phase of the public ministry of Jesus is ended. Unbelief on the part of the masses, faith on the part of a few, public attention greatly aroused, such is the result of His work in Judea. Nevertheless the uneasiness which He sees appearing among th... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now he must needs pass through Samaria. He cometh thus to a city of Samaria called Sychar_, _near to the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph._ ” ῎Εδει, _it was necessary:_ if one would not, like the very strict Jews, purposely avoid this polluted country (comp. p. 416); Jesus did... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 6. “ _Jacob's well was there; Jesus therefore, wearied by his journey, sat thus by the well; it was about the sixth hour._ ” This well still exists; for “it is probably the same which is now called _Bir-Jackoub_ ” (_Renan, Vie de_ Jesus, p. 243). It is situated thirty-five minutes eastward of... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _A woman of Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give me to drink._ 8. _For his disciples had gone to the city to buy food._ 9. _The Samaritan woman therefore says to him: How is it that thou, being a Jew, dost ask drink of me who am a Samaritan woman._ (_For the Jews have no dealings w... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 10. “ _Jesus answered and said unto her: If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is who says unto thee: Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him thyself, and he would have given thee living water._ ” To this observation of the woman Jesus replies, not by renewing His request, but by... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _The woman says to him: Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence, then_, _hast thou that living water?_ 12. _Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and who drank of it himself, as well as his sons and his cattle?_ ” The Samaritan woman takes the... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Jesus answered and said to her: Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life._ ” It is to no purpose that... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 15. “ _The woman says to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, neither pass this way to draw._ ” This woman's request has certainly a serious side. The respectful address, _Sir_, is sufficient to prove this. It follows likewise from the grave character of the answer of Jesus. Eve... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Jesus says to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither._ 17. _The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus says to her: Thou hast well said: I have no husband._ 18. _For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In this thou hast said truly._ ” _ Westco... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _The woman says to him: Sir, I see that thou art a prophet._ 20. _Our fathers worshiped in this mountain;and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship._ ” Some see in this question of the woman only an attempt to turn aside the disturbance of her conscience, “a woman's ruse... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 21. “ _Jesus says to her: Woman, believe me;the hour cometh when neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father._ ” The position of Jesus is a delicate one. He cannot deny the truth, and He must not repel this woman. His reply is admirable. He has just been called a proph... [ Continue Reading ]
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. XX. With reference to particular points in John 4:21-26 the following suggestions may be offered: 1. In the words of John 4:21 we may see from the outset that Jesus' desire was to draw attention to the spirituality of worship, and it is not improbable that... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 22. “ _Ye worship that which ye do not know; we worship that which we know, because salvation comes from the Jews._ ” The antithesis, which is so clearly marked between _ye_ and _we_ proves, whatever _Hilgenfeld_ may say, who wrongly cites _Hengstenberg_ as being of his opinion (comp. the Comme... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for also the Father seeketh such worshipers._ 24. _God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth._ ” _ But:_ in contrast with the period of Israelitish prer... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 25. “ _The woman says to him, I know that Messiah cometh (he who is called Christ); when he is come, he will declare unto us all things._ ” The woman's answer bears witness of a certain desire for light. Her Spirit yearns for the perfect revelation. This is the reason why we were not wrong in i... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 26. “ _Jesus says to her: I who speak unto thee am he._ ” Jesus, not having to fear, as we have just seen, that he would call forth in this woman a whole world of dangerous illusions, like those which, among the Jews, were connected with the name of Messiah, reveals Himself fully to her. This... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 27. _Upon this his disciples came, and they were astonished that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one of them said:What seekest thou? or, Why speakest thou with her._ ” There existed a rabbinical prejudice, according to which a woman is not capable of receiving profound religious instructio... [ Continue Reading ]
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. XXI. The following points in John 4:27-38 may be noticed: 1. The impression produced upon the mind of the woman was that which came from the wonderful knowledge of Jesus respecting herself, that is, her past history. That upon Nicodemus, which led him to go... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _The woman therefore left her water-pot and went away into the city and says to the men:_ 29. _Come, see a man who hath told me all the things that I have done; can this be the Christ?_ ” _ Therefore:_ following upon the declaration of John 4:26, she does not speak, she acts, as one does when the... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 30. “ _They went out of the city, and were coming towards him._ ” The Samaritans, gathered by her, arrive in large numbers. The imperfect, _they were coming_, contrasted with the aorist, _they went out_, forms a picture; we see them hastening across the fields which separate Sychar from Jacob'... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _In the mean while, the disciples prayed him, saying: Master, eat._ 32. _But he said unto them, I have meat to eat which ye know not._ ” John 4:31 (after the interruption of John 4:28-29), is connected with John 4:27. The words, ἐν δε τῷ μεταξύ (_in the mean while_), denote the time which elapsed... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _The disciples therefore said one to another: Has any one brought him anything to eat?_ 34. _Jesus says unto them: My meat is to do the will of my Father and to accomplish his work._ ” Μήτις introduces a negative question: “No one indeed has brought Him...?” Jesus explains the profound meaning of... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Say ye not that there are yet four months_, _and the harvest cometh. Behold I say unto you: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white for the harvest._ 36. _Already even he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he tha... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For herein is the saying true: The sower is one and the reaper another._ 38. _I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored; other men labored, and ye are entered into their labor._ ” According to _Tholuck_, Jesus is grieved at the thought that He is not Himself to be present at the conver... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified: He told me all things that I have done._ 40. _When, therefore, the Samaritans came unto him, they besought him to abide with them; and he abode there two days._ 41. _And many more believed on h... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 41 marks a two-fold advance, one in the number of believers, the other in the nature of their faith. This latter advance is expressed in the words: _Because of His word_, contrasted with the words: _Because of the woman's story_ (John 4:39); it is reflectively formulated in the declaration of Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
describe the general situation. Then, on this foundation there rises the following incident (John 4:46-54). We may compare here the relation of the conversation with Nicodemus to the general representation in John 2:23-25, or that of the last discourse of the forerunner to the representation in John... [ Continue Reading ]
THIRD SECTION: 4:43-54. JESUS IN GALILEE. In Judea, unbelief had prevailed. In Samaria, faith had just appeared. Galilee takes an intermediate position. Jesus is received there, but by reason of His miracles accomplished at Jerusalem, and on condition of responding immediately to this reception by... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 44. Αὐτός, _he_, the same who apparently was acting in an opposite way. The solution of the contradiction is given in John 4:45. ᾿Εμαρτύρησεν, _testified_, can here, whatever _Meyer, Weiss_, etc., may say, have only the sense of the pluperfect, like ἐποίησεν and ἦλθον which follow. It is diffic... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _He came_, _therefore, again to Cana of Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. And there was at Capernaum a king's officer, whose son was sick._ 47. _He, having heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son; fo... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 48. “ _Jesus therefore said to him: Unless ye see signs and wonders ye will in no wise believe._ ” This reply of Jesus is perplexing; for it seems to suppose that this man asked for the miracle to the end of believing, which is certainly not the case. But the difficulty is explained by the plur... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _The officer says to him: Sir, come down ere my child die._ 50. _Jesus says to him: Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word which Jesus had said to him, and he went his way._ ” The father has well understood that the remark of Jesus is not an answer, and consequently not a refusa... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him saying.Thy son liveth._ 52. _So he inquired of them the hour when he began to mend. They said to him: yesterday_, _at the seventh hour, the fever left him._ 53. _The father, therefore, knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus had sa... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 54. “ _Jesus did, again, this second sign, on coming out of Judea into Galilee._ ” The word δεύτερον cannot be an adverb: _for the second time;_ this would be a useless synonym for πάλιν, _again._ It is, then, an adjective, and, notwithstanding the absence of an article, a predicative adjective... [ Continue Reading ]