John 4 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

4:4 had to go through Samaria. Jews traveling between Judea and Galilee could circumvent Samaria, but most commonly they took the shortest route through Samaria (Josephus, Antiquities 20.118; Wars 2.232). This route yielded a three-day journey (Josephus, Life, 269). Nevertheless, the words “had to” may reflect the Father’s will (especially if Jesus was near John the Baptist in 3:22–23; that region may have been closer to the route that avoided Samaria altogether).

4:5 Sychar. Might be Shechem (near Jacob’s well), but is more often identified with today’s village of Askar. Askar was nearly a mile (about 1.5 kilometers) from the well.

4:6 Jacob’s well. This well remains today; Mount Gerizim (v. 20) is visible from this site. noon. Considered the beginning of the hottest hour; during this hour, people would seek shade, sometimes eat a light meal and often take a siesta. That the woman comes, alone, at this hour suggests that she was not welcome with the other women, since women usually came to draw water together. The passage about the well in the wilderness in Nu 21:16–18 almost immediately follows the passage about Moses lifting the snake there (see note on Jn 3:14).

4:7 Will you give me a drink? Hospitality demanded giving drink to a visitor; more relevant here (see note on v. 16), Isaac’s representative asked Rebekah for a drink (Ge 24:17). Most relevant here was the status of Samaritan vessels (see note on v. 9).

4:7–26 Conservative ancient practice looked down on men speaking at any length with women who were not relatives; this was all the more the case in rural areas such as this one (see note on v. 27).

4:8 gone . . . to buy food. Teachers sometimes had disciples get food for the group; but the strictest Jews considered some Samaritan foods unclean.

4:9 How can you ask me for a drink? Although Jews did not literally reject all dealings with Samaritans, association was limited. According to Jewish tradition, a Samaritan woman was continually unclean; it was therefore impure to drink from her vessel.

4:10 living water. An idiom for flowing water (Jer 17:13), which was superior to normal well water. But “living water” can also be a wordplay (see note on Jn 3:3) for the water of life.

4:11 deep. The well’s ancient depth is uncertain, but it may be similar to its modern depth of 100 feet (30 meters).

4:12 our father Jacob. Jews denied Samaritans’ descent from Jacob, whereas Samaritans affirmed it. Judeans denied it because Assyrians had mixed other peoples with the descendants of the northern kingdom, and they had originally mixed conflicting beliefs (2Ki 17:24–34, 41). By this period, though, Samaritans were monotheists.

4:14 will never thirst. A widely circulated work of Jewish wisdom claimed that whoever tasted of Wisdom would thirst for more of her (Sirach 24:21); Jesus claims to offer even better water (see eternal life).

4:15 have to keep coming here. The well could be nearly a mile (about 1.5 kilometers) from her village; she might carry the vessel back on her head.

4:16 call your husband. Like Jesus in v. 6, Moses sat down by a well before he met Zipporah (Ex 2:15; Jewish tradition claims that he sat there at noon). Isaac’s representative, Jacob, and Moses all met future wives at wells, and Jewish sources reveal that people still sometimes hoped to find mates at wells. That the woman is alone is conspicuous (see note on Jn 4:6); male strangers did not normally engage in extensive conversation with women unless they had ulterior motives (see note on v. 27). Possibly she lacked a head covering, which would signal her singleness (see the article “Head Coverings in Antiquity”). The woman, then, might interpret Jesus’ words as probing whether she was available, possibly infusing her denial of being married (v. 17) with another level of meaning.

4:18 had five husbands . . . not your husband. Nearly all ancient hearers would look negatively on her situation. Given their cultural beliefs, most would assume that she had done something wrong to be deprived of so many husbands; this was true if she was widowed (see note on Lk 20:29–31) and even more significant if she was divorced. That she was living with a man who was not her husband would be even more directly problematic for both Jews and Samaritans. Yet it is to her that Jesus reveals his identity (v. 26).

4:19 prophet. Later tradition suggests that Samaritans did not believe in prophets after Moses until the final restorer like Moses (Dt 18:15–18) would come. Thus she sees him either as the final prophet or (more likely at this point) recognizes that her Samaritan tradition is wrong—which leads to her dilemma stated in v. 20.

4:20 worshiped. She uses the past tense for Samaritan worship on Mount Gerizim, probably to highlight the fact that, over a century and a half earlier, a Jewish king had destroyed the Samaritans’ temple. in Jerusalem. Many Jewish synagogues were apparently oriented toward Jerusalem, the rightful place of worship. Yet Samaritans were not welcome in Jerusalem’s temple. So if Jesus is a prophet and the Jews are right about religion (vv. 19, 22), she has a religious dilemma. She is excluded from the true worship of God.

4:21 neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Without denying that the Jewish way was more accurate (v. 22), Jesus transcends the historic ethnic barrier that excluded Samaritans from worship (see note on v. 20).

4:24 worship in the Spirit and in truth. The true place of worship is neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim, but in Spirit and truth (if this is a hendiadys, perhaps “the Spirit of truth”). Jewish people associated the Spirit especially with prophetic inspiration; the OT offers some preliminary models for prophetic or Spirit-inspired worship (e.g., 1Sa 10:5; 1Ch 25:1–3).

4:25 Messiah. Samaritans expected not a Messiah in the Jewish sense, but a prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15–18) who would restore them; Jesus fulfills this hope (Jn 4:26).

4:27 surprised . . . talking with a woman. Most ancient Mediterranean culture disapproved of men speaking with women in private; Jewish sages warned against it repeatedly. Nevertheless, good disciples were supposed to trust their teacher and not question his motives.

4:29 Come, see. Most of ancient Mediterranean culture minimized the value of women’s testimony (Josephus, e.g., rejected it as unstable); the woman’s reputation (cf. note on v. 18) would make her testimony even more problematic. Her witness, however, is parallel to Philip’s (1:46). Like ones impressed with women’s testimony in Ge 24:28–32; 29:11–13, Samaritans come out to meet Jesus (v. 30).

4:34 My food. For God’s message or mission as spiritual food, see, e.g., Ps 19:10; 119:103; Jer 15:16; Eze 3:3.

4:35 It’s still four months until harvest. Barley harvest fell in March, with wheat in the latter half of April and all of May. Because harvest followed sowing by four or five months, the proverb cited here might encourage sowers that their labor would have its reward.

4:38 reaped the benefits of their labor. Sometimes one would reap what another sowed (cf. Ecc 2:18); one should be glad to reap so freely (cf. Dt 6:11).

4:40 stayed two days. Ancient Mediterranean culture highly emphasized the virtue of hospitality, but often this was applied only to members of one’s ethnic group, and virtually never extended voluntarily and freely between Jews and Samaritans. For Jesus and his disciples to remain there two more days meant eating Samaritan food, dwelling in Samaritan dwellings and continuing to teach Samaritans, all of which would be offensive to most Jews (cf. 8:48).

4:42 Savior of the world. Scripture presented God as Israel’s true Savior but sometimes spoke also of human saviors or deliverers that God raised up. That the Samaritans regard Jesus as Savior not merely of Israel but of the world is significant. The emperor claimed to be savior and benefactor of the world, but his mission differed starkly from that of Jesus.

4:44 no honor in his own country. Scripture noted prophets being rejected, even in their hometowns (Jer 1:1; 11:21); Jewish traditions about the prophets amplified this pattern even further. Some scholars think that the “country” here is Judea (cf. Jn 1:11).

4:45 They had seen. Entire Galilean villages often journeyed to Jerusalem together for festivals.

4:46 royal official . . . Capernaum. Given the likeliest site for Cana, Capernaum was almost a day’s walk away. The royal official works for Herod Antipas; he may be a Hellenized Galilean aristocrat or possibly even a Gentile (though John would probably mention the latter if he knew it to be the case).

4:48 signs and wonders. Disbelief despite signs was blameworthy (Nu 14:11), but Jesus invites faith even beyond signs.

4:50 took Jesus at his word. Most miracle accounts in antiquity required the miracle worker to be present.

4:52 Yesterday. Because Cana was nearly a day’s walk from Capernaum, and travelers normally left in the morning, the official had undoubtedly lodged somewhere for the night before journeying back to Capernaum.