John 4 - NKJV Study Bible

4:1 Therefore refers the reader back to 3:22–36. Christ’s success in winning disciples had created jealousy among John’s followers and provoked questions among the Pharisees. Since Jesus did not want to be drawn into a controversy over baptism at this stage of His ministry, He left Judea for Galilee (v. 3).

4:3 again: Jesus had been to Galilee before (1:43—2:12). He had left Capernaum to go to Jerusalem for the Passover.

4:4 The shortest route from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north went through Samaria. The journey took three days. Christ needed to go through Samaria if He wanted to travel the direct route. The Jews often avoided Samaria by going around it along the Jordan River. The hatred between the Jews and Samaritans went back to the days of the Exile. Samaria was the region between Judea and Galilee. When the northern kingdom was exiled to Assyria, King Sargon of Assyria repopulated the area with captives from other lands. The intermarriage of these foreigners and the Jews who had been left in the land complicated the ancestry of the Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans and considered them to be no longer “pure” Jews. Jesus, however, had no such bias.

4:5 Jacob had purchased a parcel of ground (see Gen. 33:18,19), which he bequeathed on his deathbed to Joseph (Gen. 48:21,22).

4:10 Living water (see 7:37–39; Is. 12:1–6) springs from an unfailing source and is ever-flowing. Jesus, of course, was talking about eternal life (see 4:14; Rom. 6:23).

4:11 The Samaritan woman did not comprehend Jesus’ spiritual message. She was thinking only of physical water and could not understand how Jesus could provide water without a means of drawing it, especially since the well was deep.

4:16 Jesus mentioned the woman’s husband in order to expose her sin (v. 18).

4:19 Because of what Jesus told her about herself, the woman concluded that Jesus Christ was a prophet, a person divinely inspired with supernatural knowledge (see 1 Sam. 9:9).

4:20 By mentioning the two different worship sites, the woman was perhaps trying to shift the conversation away from the subject of her own sins to theological questions. Or perhaps she realized that she was a sinner (v. 18), and knew that she was required to offer a sacrifice. The woman probably assumed that because Jesus was a Jew, He would insist that the sacrifice be offered in the temple at Jerusalem. The Jews insisted that the exclusive place of worship was Jerusalem. But the Samaritans had set up a rival worship site on Mt. Gerizim, which according to their tradition was where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, and where later on he met Melchizedek. When the blessings and curses were read to the wilderness generation of Israel, the blessings were read from Mt. Gerizim (see Deut. 11:29; 27:12). Deuteronomy 27:4 instructed that an altar be erected on Mt. Ebal, opposite Mt. Gerizim. But the Samaritan scripture changed the verse to read “Mt. Gerizim.” The Samaritans altered history and tampered with the text of Scripture to glorify Mt. Gerizim.

4:22 Salvation is of the Jews means that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people.

4:24 God is Spirit . . . worship Him . . . in spirit and truth: God is not limited by time and space. When people are born of the Spirit, they can commune with God anywhere. Spirit is the opposite of what is material and earthly, for example, Mt. Gerizim. Christ makes worship a matter of the heart. Truth is what is in harmony with the nature and will of God. It is the opposite of all that is false. Here the truth is specifically the worship of God through Jesus Christ. The issue is not where a person worships, but how and whom.

4:25 The Samaritans believed that the Prophet of Deut. 18:15 would teach all things when he came.

4:26 I . . . am He: Using the same words that God used when He revealed Himself to Moses (see Ex. 3:14), Jesus clearly stated that He is the Messiah.

4:29 all things that I ever did: In her excitement, the woman exaggerated. She did not report what Jesus actually told her, but what He could have told her. Note the woman’s spiritual journey. She first viewed Christ as a Jew (v. 9), then as a prophet (v. 19), and finally as the Messiah.

4:34 My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me: This food is not simply knowing the will of God, but doing it. This verse highlights the obedience of Jesus to God in His ministry and foreshadows His words on the Cross (19:30).

4:35 In vv. 35–38, Jesus offered His disciples an opportunity to do something that would be “food” for them. He was speaking about the Samaritans. In them, He saw an opportunity for a spiritual harvest for which the disciples would not have to wait long.

4:36 The reaper of a spiritual harvest receives wages—that is, fruit which brings joy. In this case, Jesus sowed by giving the message to the woman. He was about to reap because He would see the whole city saved. Also the disciples were going to reap the harvest that Christ had sown. Note the “hundredfold” wages Jesus promises in Matt. 19:27–29 (see 1 Cor. 3:6–8; 2 Cor. 5:10).

4:38 Jesus applied what He had just said to His disciples. The others may have been John the Baptist and his disciples. They had labored in Judea (3:22–36). Thus Jesus’ disciples were reaping what others had sowed (vv. 1,2).

4:42 The title Savior of the world is used only here and in 1 John 4:14. The Jews of Jesus’ day taught that to approach God one first had to be a Jew. By including this incident in the Gospel, John demonstrates that Jesus is for all people of the world.

4:44 His own country has been taken to mean: (1) Judea, (2) Nazareth, or (3) Galilee. Having no honor or reception in Nazareth, Jesus went elsewhere in Galilee.

4:45 The feast refers to the Passover (see 2:13–25). The Galileans who had gone to the feast received Jesus when He came to Galilee.

4:46 Nobleman is literally royal officer, one in service of the king. Herod Antipas was technically the “tetrarch” of Galilee, but he was referred to as a king.

4:53,54 The nobleman is said to have believed twice, once in v. 50 and again in v. 53. In v. 50, he believed Jesus’ promise that his son would not die. But believing that Jesus can and will heal is not enough to save. What was it that the nobleman believed in v. 53? The explanation is found in v. 54. The miracle that Jesus performed was His second sign (see also 2:11). These signs were performed so that people might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing they might have life (20:31). When the Jewish nobleman realized that his son had been healed, he knew that Jesus was more than a mere mortal. The nobleman placed his faith in Jesus and was born again.