John 4:6

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 Nablous, precisely at the place where the road which follows the principal valley, that of Mukhna, from south to north, turns suddenly to the west, to enter the narrow valley of Shechem, with Ebal on the northeast and Gerizim on the southwest. The well is hollowed out, not in the rock, as is commonly said, but rather, according to Lieutenant Anderson, who descended into it in 1866, in alluvial ground; the same person has ascertained that the sides are for this reason lined with rude masonry. It is nine feet in diameter.

In March, 1694, Maundrell found the depth to be one hundred and five feet. In 1843, according to Wilson, it was only seventy-five feet, owing, doubtless, to the falling in of the earth. Maundrell found in it fifteen feet of water. So also Anderson, in May, 1866. Robinson and Bovet found it dry. Schubert, in the month of April, was able to drink of its water. Tristram, in December, found only the bottom wet, while, in February, he found it full of water. At the present day, it is blocked up with large stones, five or six feet below the aperture; but the real opening is found several feet lower. A few minutes further to the north, towards the hamlet of Askar, the tomb of Joseph is pointed out. Robinson asks with what object this gigantic work could have been undertaken in a country so abounding in springs as many as eighty are counted in Nablous and its environs. There is no other answer to give but that of Hengstenberg: “This work is that of a man who, a stranger in the country, wished to live independently of the inhabitants to whom the springs belonged, and to leave a monument of his right of property in this soil and in this whole country. Thus the very nature of this work fully confirms the origin which is assigned to it by tradition.”

The caravan, leaving the great plain which stretches towards the north, directed its course to the left, in order to enter the valley of Shechem. There Jesus seated Himself near the well, leaving His disciples to continue their journey as far as Sychar, where they were to procure provisions. He was oppressed by fatigue, κεκοπιακώς (wearied), says the evangelist; and the Tubingen school ascribes to John the opinion of the Docetae, according to which the body of Jesus was only an appearance! Οὕτως (thus), is almost untranslatable in our language; it is doubtless for some such reason that it is omitted in the Latin and Syriac versions. It signifies: without further preparation; taking things as He found them. According to the meaning given by Erasmus, Beza, etc., “wearied as He was,” the adverb would rather have been placed before the verb; comp. Acts 20:11; Acts 27:17 (Meyer). The imperfect (ἐκαθέζετο), is descriptive; it does not mean: He seated Himself, but: He was seated; (comp. John 11:20; John 20:12; Luke 2:46, etc.). The word refers not to what precedes, but to what follows. “He was there seated when a woman came...” The sixth hour must denote mid-day, according to the mode of reckoning generally received at that time in the East (see at John 1:40). This hour of the day suits the context better than six o'clock in the morning or evening. Jesus was oppressed at once by the journey and the heat. The first part of the conversation extends as far as John 4:15; it is immediately connected with the situation which is given.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

3. The word οὕτως of John 4:6 is to be understood, with Godet, Meyer, R. V., and others, as equivalent to as He was, without ceremony.

4. The sixth hour almost certainly means noon here, the reckoning being from six in the morning, the beginning of the Jewish day. This method of reckoning is quite probably the uniform one in this Gospel, but it is not certainly so in every case. In the matter of counting the hours of the day, there is everywhere a tendency to vary, at different times, by reason of the fact that, whatever may be the starting-point of customary reckoning, the daylight hours are those which represent the period of activity and of events. It is to be remembered, also, that the author was living in another region from that in which the events recorded had taken place.

5. The conversation here opens very naturally, and there would seem to be no difficulty in supposing that Jesus may have directly answered the remark of the woman with the words of John 4:10. The difference, in this regard, between this case and that of Nicodemus (John 3:2-3), is noticeable; in the latter, some intervening conversation must be supposed.