John 4 - Expositor's Bible Commentary - Abridged

8. The Samaritan ministry (4:1–42) a. The woman at the well (4:1–26)

1–3 Jesus’ early ministry in the region of Judea was gaining attention, especially by the Pharisees, who constituted the ruling religious class. The growth of any messianic movement could easily be interpreted as having political overtones, and Jesus did not want to become involved in any outward conflict with the state, whether Jewish or Roman. In order to avoid a direct clash, he left Judea and journeyed northward to Galilee.

4–5 The shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee lay on the high road straight through Samaritan territory. Many Jews would not travel by that road, for they regarded any contact with Samaritans as defiling (on the Samaritans, see comment on Lk 9:53–54). By the time of Jesus a strong rivalry and hatred between Jews and Samaritans prevailed. The words “had to” translate an expression of necessity. As the Savior of all humanity, Jesus felt he had to confront the smoldering suspicion and enmity between Jews and Samaritans by ministering to his enemies.

Sychar was a small village near Shechem, about half a mile from Jacob’s well, which is located in the modern Shechem or Nablus.

6 The well of Jacob lies at the foot of Mount Gerizim, the center of Samaritan worship. The “sixth hour” would probably have been about noon, reckoning from daybreak. It was an unusual time for a woman to come to a village well for water. Perhaps the Samaritan woman had a sudden need, or perhaps she did not care to meet the other women of the community, who may have shunned her because of her general character.

7–8 Undoubtedly the woman was surprised to find a man sitting by the well. Jesus’ initial approach was a simple request for water, which would presuppose a favorable response. One would hardly refuse a drink of cold water to a thirsty traveler in the heat of the day. The request did have a surprising element, however, for no Jewish rabbi would have volunteered to carry on a public conversation with a woman, nor would he have deigned to drink from a Samaritan’s cup, as she implied by her answer.

9–10 There was a trace of sarcasm in the woman’s reply, as if she meant, “We Samaritans are the dirt under your feet until you want something; then we are good enough!” Jesus paid no attention to her flippancy or to her bitterness. He was more interested in winning the woman than in winning an argument. He appealed to her curiosity by the phrase “If you knew,” implying that because of the nature of his person he could bestow on her a gift of God that would be greater than any ordinary water. His allusion was intended to lift her level of thinking from that of material need to spiritual realities.

11 The woman heard his words but missed his meaning. “Living water” meant to her fresh spring water such as the well supplied. She could not understand how he could provide this water without having any means of drawing it from the well (the well was over seventy-five feet deep).

12 The woman’s reference to “our father Jacob” was perhaps designed to bolster the importance of the Samaritans in the eyes of a Jewish rabbi. She was well aware of the low esteem the Jews had of her people.

13–15 Jesus’ second reply emphasized the contrast between the water in the well and what he intended to give. The material water would allay thirst only temporarily; the spiritual water would quench the inner thirst forever. The water in the well had to be drawn up with hard labor; the spiritual water would bubble up from within. Because of her non spiritual perspective, the woman’s interests were selfish.

16–17 Jesus’ request to call her husband was both proper and strategic—proper because it was not regarded as good etiquette for a woman to talk with a man unless her husband were present; strategic because it placed her in a dilemma from which she could not free herself without admitting her need. She had no husband, and she would not want to confess her sexual irregularities to a stranger. The abruptness of her reply shows that she was at last emotionally touched.

18 Jesus shocked the woman when he lifted the curtain on her past life. The conversation had passed from the small-talk stage to the personal. Her evil deeds were being exposed by the light, but was she willing to acknowledge the truth?

19–20 Realizing his superhuman knowledge, the woman called him a prophet; but then she tried to divert him. Since his probing was becoming uncomfortably personal, she began to argue a religious issue. She raised the old controversy between Jews and Samaritans, whether worship should be offered on Mount Gerizim, at the foot of which they stood, or at Jerusalem, where Solomon’s temple had been built.

The Samaritans founded their claim on the historic fact that when Moses instructed the people concerning the entrance into the Promised Land, he commanded that they set up an altar on Mount Ebal and that the tribes should be divided, half on Ebal and half on Gerizim. As the Levites read the Law, the people responded antiphonally (Dt 27:1–28:68). The Jews held that since Solomon had been commissioned to build the temple in Jerusalem, the center of worship should be located there. The controversy was endless, and Jesus did not intend to allow himself to be drawn into a futile discussion.

21–23 Jesus avoided the argument by elevating the issue above mere location. He made no concessions and intimated that the Samaritans’ worship was confused: “You Samaritans worship what you do not know.” Probably he was alluding to the error of the woman’s ancestors, who had accepted a syncretism of foreign deities with the ancestral God of the Jewish faith. To Jesus, true worship is that of the spirit, which means that the worshiper must deal honestly and openly with God. She, on the contrary, had been furtive and unwilling to open her heart to God.

24 “God is spirit” carries one of the four noun descriptions of God found in the NT (the other three are “God is light” [1Jn 1:5]; “God is love” [1Jn 4:8, 16]; and “God is a consuming fire” [Heb 12:29]). Jesus was endeavoring to convey to the woman that God cannot be confined to one place nor conceived of as a material being. Only “the Word become flesh” (Cf. 1:14) could represent him adequately.

25 Mystified by Jesus’ words, the woman finally confessed her ignorance and at the same time expressed her longing for the Messiah. It was the one nebulous hope that she had of finding God, for she expected that the coming Messiah would explain the mysteries of life. There was a Samaritan tradition that the prophet predicted by Moses in Dt 18:15 would come to teach God’s people all things. On this sincere though vague hope Jesus founded his appeal to her spiritual consciousness.

26 This is the one occasion when Jesus voluntarily declared his messiahship. In the Synoptic Gospels, normally he did not make such a public claim; on the contrary, he urged his disciples to silence (Mt 16:20; Mk 8:29–30; Lk 9:20–21). In Galilee, where there were many would-be messiahs and a constant unrest based on the messianic hope, such a claim would have been dangerous. In Samaria the concept would probably have been regarded more as religious than political and would have elicited a ready hearing for his teaching rather than a subversive revolt.

b. The return of the disciples (4:27–38)

27 The disciples had left Jesus at the well. He was tired, and there would have been no need for him to have accompanied them into the town to buy food. They were surprised to find him talking with a woman—an apparent violation of custom—but they respected him too highly to question his behavior.

28–29 As the disciples approached, the woman made her way back to Sychar to report the interview to her fellow villagers. She was so excited that she forgot her water pot. At the village she was bold enough to suggest that perhaps the new person she had met might be the Messiah. “You don’t suppose this could be the Messiah, do you?” would be a fair translation of her words.

30 The elders of Sychar would probably not accept theological information from a woman of her reputation, and she did not venture to make a dogmatic pronouncement. Nevertheless, her manner was so sincere and her invitation so urgent that they immediately proceeded to the well to investigate.

31–34 The disciples were mainly interested in Jesus’ physical welfare. He must have been exhausted by the travel of the morning. They were amazed that he was not hungry and wondered whether somebody else had given him food. He tried to tell them that the satisfaction of completing the work the Father had entrusted to him was greater than any food he might have been given (cf. Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4).

35 “Four months more and then the harvest” is probably a quotation of a current proverb. Having once sowed the grain, all the farmer needed to do was wait for it to ripen. Jesus was pointing out that the spiritual harvest is always ready and must be reaped before it spoils. As he was speaking, the Samaritans were leaving the town and coming across the fields toward him (v.30), like grain ready for harvesting.

36–38 The disciples would not have to wait indefinitely for the result of their mission; the sowing and reaping could go on together. Jesus implied that they had already received a commission to reap for him and that they could benefit from the preparation he and the prophets had made. The reaping of people for the granary of God is not the task of any one group, nor is it confined to one era. Each reaps the benefit of its forerunners, and succeeding generations in turn gain from the accomplishments of their predecessors (see 1Co 3:6). Perhaps v.38 is an allusion to the preaching of John the Baptist, whose message of repentance had prepared the way for the disciples’ preaching about Jesus.

c. The faith of the Samaritans (4:39–42)

39–42 These few verses indicate two necessary and interrelated bases for belief: (1) the testimony of others and (2) personal contact with Jesus. This woman’s witness opened the way to him for the villagers. If he could penetrate the shell of her materialism and present a message that would transform her, the Samaritans also could believe that he might be the Messiah. That stage of belief was only introductory, however. The second stage was hearing him for themselves, and it brought them to the settled conviction expressed in “we know” (v.42). They had progressed from a faith built on the witness of another to a faith built on their own experience.

9. The interview with the nobleman (4:43–54)

43–44 The progress to Galilee is closely connected with the episode at Samaria. For the parenthesis of v.44, see Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4. Did Jesus intend to apply the principle stated in this verse to Judea or to Galilee? In the light of his comment to the nobleman in v.48, it seems likely that John was simply stating that Jesus had already been rebuffed in Galilee (cf. Lk 4:24–29) and that he was questioning the motives of the nobleman in the light of past experience. At this time the Galileans were somewhat more receptive because of the miracles they had witnessed at the Passover in Jerusalem. John says little in this gospel about Jesus’ Galilean activities, though he shows knowledge of them (2:1–11; 4:43–54; 6:1–7:13).

45 The Galileans hoped Jesus would duplicate the signs they had witnessed in Jerusalem while they were attending the Passover. They were disappointed to discover that he had no intention of exhibiting his powers simply to satisfy their curiosity.

46 Jesus revisits Cana, where he had performed his first miracle (2:1–11). The royal official may have been a member of Herod’s court and possibly a Gentile (see comment on 2:23–25). His son had been ill for some time and was not recovering from his sickness. Therefore, the father felt compelled to seek further aid.

47 The report that Jesus had healed people in Jerusalem must have reached this man’s ears. Learning that Jesus had returned to Galilee, the official immediately sought Jesus out and strongly pleaded with him to heal his son, who was dangerously ill.

48 Jesus’ reply seems like a heartless rejection. He seemed to insinuate that the official, like the rest of the Galileans, was merely attempting to elicit a miracle from him. On the other hand, Jesus’ words may express a genuine hope. He desired a belief characterized by dedication rather than amazement, and as the second half of the episode shows, his aim was to inculcate a commitment rather than merely to perform a cure (Cf. 20:30–31).

49 The genuine distress of the father is demonstrated by his words: “Sir, come down at once before my little boy dies!” (lit. tr.). The words used indicate that the case was desperate.

50 Jesus’ response still seems somewhat impersonal and casual. By dismissing the official with the statement that his son was alive, Jesus created a dilemma of faith. If the father refused to return to Capernaum without taking Jesus with him, he would show that he did not believe Jesus’ word and would consequently receive no benefit because of his distrust. On the other hand, if he followed Jesus’ order, he would be returning to the dying boy without any outward assurance that the lad would recover. He was forced to make the difficult choice between insisting on evidence and thus showing disbelief or exercising faith without any tangible proof to encourage him. The official chose the second horn of the dilemma; he “took Jesus at his word” and set out on his return journey.

51–52 People are amazed by coincidences, but generally they do not attribute them to the direct activity of God. As the official went home, a miraculous report greeted him “while he was still on the way.” There is an interesting progression in the description of the boy’s condition. First the news came that “his boy was living.” But more than that, the man was curious to know “the time when his son got better.” Finally, he was told, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”

53–54 When the father considered the details of his meeting with Jesus and the good news concerning his son’s recovery, he was convinced that more than coincidence was at work. The timing was miraculous, and the boy’s recovery was more than circumstantial. “So he and all his household believed.”

The notation in v.54 should probably be read in the light of John’s footnote in v.44. The convincing character of the two signs recorded here and the forceful demonstration of God’s response to faith afforded by the second provided cogent illustrations for the main theme of belief.