Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:19
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
19. a prophet ] One divinely inspired with supernatural knowledge, 1Sa 9:9. Note the gradual change in her attitude of mind towards Him. First, off-hand pertness ( Joh 4:9); then, respect to His gravity of manner and serious words ( Joh 4:11); next, a misunderstanding belief in what He says ( Joh 4:15); and now, reverence for Him as a ‘man of God.’ Comp. the parallel development of faith in the man born blind (see on Joh 9:11) and in Martha (see on Joh 11:21).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A prophet – One sent from God, and who understood her life. The word here does not denote one who foretells future events, but one who knew her heart and life, and who must therefore have come from God. She did not yet suppose him to be the Messiah, Joh 4:25. Believing him now to be a man sent from God, she proposed to him a question respecting the proper place of worship. This point had been long a matter of dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews. She submitted it to him because she thought he could settle the question, and perhaps because she wished to divert the conversation from the unpleasant topic respecting her husbands. The conversation about her manner of life was a very unpleasant topic to her – as it is always unpleasant to sinners to talk about their lives and the necessity of religion – and she was glad to turn the conversation to something else. Nothing is more common than for sinners to change the conversation when it begins to bear too hard upon their consciences; and no way of doing it is more common than to direct it to sonic speculative inquiry having some sort of connection with religion, as if to show that they are willing to talk about religion, and do not wish to appear to be opposed to it. Sinners do not love direct religious conversation, but many are too well-bred to refuse altogether to talk about it; yet they choose to converse about some speculative matter, or something pertaining to the mere externals of religion, rather than the salvation of their own souls. So sinners often now change the conversation to some inquiry about a preacher, or about some doctrine, or about building or repairing a place of worship, or about a Sunday school, in order to seeM to talk about religion, and yet to evade close and faithful appeals to their own consciences.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 4:19
Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet
Personal preaching
General discourses are like the beams of the sun dispersed in the air; they may warm us a little, but that is all.
Conviction is like a burning glass, that gathers all the beams into one point or centre, and fastens them upon the soul, and so kindles and inflames it It is not the flourishing or brandishing of a sword in the air that will wound or pierce, but the stroke of the weapon must be brought home to the body, or no wound will be given While Nathan kept aloof in a general discourse and told him a parable, David was never troubled with the sense of his sin, never suspected it concerned him; but when he closed with him and told him, Thou art the man, then Davids heart smote him; he cries out of his sin, and sues for mercy This is the preaching that Solomon commends, The words of the wise are like goads, that must be run into the flesh, as nails driven up to the head, fastened and riveted into the soul of a sinner Ecc 12:10-11; Act 2:37; Col 1:28; Heb 4:12). (Bp. Brownrig.)
Sinners avoid the truth
I could not help smiling as I read the next passage. She is making a wild attempt to get away, to get off the hook. She tries to draw a red-herring across the scent by bringing up that old religious squabble. Just like you: you will go home, some of you, and take me to dinner, while I call God and your conscience to witness that I have struck you between the eyes. Yes, you will talk about me, not about your sin; you will come near to calling me coarse, thou coarsest sinner out of hell, that lovest thy sin! Have a care, my friend. (John McNeill.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. I perceive that thou art a prophet.] And therefore thought him well qualified to decide the grand question in dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans: but she did not perceive him to be the Messiah.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Whose office is to reveal the will of God, and to whom God revealeth secret things; one to whom the Lord maketh known himself in a vision, and speaketh in a dream, Num 12:6. The womans reply seemeth to signify both. Her acknowledgment of Christ as a prophet, upon his telling her secret things, justifieth her looking upon him as one to whom God revealed things not known ordinarily to men; and this report of her meaning appeareth by what she said Joh 4:29, to her fellow citizens, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did; but the following verse, in which she entereth into a discourse with our Saviour about the controversy betwixt the Jews and the Samaritans about worship, lets us know that she looked upon him as a prophet in the more ordinary sense as prophet signifies one influenced by God to reveal his mind and will unto men; and indeed there was no prophet in the former sense, but was also in the latter; though there were many prophets in the latter sense, sent of God, and enabled to reveal the will of God unto men, who were not influenced so far as to foretell things to come. The difference betwixt a hypocrite and one truly brought to a sense of sin, is very conspicuous in the example of this woman; she doth not deny her sin, as Cain, Gehazi, and Ananias and Sapphira; neither doth she discover any anger upon the discovery of it, as the scribes and Pharisees, the wicked princes of Israel and Judah, and Herod did; neither doth she go about to excuse or mitigate her sin; but she applies herself to Christ as a prophet, to teach her what to do. The example also of this woman informs us what use we ought to make of prophets, to guide us into the right way, and faithfully to acquaint us with the will of God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19, 20. Sir, I perceive,c.Seeing herself all revealed, does she now break down and askwhat hopes there might be for one so guilty? Nay, her convictionshave not reached that point yet. She ingeniously shifts the subjectfrom a personal to a public question. It is not, “Alas, what awicked life am I leading!” but “Lo, what a wonderfulprophet I got into conversation with! He will be able to settle thatinterminable dispute between us and the Jews. Sir, you must know allabout such mattersour fathers hold to this mountain here,”pointing to Gerizim in Samaria, “as the divinelyconsecrated place of worship, but ye Jews say that Jerusalemis the proper placewhich of us is right?” How slowly does thehuman heart submit to thorough humiliation! (Compare theprodigal see on Lu 15:15).Doubtless our Lord saw through the fetch; but does He say, “Thatquestion is not the point just now, but have you been living in theway described, yea or nay? Till this is disposed of I cannot be drawninto theological controversies.” The Prince of preachers takesanother method: He humors the poor woman, letting her take her ownway, allowing her to lead while He followsbut thus only the moreeffectually gaining His object. He answers her question, pours lightinto her mind on the spirituality of all true worship, as ofits glorious Object, and so brings her insensibly to the point atwhich He could disclose to her wondering mind whom she was all thewhile speaking to.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The woman saith unto him, Sir,…. With another countenance, and a different air and gesture, with another accent and tone of speech, dropping her scoffs and jeers:
I perceive that thou art a prophet; such an one as Samuel was, who could tell Saul what was in his heart, and that his father’s asses were found, and where they were, 1Sa 9:19; and as Elisha, whose heart went with his servant Gehazi, when Naaman turned to him to meet him, and give him presents; and who could tell, ere the king’s messenger came to him, that the son of a murderer had sent to take away his head, 2Ki 5:26. And such a prophet, that had such a spirit of discerning, this woman took Christ to be; and who indeed is greater than a prophet, and is the omniscient God; who knows all men’s hearts, thoughts, words and actions, and needs not that any should testify of them to him; for he knows what is in them, and done by them; and can tell them all that ever they did, as he did this woman, Joh 4:29. Now in order either to shift off the discourse from this subject, which touched her to the quick; or else being truly sensible of her sin, and willing to reform, and for the future to worship God in the place and manner he had directed, she addressed Christ in the following words.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Sir (). So still.
I perceive (). “I am beginning to perceive” from what you say, your knowledge of my private life (verse 29). See 2:23 for which John’s Gospel has 23 times, of bodily sight (John 20:6; John 20:14), of mental contemplation (John 12:45; John 14:17). See both and in John 1:51; John 16:16.
That thou art a prophet ( ). “That a prophet art thou” (emphasis on “thou”). She felt that this was the explanation of his knowledge of her life and she wanted to change the subject at once to the outstanding theological dispute.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I perceive [] . See on 1 18. Not immediate perception, but rather, I perceive as I observe thee longer and more carefully.
A prophet. See on Luk 7:26. The order is a prophet art thou; the emphasis being on prophet.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “The woman saith unto him,” (legei auto he gene) “The woman (then) replied to him,” with a perception of His Divine disclosure of her real standing before God.
2) “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” (kurietheoro hoti prophetes ei su) “Sir, I conclude that you are a prophet,” for He knew all men, Joh 2:24, and what is in man, every man, 1Sa 16:7; Mat 9:4; Joh 16:30.
If one hear not the law and the prophets, or Him who came to fulfill them, he would not repent or believe, though one came crying to him from the dead, Luk 16:30-31; Joh 8:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. Sir, I perceive that thou art a Prophet. The fruit of the reproof now becomes evident; for not only does the woman modestly acknowledge her fault, but, being ready and prepared to listen to the doctrine of Christ, which she had formerly disdained, she now desires and requests it of her own accord. Repentance, therefore, is the commencement of true docility, as I have already said, and opens the gate for entering into the school of Christ. Again, the woman teaches us by her example, that when we meet with any teacher, we ought to avail ourselves of this opportunity, that we may not be ungrateful to God, who never sends Prophets to us without, as it were, stretching out the hand to invite us to himself. But we must remember what Paul teaches, that they who have grace given to them to teach well (77) are sent to us by God; for
how shall they preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:15.)
(77) “ Qui ont la grace de bien enseigner.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
TRUE WORSHIPPERS OF GOD
Text 4:19-26
19
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.
22
Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
23
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.
24
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
25
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things.
26
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Queries
a.
Why did the woman ask about the place of worship?
b.
How is salvation from the Jews?
c.
What is worship in spirit and truth?
Paraphrase
The woman then said to Him, Sir, I can see that You are a prophet. Our forefathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship, Jesus says to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You Samaritans are worshipping what you do not know. We are worshipping what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour comes, in fact that hour has arrived, when the genuine worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking just such people as these to be worshippers of Him. God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman says to Him, I understand that Messiah is coming, the One called Christ, and when He has come He will declare plainly to us everything we need to know. Jesus said to her, I, the One speaking to you, am He!
Summary
Jesus takes a definite side in a religious controversy. The worship of the Samaritans is condemned because it is contrary to Gods revealed truth. Worship of the One True God must be in spirit and truth.
Comment
Undoubtedly the woman was visibly shocked. It is characteristically human to try to justify ones sins or change the subject. Notice that this woman does not deny what Jesus has revealed concerning her life. She realizes that Jesus must have some supernatural powerin fact, she thinks Him to be a prophet!
There are two popular interpretations of the motives behind the womans interjection of the question about the proper place of worship: (a) some believe the woman to have asked the question because she was intensely interested in the question, while others hold that (b) she was still evading the very embarrassing subject of her sins. When Jesus had before asked her to call her husband she deftly evaded the truth and said, I have no husband. Thus the second interpretation seems to be the most plausible. It is possible, however, that she would also be interested in the proper place to worship.
By saying, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, she evidently refers to the erection of the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim nearly 400 years before her time. However, she may also be referring to the fact that Jacob built altars at Shechem (which was practically on the slopes of Gerizim) (cf. Gen. 33:20). Of course, the Samaritans would be constantly preached to by the Jews that the scriptural place of worship was in the Temple at Jerusalem.
According to the Old Testament Scriptures, which were even then the rule of faith and practice for Gods people, there was only ONE place of worship. Moses legislated that there was to be just ONE acceptable altar (cf. Deu. 12:1-14). Later the tribes east of the Jordan (Gad, Reuben and Manasseh) built their own altar, but they made it plain they did not intend to erect an altar upon which to sacrifice (Jos. 22:1-34). Still later, in the time of Hezekiah, Judah is reminded of the ONE place to worship God (cf. 2Ki. 18:22; 2Ch. 32:12; Isa. 36:7).
But, according to Jesus in Joh. 4:21, the time is coming when it will not be a question of the proper place. The time is coming when God will break down the middle wall of partition, and abolish . . . the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that all who seek to worship God may have access in one Spirit unto the Father.
For the present, however, He reminds her (Joh. 4:22) that the Samaritan people are worshipping in ignorance. On the other hand, the Jews are worshipping that which they know. This is strikingly true when we realize the Samaritans only recognized the first five books of the Old Testament as authoritative. How could the Samaritans know of the prophetic promises concerning salvation from the Jews through Gods suffering Servant? How could they know the devotion and prophecies of the Psalms? That salvation comes exclusively from the Jews is abundantly verified in practically all the prophetical books.
Jesus does not mean to say in Joh. 4:23 that at that moment it was permissible to worship God anywhere. He uses the phrase the hour is coming, and now is, because in His mind the future is already perfected, (cf. also Joh. 5:25; Joh. 16:32). In just a few short months He will have fulfilled the Law, and the veil in the Temple will have been rent from top to bottom (Mat. 27:51), and the hour will have come when men will no longer be required to worship at ONE place.
What does Jesus mean by worshipping in spirit and truth? What has He just been explaining to the woman? It is that (a) the time will soon come when place makes no difference and (b) the Samaritans are wrong because they worship in opposition to revealed truth. Thus, to worship in spirit and truth is (a) to make it a matter of the heart, the will, the spirit and the emotion and not merely a matter of physical atmosphere, and, (b) to worship in accordance with the revealed will of God in the New Testament. Some believers have over-emphasized one or the other, spirit or truth, and such unbalanced worship is wrong. Any worship which is contrary to what is revealed in the New Testament is divisive and disobedient. It is true that mere formalism is as surely an abomination before God.
William Barclay makes the following lucid remarks in his commentary, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1, pages 152154:
1. A false worship selects what it wishes to know and understand about God, and omits what is does not wish. One of the most dangerous things in the world is a one-sided religion.
2. A false worship is an ignorant worship . . . In the last analysis religion is never safe until a man can tell, not only what he believes, but why he believes it.
3. A false worship is a superstitious worship. It is a worship given, not out of a sense of need nor out of any real desire, but basically because a man feels that it might be dangerous not to give it . . . There is too much religion which is a kind of superstitious ritual to avert the possible wrath of the unpredictable gods.
If God is Spirit, God is not confined to things; . . . if God is Spirit, God is not confined to places; . . . if God is Spirit, a mans gift to God must be gifts of the spirit . . . True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.
God has always yearned for heart-felt worship that is according to truth from His people. He has always abhorred ritualism and formalism, and has sought willing and obedient worship (cf. Isaiah, chapter one). Paul says essentially this same thing in Php. 3:3 and Rom. 2:28-29.
What would a Samaritan know of the Messiah? Josephus, the Jewish historian, seems to indicate there was a vague messianic expectation among the Samaritans (The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus, 18:4:1). They were not so far removed from the Jewish nation that they could not be well aware of the general teaching of the Prophets through what little intercourse they had between themselves.
The woman has had her thirst aroused for living water. She wants to know how she may overcome her sin and be cleansed. So, she says, When Messiah is come, He shall reveal these things to me. She has recognized Jesus as a prophet, but not yet as The Prophet the Messiah.
Jesus, knowing she has now come to a realization of her need and is, in fact, yearning for the One who can supply that need, declares Himself to be the Living Water . . . the Gift of God . . . the Messiah.
What did the woman do? Evidently she did not say anything more to Jesus, but rushed into town, forgetting her water-jar to spread the good news (cf. Joh. 4:28).
Quiz
1.
What motive do you think the woman had for asking the question about the proper place of worship (Joh. 4:20)?
2.
Who were correct according to the Old Testament the Jews or the Samaritans? Why?
3.
Why were the Samaritans worshipping in ignorance?
4.
When did the hour come that Gods people were no longer required to worship in one place?
5.
What is worshipping in spirit and truth?
6.
Name three characteristics of false religion.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(19) But who can it be who thus enters her mind and reads the pages of her memory as if it were a book? He must be as one of those of olden time of whom she has heard. The tone of reverence prevails again, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Sir art a prophet Confessing thereby her own sins, and acknowledging him as a divine guide.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 4:19 ‘The woman says to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.”
Joh 4:20 “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
Her next comment reveals that she clearly felt that between Him and her there could be little agreement. They disagreed on crucial points. He could really have nothing to say to her. She believed that God revealed Himself on Mount Gerizim, and that they should worship God there. He would insist that that was not so and that she should worship in Jerusalem. Had He anything to say that could give her a new perspective?
In accordance with Samaritan teaching, and the Samaritan Scriptures, Samaritans were told that it was at Mount Gerizim that God had revealed Himself, and that that was the place towards which they ought to turn. For in the Samaritan Pentateuch Genesis 22 and Deu 27:4 had been altered to refer to Mount Gerizim. This then, to them, was the place where God had chosen (past tense in the Samaritan Pentateuch) to put His name (Deu 5:12). But this was in stark contrast to the Jews who saw Jerusalem as the central place of worship and the place where mediation with God should take place. For as far as they were concerned Jerusalem was the central place of worship to which all should come, and apart from which there could be no sacrifices. So if she sought this living water would she have to become a Jew and worship at Jerusalem? The thought was totally unacceptable.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
A question as to true worship:
v. 19. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.
v. 20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
v. 21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
v. 22. Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.
v. 23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
v. 24. God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The revelation which Jesus had just made astonished and disconcerted the woman. She had probably never given the matter of her loose living a serious thought, since the marriage-tie at that time was considered anything but binding. Yet Christ’s way of putting it in such a naked, unvarnished way struck her conscience with peculiar force. Her words were therefore a confession of guilt, though veiled to some extent. She states, first of all, that she now understood and had the conviction; I see that a prophet Thou art. His knowledge of her sins compelled this admission; But she is sensitive upon the subject and would rather not go into details. Not that she was not conscious of guilt, for she had already shown some degree of longing for salvation. Her question rather showed how deeply she was moved. Since this man was a prophet with the Spirit of omniscience, he would surely be able to give the solution of the standing problem of Samaritan religion, one which had now been bothering them for almost six centuries. She wanted to know where the living God was to be found and which was the true worship. She knew that forgiveness was to be found only with the living God. It was the question of a serious seeker after truth. The Samaritans had for centuries worshiped their god, whom they also called Jehovah, on Mount Gerizim, which was situated near Shechem and Sychar. There had formerly been a fine temple on this mountain, which, however, the Jewish ruler Hyrcanus had destroyed in the year 125 B. C. Since that time the temple had not been completely restored, the Samaritans being satisfied to worship in the ruins. But, on the other hand, as the woman correctly states, the Jews claimed that Jerusalem was the only place where people should worship, Exo 20:24; Deu 12:5; Num 9:5; Deu 16:3-6. Now she wanted to know who was right, the Samaritans or the Jews. The Lord answers with one of the greatest and most far-reaching announcements of all times, earnestly inviting the woman, at the same time, to give full credence to His weighty words. The time was coming, was even now dawning, when the old earthly, outwardly visible forms of worship would no longer be reckoned as essential. Both places of the Old Testament cults, that of Mount Gerizim and that of Jerusalem, would then be forsaken. This took place shortly after Christ’s ascension. Then the apostles went out and founded a great many congregations, not only in Judea, but also in Samaria. Then the Samaritans that came to faith deserted Mount Gerizim and worshiped the true God in Jesus Christ the Savior. Incidentally, however, Jesus states that there is a difference, even now, though this difference lay not in the place, but in the object of worship. The Samaritan religion had received so many additions through the influence of the heathen religions that the, God whom they still designated as Jehovah was in reality a figment of their imagination, just as the gods are which are worshiped by the lodges of the present day. He that rejects any part of the revelation of God will very shortly lose all light, all understanding. With the Jews it was different. They knew the true, living God. To the Jews God had revealed Himself not only in the Law, in the five Books of Moses, but also in the prophecies. All the books of. the Old Testament were read and explained in the synagogues, and the true Israelites, accordingly, worshiped the true God. The services in Jerusalem were still the right services, as commanded by God. And the reason for this mercy of God, the reason why He had permitted them to keep the right form of worship in Jerusalem, was because by His will and intention salvation was to come from the Jews. The Messiah Himself was a Jew according to the flesh. When salvation had come, when Christ had fully earned the salvation through suffering, death, and resurrection, then the special time of grace for Israel alone was at an end, then salvation was preached throughout the world. With the coming of Christ the hour of God had come in which the external worship of God at Jerusalem must give way to the true service of God. Then those that worship and pray in truth would pray to the Father in spirit and in truth. Jesus purposely calls the true God Father, for He is now the Father of all believers through the merits of the Savior, His Son. All true believers call upon that God whom they know as their merciful Father, who is reconciled to them through the blood of Christ. The New Testament worship is not dependent upon external forms, sacrifices of animals, prescribed forms of altars and appointments, etc. , but is done in the spirit; it depends upon the condition of heart and mind. And it is done in truth, it is the only true, stable, sound method of worshiping. The Father is anxious to have such people as worship and serve Him in this manner, as give Him evidence of the religion of Christ in their hearts, for He Himself is a spirit. God is an invisible being, with reason and will, with self-consciousness and power; He is a personal God. And in accordance with His person He wants to be worshiped in spirit and in truth. He that will worship God properly must direct his spirit, heart, mind, thoughts to Him, must deal with Him and speak with Him as one person with another. That intimate personal intercourse, without any intervening priesthood, that direct dealing of the believer with his heavenly Father, is a characteristic of the New Testament worship. Only believers can therefore truly pray. Such as have no knowledge of, and no belief in, the reconciliation of mankind through the blood of Jesus have no communication with God. Note: We have in these words of Jesus a glorious revelation concerning the true God as the Father of the believers through the reconciliation made by His Son. Through such messages the Lord intends to awaken and strengthen faith in the hearts of all men and trust in God as their true Father.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Joh 4:19. I perceive that thou art a prophet. To find a person who was a perfect stranger, and who, on account of the national animosity, could not be suspected of having any intercourse with her townsmen, or with the Samaritans in general, discovering, nevertheless, the most secret particulars of her life; made so sensible an impression on her mind, that she could not but confess such a degree of knowledge more than natural; and, consequently, that the person possessed of it was a prophet, and had it communicated to him by divine inspiration. It is worth our while to trace the gradual progress of this woman’s conviction: she at first gives him the appellation of a Jew only; she then wonders that he should so far have laid aside the prejudice of his nation, as to ask a favour of a Samaritan; she next calls him Sir or Lord; she then acknowledges his prophetic character; and, in consequence of that persuasion, proposes for his decision one of the most important questions in dispute between the two nations. When the Pharisees were reproved by our Lord for their hypocrisy, they furiously rejoined, He was a Samaritan, and had a devil; but when the Samaritan woman heard her most secret sins thus discovered, shewas so far from recriminating, that she cries out, Lord, I perceive thou art a prophet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 4:19-20 . The woman now discerns in Jesus the man of God endowed with higher knowledge, a prophet , [190] and puts to Him accordingly perhaps also to leave no further room for the unpleasant mention of the circumstances of her life which had been thus unveiled the national religious question ever in dispute; a question which does not, indeed, imply a presentiment of the superiority of the Jews’ religion (Ewald), but one, the decision of which might be expected from such a prophet as she now deemed Him to be. The great national interest in this question (see Josephus, Antt . xiii. 3. 4) is sufficient to remove any apparent improbability attaching to it as coming from the lips of this morally frivolous woman (against Strauss, B. Bauer). Luthardt thinks that she now wished to go in prayer for the forgiveness of her sins to the holy place appointed, and only desires to know where? on Gerizim or in Jerusalem. But she has not arrived at this stage yet; she does not give any intimation of this, she does not call the place a place of expiation (this also against Lange); and Jesus, in His answer, gives no hint to that effect. Her seeking after religious information is still theoretical merely, laying hold upon a matter of popular controversy, naive, without any depth of personal anxiety, as also without any thought about the fundamental difference between the two nations, which Hengstenberg attributes to her as a representative of the Samaritans, one who first wished to remove the stumbling-block between the nations; see Joh 4:25 .
] , Chrysostom.
. ] As stands opposed, we must not go back to Abraham and Jacob (according to a tradition based upon Gen 12:6 ff; Gen 13:4 ; Gen 33:20 ), as Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, and many others, even Kuinoel and Baumgarten Crusius, do; we must simply take the reference to be to the ancestors of the Samaritans as far back as the building of the temple on Mount Gerizim in the time of Nehemiah.
] pointing to Gerizim, between which and Ebal the town of Sychem (and Sychar) lay. The temple there had already been destroyed by John Hyrcanus; but the site itself, which Moses had already fixed as that wherein the blessings of the law were to be spoken (Deu 11:29 ; Deu 27:12-13 ), was still held sacred by the people (comp. Josephus, Antt . xviii. 4. 1; Bell . iii. 7. 32), especially also on account of Deu 27:4 (where the Samaritan text has instead of ), and is so even at the present day. See Robinson, III. p. 319 ff.; Ritter, Erdk . XVI. p. 638 ff.; Abulfathi, Annab. Samar. arab. ed ., Vilmar, 1865, Proleg. 4. Concerning the ruins on the top of the mountain, see especially Bargs, as before, p. 107 ff.
[190] Comp. 1Sa 9:9 ; in Greek and Latin writers: Hom. Il . i. 70; Hesiod, Theog . 38; Virgil, Georg . iv. 392; Macrobius, Sat . i. 20. 5.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Ver. 19. Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet ] To the “hidden man of the heart,” 1Pe 3:4 , the plain song ever makes the best music. The Corinthian idiot, convinced of all, and having the secrets of his heart ripped up by the two-edged sword, “falls down upon his face worshipping God,” and reporteth that “God is in the ministers of a truth,” 1Co 14:24-25 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19. ] In speaking this her conviction, she virtually confesses all the truth. That she should pass to another subject immediately, seems, as Stier remarks (iv. 125, edn. 2), to arise, not from a wish to turn the conversation from a matter so unpleasing to her, but from a real desire to obtain from this Prophet the teaching requisite that she may pray to God acceptably. The idea of her endeavouring to escape from the Lord’s rebuke , is quite inconsistent with her recognition of Him as a prophet. Rather we may suppose a pause, which makes it evident that He does not mean to proceed further with His laying open of her character.
Obs., not (Wordsw.), but , is the word of primary emphasis. has the secondary emphasis, by its very expression .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:19 . The woman at once recognises this knowledge of her life as evidence of a supernatural endowment. . Cf. Joh 4:29 and Joh 2:24 . is used in its post-classical sense. It is not unnatural that the woman finding herself in the presence of a prophet should seek His solution of the standing problem of Samaritan religion. His answer would shed further light on his prophetic endowment, and would also determine whether He had any light and hope to give to a Samaritan. Josephus ( Antiq. , xiii. 3, 4) narrates that a disputation on this point before Ptolemy Philometor resulted in the death according to contract of the two Samaritan advocates, they not being able to prove their position.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
I perceive. Greek. thebreo. App-133. See The Didache xi. Joh 4:5; and Compare Joh 4:42 here.
prophet. See App-49.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
19.] In speaking this her conviction, she virtually confesses all the truth. That she should pass to another subject immediately, seems, as Stier remarks (iv. 125, edn. 2), to arise, not from a wish to turn the conversation from a matter so unpleasing to her, but from a real desire to obtain from this Prophet the teaching requisite that she may pray to God acceptably. The idea of her endeavouring to escape from the Lords rebuke, is quite inconsistent with her recognition of Him as a prophet. Rather we may suppose a pause, which makes it evident that He does not mean to proceed further with His laying open of her character.
Obs., not (Wordsw.), but , is the word of primary emphasis. has the secondary emphasis, by its very expression.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:19. , I perceive) from Thy knowledge about the most secret things.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:19
Joh 4:19
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.-The promptness of the confession shows the candor and readiness of the woman to accept the truth. His bearing and conversation, although she failed to take in the points of his instruction, had impressed her with his sincerity and high character. When he showed his knowledge of her past life, she saw and owned he was a prophet. This was the same kind of testimony he used to convince Nathanael. (Joh 1:43-50). He knew things without learning them in the ordinary way, and it at once directed the womans mind to the subject of worship, and, as he was a Jew, to the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I perceive: Joh 4:29, Joh 1:48, Joh 1:49, 2Ki 5:26, 2Ki 6:12, Luk 7:39, 1Co 14:24, 1Co 14:25
a prophet: Joh 6:14, Joh 7:40, Joh 9:17, Luk 7:16, Luk 24:19
Reciprocal: Joh 15:15 – all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9
By a prophet the woman meant that Jesus possessed superhuman knowledge, and as such he belonged in the rank of Biblical persons who could interpret spiritual matters. She was convinced of this by what He said concerning her domestic life. To use popular language, she was secretly living with a man “to whom she was not married.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 4:19. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Nothing can be more misleading than the idea that she is seeking to turn the conversation from an unwelcome subject, or to lead it to other topics than herself. Her answer is rather a fresh illustration of her inquiring and earnest character, notwithstanding all the sinfulness of her life. When her delighted wonder has found expression in her immediate acknowledgment, Sir, I behold that thou art a prophet, she eagerly lays before Him a question which to her was of all questions the most important.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
In these verses, the Evangelist declares a three-fold effect and fruit of the grace of conversion that appeared in this woman.
1. She neither denied, nor excused, nor extenuated this sin, which Christ had charged her with, but tacitly owns, and implicitly confesses it.
2. She doth not only own and confess what she was charged with, but she doth profess reverence to our Saviour’s person, and pays honour to him as an extraordinary prophet; Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
3. She desired instruction and resolution from him concerning the worship and serivces of the true God, how she might seek him, and where she might serve him most acceptably, whether at Jerusalem, or upon Mount Gerizim? Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but ye say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Where observe, How ready and forward persons of a false religion are to ascribe too much to antiquity, and to the example and custom of their forefathers. Whereas it is not the continuance of a thousand or two thousand years, that can make any thing truly ancient in religion, except it has been from the beginning; nothing is truly ancient in matters of religion, but that which can derive its original from him, that is truly called the Ancient of days.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 4:19-20. The woman saith, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet To find a person who was a perfect stranger, and who, on account of the national animosity, could not be suspected of having any intercourse with her townsmen, or with the Samaritans in general, discovering, nevertheless, the most secret particulars of her life, made so sensible an impression on her mind, that she could not but confess such a degree of knowledge more than natural; and consequently, that the person possessed of it was a prophet, and had it communicated to him by divine inspiration. Our fathers worshipped, &c. The instant she perceived that the person conversing with her was a prophet, being glad of the opportunity, and perhaps, also, desiring to shift the discourse to a subject less disagreeable to her, she proposes what she thought the most important of all questions; Our fathers worshipped on this mountain As if she had said, True, I have been a sinful woman, and have not worshipped and served God as I ought, but if I wished to worship and serve him, I know not where I ought to do it, whether on this mountain, (pointing, probably, to mount Gerizim, at the foot of which Sychar was built,) as the Samaritans say, or in Jerusalem, which you Jews affirm to be the only place where God can be acceptably worshipped. It is well known, and necessary to be recollected here, that Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon mount Gerizim, for Manasseh his son-in-law, who, for marrying Sanballats daughter, had been expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Neh 13:28. This was the place where the Samaritans used to worship, in opposition to Jerusalem. The woman, in saying, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob, (from whom the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy,) who erected altars in this place, Gen 12:6-7; and Gen 33:18; Gen 33:20; and possibly to the whole congregation, who were directed, when they came into the land of Canaan, to put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, Deu 11:29. And though Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, who succeeded his father as high-priest, and prince of the Jews, had long ago destroyed the temple which Sanballat built here, (Jos. Antiq., Joh 13:9,) yet it is plain that the Samaritans still resorted thither to worship, having, doubtless, rebuilt it, though probably in a meaner manner.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 19, 20. The woman says to him: Sir, I see that thou art a prophet. 20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain;and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Some see in this question of the woman only an attempt to turn aside the disturbance of her conscience, a woman’s ruse (de Wette) with the design of escaping from a painful subject. She diverts attention from her own life by proposing a point of controversy (Astie). But would Jesus reply, as He does, to a question proposed in such a spirit? Besser and Luthardt go to the opposite extreme: This question is, in their view, the indication of a tortured conscience, which, sighing for pardon, desires to know the true sanctuary to which it can go to make expiation for its faults. This is still more forced. Reuss, with an irony which assails the evangelist himself, says: If she asks the question thus, it is only for the purpose of bringing out the declaration of the Lord which we are about to read. Westcott says rightly: Here is the very natural inquiry of a soul which finds itself face to face with an interpreter of the divine will. This woman has recognized in Jesus a prophet; she has at the same time found in Him largeness of heart.
The two answers, Joh 4:17; Joh 4:19, have proved that, notwithstanding her faults, she is not altogether wanting in right character. It follows even from Joh 4:25 that religious thoughts are not strange to her, that she is looking for the Messiah and that she waits to receive from Him the explanation of the questions which embarrass her. The fact of a Jewish prophet, present before her eyes, inspires her with doubts as to the religious claim of her nation. Is it not an altogether simple thing, that, in her present situation, after her conscience has been so profoundly moved, her thoughts should turn to the great religious question which separates the two peoples, and that she should ask the solution of it? It is an anticipation of the more complete teaching which she expects from the Messiah. By the term: our fathers, she perhaps understands the Israelites of the time of Joshua, who, according to the reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch (Deu 27:4), raised their altar on Mount Gerizim, and not on Ebal; in any case, she understands by this expression all the Samaritan ancestors who had worshiped on Gerizim, from the period when a temple was built there in Nehemiah’s time.
This temple had been destroyed by John Hyrcanus one hundred and twenty- nine years before Christ. But even after this event, the place had remained a sacred spot Deu 11:29, as it still is at the present day. It is there that the Samaritans even now celebrate the feast of the Passover every year. Jerusalem not being named anywhere in the law, the preference of the Samaritans for Gerizim found plausible reasons in the patriarchal history. The superiority of the Jewish sanctuary could be justified only from the standpoint of the later books of the Old Testament. But we know that the Samaritans admitted only the Pentateuch and the Mosaic institution. When she said: on this mountain, she pointed to it with the finger. For Jacob’s well is situated directly at the foot of Gerizim. She confines herself to setting forth the antithesis, thinking indeed that Jesus will understand the question which follows from it.
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
XIX.
The evident sincerity and earnestness of the woman in what follows may lead us to believe, that, in the words which are given in Joh 4:20, she did not intend merely to turn the conversation from an unpleasant subject. Whether she was yet awakened to desire instruction in righteousness from Jesus or not, she no doubt put the question with an honest purpose. The explanation given by Godet here is the more natural one, as compared with those of the writers who go to either extreme of interpretation which he mentions. In the reply of Jesus, the following points may be noticed:
1. The development of the thought here is, as it is in the interview with Nicodemus, determined by the state of mind of the person with whom Jesus was speaking, and by the circumstances of the conversation. At the same time, the conversation moves toward a final result which involves an important testimony, and in connection with this fact the story finds its place among these narratives which are selected by the author for purposes of proof, and as giving actual proofs which were brought before the minds of the disciples. The great truth of the spirituality of religion is brought out here, as it is in what was said to Nicodemus. But here it is suggested in connection with the matter of worship, instead of the entrance into the kingdom of God, because this was the question which occupied the mind of the one with whom Jesus was now speaking. If, however, God is a Spirit and true worship must therefore be spiritual, it naturally follows, for the mind that moves far enough to comprehend the truth, that the life in union with God must be entered by a new birth of the Spirit. But there is something further here: namely, a distinct declaration of the Messiahship of Jesus. This had not been stated in terms to Nicodemus, or in the scenes at the first Passover, or at the wedding-feast at Cana. In the matter of testimony it was an addition to all that precededthe word from Jesus Himself saying: I am the Christ. He had said what might imply as much in His words to Nicodemus. He had suggested the thought by His reference to rebuilding the temple, and had given evidence of Messianic power in the first miracle. But now He declares it in a sentence which can have but one meaning. On His return, therefore, from Jerusalem towards Galilee after the first Passover, the last element in the testimony is presented to the disciplesthrough this chance conversation, as it seemed, in a Samaritan townwhich may lead them to be confirmed in their belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
The reason why this declaration was made to this Samaritan woman, and not publicly in Jerusalem, is explained, on the one hand, by the fact already alluded tothat the hour of Jesus was the directing-power of His life in relation to the entire matter of His manifestation of Himself, and, on the other, by the retirement and remoteness from the central life at Jerusalem of this town in Samaria. But for the inner life of the disciples it mattered little where the testimony was presented to their minds, while in the due order of impression its place was necessarily and properly after the testimonies mentioned in the earlier chapters. The declaration now given at the end would naturally throw its influence back, as they thought of it, upon all which had been heard or seen before, and would become a guiding and illuminating power in their reflections on what had occurred, and also on what they might find occurring in the future. We may see clearly, therefore, how the writer follows, in the insertion of this chapter, as truly as before, an intelligent plan.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 19
Her faith rested on somewhat insufficient grounds,–as there are many modes by which a stranger might have become accidentally acquainted with the circumstances of her life. It is important that we should believe not only right, but for right reasons.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Many women would have simply turned and walked away at such a revelation of their private lives and sins. This woman continued talking with Jesus. Probably she had become used to dealing with people who knew about her sinful life, so she coolly observed that Jesus must be a prophet. She believed He could not have known these things without special insight (cf. Joh 4:29; Luk 7:39).
"The word ’prophet’ was used to refer to a wide range of ’gifted’ people, and at this point may not, in the woman’s mind, denote a full-orbed Old Testament prophet, let alone a messianic figure." [Note: Carson, p. 221.]
"The Samaritans acknowledged no prophet after Moses other than the one spoken of in Deu 18:18, and him they regarded as the Messiah . . . For her to speak of Jesus as a prophet was thus to move into the area of messianic speculation." [Note: Morris, p. 236. Cf. Edersheim, 1:414.]