Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:7
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
7. a woman of Samaria ] i.e. of the province; not of the city of Samaria, at that time called Sebaste, in honour of Augustus, who had given it to Herod the Great. Herod’s name for it survives in the modern Sebustieh. A woman of the city of Samaria would not have come all that distance to fetch water. In legends this woman is called Photina.
Give me to drink ] Quite literal, as the next verse shews. He asked her for refreshment because His disciples had gone away. ‘Give me the spiritual refreshment of thy conversion’ is a meaning read into the words and not found in them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Of Samaria – Not of the city of Samaria, for this was at a distance of 8 miles, but a woman who was a Samaritan, and doubtless from the city of Sychar.
Give me to drink – This was in the heat of the day, and when Jesus was weary with his journey. The request was also made that it might give him occasion to discourse with her on the subject of religion, and in this instance we have a specimen of the remarkably happy manner in which he could lead on a conversation so as to introduce the subject of religion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water] That this was the employment of the females, we see in different parts of the Sacred Writings. See Ge 24:11, c. Ex 2:16, and the note at the end of that chapter. The Jews say that those who wished to get wives went to the wells where young women were accustomed to come and draw water; and it is supposed that women of ill fame frequented such places also. See several proofs in Schoettgen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is uncertain whether this woman was a citizen of Samaria, which city is said to be at two miles distance from this place, or one of that country, which went by that name (for Samaria was the name of that region, as well as of a city). She came not out of any design to meet with Christ there, but came to draw water; they having not pumps and wells so common as we have, were forced to travel for water for their necessary uses. Thus it often happeneth that we meet with Divine mercy when we think not of it. God is found of those who seek him not, nor inquire after him, Isa 65:1; which lets us see how all our motions and actions are at the Divine disposal and government. Rachel went not to the well to meet with the tidings of a husband, but to water her fathers flock; but yet there she met with Jacob, Gen 29:9; as it had happened to Rebekah before, Gen 24:15. This woman (as appeareth by what followeth) was no better than a harlot; to her Christ (fleeing from the Pharisees, the great doctors of the Jews) bringeth the glad tidings of the gospel, and she receives them. So admirable are the dispensations of Divine Providence. He prevents this woman, saying unto her,
Give me to drink.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Give me to drinkfor theheat of a noonday sun had parched His lips. But “in the last,that great day of the feast,” Jesus stood and cried, saying, “Ifany man thirst let him come unto Me and drink” (Joh7:37).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
There cometh a woman of Samaria,…. Or “out of Samaria”; not out of the city of Samaria, but out of the country of Samaria; out of Sychar, a city of Samaria: her coming was not by chance, but by the providence of God, and agreeably to his purpose, who orders all things according to the counsel of his will; and it is an amazing instance of grace, that a woman, a Samaritan woman, a lewd and infamous one, should be a chosen vessel of salvation, should be the object of divine favour, and be effectually called by the grace of God; when so many wise, learned, and religious men in Judea, were passed by; and not only so, but she was the happy means of conveying the knowledge of the Saviour to many of her neighbours: she came, indeed,
to draw water; for her present temporal use and service; she little thought of meeting at Jacob’s well, with Christ the fountain of gardens, and well of living water; she came for natural water, having no notion of water in a spiritual sense: or of carrying back with her the water of life, even a well of it, springing up to everlasting life:
Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink; that is, water to drink, out of the pot or pitcher, she brought with her, for he was athirst; which is another proof of the truth of his human nature, and of his taking it, with the sinless infirmities of it: though indeed this request was made, to introduce a discourse with the woman, he having a more violent thirst, and a stronger desire, after the welfare of her immortal soul.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There cometh (). Vivid historical present as in verse 5.
A woman of Samaria ( ). The country, not the city which was two hours away.
To draw water ( ). First aorist active infinitive of purpose of for which see 2:8f. Cf. Rebecca in Gen 24:11; Gen 24:17.
Give me to drink ( ). Second aorist active imperative of and second aorist active infinitive (object of ) of , shortened form of . A polite request.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
A woman. Held in low esteem by the popular teachers; a Samaritan, and therefore despised by the Jews; poor, for drawing water was not, as in earlier times, performed by women of station (Gen 24:15; Gen 29:9). Of Samaria. Literally, out of Samaria [] . Not of the city of Samaria, which was some six miles distant, but the country. A Samaritan by race and religion.
To draw. See on 2 8.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water:(erchetai gune ek tes Samareias antlesai hudor) “There comes a woman, of her own accord, out of Samaria to draw water,” to meet her thirst and physical needs, at mid-day or high noon, Joh 4:6. That women drew water for family needs was a custom of that day, as it had been from ancient times, when Rebecca drew water as a marriage contact for her, Gen 24:11.
2) “Jesus saith unto her,” (legei auto ho lesous) “Jesus said directly to her,” as a point of conversation that led to her salvation.
3) “Give me to drink.” (dos moi pein) “Give me to drink,” or give me a drink of water. This He said, not because He was starving, but as an approach by which He might explain to her that He could satisfy her thirsty soul, with The Water of life, Psa 42:1-2. He asked of her, that she might ask of Him.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. A woman came from Samaria. When he asks water from the woman, he does it not merely with the intention of obtaining an opportunity to teach her; for thirst prompted him to desire to drink. But this cannot hinder him from availing himself of the opportunity of instruction which he has obtained, for he prefers the salvation of the woman to his own wants. Thus, forgetting his own thirst, as if he were satisfied with obtaining leisure and opportunity for conversation, that he might instruct her in true godliness, he draws a comparison between the visible water and the spiritual, and waters with heavenly doctrine the mind of her who had refused him water to drink.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JESUS AND THE LIVING WATER
Text 4:7-14
7
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food.
9
The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans).
10
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou that living water?
12
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle?
13
Jesus answered and said unto her, Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.
Queries
a.
What called forth the womans first question?
b.
What or Who is the gift of God?
c.
How does the living water become a well of water springing up into eternal life?
Paraphrase
Presently a woman of Samaria comes all alone to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give me a drink (for His disciples were gone away into the city to buy food). The Samaritan woman asks Him, incredulously, How can you, being a Jew, ask me for a drinkI am a Samaritan and a woman also! (This she said because Jews do not use vessels together with Samaritans). Jesus said to her, If you only knew the gift of God and Who it is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. The woman replied, Sir, you have no bucket and the well is very deep, where will you get this living water? Surely you do not mean to say that you are greater than our illustrious ancestor Jacob, who never sought any better water than this, either for himself or for his sons or for his cattle!? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks this water will grow thirsty again; but whoever shall drink the water that I, Myself, shall give him, he will never, no never, be thirsty again, but to the contrary, the water that I shall give him will become within him a bubbling spring of water welling up unto eternal life.
Summary
Jesus, out of His need for natural water and a womans need for living water, teaches His messiahship in Samaria.
Comment
The woman evidently came from the city of Sychar. Every day she would walk half a mile or so to the well, and as far back again carrying her waterpot either on her head or her shoulder. According to the custom, the women of those days met at a certain time of the day at the public watering place to exchange news and small-talk as they drew the next days supply of water. This woman came alone! From subsequent information concerning her adulterous situation we assume she was a social outcast. None of the respectable citizens dared associate with her. She was an outcast an unclean adulteress a Samaritan a woman! How would Jesus approach her? How would He overcome these barriers and reach her without raising more barriers?
The Master Teacher uses His need as an opening to gain her interest. He is tired and thirsty, and He asks her for a drink. It is a natural request, and one which could not raise any barrier. Had His disciples been there, they would have provided for His thirst, But they had gone away into one of Samaritan cities to market for food. (The Greek word translated buy is from the same word which is often translated market.)
In Joh. 4:9 we see that for Jesus to ask a drink, even to speak to her, was not the ordinary custom of that day. The woman is plainly astonished. She probably recognizes Jesus as a Jew either from His speech or His dress.
Part of her astonishment comes from the fact that Jews did not use the same vessels as Samaritans. They considered the Samaritans as unclean as the Gentiles, and, according to Pharisaic interpretation, they would have to purify themselves ceremonially should they thus defile themselves. If Jesus is to get a drink He will have to drink from her bucket, for He has none of His own. The above interpretation is better than have no dealings with and this is evident from the fact that the disciples did go into a Samaritan city and did purchase food from the market-place.
A brief history of Samaria is in order here to show why the Jews considered the Samaritans unclean. When the kingdom of Israel was divided in about 926 B.C. (1Ki. 12:1-33), the northern kingdom, under Jeroboam, embraced all the territory originally allotted to the ten northern tribes. This kingdom was known as Israel, and encompassed the provinces of Samaria and Galilee. Hoshea, Israels last king, spurned the powerful nation of Assyria and made a political alliance with Egypt. About the year 722 B.C. the Assyrian king besieged the capitol city and later carried nearly all the people of the northern kingdom away into slavery and captivity (2Ki. 17:1-41). A small remnant of the ten tribes was left. The Assyrians, in order to better control the conquered territory, imported foreign peoples into Samaria (2Ki. 17:24). The remnant of Jews intermarried with the foreign peoples, and this mixed people was given the name Samaritan.
This heathen mixture worshipped idols. God sent wild beasts, and many Samaritans were slain. They attributed the plague of lions to their failure to know the Law of Jehovah, and they appealed to the king of Assyria for help. He sent them a Jewish priest to teach them the manner of the God of the land. Although the Samaritan religion was very nearly the same as that handed down by Moses, it was probably tainted with some paganism. This would be one reason for the aversion of the Jew toward the Samaritan.
Approximately 200 years after the captivity of the northern tribes, the kingdom of Judah was taken captive by Babylon. Judah was subsequently allowed to return to her homeland in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The first thing the people of Judah did was begin reconstruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. In the fourth chapter of the book of Ezra we are told the Samaritans wanted to join the Jews in rebuilding the Temple. The Samaritans were told with contempt, You have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God. The ire of the Samaritans was aroused against the Jew.
Hostility continued and increased between the Jew and the Samaritan. About 409 B.C. Manasseh built a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans were generally inhospitable toward pilgrims from Galilee going to Jerusalem for the feasts (cf. Luk. 9:52-53), and many of these pilgrims journeyed to the feast by the way of the eastern side of the Jordan valley. The rivalry became so intense that the Samaritans would often set rival fires to perplex and confuse the Jews as they watched for their own signal fires which were to announce the rising of the Passover moon. Someone has written, The Samaritan was publicly cursed in the synagogues of the Jews . . . and was thus, so far as the Jew could affect his position, excluded from eternal life.
In addition to this centuries-old hostility, no Jew would speak to any woman in publicnot even his own wife or daughter. This foolish tradition was carried to such an extreme that some Pharisees would close their eyes when they saw a woman on the city streets. As a result, they often bumped into walls and houses, and they came to be known as the bruised and bleeding Pharisees, Thus we can see the womans astonishment that Jesus should even speak to her, If He had been a normal Jewish rabbi, He would have gone home immediately and washed himself because He had been in her presence.
The Greek idiom of Joh. 4:10 gives us an insight into the thoughts of Jesus. He sees a certain pathos in the womans situation, He is saying to her, If you only knew (but you do not) Who it is . . . He would have given you living water (but He cannot because you know Him not). No man can receive the living water until he knows Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and the hearing that brings faith comes from the Word of God (cf. Rom. 10:17; Php. 3:8-11). Jesus is the source of life, and we must partake of Him (cf. Joh. 6:53; Joh. 6:63) through His word to have that life!
Notice how, having gained her sympathy, He gradually raises her thoughts from the temporal to the spiritual, ever holding her interest and ever leading (not driving) her into new light.
The woman is a little cynical in her reply. Jesus implies He can supply her with some sort of perpetual source of water better than what is in this well. Yet, even the great patriarch Jacob used this well. Does He insinuate He is greater than their ancestors (they claimed descent from Joseph and his two sons)?
The water the woman is thinking of (Joh. 4:13-14) never completely quenches even the physical thirst, But the water which Jesus gives completely and perpetually quenches the souls thirst. This is what Paul meant when he said, our inward man is renewed day by day.
The Old Testament is permeated with the idea of God supplying His new people with living water. Jesus was not uttering a new idea. Of course, the Jews rejected the idea that the Nazarene could be the living water, just as they rejected anything connecting Him with the Messiah. Jesus was claiming to be the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies concerning the living water (cf. Isa. 12:3; Isa. 35:7; Isa. 44:3; Isa. 49:10; Isa. 55:1; Psa. 42:1; Psa. 36:9; Jer. 2:13; Jer. 17:13; Eze. 47:1-12; Zec. 13:1; Zec. 14:8). Read these references; they are important!
Some commentators do not connect this living water with the living water of Joh. 7:37-39. But it is improper to disconnect the two. In Joh. 7:37-39 Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the living water, and adds, this life-source shall flow out from the believer. Neither passage, Joh. 4:13-14 or Joh. 7:37-39, is contradictory of the other.
Quiz
1.
What were some of the barriers Jesus broke by talking to this woman?
2.
Why may we assume that Jews did have some dealings with Samaritans?
3.
Where did the Samaritan people originate?
4.
What was the beginning of hostilities between Jew and Samaritan?
5.
Why was Jesus unable to give this woman living water?
6.
What was Jesus claiming when He claimed to be able to give living water? Give 5 Old Testament references.
7.
What does Joh. 7:37-39 add about the living water?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7) Of Samariai.e., of the country (Joh. 4:1), not of the city, which was nine miles farther north. She was of the people inhabiting the valley between Ebal and Gerizim, not, like Himself, a chance passenger by the well. The contrast is at once drawn between Him, a Jew and a man, and her, of Samaria and a woman.
Give me to drink is the almost always asked and almost never refused favour as the traveller meets the native by the well-side. He was wearied by the heat of the journey, and seeks the ordinary refreshment.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Conversation of Jesus with the woman of Samaria, Joh 4:7-26.
Upon this memorable narrative we may remark: 1. It stands in striking comparison with the Lord’s discourse with Nicodemus. The one was indeed with a leading metropolitan Doctor of the Jews, the latter with a poor country woman, and a Samaritan at that. The former shows our Lord’s dealing with, and mastery over, and development of, the higher minds of the day, in bringing them from their proud half-scepticism to the deepest and most humbling heart-truths of his Gospel. The latter shows how he would take a rude mind of humble rank, and raise it to a knowledge of himself, and in himself to a grasp of the sublimest truths of eternity and God. 2. Modern rationalists have expressed much contempt at the want of dignity of Jesus’s holding this converse with a garrulous female at a country well. Still greater was the contempt of the Jewish rabbis for woman. “No man salutes a woman,” says one doctor. “He plays the fool who instructs his daughter in the law,” says another. This condescension of the Saviour, therefore, crosses alike the pride of the rationalist and of the rabbi. Doubtless it was Jesus’s intention to cross the pride of both. Those sublime truths which the philosophers of Greece could impart only to the schools, Christianity brings down to the masses of society; to its humblest ranks; to women and to children. 3. This female, however, evidently possessed great strength of womanly character; a strength of passion which had exposed her to the extraordinary guilt of her past life; strength, nevertheless, of religious conviction powerfully struggling with her guilty nature; and strength of intellect, exhibited not only in the keenness of her insight into his remarks in the dialogue, but displayed in the powerful effect of her report upon the action of her townsmen. 4. The successive steps by which the Lord reveals himself furnish a beautiful study into the operations of mind. He presents himself first as a man and a Jew, 7-9; he proposes himself to her faith as a spiritual life-giver, 10-15; he confirms the faith in his offer by proving himself a holy prophet, 16-19; he so unfolds the truths of God as to be accepted as Messias, 20-26. Through all this progress he carries also the thought of her sin and his salvation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7. Of Samaria Not of the city of Samaria, the ancient capital, which lay upon a mountain-top eight miles distant, but of the province and race of Samaria.
To draw water Bringing her own cord and pitcher “to draw with.” As Shechem is two miles distant she probably came from the field of labour, probably the flourishing grain field of Mukhnah. The town may, however, have then stretched nearer to the well.
Give me to drink Making a request from which the whole revelations that follow could be gradually drawn.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water.’
The fact that she was alone is probably significant. Normally women would make sure they were in company with others when visiting a well outside the town. There is already a hint in this that she was not of the best reputation.
But as we will learn, probably unbeknown to others she was thirsty in soul despite her pleasure loving life. When she saw a Jew sitting there she would ignore him. It was not seemly for a woman to speak to a strange man, and she would know that the Jews generally despised the Samaritans with a hatred combining strong religious and racial prejudice. They avoided all contact except for business purposes, and looked on the Samaritans as ritually ‘unclean’. No good Jew would ever eat with them or use their drinking vessels. But as Jesus demonstrated in the parable of the good Samaritan, He had deep sympathies with them. Indeed it was possibly this experience that revealed to Him what His attitude towards the Samaritans should be, just as later His experience with the Syro-phoenician woman would cause Him to preach among the Gentiles.
However, the woman was unaware of this, and knew nothing about Jesus. Thus she would have totally ignored this stranger at the well, simply pretending that He was not there, unless He had made an unexpected approach to her. But to her great surprise that is what He does. He does not ignore her. He turns and speaks to her.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink”. For his disciples had gone away into the town to buy food.’
The point of the second statement would appear to be that they had taken all their vessels with them with the purpose of filling them, leaving Jesus nothing to drink from. The statement may not, therefore, indicate that He was totally alone. Someone, such as John, may have stayed with Him although keeping out of the conversation. If we do see Him as alone it might suggest that the reason why all the disciples had gone off to find food in the nearby town as a body was because of the fear of an unpleasant welcome (there may only have been four or five of them). But it would have been normal for thirsty travellers to draw water immediately on reaching a well. It may be, therefore be that we are to see this as divinely pre-planned. It is also possible that Jesus’ thirst had previously been assuaged but had now returned, or, indeed, that it was mainly a conversation opener.
The woman was so surprised when He spoke to her that she forgot her prejudice for the moment and, overcome with curiosity, made a reply. Who is this Jew who would lower his pride and his prejudices to ask for water at the hands of a Samaritan, and a woman at that?
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The beginning of the conversation:
v. 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink.
v. 8. (For His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
v. 9. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
v. 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. While Jesus was sitting there, exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, there came a Samaritan woman out of the city to draw water from the well, the work of the Oriental women to this day. Here was an opportunity to do work in the interest of saving a soul, and Jesus took good care to make use of the chance. He deliberately began a conversation with the woman, by asking her for a drink of water. Time and occasion were auspicious, since they were undisturbed, the disciples, as the evangelist notes, having gone to the city to buy food for the little company. The woman was surprised at the request of Jesus. In her astonishment she asks how it came about that He, of whom she could tell that He was a Jew, yet asked this favor of her who was a Samaritan. The evangelist explains this by saying that there was no communication between Jews and Samaritans, the hostility going so far as to exclude even all courtesies by the way. See Luk 9:53. But Jesus has no time for racial prejudices when there is a chance to speak of the heavenly wisdom. Instead of being surprised at the question, the woman should have turned right around and, on her own part, made a request. If she had any idea of the fact that the gift of God in the person and work of Jesus is free for all men; if she had an inkling of the beauty and glory of that gift; if she were aware of the identity of Him that had spoken to her, she would waste no time in idle. questions as to proprieties. She would have begged Him at once most urgently and eagerly, and He could and would have given her living water. Jesus here testifies of Himself, of His own person. Living water, in the spiritual sense, from Him, the fountain of life, a water to refresh the soul, a water that gives life. Christ’s Word and His salvation, which are given freely according to the grace and mercy of God, were here offered to the woman of Samaria. Incidentally, Jesus challenged the curiosity of the woman by emphasizing living water. The pool before them was probably rainwater, gathered here from the surrounding hills. But the water which He had in mind was far from being stagnant: it had life and strength in fullness.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Joh 4:7. There cometh a woman of Samaria, &c. An inhabitant of the country, not the town of Samaria; for Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, according to Mr. Maundrell, is about two hours or six miles distant from Sychar, consequently about seven miles from the well; a distance by far too great for one, even in that country, to come and fetch water. Though Jesus did not choose to go to the town himself, he sent his disciples thither to buy meat; for it seems the Jews might buy what they would of the Samaritans, as they might likewise from heathens; but they were not to accept of any thing from them in the way of beneficence, (see on Joh 4:9.) that being a crime, in their opinion, equal to the eating of swine’s flesh; so bitter was the animosity which subsisted between the Samaritans and the Jews! See Ch. Joh 8:48 and the note on Luk 10:33.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 4:7-9 . . .] to be taken as one designation, a Samaritan-woman . John gives prominence to the country to which she belonged, to prepare the way for the characteristic features of the following interview. It is not the town two miles distant ( Sebaste ) that is meant, but the country .
] The modern Nablus lies half an hour distant from the southern well, and has many wells of its own close by; see Robinson, III. 333. It is therefore all the more probable that Sychar, out of which the woman came, [185] was a separate town. As to the forms and (so Jacobs, Del. epigr . vi. 78), see Herm. Herodian . 47; Buttmann, N. T. Gr . p. 58 [E. T. p. 66], who prefers , though this is regarded by Fritzsche ( de conform. Lachm . p. 27) as the mistake of a copyist. As to the phrase , without any object expressed, see Krger, 55. 3. 21. It is an arbitrary supposition in itself, to imagine, as Hengstenberg does, that this “Give me to drink” had underlying it “a spiritual sense,” “Give me spiritual refreshment (by thy conversion),” and is opposed to Joh 4:8 , which by no means gives a general reason why Jesus entered into conversation with the woman; for He might have done this in the apostles’ presence, though, according to Hengstenberg, He must have sent them away (all excepting John [186] ), on purpose to have an undisturbed interview with the woman. All this is mere imagination.
Joh 4:8 . ] The reason why he asked the services of the woman; the disciples , whose services he would otherwise have claimed, were absent.
.] According to later tradition (“Samaritanis panem comedere aut vinum bibere prohibitum est,” Raschi, ad Sota , 515), this would not have been allowed. But the separation could not have been so distinctly marked at that time, especially as to commercial dealings and intercourse with the Galileans, since their road lay through Samaria. Jesus, moreover, was raised above these hostile divisions which existed among the people (Luk 9:52 ).
Joh 4:9 . The woman recognised that Jesus was a Jew by His language , and not by His accent merely.
] qui fit ut . The words of the woman indicate the pert feminine caprice of national feeling. There is no ground whatever for supposing (Hengstenberg) that the woman had at this stage any presentiment that He who addressed her was any other than an ordinary Jew.
, . . .] not a parenthesis, but the words of the evangelist .
Jews with Samaritans , without the article.
[185] That, considering the sacred character of the water, she did not hesitate about the distance of the well from Sychem (Hengstenberg), is without any hint in the text.
[186] Who must, according to Godet also, have remained with Him. A gratuitous addition, made for the purpose of securing a guarantee for the accuracy of the narrative.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Ver. 7. A woman of Samaria ] A poor cupbearer, such as Festus calls Canalicolas, quod circa canalem fori consisterent, lazy people because they were much about the conduits of the forum. (Becman. de Originib.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7. ] . . , i.e. a Samaritan so . , Mat 15:22 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:7 . , apparently this clause is prepared for by the preceding, “There comes a woman of Samaria,” that is, a Samaritan woman, not, of course, “from the city Samaria,” which is two hours distant from the well, , infinitive and aorist, both classical; cf. Rebecca in Gen 24:11 , etc., having her on her shoulder or on her head, , Herod., Joh 4:12 ; and Ovid’s “Ponitur e summa fictilis urna coma”. [Elsner] is the hold of a ship where the bilge settles: , to bale a ship; hence, to draw water. To her Jesus says, , the usual formula; cf. , Pherecrates, Frag. , 67, and Aristoph., Pax , 49.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
‘GIVE ME TO DRINK’
Joh 4:7
This Evangelist very significantly sets side by side our Lord’s conversations with Nicodemus and with the woman of Samaria. The persons are very different: the one a learned Rabbi of reputation, influence, and large theological knowledge of the then fashionable kind; the other an alien woman, poor-for she had to do this menial task of water-drawing in the heat of the day-and of questionable character.
The diversity of persons necessitates great differences in the form of our Lord’s address to each; but the resemblances are as striking as the divergencies. In both we have His method of gradually unveiling the truth to a susceptible soul, beginning with symbol and a hint, gradually enlarging the hint and translating the symbol; and finally unveiling Himself as the Giver and the Gift. There is another resemblance; in both the characteristic gift is that of the Spirit of Life, and, perhaps, in both the symbol is the same. For we read in one of ‘water and the Spirit’; and in the other of the fountain within, springing into everlasting life. However that may be, the process of teaching is all but identical in substance in both cases, though in form so various.
The words of our Lord which I have taken for our text now are His first and last utterance in this conversation. What a gulf lies between! They are linked together by the intervening sayings, and constitute with these a great ladder, of which the foot is fast on earth, and the top fixed in heaven. On the one hand, He owns the lowest necessities; on the other, He makes the highest claims. Let us ponder on this remarkable juxtaposition, and try to gather the lessons that are plain in it.
I. First, then, I think we see here the mystery of the dependent Christ.
So, then, here stands, pathetically set forth before us, our Lord’s true participation in two of the distinguishing characteristics of our weak humanity-subjection to physical necessities and dependence on kindly help. We find Him weary, hungry, thirsty, sometimes slumbering. And all these instances are documents and proofs for us that He was a true man like ourselves, and that, like ourselves, He depended on ‘the woman that ministered to Him’ for the supply of His necessities, and so knew the limitations of our social and else helpless humanity.
But then a wearied and thirsty man is nothing of much importance. But here is a Man who humbled Himself to be weary and to thirst. The keynote of this Gospel, the one thought which unlocks all its treasures, and to the elucidation of which, in all its aspects, the whole book is devoted, is, ‘The Word was made flesh.’ Only when you let in the light of the last utterance of our text, ‘I that speak unto thee am He,’ do we understand the pathos, the sublimity, the depth and blessedness of meaning which lie in the first one, ‘Give Me to drink.’ When we see that He bowed Himself, and willingly stretched out His hands for the fetters, we come to understand the significance of these traces of His manhood. The woman says, with wonder, ‘How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me?’ and that was wonderful. But, as He hints to her, if she had known more clearly who this Person was, that seemed to be a Jew, a deeper wonder would have crept over her spirit. The wonder is that the Eternal Word should need the water of the well, and should ask it of a poor human creature.
And why this humiliation? He could, as I have said, have wrought a miracle. He that fed five thousand, He that had turned water into wine at the rustic marriage-feast, would have had no difficulty in quenching His thirst if he had chosen to use His miraculous power therefore. But He here shows us that the true filial spirit will rather die than cast off its dependence on the Father, and the same motive which led Him to reject the temptation in the wilderness, and to answer with sublime confidence, ‘Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God,’ forbids Him here to use other means of securing the draught that He so needed than the appeal to the sympathy of an alien, and the swift compassion of a woman’s heart.
And then, let us remember that the motive of this willing acceptance of the limitations and weaknesses of humanity is, in the deepest analysis, simply His love to us; as the mediaeval hymn has it, ‘Seeking me, Thou satest weary.’
In that lonely Traveller, worn, exhausted, thirsty, craving for a draught of water from a stranger’s hand, is set forth ‘the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ A strange manifestation of divine glory this! But if we understand that the glory of God is the lustrous light of His self-revealing love, perhaps we shall understand how, from that faint, craving voice, ‘Give Me to drink,’ that glory sounds forth more than in the thunders that rolled about the rocky peak of Sinai. Strange to think, brethren, that the voice from those lips dry with thirst, which was low and weak, was the voice that spoke to the sea, ‘Peace! be still,’ and there was a calm; that said to demons, ‘Come out of him!’ and they evacuated their fortress; that cast its command into the grave of Lazarus, and he came forth; and which one day all that are in the grave shall hear, and hearing shall obey. ‘Give Me to drink.’ ‘I that speak unto thee am He.’
II. Secondly, we may note here the self-revealing Christ.
Then note, not only the process, but the substance of the revelation of Himself. The woman had a far more spiritual and lofty conception of the office of Messiah than the Jews had. It is not the first time that heretics have reached a loftier ideal of some parts of the truth than the orthodox attain. To the Jew the Messiah was a conquering king, who would help them to ride on the necks of their enemies, and pay back their persecutions and oppressions. To this Samaritan woman-speaking, I suppose, the conceptions of her race-the Messiah was One who was to ‘tell us all things.’
Jesus Christ accepts the position, endorses her anticipations, and in effect presents Himself before her and before us as the Fountain of all certitude and knowledge in regard to spiritual matters. For all that we can know, or need to know, with regard to God and man and their mutual relations; for all that we can or need know in regard to manhood, its ideal, its obligations, its possibilities, its destinies; for all that we need to know of men in their relation to one another, we have to turn to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who ‘will tell us all things.’ He is the Fountain of light; He is the Foundation of certitude; and they who seek, not hypotheses and possibilities and conjectures and dreams, but the solid substance of a reliable knowledge, must grasp Him, and esteem the words of His mouth and the deeds of His life more than their necessary food.
He meets this woman’s conceptions as He had met those of Nicodemus. To him He had unveiled Himself as the Son of God, and the Son of Man who came down from heaven, and is in heaven, and ascends to heaven. To the woman He reveals Himself as the Messiah, who will tell us all truth, and to both as the Giver of the gift which shall communicate and sustain and refresh the better life. But I cannot help dwelling for a moment upon the remarkable, beautiful, and significant designation which our Lord employs here. ‘I that speak unto thee.’ The word in the original, translated by our version ‘speak,’ is even more sweet, because more familiar, and conveys the idea of unrestrained frank intercourse. Perhaps we might render ‘I who am talking with Thee!’ and that our Lord desired to emphasise to the woman’s heart the notion of His familiar intercourse with her, Messiah though He were, seems to me confirmed by the fact that He uses the same expression, with additional grace and tenderness about it, when He says, with such depth of meaning, to the blind man whom He had healed, ‘Thou hast both seen Him,’ with the eyes to which He gave sight and object of sight, ‘and it is He that talketh with thee.’ The familiar Christ who will come and speak to us face to face and heart to heart, ‘as a man speaketh with his friend,’ is the Christ who will tell us all things, and whom we may wholly trust.
Note too how this revelation has for its condition the docile acceptance of the earlier and imperfect teachings. If the woman had not yielded herself to our Lord’s earlier words, and, though with very dim insight, yet with a heart that sought to be taught, followed Him as He stepped from round to round of the ascending ladder, she had never stood on the top and seen this great vision. If you see nothing more in Jesus Christ than a man like yourself, compassed with our infirmities, and yet sweet and gracious and good and pure, be true to what you know, and put it into practice, and be ready to accept all the light that dawns. They that begin down at the bottom with hearing ‘Give me to drink,’ may stand at the top, and hear Him speak to them His unveiled truth and His full glory. ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ ‘If any man wills to do His will he shall know of the teaching.’
III. Lastly, we have here the universal Christ.
Brother, answer His proffer of the gift as this woman did: ‘Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not; neither go all the way to the world’s broken cisterns to draw’; and He will put into your hearts that indwelling fountain of life, so that you may say like this woman’s townspeople: ‘Now I have heard Him myself, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 4:7-14
7There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Joh 4:7 “There came s woman of Samaria” This woman had come alone to a distant well at an unusual time of day because of her social position in the village.
“‘Give Me a drink'” This is an aorist active imperative which carried a sense of some urgency.
Joh 4:8 This verse sets the stage for Jesus’ private conversation with this outcast woman of a heretical sect of Judaism. This is another parenthetical note by John.
Joh 4:9 “‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman'” Jews were not even allowed to drink from the same bucket as a Samaritan (cf. Jewish traditions based on Leviticus 15). Jesus was ignoring two cultural barriers: (1) speaking to a Samaritan and (2) speaking to a woman in public.
“(for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)”The parenthesis (NASB, NRSV), which is another explanatory addition from John, is missing in MSS * and D, but is present in P63,66,75,76, cf8 i1, A, B, C, L. The UBS4 gives its inclusion an “A” rating (certain).
Joh 4:10 “If” This is a second class conditional sentence which is called “contrary to fact.” A statement is made that is false to highlight a conclusion that is also false.
This is the only use of the word “gift” in John’s Gospel. Here it refers to Jesus as the gift of God (cf. Joh 3:16) who gives eternal life. In Joh 7:38-39 and Acts it is used of the giving of the Holy Spirit (cf. Act 2:38; Act 8:20; Act 10:45; Act 11:17). The focus is on the undeserved, unmerited grace of God which is revealed in Christ and the Spirit.
“living water” This term has an OT metaphorical background (cf. Psa 36:9; Isa 12:3; Isa 44:3; Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13; Zec 14:8). Jesus uses the term “living water” as synonymous to “spiritual life.” However, the Samaritan woman thought he was referring to running water, as opposed to rain water of the cistern. It is characteristic of John’s Gospel that Jesus (the light of the world) is regularly misunderstood (i.e., Nicodemus). The earthly, fallen realm does not comprehend the heavenly realm (i.e., Jesus’ message).
Joh 4:11 “Sir” This is the Greek term kurious in its vocative form kurie. It can be used as a polite address (sir) or as a theological statement (Lord) referring to Jesus as full Deity as in Joh 4:1 and Rom 10:13. Here it is a polite address.
Joh 4:12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You” The grammar expects a “no” answer. This is an obviously ironic statement. The Samaritan woman was claiming the greatness of her own descent which the Samaritans traced through Ephraim and Manasseh back to Jacob. The amazing thing is that Jesus’ superiority was exactly what He was claiming!
This conversation addresses two theological issues.
1. God/Jesus’ love for outcasts (i.e., Samaritans, women)
2. Jesus’ superiority over Judaism and racial pride
Joh 4:13-14 “but whoever drinks the water I will give him shall never thirst” This probably had Messianic implications (cf. Isa 12:3; Isa 48:21; Isa 49:10). This phrase is a strong double negative. There is a play on the verb tenses. The Present active participle of Joh 4:13 implies drinking again and again, while the aorist active subjunctive of Joh 4:14 implies a one-time drinking.
Joh 4:14 “a well of water springing up to eternal life” This is a present participle which means “continuously leaping” (cf. Isa 58:11 and Joh 7:38). For desert people, water was a symbol of life and divine provision.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
of = out of. Greek. ek. App-104.
Give Me, &c. The first word. Note the seven (App-10) times the Lord spoke to the woman, and the gradual ascent to the final declaration in Joh 4:26.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] . ., i.e. a Samaritan-so . , Mat 15:22.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:7.[81] , of) Construe with , a woman.- , give Me to drink) At precisely the seventh subsequent alternation [vicissitudine] in the conference, until the disciples come, reckoning from this address, which would seem to be indifferent, Jesus wonderfully brings on the matter to that crowning point, I am the Messiah, Joh 4:26; a point, to learn which the apostles required so long a time [ch. Joh 16:31, Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?] In fact the tree takes longer to grow than the ear of corn. So also He led on the nobleman to faith by but two utterances; Joh 4:48; Joh 4:50, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe: and, Go thy way, thy son liveth.
[81] , there cometh a woman) The external opportunities [conveniences] of every-day life subserve the progressive advances of the kingdom of GOD.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:7
Joh 4:7
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.-The Samaritans were a mongrel race that had grown up in Samaria from the importation of Assyrians after the deporting of the Israelites from the land. (2Ki 17:24). These imported Assyrians married with the poorer classes of the Israelites that remained in the country. At first they gave only a formal worship to the God of heaven while still worshiping the gods of Assyria. The Jews persistently refused all association with them as equals or as worshipers of their God. The Samaritans kept up the worship at the same places at which the ten tribes who forsook the house of David in the days of Jeroboam, that is, Bethel and Dan.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Give: Joh 4:10, Joh 19:28, Gen 24:43, 2Sa 23:15-17, 1Ki 17:10, Mat 10:42
Reciprocal: Gen 24:11 – women go out to draw water Gen 24:13 – daughters Gen 24:17 – Let Jdg 4:19 – Give me Rth 2:9 – go Mar 11:12 – he was Luk 19:5 – he looked Joh 4:28 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTS LONGING FOR HUMAN SYMPATHY
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink.
Joh 4:7
Had not Christ the power to create springs in the desert, and showers in a dry and barren land? Yes; but the Incarnate Son of God, Whose delights have ever been with the children of men, longs for human love and human sympathy, and asks for them at our hands. He says to us, as it were, Give Me to drink. Refresh Me with your gratitude and your love. Let Me see of the travail of My soul, and be satisfied. And He takes the risk of receiving our repulse.
I. Defection pained the Saviour exceedingly.
(a) We have only to look in Joh 6:66-67 to see that independently of the injury to the men themselves, the incident involved the disappointment of fondly-cherished hopes; the waste of the spiritual teaching which He had been labouring so assiduously to impart.
(b) So, too, in the course of the conversation which took place at the table of the Lords Supper, Philip asked the Saviour to show them the Father. Alas, what a tale that request told of instruction that had been unheeded; of revelations that had been made to unsympathising, or, at least, to imperfectly-sympathising hearts!
(c) In Gethsemane He took those of His disciples with Himthe nearest and dearest and most spiritualto sustain Him by their presence. Overpowered by His anguish, He rises from His knees and advances to the little group, craving for human sympathy, for ever so small an amount of it. In that dark hourto see a human form, to hear a human voice, to touch a human hand, were something. But he finds that they, from whom He might have expected comfort in such extremity, are fast asleep. And the sad cry bursts from Him, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?
The Man Christ Jesus, like all great spirits with a great mission before them, felt very lonely. But with His intense capacity for loving, He yearned for human sympathy, and strove to get it. What He said to the Samaritan woman, He virtually said to His brethren of the human race, Give Me to drink. And He received, in most cases, the same indifferent, careless, chilling repulse.
II. The Saviour still longs for the lore of those whom He died to redeem.Is this too much to say? What then is meant by that description of Christ in the Book of the Revelation of John, with which you are so familiar? It is the risen and glorified Saviour with the diadem on His brow, and the royal mantle over His shoulders; it is not the humble Jesus of Nazareth Who stands at the closed door of the heartstands patiently and knocks, waiting for admission. He exposes Himself, glorious as He is, to repulse at the hands of His creature. And why? Because He desires companionship, communion with us. If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
7
The city of Samaria was the capital of the region of Samaria (mentioned previously in this chapter). It was near this city where the well was located where Jesus was resting. The woman of Samaria was a resident of the city with that name, and she came to the well for water. Jesus was not too tired to use the opportunity for giving this woman some spiritual instructions. He always adapted his teaching to the circumstances of the occasion. Coming to the well for water indicated the woman was needing that necessity of her temporal life, and that would find her mind prepared to appreciate some thoughts on the subject of spiritual water of life. Jesus opened the subject by asking the woman for a drink.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THE history of the Samaritan woman, contained in these verses, is one of the most interesting and instructive passages in John’s Gospel. John has shown us, in the case of Nicodemus, how our Lord dealt with a self-righteous formalist. He now shows us how our Lord dealt with an ignorant, carnal-minded woman, whose moral character was more than ordinarily bad. There are lessons in the passage for ministers and teachers, which they would do well to ponder.
We should mark, firstly, the mingled tact and condescension of Christ in dealing with a careless sinner.
Our Lord was sitting by Jacob’s well when a woman of Samaria came thither to draw water. At once He says to her, “Give me to drink.” He does not wait for her to speak to Him. He does not begin by reproving her sins, though He doubtless knew them. He opens communication by asking a favor. He approaches the woman’s mind by the subject of “water,” which was naturally uppermost in her thoughts. Simple as this request may seem, it opened a door to spiritual conversation. It threw a bridge across the gulf which lay between her and Him. It led to the conversion of her soul.
Our Lord’s conduct in this place should be carefully remembered by all who want to do good to the thoughtless and spiritually ignorant. It is vain to expect that such persons will voluntarily come to us, and begin to seek knowledge. We must begin with them, and go down to them in the spirit of courteous and friendly aggression. It is vain to expect that such persons will be prepared for our instruction, and will at once see and acknowledge the wisdom of all we are doing. We must go to work wisely. We must study the best avenues to their hearts, and the most likely way of arresting their attention. There is a handle to every mind, and our chief aim must be to get hold of it. Above all, we must be kind in manner, and beware of showing that we feel conscious of our own superiority. If we let ignorant people fancy that we think we are doing them a great favor in talking to them about religion, there is little hope of doing good to their souls.
We should mark, secondly, Christ’s readiness to give mercies to careless sinners. He tells the Samaritan woman that if she had asked, “He would have given her living water.” He knew the character of the person before Him perfectly well. Yet He says, “If she had asked, He would have given,”-He would have given the living water of grace, mercy, and peace.
The infinite willingness of Christ to receive sinners is a golden truth, which ought to be treasured up in our hearts, and diligently impressed on others. The Lord Jesus is far more ready to hear than we are to pray, and far more ready to give favors than we are to ask them. All day long He stretches out His hands to the disobedient and gainsaying. He has thoughts of pity and compassion towards the vilest of sinners, even when they have no thoughts of Him. He stands waiting to bestow mercy and grace on the worst and most unworthy, if they will only cry to Him. He will never draw back from that well-known promise, “Ask and ye shall receive: seek and ye shall find.” The lost will discover at the last day, that they had not because they asked not.
We should mark, thirdly, the priceless excellence of Christ’s gifts when compared with the things of this world. Our Lord tells the Samaritan woman, “He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
The truth of the principle here laid down may be seen on every side by all who are not blinded by prejudice or love of the world. Thousands of men have every temporal good thing that heart could wish, and are yet weary and dissatisfied. It is now as it was in David’s time,-“There be many that say who will show us any good?” (Psa 4:6.) Riches, and rank, and place, and power, and learning, and amusements, are utterly unable to fill the soul. He that only drinks of these waters is sure to thirst again. Every Ahab finds a Naboth’s vineyard hard by his palace, and every Haman sees a Mordecai at the gate. There is no heart satisfaction in this world, until we believe on Christ. Jesus alone can fill up the empty places of our inward man. Jesus alone can give solid, lasting, enduring happiness. The peace that He imparts is a fountain, which, once set flowing within the soul, flows on to all eternity. Its waters may have their ebbing seasons; but they are living waters, and they shall never be completely dried.
We should mark, fourthly, the absolute necessity of conviction of sin before a soul can be converted to God. The Samaritan woman seems to have been comparatively unmoved until our Lord exposed her breach of the seventh commandment. Those heart-searching words, “Go, call thy husband,” appear to have pierced her conscience like an arrow. From that moment, however ignorant, she speaks like an earnest, sincere inquirer after truth. And the reason is evident. She felt that her spiritual disease was discovered. For the first time in her life she saw herself.
To bring thoughtless people to this state of mind should be the principal aim of all teachers and ministers of the Gospel. They should carefully copy their Master’s example in this place. Till men and women are brought to feel their sinfulness and need, no real good is ever done to their souls. Till a sinner sees himself as God sees him, he will continue careless, trifling, and unmoved. By all means we must labor to convince the unconverted man of sin, to prick his conscience, to open his eyes, to show him himself. To this end we must expound the length and breadth of God’s holy law. To this end we must denounce every practice contrary to that law, however fashionable and customary. This is the only way to do good. Never does a soul value the Gospel medicine until it feels its disease. Never does a man see any beauty in Christ as a Savior, until he discovers that he is himself a lost and ruined sinner. Ignorance of sin is invariably attended by neglect of Christ.
We should mark, fifthly, the utter uselessness of any religion which only consists of formality. The Samaritan woman, when awakened to spiritual concern, started questions about the comparative merits of the Samaritan and Jewish modes of worshiping God. Our Lord tells her that true and acceptable worship depends not on the place in which it is offered, but on the state of the worshiper’s heart. He declares, “The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this place nor at Jerusalem worship the Father.” He adds that “the true worshipers shall worship in spirit and in truth.”
The principle contained in these sentences can never be too strongly impressed on professing Christians. We are all naturally inclined to make religion a mere matter of outward forms and ceremonies, and to attach an excessive importance to our own particular manner of worshiping God. We must beware of this spirit, and especially when we first begin to think seriously about our souls. The heart is the principal thing in all our approaches to God. “The LORD looketh on the heart.” (1Sa 16:7.) The most gorgeous cathedral-service is offensive in God’s sight, if all is gone through coldly, heartlessly, and without grace. The feeblest gathering of three or four poor believers in a cottage to read the Bible and pray, is a more acceptable sight to Him who searches the heart than the fullest congregation which is ever gathered in St. Peter’s at Rome.
We should mark, lastly, Christ’s gracious willingness to reveal Himself to the chief of sinners. He concludes His conversation with the Samaritan woman by telling her openly and unreservedly that He is the Savior of the world. “I that speak to thee,” He says, “am the Messiah.” Nowhere in all the Gospels do we find our Lord making such a full avowal of His nature and office as He does in this place. And this avowal, be it remembered, was made not to learned Scribes, or moral Pharisees, but to one who up to that day had been an ignorant, thoughtless, and immoral person!
Dealings with sinners, such as these, form one of the grand peculiarities of the Gospel. Whatever a man’s past life may have been, there is hope and a remedy for him in Christ. If he is only willing to hear Christ’s voice and follow Him, Christ is willing to receive him at once as a friend, and to bestow on him the fullest measure of mercy and grace. The Samaritan woman, the penitent thief, the Philippian jailor, the publican Zacchus, are all patterns of Christ’s readiness to show mercy, and to confer full and immediate pardons. It is His glory that, like a great physician, He will undertake to cure those who are apparently incurable, and that none are too bad for Him to love and heal. Let these things sink down into our hearts. Whatever else we doubt, let us never doubt that Christ’s love to sinners passeth knowledge, and that Christ is as willing to receive as He is almighty to save.
What are we ourselves? This is the question, after all, which demands our attention. We may have been up to this day careless, thoughtless, sinful as the woman whose story we have been reading. But yet there is hope. He who talked with the Samaritan woman at the well is yet living at God’s right hand, and never changes. Let us only ask, and He will “give us living water.”
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Notes-
v7.-[Then cometh…woman…draw water.] The scarcity of water in the hot climates of the East makes drawing water from the nearest well an important part of the daily business of an Eastern household. We learn from other parts of Scripture that it was a work ordinarily done by women. (Gen 24:11. 1Sa 9:11.) A well became naturally a common meeting-place for the inhabitants of a neighbourhood, and especially for the young people. (Jdg 5:11.) The insinuation, however, of some writers, as Schottgen, that the Samaritan woman’s motives in coming to the well were possibly immoral, seems destitute of any foundation. Bad as her moral character evidently was, we have no right to heap upon her more blame than is warranted by facts.
Augustine regards this woman as a type of the Gentile Church, “not now justified, but even now at the point to be justified.” I doubt whether we were meant by the Holy Ghost to take this view. There is great danger in adopting such allegorical interpretations. They insensibly draw away the mind from the plain lessons of Scripture.
Musculus remarks what a wonderful instance it is of sovereign grace, that our Lord should turn away from learned Scribes, Pharisees, and Priests, to converse with and convert such a person as this woman, to all appearance so utterly unworthy of notice. He also observes how singularly our least movements are overruled by God’s providence. Like Rebecca and Rachel, the woman came to the well knowing nothing of the importance of that day’s visit to her soul.
[Jesus saith…give me to drink.] In this simple request of our Lord there are four things deserving notice. (a.) It was a gracious act of spiritual aggression on a sinner. He did not wait for the woman to speak to Him, but was the first to begin conversation. (b.) It was an act of marvellous condescension. He by whom all things were made, the Creator of fountains, brooks, and rivers, is not ashamed to ask a draught of water from the hand of one of his sinful creatures. (c.) It was an act full of wisdom and prudence. He does not at once force religion on the attention of the woman, and rebuke her for her sins. He begins with a subject apparently indifferent, and yet one of which the woman’s mind was doubtless full. He asks her for water. (d.) It was an act full of the nicest tact, and exhibiting perfect knowledge of the human mind. He asks a favour, and puts Himself under an obligation. No line of proceeding, it is well known to all wise people, would be more likely to conciliate the woman’s feelings towards Him, and to make her willing to hear His teaching. Simple as the request was, it contains principles which deserve the closest attention of all who desire to do good to ignorant and thoughtless sinners.
The idea of Euthymius, that our Lord pretended thirst in order to introduce conversation, is unworthy of notice.-Cyril thinks that our Lord intended to make a practical protest against the exclusiveness of the Jews, by asking drink of a Samaritan woman, and to show her that He disapproved the custom of His nation.
v8.-[His disciples…gone…buy meat.] This verse is an instance of our Lord’s general rule not to work a miracle in order to supply his own wants. He who could feed five thousand with a few loaves and fishes when He willed, was content to buy food, like any other man.-It is an instance of His lowly-mindedness. The Creator of all things, though rich, for our sakes became poor.-It ought to teach Christians that they are not meant to be so spiritual as to neglect the management of money, and a reasonable use of it for the supply of their wants. God could feed His children, as He fed Elijah, by a daily miracle. But He knows it is better for our souls, and more likely to call grace into exercise, not to feed them so, but to make them think, and use means. There is no real spirituality in being careless about money. Jesus Himself allowed His disciples to “buy.”
The word rendered “meat” means nothing more than “food” or “nourishment,” and must not be confined to “flesh.” Out of the sixteen places where it is used in the New Testament, there is not one where it necessarily signifies “flesh.” The meat offering of the Old Testament consisted of nothing but flour, oil, and incense. (Lev 2:1-2.) The meaning of the word “meat,” in the English language, has evidently changed since the last revision of the English Bible.
The whole verse is an instance of one of those short, parenthetical, explanatory comments, which are common in John’s Gospel. Its object is to explain the circumstance of our Lord being alone at the well, and the fact that He did not ask a disciple to give Him water.
v9.-[Then saith…woman…how is it…a Jew…Samaria.] This question implies that the woman was surprised at our Lord speaking to her. It was an unexpected act of condescension on His part, and as such arrested her attention. Thus one point, at any rate, was gained. It is a great matter if we can only get a careless sinner to give us a quiet hearing. We shall soon see how our Lord improved the opportunity.
How the woman knew our Lord to be a Jew, is matter of conjecture. Some think that she knew it by the dialect that He spoke. Some think that she knew it by the fringe upon His dress, which he probably wore, in conformity to the Mosaic law, (Num 15:38-39,) and which the Samaritans very likely neglected. One thing is very clear. There was nothing in our Lord’s personal appearance, when He was a man upon earth, to distinguish Him from any other Jewish traveller who might have been found sitting at a well. There was nothing eccentric or peculiar about his dress. He looked like other men.
I venture the opinion that in the woman’s question stress really should be laid on the word “woman.” She was not only surprised that a Jewish man asked drink of a Samaritan, but also that he asked it of a woman.
[The Jews have no dealings…Samaritans.] This sentence is generally thought, with much reason, to be the explanatory comment of John, and not the words of the Samaritan woman. It certainly seems more natural to take it so. The sentence should then be read as a parenthesis. Calvin thinks it is the woman’s words, but his reasons are not convincing.
The enmity between the Jews and Samaritans, here referred to, no doubt originated in the separation of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel. It was exceedingly increased after the ten tribes were carried into captivity by the Assyrians, by the fact that the Samaritans became mingled with foreigners, whom the king of Assyria sent to Samaria from Babylon and other places, and so lost their right to be called pure Jews. (2Ki 17:1, &c.) It was further aggravated by the opposition which the inhabitants of Samaria made to the re-building of Jerusalem, after the return from the captivity of Babylon, in the days of Ezra. (Ezr 4:10, &c.) In the day’s of our Lord the Jews seem to have gone into the extreme of regarding the Samaritans as entirely foreigners, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. When they told our Lord that He was “a Samaritan and had a devil,” they meant the expression to convey the bitterest scorn and reproach. (Joh 8:48.) It is clear, however, from the conversation in this chapter, that the Samaritans, however mistaken on many points, were not ignorant heathens. They regarded themselves as descended from Jacob. They had a kind of Old Testament religion. They expected the coming of Messias.
The bitter and exclusive spirit of the Jews towards all other nations, referred to in this verse, is curiously confirmed by the language used about the Jews by heathen writers at Rome. Exclusiveness was noted as one among their peculiarities.-The immense difficulty with which even the apostles got over this exclusive feeling, and went forth to preach to the Gentiles, is noticeable both in the Acts and Epistles. (Act 10:28; Act 11:2-3; Gal 2:12; 1Th 2:16.)
The utter absence of real charity and love among men in the days when our Lord was upon earth, ought not to be overlooked. Well would it be if men had never quarreled about religion after He left the world! Quarrels among the crew of a sinking ship are not more hideous, unseemly, and irrational than the majority of quarrels among professors of religion. An historian might truly apply John’s words to many a period in Church history, and say, “The Romanists have no dealings with the Protestants,”-or “the Lutherans have no dealings with the Calvinists,”-or “the Calvinists have no dealings with the Arminians,”-or “the Episcopalians have no dealings with the Presbyterians,”-or “the Baptists have no dealings with those who baptize infants,”-or “the Plymouth Brethren have no dealings with anybody who does not join their company.” “These things ought not so to be.” (Jam 3:10.) They are the scandal of Christianity, the joy of the devil, and the greatest stumbling-block to the spread of the Gospel.
The Greek words translated “have no dealings,” mean literally “use not anything together with” the Samaritans. Pearce says, “The Jews would not eat or drink with the Samaritans, would not drink out of the same cup, or eat of the same dish with them.” This fact throws much light on the woman’s surprise at our Lord’s request, “Give me to drink.”
v10.-[Jesus answered, &c.] In this verse our Lord proceeds to use the opportunity which the woman’s question affords Him. He passes over for the present her expression of surprise at a Jew speaking to a Samaritan. He begins by exciting her curiosity and raising her expectations, by speaking of something within her reach which He calls “living water.” The first step to take with a careless sinner after his attention has been arrested, is to produce on his mind the impression that we can tell him of something to his advantage within his reach. There is a certain vagueness in our Lord’s words which exhibit His consummate wisdom. A systematic statement of doctrinal truth would have been thrown away at this stage of the woman’s feeling. The general and figurative language which our Lord employed, was exactly calculated to arouse her imagination, and to lead her on to further inquiry.
[The gift of God.] This expression is variously explained. Some think, as Augustine, Rupertus, Jansenius, Whitby, and Alford, that it means “the Holy Spirit,” that peculiar gift which it was the Messiah’s special office to impart to men in greater abundance than before had been imparted. (Act 2:38; Act 10:45.) [See also in this same Gospel: Joh 7:37-39; Isa 44:3.]
Some think, as Brentius, Bucer, Musculus, Calovius, Grotius, and Barradius, that it means “the gracious opportunity which God is graciously giving to thee.” If thou didst but know what a door of life is close to thee, thou wouldst joyfully use it.
Some think, as Euthymius, Toletus, Bullinger, Gualter, Hooker, Beza, Rollock, Lightfoot, Glassius, Dyke, Hildersam, and Gill, that it means “Christ Himself,” God’s gracious gift to a sinful world. If thou didst but know that God has actually given His only-begotten Son, according to promise, and that He has come into the world, and that it is He who is speaking to thee, thou wouldst at once ask of Him living water.
Some think that it means “God’s gift, and especially His gift of grace,” which is now being proclaimed and made manifest to the world by the appearing on earth of His Son. (See Rom 5:15.) This seems to be the view of Cyril, Lampe, Theophylact, Zwingle, and Calvin.
Of these four views the last seems to me, on the whole, the most probable and satisfactory. The first sounds strange and unlike the usual teaching of Scripture. “If thou knewest the Holy Spirit, thou wouldst have asked,” is an expression we can hardly expect at this period of our Lord’s ministry, when the mission of the Comforter had not yet been explained.-The second view seems hardly more natural than the first.-The third view is undoubtedly recommended by the fact that Christ is frequently spoken of as God’s great gift to the world. If the woman had really known anything aright about Messiah, and had known that He was before her, she would have asked of Him living water. Nevertheless, it is a strong objection to this view, that it makes our Lord apparently say the same thing twice over. “If thou knewest Christ, and that it is Christ who speaks.”
The last view makes the first clause general, “If thou knewest the grace of God,” and the second particular, “If thou also knewest that the Saviour Himself was with thee.” Thus both clauses receive a meaning.
[Living water.] The meaning of this expression, like “the gift of God,” is variously explained. Some, as Calovius and Chemnitius, seem to think it means the doctrine of God’s mercy, pardon, cleansing, and justification. Others, as Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril, Theophylact, Calvin, Beza, Gualter, Musculus, and Ferus, think it means the Holy Spirit, renewing, and sanctification.
I doubt whether either view is quite correct. I am inclined, with Bullinger and Rollock, to regard the expression as a general figurative description of everything which it is Christ’s office to bestow on the soul of man,-pardon, peace, mercy, grace, justification, and sanctification. As water is cleansing, purifying, cooling, refreshing, thirst-satisfying to man’s body, so are Christ’s gifts to the soul. I think everything that a sinful soul needs is purposely included under the general words, “living water.” It comprises not only the justifying “blood which cleanses from all sin,” but the sanctifying grace of the Spirit, by which we “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness,”-not only the inward peace which is the result of pardon, but the sense of inward comfort, which is the companion of renewal of hearts.
The idea of “water,” we should remember, is specially brought forward in some of the Old Testament promises of good things to come. (See Isa 12:3; Isa 41:17; Isa 44:3-4; Eze 47:1-12; Zec 13:1; Zec 14:8.) A sprinkling of clean water was particularly mentioned as one of the things Messiah was to give. (Isa 52:15; Eze 36:25.) To an intelligent reader of the Old Testament the mention of “living water,” would at once raise up the idea of Messiah’s times.
The word “living,” applied here to water, must not be pressed too far. It does not necessarily mean anything more than fresh, running waters. Thus it is said that Isaac’s servant “found a well of living waters.” (Gen 26:19. See also Num 19:17; Song of Son 4:15.) There was undoubtedly a deep meaning in our Lord’s words, and a tacit reference to the verse in Jeremiah where God speaks of Himself as “the fountain of living waters.” (Jer 2:13.) Nevertheless, the first idea that the words would convey to the woman’s mind, would probably be no more than this, that he who sat before her had better, fresher, and more valuable water than that of the well. The fact is, that our Lord purposely used a figurative, general expression, in order to lead the woman’s mind gently on. If He had said, “He would have given thee grace and mercy,” she would have been unprepared for such purely doctrinal language, and it would have called forth prejudice and dislike.
There is a vast quantity of deep truth contained in this verse. It is rich in first principles, linked together in a most instructive chain. (1.) Christ has living water to give to men. (2.) If men would only ask, Christ would at once give. (3.) Men do not ask because they are ignorant.-The verse condemns all who die unpardoned. They have not because they ask not. They ask not because they are blind to their condition. To remove this blindness and ignorance must be the first object we should aim at in dealing with a thoughtless, unconverted man.
The notion of Ambrose, Cyprian, and Rupertus, that “living water” here means baptism, is too monstrous to require refutation. It is only a sample of the preposterous views of some of the Fathers and their followers about the sacraments.
Bengel remarks on this verse our Lord’s readiness to draw lessons of spiritual instruction from every object near Him. To the Jews desiring bread, He spoke of the bread of life. (Joh 6:33.) To the people at Jerusalem at break of day, He speaks of the light of the world, referring probably to the rising sun. (Joh 8:2, Joh 8:12.) To the woman coming to draw water, He speaks of living water.
v11.-[The woman saith, &c.] The words of the woman in this and the following verse, imply surprise, curiosity, and perhaps a slight sneer. At any rate they show that her attention was arrested. A strange Jew at a well suddenly speaks to her about “living water.” What could He mean? Was He in earnest or not? With a woman’s curiosity she desires to know.
[Sir.] The Greek word so rendered is generally translated “Lord.” This leads some, as Chrysostom, to think, that the woman’s heart was so far impressed now, that she purposely used a term of respect and reverence. We must not, however, lay too much stress on the word. It is certainly translated “Sir,” in other places, where inferiors speak to superiors, Mat 13:27; Mat 21:30; Mat 27:63; Joh 4:49; Joh 5:7; Joh 12:21; Joh 20:15; Rev 7:14. Yet it is difficult to see what other word the woman could have used in addressing a strange man, without rudeness and discourtesy.
[Nothing to draw with.]-The Greek expression here is simply a substantive, meaning “an instrument for drawing water.” What it was we are left to conjecture. Schleusner suggests from Nonnus that it must mean a cup fastened to a rope.
[The well is deep.] These words, according to the universal testimony of travellers at this day, are still literally true. The well is at least thirty yards deep, and to a person not provided with a rope, as the woman doubtless saw was our Lord’s case, the water would be inaccessible.
[Whence then….that living water.] The Greek word here rendered “that” is simply the article commonly translated “the.” It is like “that prophet.” (Joh 1:21.)
The ignorance of the woman in thinking of nothing but material water, naturally strikes us. Yet it is nothing more than we see in many other instances in the Gospels. Nicodemus could not see any but a carnal meaning in the new birth. The disciples could not understand our Lord’s having “meat to eat,” unless it was literal meat. The Jews thought the “bread from heaven” was literal bread. (Joh 3:4; Joh 4:33; Joh 6:34.) The natural heart of man always tries to put a carnal and material sense on spiritual expressions. Hence have arisen the greatest errors about the sacraments.
v12.-[Art thou greater.] This question exhibits the woman’s curiosity to know who the stranger before her could be. Who art thou that speakest of living water?-It also savours of a sneer and incredulity. Dost thou mean to say that thou canst give me better and more abundant supplies of water, than a well which the patriarch Jacob found sufficient for himself and all his numerous company? Dost thou pretend to know of a better well? Art thou, a poor weary traveller in appearance, so great a person that thou dost possess a better well than Jacob possessed?
[Our father Jacob….gave us the well.] Let it be noted that the woman carefully claimed relationship with Jacob, and called him our father, though after all the intermixture of the Samaritans with heathen nations, the relationship was not very easy of proof. But it is common to find people shutting their eyes to difficulties, when they want to prove a connection or relationship. The advocates of an extreme view of apostolical succession seldom condescend to notice difficulties when they assert that episcopally ordained ministers can trace their order up to the apostles.
When it says that “Jacob gave” the well, there is probably a reference to the grant which Jacob made to his son Joseph of the district near the well. From Joseph came the tribe of Ephraim, to which, no doubt, the Samaritan woman claimed to belong. (Gen 48:22.)
[Drink….himself….children….cattle.] These words were doubtless said to show the goodness and abundance of the water. Did the stranger at the well really mean to say that he could give any better water?
Bucer on this verse, remarks how the Samaritans prided themselves on their relationship to Jacob, and the possession of his well, while they made no effort to imitate his goodness, and points out the tendency of superstition to the same thing, in every age. “True piety,” he says, “does not consist in having Jacob’s well and Jacob’s land, but Jacob’s spirit,-not in keeping the bones of the saints, but in imitating their lives.”
v13.-[Jesus answered, &c.] In this and the following verse our Lord proceeds to raise the desires of the woman by exalting the value of the living water of which He had spoken. He still refrains from distinct statements of doctrinal truth. He still adheres to the figurative expression, “water.” And yet He makes an advance, and leads on the woman gently and almost imperceptibly to glorious spiritual things. Now, for the first time, He begins to speak of “everlasting life.”
[Whosoever drinketh….this water….thirst again.] It will be noted, that our Lord does not answer the woman’s questions directly. He keeps steadily to the one point He desires to fasten on her mind, viz.: the infinite excellence of a certain “living water” which He had to give. And first He reminds her of what she knew well by laborious experience. The water of Jacob’s well might be good and plentiful. But still he who drank of it was only satisfied for a few hours. He soon thirsted again.
We cannot doubt that there was a deep latent thought in our Lord’s word’s in this sentence. He would have us know that the waters of Jacob’s well are typical of all temporal and material good things. They cannot satisfy the soul. They have no power to fill the heart of an immortal creature like man. He who only drinks of them is sure to thirst again.
Some have thought that there is a tacit reference in these words to the woman’s insatiable love of sin.
The similarity ought to be noticed between our Lord’s line of argument in this verse, and the line He adopts in recommending to the Jews the bread of life in the sixth chapter. He showed the Jews the superiority of the bread of life over the manna by the words “your fathers did eat manna, and are dead.” (Joh 6:49.) Just so in this place, He shows the inferiority of the water of Jacob’s well to the living water, by saying “He that drinks of this water shall thirst again.” The two passages deserve a careful comparison.
v14.-[Whosoever drinketh….never thirst.] These words contain a precious promise, and declare a glorious truth of the Gospel. The benefits of Christ’s gifts are promised to every one who is willing to receive them, whosoever and whatsoever he may be. He may have been as bad as the Samaritan woman. But the promise is for him as well as for her, “whosoever drinketh, shall never thirst.”-The declaration “shall never thirst” does not mean, “shall never feel any spiritual want at all.” It simply asserts the abiding and enduring nature of the benefits which Christ gives. He that drinks of the living water which Christ gives, shall never entirely and completely lose the cleansing, purifying, and soulrefreshing effects which it produces.
Our English translation of this sentence hardly gives the full sense of the Greek. Literally rendered, it would be, “shall never thirst unto eternity.” The same expression is used frequently in John’s Gospel. See Joh 6:51-58; Joh 8:51; Joh 10:28; Joh 11:26; Joh 14:16.
[The water….I….give….well….everlasting life.] To see the full meaning of this figurative sentence, it must be paraphrased. The meaning seems to be something of this kind. “The gift of grace, mercy, and peace which I am ready to give, shall be in the heart of him who receives it an everflowing source of comfort, satisfaction, and spiritual refreshment, continuing and flowing on, not only through this life, but unto life eternal. He that receives my gift of living water has a fountain opened in his soul of spiritual satisfaction, which shall neither be dried up in this life or the life to come, but shall flow on to all eternity.”
Let it be noted that the whole verse is a strong argument in favour of the doctrine of the perpetuity of grace, and the consequent perseverance in the faith of believers. It is difficult to understand how the Arminian doctrine of the possibility of believers completely falling away, and being lost, can be reconciled with any natural interpretation of this verse.
Zwingle thinks, with much probability, that the words “a fountain in him,” point to the benefits which grace once received makes a man impart to others, as well as enjoy himself. See Joh 7:38.
Rollock remarks on this verse, “Let me say in a word what I feel. You will find nothing either in heaven or in earth, with which you will be satisfied and feel supplied, except Jesus Christ alone, with all that fullness of the Godhead which dwells in Him bodily.”
Poole says, “He who receiveth the Holy Spirit and the grace thereof, though he will be daily saying give, give, and continually desiring further supplies of grace, yet he shall never wholly want, never want any good thing that shall be needful for him. The seed of God shall abide in him, and His water shall be in him a spring supplying him until he comes to heaven.”
v15.-[The woman saith, &c.] In this verse, I think, we see the first sparks of good in the woman’s soul. Our Lord’s words aroused a desire in her heart for this living water of which He had spoken. She does what our Lord said she ought to have done at first. She “asks” Him to give her the water.
[Give me this water….that….thirst not….draw.] The motives of the woman in making this request are variously explained.
Some think, as Musculus, Calvin, Bucer, Brentius, Gualter, Lightfoot, Poole, and Dyke, that the request was made in a sarcastic and sneering spirit, as though she would say “Truly this water would be a fine thing, if we could get it! Give it me, if you have it to give.”
Some think, as Augustine, Cyril, Bullinger, Rollock, Hildersam, Jansenius, and Nifanius, that the request was only the lazy, indolent wish of one who was weary of this world’s labour, and yet could see nothing but the things of this world in our Lord’s sayings, like the request of the Jews, “Evermore give us this bread.” (Joh 6:34.) It is as though she would say, “Anything to save me the trouble of coming to draw water would be a boon. If you can do that for me, do it.” As Bengel says, “She wished to have this living fountain at her own house.”
Some think, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius, that the request was really the prayer of an anxious soul, aroused to some faint spiritual desires by the mention of eternal life. “Hast thou eternal life to bestow? Give it to me.”
I venture to think that none of these three views is quite correct. The true motive of the request was probably a vague feeling of desire that the woman herself could hardly have defined. It is useless to analyze and scrutinize too closely the first languid and imperfect desires that arise in souls when the Spirit begins His work of conversion. It is folly to say that the first movings of a heart towards God must be free from all imperfect motives and all mixture of infirmity. The woman’s motives in saying “Give me this water,” were probably mixed and indefinite. Material water was not out of her thoughts, and yet she had probably some desires after everlasting life. Enough for us to know, that she asked and received, she sought and found. Our great aim must be to persuade sinners to apply to Jesus, and to say to Him, “Give me to drink.” If we forbid them to ask anything until they can prove that they ask in a perfect spirit, we should do no good at all. It would be as foolish to scrutinize the grammatical construction of an infant’s cries, as to analyze the precise motives of a soul’s first breathings after God. If it breathes at all and says, “Give,” we ought to be thankful.
v16.-[Jesus saith….go….call….husband…hither.] This verse begins an entirely new stage in the history of the woman’s conversion. From this point we hear no more of “living water.” Figurative language is dropped entirely. Our Lord’s words become direct, personal, and plain. The woman had asked at last for “living water.” At once our Lord proceeds to give it to her.
Our Lord’s reasons for bidding the woman to call her husband, have been variously interpreted. Some think that he only meant her to understand that He had spoken long enough to her, a solitary woman; and that before He proceeded further, she must call her husband to be a witness of the conversation, and to partake of the benefits He was going to confer. This seems the view of Chrysostom and Theophylact.-Others think, with far more probability, in my judgment, that our Lord’s main object in naming the woman’s husband, was to produce in her mind conviction of sin, and to show her His own divine knowledge of all things. He knew that she had no husband, and He purposely named him in order to touch her conscience. He always knew the thoughts of those to whom He spoke; and He knew in the present case, what the effect of His words would be. It would bring to light the woman’s besetting sin.-It is as though He said. “Thou dost ask me for living water. Thou dost at last express a desire for that great spiritual gift which I am able to bestow. Well, then, I begin by bidding thee know thyself and thy sinfulness. I will show thee that I know thy spiritual disease, and can lay my finger on the most dangerous ailment of thy soul. Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”
Let it be noted that the first draught of living water which our Lord gave to the Samaritan woman was conviction of sin. That fact is a lesson for all who desire to benefit ignorant and careless sinners. The first thing to be taught to such persons, when once we have got their attention, is their own sinfulness, and their consequent need of a Saviour. No one values the physician until he feels his disease.
Augustine thinks that when our Lord said, “Call thy husband,” He meant, “Cause thine understanding to be forthcoming. Thy understanding is not with thee. I am speaking after the spirit, and thou hearest after the flesh!” I can see no wisdom in this fanciful idea.
v17.-[The woman answered…no husband.] These words were an honest and truthful confession, so far as they went. Whether the woman wished it to be supposed that she was a widow, it would perhaps be hardly fair to inquire. Theophylact and Euthymius suggest that she did wish to deceive our Lord. The way in which our Lord receives her declaration, makes it probable that she did not profess to be a widow, and very likely her dress showed that she was not. In this point of view the honesty of her confession is noteworthy. There is always more hope of one who honestly and bluntly confesses sin, than of a smooth-tongued hypocrite.
[Jesus said…thou hast well said…husband.] Our Lord’s commendation of the woman’s honest confession deserves notice. It teaches us that we should make the best of an ignorant sinner’s words. An unskilful physician of souls would probably have rebuked the woman sharply for her wickedness, if her words led him to suspect it. Our Lord on the contrary says, “Thou hast well said.”
v18.-[Thou hast had five husbands.] Many foolish and unseemly things have been written about this sentence, which it is not worth while to bring forward. Of course it is utterly improbable that the woman had lost five husbands by death, and had been five times a widow. The more likely explanation is that she had been divorced and put away by several husbands in succession. Divorces were notoriously common among the Jews, and in all probability among the Samaritans, for very trivial causes. In the case, however, of the woman before us, the second clause of the verse before us makes it likely that she had been justly divorced for adultery.
Augustine regards these five husbands as significant of “the five senses of the body,” which are as five husbands by which the soul of the natural man is ruled! I cannot think that our Lord meant anything of the kind.-Euthymius mentions another allegorical view, making the woman to typify human nature, and the five husbands five different dispensations, and him with whom she now lived the Mosaic Law! This seems to me simply absurd. Origen says much the same. It is well to know what patristic interpretation is!
[He whom…hast…not thy husband.] These words show plainly that the Samaritan woman was living in adultery up to the very day when our Lord spoke to her.
Our Lord’s perfect knowledge of the woman’s past and present life is very noteworthy. It ought to remind us how perfectly He is acquainted with every transaction of our own lives. From Him no secrets are hid.
[In that saidst thou truly.] There is a kindness very worthy of notice in these words. Wicked and abandoned as this Samaritan woman was, our Lord deals gently and kindly with her, and twice in one breath commends her confession: “Thou hast well said.-In that thou saidst truly.” Kindness of manner like this will always be found a most important point in dealing with the ungodly. Scolding and sharp-rebuke, however well-deserved, have a tendency to harden and shut up hearts, and to make people bolt their doors. Kindness, on the contrary, wins, softens, conciliates, and disarms prejudice. An unskilful soul-physician would probably have ended his sentence by saying, “Thou art a wicked woman; and if thou dost not repent, thou wilt be lost.” All this would have been true no doubt. But how different our Lord’s grave and gentle remark, “Thou saidst truly”!
v19.-[The woman saith…I perceive…prophet.] I think we see in this verse a great change in the Samaritan woman’s mind. She evidently confesses the entire truth of what our Lord had just said, and turns to Him as an anxious inquirer about her soul. It is as though she said, “I perceive at last that thou art indeed no common person. Thou hast told me what thou couldst not have known, if thou wert not a prophet sent from God. Thou hast exposed sins which I cannot deny, and aroused spiritual concern which I would now fain have relieved. Now give me instruction.”
Let it be noted that the thing which first struck the Samaritan woman, and made her call Jesus “a prophet,” was the same that struck Nathanael, viz., our Lord’s perfect knowledge.-To call our Lord “a prophet” at first sight may seem not much. But it must be remembered that even after His resurrection, the two disciples going to Emmaus, only described Jesus as a “prophet mighty in deed and word.” (Luk 24:19.) A clear knowledge of the divine nature of Messiah seems to have been one of the points on which almost the whole Jewish nation was ignorant. Even the learned Scribes could not explain how Messiah was to be David’s Lord and also David’s Son. (Mar 12:37.)
v20.-[Our fathers worshipped, &c.] To see the full drift of this verse, we must carefully remember the state of the Samaritan woman’s mind at this moment. I think that she spoke under spiritual anxiety. She was alarmed by having her sins suddenly exposed. She found herself for the first time in the presence of a prophet. She felt for the first time the necessity of religion. But at once the old question between the Jews and Samaritans arose before her mind. How was she to know what was truth? What was she to believe? Her own people said that the Samaritan mode of worshipping God was correct. The Jews said that Jerusalem was the only place where men ought to worship. Between these two conflicting opinions what was she to do?
The natural ignorance of almost all unconverted people, when first aroused to thought about religion, appears strikingly in the woman’s words. Man’s first idea is to attach great importance to the outward mode of worshipping God. The first refuge of an awakened conscience is strict adherence to some outward form, and zeal for the external part of religion.
The woman’s readiness to quote “the fathers” and their customs, is an instructive instance of man’s readiness to make custom and tradition his only rule of faith. “Our fathers did so,” is one of the natural man’s favourite arguments. Calvin’s comments on the expression “fathers” in this verse are very useful. He remarks, among other things, “None should be reckoned Fathers but those who are manifestly the sons of God.”
When the woman spoke of “this mountain,” she doubtless meant the hill on which the rival temple of Samaria was built, to the bitter annoyance of the Jerusalem Jews. It is said that this temple was first built in the days of Nehemiah by Sanballat, and that his son-in-law, the son of Joiada, whom Nehemiah “chased from him,” was its first high-priest. (Neh 13:29.) Some have gone so far as to maintain that the hill Gerizim at Samaria was the hill on which Abraham offered up Isaac, and that the words of the woman refer to this. The more common opinion is that Mount Moriah at Jerusalem was the place.
When the woman says, “Ye say,” she doubtless includes the whole Jewish nation, of whom she regards our Lord as a representative.
Musculus, Baxter, Scott, and Barnes, think that the woman, in this verse, desired to turn away the conversation from her own sins to a subject of public controversy, and in this way to change the subject. I am not however satisfied that this view is correct. I prefer the view of Brentius, which I have already set forth, that she was truly impressed by our Lord’s exposure of her wickedness, and made a serious inquiry about the things needful to salvation. She was aroused to seriousness, and asked what was true religion. Her own nation said one thing. The Jews said another. What was truth? In short, her words were only another form of the jailer’s question, “What shall I do to be saved?”
v21.-[Jesus saith, Woman, believe me.] The calmness, gravity, and solemnity of these opening words are very noteworthy. “I tell you a great truth, which I ask you to credit and believe.”
Jansenius thinks that our Lord uses the expression “believe me,” because the truth he was about to impart was so new and strange, that the woman would be apt to think it incredible.
Stier remarks that this is the only time our Lord ever uses this expression “believe me” in the Gospels.
[The hour cometh.] The hour, or time here spoken of, means the time of the Gospel, the hour of the Christian dispensation.
[Ye shall neither…this mountain…Jerusalem…worship, &c.] Our Lord here declares that under the Gospel there was to be no more distinction of places like Jerusalem. The old dispensation under which men were bound to go up to Jerusalem three times a year, to attend the feasts and worship in the temple, was about to pass away. All questions about the superior sanctity of Samaria or Jerusalem would soon be at an end. A church was about to be founded, whose members would find access to the Father everywhere, and would need no temple-service, and no priests or sacrifices or altars in order to approach God. It was therefore mere waste of time to be disputing about the comparative claims of either Samaria or Jerusalem. Under the Gospel all places would soon be alike.
It seems far from improbable that our Lord referred in this verse to the prophecy of Malachi, “In every place incense shall be offered to my name.” (Mal 1:11.)
The utter passing away of the whole Jewish system seems clearly pointed at in this verse. To bring into the Christian Church holy places, sanctuaries, altars, priests, sacrifices, gorgeous vestments, and the like, is to dig up that which has been long buried, and to turn to candles for light under the noon-day sun. The favourite theory of the Irvingites that we ought as far as possible in our public worship, to copy the Jewish temple services and ceremonial, seems incapable of reconciliation with this verse.
Calvin says, “By calling God the Father in this verse, Christ seems indirectly to contrast Him with the ‘fathers’ whom the woman had mentioned, and to convey this instruction, that God will be a common Father to all, so that He will be generally worshipped without distinction of place or nation.”
v22.-[Ye worship….know not what.] In this verse our Lord unhesitatingly condemns the religious system of the Samaritans, as compared with that of the Jews. The Samaritans could show no Scriptural authority, no revelation of God, commanding and sanctioning their worship. Whatever it was, it was purely an invention of man, which God had never formally authorized or accredited. They had no warrant for believing that it was accepted. They had no right to feel sure that their prayers, praises, and offerings were received. In short, all was uncertainty. They were practically worshipping an “unknown God.”
Mede remarks that the Samaritan woman overlooked the object of worship in her question about the place. “You inquire concerning the place of worshipping. But a far more important question is at issue between us, viz., the Being to be worshipped, respecting whom you are ignorant.”
[We know what we worship.] In contrast to the Samaritan religious system, our Lord declares that the Jews at any rate could show divine warrant and Scriptural authority for all they did in their religion. They could render a reason of their hope. They knew whom they approached in their religious services.
[Salvation is of the Jews.] Our Lord here declares that God’s promises of a Saviour and Redeemer specially belong to the Jerusalem Jews. They were the descendants of the tribe of Judah, and to them belonged the house and lineage of David. On this point at any rate the Samaritans had no right whatever to claim equality with the Jews. Granting that the Samaritans had any right to be called Israelites, they were of the tribe of Ephraim, from which it was nowhere said that Messiah should spring. And in truth the Samaritans were of such mixed origin, that they had no right to be called Israelites at all.
I believe with Olshausen, that “salvation,” in this verse, was really intended to mean “the Saviour” Himself. The use of the article in the Greek is striking. It is literally “the salvation.” Does not the saying to Zacchus point the same way? “This day is salvation come to this house.” (Luk 19:9.)
The expression “we” in this verse is very interesting. It is a wonderful instance of our Lord’s condescension, and one that stands almost alone. He was pleased to speak of Himself, just in the light that He appeared to the woman, as one of the Jewish nation. “I and all other Jews know what we worship.”
The folly of supposing that ignorance is to be praised and commended in religion, as the mother of devotion, is strongly condemned in this verse. Christ would have Christians “know what they worship.”
The testimony borne to the general truth of the religious system of the Jews in this place is very striking. Corrupt and wicked as Scribes and Pharisees were, Jesus declares that the Jewish religion was true and Scriptural. It is a mournful proof that a church may retain a sound creed, and yet be on the high road to destruction.
Hildersam has a long note which is well worth reading on the words “salvation is of the Jews.” Considering the times in which he lived, it shows singularly clear views of God’s continual purposes concerning the Jewish nation. He sees in the words the great truth that all God’s revelations to man in every age have been made through the Jews.
v23.-[The hour cometh and now is.] These words mean that the times of the Gospel approach, and indeed have already begun. “They have begun by the preaching of the kingdom of God. They will be fully brought in by my death and ascension, and the establishment of the New Testament church.”
[True worshippers…worship…spirit and…truth.] Our Lord here declares who alone would be considered true worshippers in the coming dispensation of the Gospel. They would not be merely those who worshipped in this place or in that place. They would not be exclusively Jews, or exclusively Gentiles, or exclusively Samaritans. The external part of the worship would be of no value compared to the internal state of the worshippers. They only would be counted true worshippers who worshipped in spirit and in truth.
The words “in spirit and in truth” are variously interpreted, and much has been written about them. I believe the simplest explanation to be this. The word “spirit” must not be taken to mean the Holy Spirit, but the intellectual or mental part of man in contradistinction to the material or carnal part of man. This distinction is clearly marked in 1Co 7:34, “Holy in body and in spirit.”-“Worship in spirit” is heart-worship in contradistinction to all formal, material, carnal worship, consisting only of ceremonies, offerings, sacrifices, and the like. When a Jew offered a formal meat-offering, with his heart far away, it was worship after the flesh. When David offered in prayer a broken and a contrite heart, it was worship in spirit.-“Worship in truth,” means worship “through the one true way of access to God, without the medium of the sacrifices or priesthood, which were ordained till Christ died on the cross. When the veil was rent, and the way into the holiest made manifest by Christ’s death, then, and not till then, men “worshipped in truth.” Before Christ, they worshipped through types, and shadows, and figures, and emblems. After Christ they worshipped in truth.-Spirit is opposed to “flesh;” truth to “shadow.” “Spirit,” in short, is heart-service, contrasted with lip worship and formal devotion. “Truth” is the full light of the Christian dispensation contrasted with the twilight of the law of Moses.
The view I have endeavoured to give is substantially that of Chrysostom and Euthymius.
Caryl, quoted by Ford, says, “In spirit regards the inward power, in truth the outward form. The first strikes at hypocrisy, the second at idolatry.”
[The Father seeketh such…worship him.] This is a remarkable sentence. I believe it to mean that “the hour is come, in which the Father has ordained from eternity that He will gather out of the world a company of true and spiritual worshippers. He is even now seeking out and gathering in such worshippers.”-The expression “seeketh” is peculiar. There is something like it in the sentence, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” (Luk 19:10.) It seems to show the exceeding compassion of the Father, and His infinite willingness to save souls. He does not merely-wait for men to come to Him. He “seeks” for them.-It also shows the wide opening of God the Father’s mercy under the Gospel. He no longer confines His grace to the Jews. He now seeks and desires to gather in everywhere true worshippers out of every nation.
The clause appears to me specially intended to encourage the Samaritan woman. Let her not trouble herself with difficulties about the comparative claims of the Samaritan and Jewish systems. Was she willing to be a spiritual worshipper? That was the one question which deserved her attention.
Trapp observes, “How should this fire up our hearts to spiritual worship! That God seeks for such worshippers!”
v24.-[God is a Spirit.] Our Lord here declares to the Samaritan woman the true nature of God. Let her cease to think that God was such an one as man, and that He could not be found, or approached, or addressed, like a mere earthly monarch, except at one particular place. Let her learn to have higher, nobler, and more exalted views of the Being with whom sinners have to do. Let her know this day that God was a Spirit.
The declaration before us is one of the most lofty and definite sayings about God’s nature which is to be found in the whole Bible. That such a declaration should have been made to such a person as the Samaritan woman is a wonderful instance of Christ’s condescension! To define precisely the full meaning of the expression is past man’s understanding. The leading idea most probably is, that “God is an immaterial being, that He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and that He is not, like ourselves, therefore, absent from one place when He is present at another.” These things are all true, but how little we can realize them!
Cornelius Lapide gives an excellent summary of the opinions of heathen philosophers on the nature of God, in his commentary on this verse.
[They….worship….must….worship….spirit….truth.] Our Lord draws this broad conclusion from the statement of God’s nature which He has just made. If “God is a Spirit” it behooves those who would worship Him acceptably, to worship in spirit and in truth. It is unreasonable to suppose that He can like any worship which does not come from the heart, or can be so well pleased with worship which is offered through types and ceremonies, as with worship offered through the true way which He has provided, and is now revealing.
The importance of the great principle laid down in this and the preceding verse, can never be overrated. Any religious teaching which tends to depreciate heart-worship, and to turn Christianity into a mere formal service, or which tends to bring back Jewish shadows, ceremonies, and services, and to introduce them into Christian worship, is on the face of these remarkable verses most unscriptural and deserving of reprobation.
Of course we must not admit the idea, that in this and the preceding verse, Jesus meant to pour contempt on the ceremonial law, which God Himself had given. But He plainly teaches that it was an imperfect dispensation, given because of man’s ignorance and infirmity, as we give pictures to children in teaching them. It was, in fact, a schoolmaster to Christ. (Gal 3:24.) To want men to return to it is as absurd as to bid grown up people begin learning the alphabet by pictures in an infant school.-On the other hand, as Beza remarks, we must not run into the extreme of despising all ordinances, sacraments, and outward ceremonies in religion. These things have their use and value, however much they may be abused.
v25.-[The woman saith I know…Messias…Christ, &c.] This verse is an interesting one. It shows the woman at last brought to the very state of mind in which she would be prepared to welcome a revelation of Christ. She had been told of “living water,” and had expressed a desire for it. She had been told her own sin, and had been unable to deny it. She had been told the uselessness of resting on any formal membership of the Samaritan Church, and the necessity of spiritual and heart-worship of God. And now what can she say? It is all true, she feels,-she cannot gainsay it. But what can she do? To whom is she to go? Whose teaching can she follow? All she can do is to say that “she knows Messias is one day coming, and that He will make all things clear and plain.” It is evident that she wishes for Him. She is uncomfortable and sees no relief for her newly raised perplexities, unless Messias should appear.
The mention of Messias in this verse, makes it clear that the Samaritans were not altogether ignorant of the Old Testament, and that there was an expectation of a Redeemer of some kind among them, as well as among the Jews. The existence of a general expectation of this sort throughout the East, at the time when our Lord appeared on earth, is a fact to which even heathen writers have testified.
When the woman says, “He will tell us all things,” we must probably not inquire too closely into what she meant. It is very likely that she had only a vague feeling that Messias would remove all doubts and show all things needful to salvation.
Chrysostom remarks on this verse, “The woman was made dizzy by Christ’s discourse, and fainted at the sublimity of what He said, and in her trouble saith, I know that Messias cometh.”
Wordsworth observes, that the Samaritan woman had a clearer knowledge of Messiah’s office than the Jews generally showed. She looked for Him as a Teacher. They looked for Him as a conquering King.
Beza and A. Clark think, that the words, “which is called Christ,” in this verse, are John’s parenthetical explanation of the word Messias. It is certainly rather unlikely that the woman would have used them in addressing a Jew. Yet most commentators think that they were her words.
v26.-[Jesus saith…I…speak…am He.] These words are the fullest declaration which our Lord ever made of His own Messiahship, which the Gospel writers have recorded. That such a full declaration should be made to such a person as the Samaritan woman is one of the most wonderful instances of our Lord’s grace and condescension related in the New Testament! At last the woman obtained an answer to one of her first questions, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” When the answer came it completely converted her soul.
Rollock remarks on this verse, how ready and willing Christ is to reveal Himself to a sinner’s soul. The very moment that this woman expressed any desire for Messiah, He at once revealed Himself to her-“I am He.”
Quesnel observes, “It is a great mistake to suppose that the knowledge of the mysteries of religion ought not to be imparted to women by the reading of Scripture, considering this instance of the great confidence Christ reposed in this woman by His manifestation of Himself. The abuse of the Scriptures and the sin of heresies, did not proceed from the simplicity of women, but from the conceited learning of men.”
In leaving the whole passage, there are several striking points which ought never to be forgotten. (a.) Our Lord’s mercy is remarkable. That such an one as He should deal so graciously with such a sinner is a striking fact. (b.) Our Lord’s wisdom is remarkable. How wise was every step of His way in dealing with this sinful soul! (c.) Our Lord’s patience is remarkable. How He bore with the woman’s ignorance, and what trouble He took to lead her to knowledge! (d.) Our Lord’s power is remarkable. What a complete victory He won at last! How almighty must that grace be which could soften and convert such a carnal and wicked heart!
We must never despise any soul, after reading this passage. None can be worse than this woman. But Christ did not despise her.
We must never despair of any soul, after reading this passage. If this woman was converted, any one may be converted.
Finally, we must never contemn the use of all wise and reasonable means in dealing with souls. There is a “wisdom which is profitable to direct” in approaching ignorant and ungodly people, which must be diligently sought. (Ecc 10:10; Pro 2:1-7; Luk 11:9; Jam 1:5.)
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Joh 4:7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. By Samaria here we are of course to understand the country not the city of Samaria. The woman belonged to Sychar; by race and religion she was a Samaritan, and it is to this fact, as is shown by the preposition employed in the original, that the Evangelist would direct our special attention. It was very natural that she should come at this time to draw water at the well; but from the narrative that follows it seems probable that something more than the excellence of the water drew her to it day by day. One so strongly imbued with the ancient traditions of her countrymen could not but turn with deepest interest to Jacobs well.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. How all our motions and actions are under the direction and Government of God, and how divine providence doth sometimes dispose of small matters to become occassions of great good. This poor woman’s coming to the well to draw water, became the means of her conversion.
Observe, 2. Christ speaks to, and seeks after this poor woman, before she takes any notice of him; God is found of that seek him not, and makes himself manifest to them that enquire not after him. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.
Observe, 3. The great poverty of our Lord’s outward condition, he wanted a draught of water for his refreshment, and a meal’s meat now at dinner-time, to refresh his wearied nature.
Oh! what a contempt did Christ cast upon the world when he was here in it! He would not honour it so far as to keep any part of it in his own hand.
Yet observe, 4. That though Christ had neither house nor land, nor money of his own, yet he lived not by begging, or upon mere alms. The disciples were now gone into the city to buy, not to beg meat: for there was a bag which required a bearer, Joh 12:6 And our Saviour’s friends and followers supplied him with money for his necessary occasions: His disciples were gone to buy bread,
Observe lastly, How bitter is the enmity which differences in religion, and diversities of opinions do occasion; they do not only alienate affections, but even violate the bonds of civil society and common conversation. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans; would neither eat nor drink with them.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 4:7-8. There cometh At the very juncture of time; a woman of Samaria to draw water The providence of God so ordering it, that she might have an opportunity of hearing the truth, in order to her salvation. Jesus With a view to introduce a discourse which he graciously intended should be the means of her conversion; saith to her, Give me to drink And it is remarkable, that in this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the apostles were so long in attaining. For his disciples were gone unto the city Otherwise they might have assisted him to get water, and he would not have needed to have asked her.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 7-9. A woman of Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give me to drink. 8. For his disciples had gone to the city to buy food. 9. The Samaritan woman therefore says to him: How is it that thou, being a Jew, dost ask drink of me who am a Samaritan woman. (For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.)
How was it that this woman came so far to seek water, and at such an hour? She had undoubtedly been working in the fields, and was coming to draw water on her return to her home at the hour of dinner (see at Joh 4:15). It has been thought that this feature suits an evening hour better, since that is ordinarily the hour when the women go to the well. But in that case this woman would undoubtedly not have been found here alone (Meyer, Weiss).
The objective phrase: of Samaria, depends on the word woman, and not on the verb comes; for, in the latter case, Samaria would mean the city of that name; an impossible meaning, since that city was situated three leagues to the northeast. The request of Jesus must be understood in the most simple sense, and regarded as serious. There is no allegory in it; He is really thirsty; this follows from the word wearied. But this does not prevent Him, in beginning a conversation with the woman, from obeying another necessity than that of thirstnamely, of saving (Joh 4:32; Joh 4:34). He is not unaware that the way to gain a soul is often to ask a service of it; there is thus conceded to it a kind of superiority which flatters it. The effect of this little word was great; it began to overturn the wall which had for ages separated the two peoples, says Lange. The remark of Joh 4:8 is intended to explain that, if the disciples had been present, they would have had a vessel, an , to let down into the well. Indeed, in the East, every caravan is provided with a bucket for drawing from the wells which appear on the road (see Joh 4:11). This explanation given by the evangelist, proves the complete reality, in his view, of the need which called forth the request of Jesus. There is no longer here anything of docetism! Does the expression, the disciples, denote all the disciples without exception? Might not one of them, John, for example, have remained with Jesus? It would be strange enough that Jesus should have been left there, absolutely alone, in the midst of a hostile population; and twelve men were not necessary to procure provisions! Meyer’s prudery is offended at such a simple supposition, and Reuss goes so far as to say: The luminous idea has been formed of leaving John at the place to take notes. The Jewish doctors said: He who eats bread with a Samaritan is as he who eats swine’s flesh. This prohibition, however, was not absolute; it did not apply either to fruits or to vegetables. As to corn and wine, we are ignorant. Uncooked eggs were allowed; whether cooked, was a question (Hausrath, Neutest. Zeitgesch., I., p. 22). It is proved, however, that the most strict Rabbinical regulations belong to a later epoch.
How did the Samaritan woman recognize Jesus as a Jew. By His dress or His accent? Stier has observed that in some words which Jesus had just spoken the letter occurred, which, according to Jdg 12:6, distinguished the two pronunciations, the Jewish (sch), and the Samaritan (s); (teni lischechoth; Samaritan: lisechoth).The last words ( ) are a remark of the evangelist, with a view to his Gentile readers who might be unacquainted with the origin of the Samaritan people (2Ki 17:24 ff.). It was a mixture of five nations transported from the East by Esarhaddon to re-people the kingdom of Samaria, the inhabitants of which his predecessor had removed. To the worship of their national gods, they united that of the divinity of the country, Jehovah. After the return from the Babylonish captivity, they offered the Jews their services for the rebuilding of the temple. Being rejected, they used all their influence with the kings of Persia, to hinder the re-establishment of the Jewish people. They built for themselves a temple on Mount Gerizim. Their first priest was Manasseh, a Jewish priest who had married a Persian wife. They were more detested by the Jews than the Gentiles themselves were. Samaritan proselytes were not received. It has been thought that the woman, in frolicsomeness, exaggerated somewhat the consequences of the hostility between the two peoples, and that in submitting to Jesus this insignificant question, she wished to enjoy for a moment the superiority which her position gave her. This shade of thought does not appear from the text. The Samaritan woman naively expresses her surprise.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
It was unusual for a woman to come to draw water alone and to come in the heat of the day. Perhaps this woman’s morality led her to shun the company of other women and to seek solitude at the expense of comfort (cf. Joh 4:18). Normally Jesus’ disciples would have drawn the water. Jesus evidently asked the woman for a drink because she was drawing water and to initiate conversation with her. Strict Jews would not have purchased food from Samaritans as Jesus’ disciples were attempting to do. Their willingness to do so may reflect Jesus’ looser views on ceremonial defilement. By "looser" I do not meant that Jesus viewed the Mosaic Law more loosely than He should have but more loosely than most of the Pharisees did.