John 4:25

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. THE WOMAN SAITH UNTO HIM, I KNOW THAT MESSIAS COMETH, WHICH IS CALLED CHRIST: WHEN HE IS COME, HE WILL TELL US ALL THINGS. If we take our Lord's immediate disclosure of Himself, in answer to these words, as the proper key to their meaning to His ear, we can hardly doubt that the woman was already all but prepared for even this startling announcement, which indeed she seems (from ) to have already begun to suspect by His revealing her to herself. Thus quickly, under so matchless a Teacher, was she brought up from her sunken condition to a frame of mind and heart capable of receiving the noblest revelations. When she says of the expected Messiah, that He would "tell them all things," this belief was probably founded on...

25._The Messiah is about to come. _Although religion among the Samaritans was corrupted and mixed up with many errors, yet some principles taken from the Law were impressed on their minds, such as that which related to the Messiah. Now it is probable that, when the woman ascertained from Christ’s discourse that a very extraordinary change was about to take place in the Church of God, her mind instantly recurred to the recollection of Christ, under whom she hoped that all things would be fully restored. When she says that _the Messiah is about to come, _she seems to speak of the time as near at hand; and, indeed, it is sufficiently evident from many arguments, that the minds of men were everywhere aroused by the expectation of the Messiah, who would restore the affairs which were wretchedly decayed, or rather, which were utterly ruined. This, at least, is beyond all controversy, that the...

4-26 There was great hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. Christ's road from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria. We should not go into places of temptation but when we needs must; and then must not dwell in them, but hasten through them. We have here our Lord Jesus under the common fatigue of travellers. Thus we see that he was truly a man. Toil came in with sin; therefore Christ, having made himself a curse for us, submitted to it. Also, he was a poor man, and went all his journeys on foot. Being wearied, he sat thus on the well; he had no couch to rest upon. He sat thus, as people wearied with travelling sit. Surely, we ought readily to submit to be like the Son of God in such things as these. Christ asked a woman for water. She was surprised because he did not show the anger of his own nation against the Samaritans. Moderate men of all sides are men wondered at. Christ took...

Verse 25. _I KNOW THAT MESSIAS COMETH_] Instead of οιδα _I know_, several excellent MSS. and versions read, οιδαμεν, _we know_; as if she had said that all the Samaritans expected the advent of the Messiah. Though they did not receive the prophetic writings, yet the tradition of the advent of the _Messiah_, which was common among the _Jews_, and founded on promises contained even in the books of Moses, was generally received among the Samaritans also. _WHICH IS CALLED CHRIST_] This appears to be the evangelist's explanation of the Hebrew word, according to his custom; John 1:38; John 1:41; John 9:7, c. for we cannot suppose that the woman understood Greek, so as to translate the Hebrew wor

I KNOW THAT MESSIAS COMETH - As the Samaritans acknowledged the five books of Moses, so they expected, also, the coming of the Messiah. WHICH IS CALLED CHRIST - These are probably the words of the evangelist, as it is not likely that the woman would explain the name on such an occasion. WILL TELL US ALL THINGS - Jesus had decided the question proposed to him John 4:20 in favor of the Jews. The woman does not seem to have been satisfied with this answer, and said that the Messiah would tell them all about this question. Probably she was expecting that he would soon appear....

EXPOSITION JOHN 4:1 7. _The ministry and revelation of the Lord to those beyond the strict compass of the theocracy. _This passage describes an incident of consummate interest, and records a specimen of our Lord's intercourse with individuals, and the reaction of that instruction upon the disciples. The event is a solitary chink through which the light of historical fact falls upon an otherwise darkened and unknown period of the Saviour's life. When we skirt a forest we see at intervals, where by some accident of growth the light falls upon a narrow space, a miniature world of life and loveliness of every kind, suggesting what might happen if every square yard of the forest could receive a similar illumination. Every day of that wondrous life of Christ may have been equally full of meaning to some souls. "These things are written, that

THE WOMAN SAITH UNTO HIM,.... Not knowing well what to say to these things Christ had been discoursing about, as the place, object, and manner of worship; and being undetermined in her judgment of them, by what he had said, was willing to refer them to the Messiah's coming; of which she, and the Samaritans, had some knowledge, I KNOW THAT MESSIAS COMETH WHICH IS CALLED CHRIST: the last clause, "which is called Christ", are not the words of the woman explaining the Hebrew word Messiah; for as, on the one hand, she did not understand Greek, so, on the other, she could not think that the person she was conversing with, who she knew was a Jew, needed that word to be explained to him; but they are the words of the evangelist, interpreting the Hebrew word "Messiah", by the Greek word "Christ", in which language he wrote: hence this clause is left out in the Syriac version, as unnecessary to a...

I have often read this chapter in your hearing, and you have often read it yourselves; but the Word of God is not like the grapes of an earthly vine, which when once trodden are exhausted. You may come to Holy Scripture again and again; it is like an ever-flowing fountain, the more you draw from it, the more you may draw. John 4:1. _When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee._ Observe here that our Lord at first shunned conflict with the Pharisees. When he knew that they were jealous of him, he went away from Judaea to a more remote district, «into Galilee.» May he help us always to take that which may be the wiser course in every emergency! He was not guilty of cowardice; that, he could not be, for he was

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. He Must Needs Pass Through Samaria. (John 4:1 .)_ 2. At Sychar's Well; Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. (John 4:6 .) 3. The Woman's Witness and the Believing Samaritans. (John 4:27 .) 4. His Return to Galilee. (John 4:43 .) 5. The Second Miracle, the Healing of the Nobleman's Son. (John 4:46 .) In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord told His disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles and not to enter into any city of the Samaritans. (Matthew 10:5

IV. 1- 42. CHRIST IN SAMARIA. John 4:1. Christ and the Samaritan Woman. The Lord (for the title _cf. John 6:23_, John 11:2; John 20:20; John 21:7, with certain parts of Lk., _e.g._ Luke 18:6 *), having learned that the Pharisees are aware of the success of His baptism, administered by His disciples, retires to Galilee, to avoid opposition which might lead to a premature crisis. This obliged Him to pass through Samaria, unless He chose the longer route through Peræ a, often adopted by strict J