John 4:35

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. SAY NOT YE, THERE ARE YET FOUR MONTHS, AND THEN COMETH HARVEST? That this was intended to express the actual interval between the time when our Lord was speaking and the harvest-time that year, we cannot doubt. The arguments against it, by Alford and others, as if this were a proverbial speech without any definite reference to the actual tame of its utterance-which to us is scarcely intelligible-seem feeble, and the best critics and harmonists regard it here as a note of the actual season of the year at which our Lord spoke-late in December, but more probably January, and, as Stanley affirms, from his own observation, even so late as February; though the year he refers to was perhaps an exceptional one, and the month...

35._Do you not say? _He follows out the preceding statement; for, having said that nothing was more dear to him than _to finish the work _of the Father, he now shows how _ripe _it is for execution; and he does so by a comparison with _the harvest. _When the corn is ripe, the harvest cannot bear delay, for otherwise the grain would fall to the ground and be lost; and, in like manner, the spiritual corn being now ripe, he declares that there must be no delay, because delay is injurious. We see for what purpose the comparison is employed; it is to explain the reason why he hastens to perform his work. (83) By this expression,_Do you not say? _he intended indirectly to point out how much more attentive the minds of men are to earthly than to heavenly things; for they burn with so intense a desire of _harvest _that they carefully reckon up months and days, but it is astonishing how drowsy

27-42 The disciples wondered that Christ talked thus with a Samaritan. Yet they knew it was for some good reason, and for some good end. Thus when particular difficulties occur in the word and providence of God, it is good to satisfy ourselves that all is well that Jesus Christ says and does. Two things affected the woman. The extent of his knowledge. Christ knows all the thoughts, words, and actions, of all the children of men. And the power of his word. He told her secret sins with power. She fastened upon that part of Christ's discourse, many would think she would have been most shy of repeating; but the knowledge of Christ, into which we are led by conviction of sin, is most likely to be sound and saving. They came to him: those who would know Christ, must meet him where he records his name. Our Master has left us an example, that we may learn to do the will of God as he did; with d...

Verse 35. _THERE ARE YET FOUR MONTHS, AND_ THEN _COMETH HARVEST?_] In Palestine, the harvest did not begin till after the passover, which was fixed on the 14th of the month Nisan, which answers to our _March_, and sometimes extends into _April_. The _barley_ harvest was the first; after that the _wheat_; and both were finished by _Pentecost_. For, in the feast of Pentecost, the first fruits of all the harvest were carried to the temple, and waved before the Lord. See Leviticus 23:11. The _four months_, of which our Lord speaks here, must be computed, according to M. Toynard, from _Shebat_, which was the eleventh month of the sacred year, and which commenced that year on the 13th of January: from that, till the beginning of the wheat harvest, which began about a month after the passover, there were exactly four months. The passo...

SAY NOT YE - This seems to have been a proverb. Ye say - that is, men say. FOUR MONTHS AND ... - The common time from sowing the seed to the harvest, in Judea, was about “four months.” The meaning of this passage may be thus expressed: “The husbandman, when he sows his seed, is compelled to wait a considerable period before it produces a crop. He is encouraged in sowing it; he expects fruit; his labor is lightened by that expectation; but it is not “immediate” - it is remote. But it is not so with my preaching. The seed has already sprung up. Scarce was it sown before it produced an abundant harvest. The gospel was just preached to a woman, and see how many of the Samaritans come to hear it also. There is therefore more encouragement to labor in this field than the farmer has to sow his grain.” LIFT UP YOUR EYES - See the Samaritans coming to hear the gospel.

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

SAY NOT YE, THERE ARE YET FOUR MONTHS,.... Our Lord had been in Jerusalem and Judea, about eight months from the last passover, and there remained four more to the next passover: AND THEN COMETH HARVEST? barley harvest, which began at that time. Now as the passover was in the middle of the month Nisan, which was about the latter end of our March; reckoning four months back from thence shows, that it was about the latter end of our November, or beginning of December, that Christ was in Samaria, and at Jacob's well. Some think, that this does not refer to the then present time, as if there were so many months from thence to the next harvest, but to a common way of speaking, that there were four months from seed time to harvest; during which time there was a comfortable hope, and longing expectation of it: but this will, by no means, agree either with the wheat or barley harvest. The wheat...

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._ Our Saviour was not a man of strife; he was quite ready to contend with the Pharisees on fit occasions, but just then he avoided an encounter with them. Besides, one woman of Samaria, whom he was going to save, was worth more to him than ten thousand Pharisees who would not be saved by him. Most of the learning and culture of Palestine was possessed by the Pharisees, but Christ thought nothing of it in comparison with the soul of the one poor woman of Samaria whom he was going to save. John 4:4. And he must needs go through Samaria. Thene cometh he to a city of Samaria, w

JOHN 4:35-36 qerismo,n) h;dh o` {B} The word h;dh may be taken either as concluding ver. John 4:35 or as beginning ver. John 4:36. In order to prevent it from being taken with what follows, the scribes of A C3 Q ¦1 ¦13 _al_ inserted kai, at the beginning of ver. John 4:36. Since it is more in accord with John’s style for...

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