John 4:41-42

John 4:41-42. And many more believed because of his word; and they said unto the woman, No longer because of thy speaking do we believe: for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world. Among those that heard the Saviour were evidently some who had first believed because of the woman's testimony (‘No longer...'): hearing for themselves, they were led into a deeper faith. There is nothing disparaging, as some have supposed, in the use of the word ‘speech' or ‘speaking' in regard to the woman's message: the expression is simply equivalent to because thou spakest , and relates to the fact of speaking, in contrast with the substance of the teaching, the ‘word' of Jesus Himself. The last words in the confession of the Samaritans (this is indeed the Saviour of the world) contain no real difficulty. The teaching of John 4:21-24 directly led to the recognition of this truth. It was much to realise that Jesus, as Messiah, was a Saviour, not merely a Prophet who would bring a revelation from God. But when the thought of a Saviour of Jews alone is once overpassed, there is no intermediate position between this and the conception contained in the words before us a Saviour of the world. The Evangelist, in recording them, plainly intends to point out to us the special significance of the whole narrative: the conversion of Samaritans was a promise of the conversion of the world.