Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:22
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
22. ye know not what ] Or, that which ye know not. The Samaritan religion, even after being purified from the original mixture with idolatry (2Ki 17:33; 2Ki 17:41), remained a mutilated religion; the obscurity of the Pentateuch (and of that a garbled text) unenlightened by the clearer revelations in the Prophets and other books of O.T. Such a religion when contrasted with that of the Jews might well be called ignorance.
we know what we worship ] Or, we worship that which we know. The first person plural here is not similar to that in Joh 3:11 (see note there), though some would take it so. Christ here speaks as a Jew, and in such a passage there is nothing surprising in His so doing. As a rule Christ gives no countenance to the view that He belongs to the Jewish nation in any special way, though the Jewish nation specially belongs to Him (Joh 1:11): He is the Saviour of the world, not of the Jews only. But here, where it is a question whether Jew or Samaritan has the larger share of religious truth, He ranks Himself both by birth and by religion among the Jews. ‘We,’ therefore, means ‘we Jews.’
salvation is of the Jews ] Literally, the salvation, the expected salvation, is of the Jews; i.e. proceeds from them (not belongs to them), in virtue of the promises to Abraham (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18) and Isaac Gen 26:4). This verse is absolutely fatal to the theory that this Gospel is the work of a Gnostic Greek in the second century (see on Joh 19:35). That salvation proceeded from the Jews contradicts the fundamental principle of Gnosticism, that salvation was to be sought in the higher knowledge of which Gnostics had the key. Hence those who uphold such a theory of authorship assume, in defiance of all evidence, that this verse is a later interpolation. The verse is found in all MSS. and versions.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ye worship ye know not what – This probably refers to the comparative ignorance and corruption of the Samaritan worship. Though they received the five books of Moses, yet they rejected the prophets, and of course all that the prophets had said respecting the true God. Originally, also, they had joined the worship of idols to that of the true God. See 2Ki 17:26-34. They had, moreover, no authority for building their temple and conducting public worship by sacrifices there. On all these accounts they were acting in an unauthorized manner. They were not obeying the true God, nor offering the worship which he had commanded or would approve. Thus, Jesus indirectly settled the question which she had proposed to him, yet in such a way as to show her that it was of much less importance than she had supposed.
We know – We Jews. This they knew because God had commanded it; because they worshipped in a place appointed by God, and because they did it in accordance with the direction and teaching of the prophets.
Salvation is of the Jews – They have the true religion and the true form of worship; and the Messiah, who will bring salvation, is to proceed from them. See Luk 2:30; Luk 3:6. Jesus thus affirms that the Jews had the true form of the worship of God. At the same time he was sensible how much they had corrupted it, and on various occasions reproved them for it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 4:22-23
Ye worship ye know not what
The true worship
I.
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SAMARITANS AND THE JEWS.
1. Samaritan worship was offered in ignorance. They were little better qualified than the Athenians. Rejecting the prophets, their faith rested on tradition, and was given up to superstition. As they were ignorant of the object so they were of the form of worship which God had appointed. Will worship, however costly and apparently honouring, is rejected. So the Saviour brought home to the woman the sad fact that she had never worshipped. This is just the case of those who only repeat the words of prayer taught them in childhood.
2. The true worshippers worship with knowledge.
(1) The Spiritual Israel. Christ was a worshipper of God not only as Mediator but as man. As High Priest He gives to His people His informing Spirit, through whom they have an intelligent knowledge of Gods character and will, and the form by which to approach Him.
(2) The literal Israel to whom were committed the oracles of God, and such worshippers as Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna.
3. A special relation existed between the Jews and the great Salvation.
(1) Its author was a Jew.
(2) Its first messengers were Jews.
(3) And as Salvation so the true worship was of the Jews. To that all the Old Testament worship pointed.
II. THE TRUE WORSHIP.
1. Who are the true worshippers? Those
(1) Who have Spiritual knowledge of God;
(2) Who worship with grace in the appointed way;
(3) Who are opposed to all false worship;
(4) Who apprehend the true medium of worship and so have admission into the holiest.
2. What is it to worship the Father?
(1) Not as the judge and avenger.
(2) With the fellowship of children, not the penance of bond servants.
3. What is worship in Spirit?
(1) Not mere outward worship.
(2) Not mere intellectual worship.
(3) But praying in the Holy Ghost in that new nature He has given and with-the help He has promised.
4. What is worship in truth?
(1) That which corresponds with the nature of the God of truth.
(2) Through Him who is full of grace and truth, by whom alone we have access to God.
5. What is the hour?
(1) As coming it is the object of Divine appointment.
(2) As come, the era foretold, the dispensation of the Spirit had actually arrived.
(3) Is there not a personal hint of that supreme moment which the woman made the crisis of her spiritual history! Only then can true and Spiritual worship begin.
III. ONLY THE TRUE WORSHIP IS PLEASING TO GOD. The Father has a right to determine this and has done so. (A. Beith, D. D.)
Christs revelation of God
I. THIS REVELATION INCLUDES THREE THINGS.
1. God is real–not a dream or picture, a thought or an abstraction. The living God is. Thou art born of Him, and thy power to think of Him is proof of His existence.
2. God is Spiritual–not a material substance or a physical force. These cannot create thought, feeling, and free will. I am greater than mountains, rivers, gravitation, electricity; I reason, love, hope, will. The object of my worship must be like me and far above me.
3. God is personal
(1) Positivism tells us that He is abstract and general. A Being immense and eternal–Humanity (Comte)
. But adoration fixes itself on a single person.
(2) Pantheism tell us that He is everything, the Eternal substance which appears as conscious in our thought and unconscious in nature (Hegel)
. But we can no more worship this than a leaf can a tree, or a wave the ocean.
(3) Agnosticism tells us that He is unknowable, the Power not ourselves which makes for righteousness (M. Arnold)
. But behind the power we seek the Will, behind the law the Giver.
(4) From these vague abstractions the soul flies to God the Father with an eye to pity and an arm to save.
II. THE INFERENCE is swift and inevitable.
1. Our worship must correspond to the reality of Gods nature.
2. The text does not condemn outward forms. Christ used and instituted them. But all forms are dead and meaningless without reality.
3. In the temple there must be a spiritual altar; on the altar a living fire–the motion of the heart towards God. As fire is manifest in light and heat so is worship in praise and prayer. Without the intercourse of the two spirits it is only a painted fire.
Lessons:
1. When you are bewildered in your religion remember that the most adorable attributes are not metaphysical but spiritual. Our Father brings Him near to us.
2. True worship is no light thing. It is not found in a careless sleepy hour; not possible to a divided frivolous mind.
3. This text does not unconsecrate the Church; it consecrates the world. (H. J. Van Dyke, D. D.)
We know what we worship
Can we be sure of God?
I. CHRIST SPEAKS OF GOD the Father, the God of salvation, God the Spirit, IN A TONE OF INTENSE AND UNFALTERING CONVICTION. We know–not guess, dream, desire. He knows Him not as an empty name, or a key to interpret creation, or as a central sun of the philosophy of Providence. At least, then, Jesus is not an agnostic, but knew God as God knew Him. Christ is our example as thinker and knower. Can we then climb to the height of His full assurance of understanding?
II. THIS QUESTION, ALWAYS INTERESTING, IS JUST NOW CHARGED WITH EXTRAORDINARY URGENCY. These are days of the revision and reconstruction of religious knowledge.
1. The word God is so overwhelming and vast that some thoughtful souls shrink from declaring their belief in Him. Atheism has done us this service: that it has forced on us what a great thing it is to maintain the existence of God.
2. Others occupying a different standpoint infer that we have not the faculties requisite for grasping this revelation.
3. It is essential to manhood, conduct and character that we do not trifle with this question. Either God can be known or He cannot, and we ought to settle what the facts really are and be sure that there is no chance of knowing God, or else search for Him with all the heart; for what a man knows and is sure of is the measure of His peace, power and growth. For the worlds regeneration God must be more than an enigma, He must be known.
III. THE ANSWER TO THIS INQUIRY IS NOT SO DIFFICULT AS IT SEEMS. It is not dependent upon the range of our information, but upon the use of the right organs and methods of verification. Though we know little we need not be less positive and assured about it. We may rejoice in the boundless expanse and be sure of the patch of blue above us, and of the ray of truth that shines through it: though we cannot embrace its illimitable sketches of beauty and glory. A real agnosticism is for ever being married to a practical and life-enriching positivism. Though we cannot be sure of anything, it does not follow that we can be sure of nothing. We cannot by searching find out God. Even Moses could only catch a glimpse of the glory of His goodness. Who of us knows his friend in his totality, much less God. Christs knowledge was limited and yet He knew the Father so well that He took the plan of His life from Him as a boy of twelve, and never lost it till He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit. This is the secret of human progress. Men built in certitute have been creators of new epochs and saviours of men. Pauls I know was the inspiration of His One thing I do.
IV. If God then cannot be fully known, WHAT IS THE KNOWLEDGE WE MAY HAVE, HOW MAY WE GET IT AND TEST ITS VALIDITY? Christ gives the answer, for salvation is of the Jews. We Jews know God because we are the depositaries of salvation for ourselves and for all men. Salvation is life, character, ethical stability, enthusiasm for righteousness, God. We are gloriously and divinely saved, and therefore divinely and surely taught.
1. This tells us that nothing assures like life and fortifies like experience. Truth is set in the clear radiance of our deliverance from false thoughts, base passions, wrong aims, and mean deeds.
2. The case cited by Christ proves His principle. From the Jews salvation has gone forth. They were a people saved of the Lord and knew Him through their salvations.
(1) Where will you find a people so completely freed from mental perplexity about God?
(2) To what people will you go for evidence of a more persistent ethical stability?
(3) Nor is there a literature of hope so rich as the Old Testament.
3. It follows that our assurance of God does not depend upon our speculative faculties, but on our practical powers which every marl can and must use.
(1) Intuition, the direct gaze of the soul on creation and life, compelling the recognition of a presence and power as the clearest and most real of all facts. Life sees life, and in life sees law, order, mind and heart.
(2) Science shows that this idea of God is the deepest and most essential of all that get a place in human thought. The total results of human inquiry is to prove
(a) The existence of an energy, infinite and omnipresent, underlying and comprehending all the phenomena of the universe.
(b) That it works for righteousness.
(c) That it is personal, a living and holy will.
(3) History is a revelation of God. Salvation of the Jews is only part of Gods redeeming work. Redemption is the pivot on which the entire human story turns.
(4) Life. You will derive your largest aids from personal devotion to Christ, acceptance of His discipline, and effort to do all His will. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
How we may know God
The writer asked an aged negress if she had known Washington. She answered by asking, Do you know God? I hope I know something of Him, maam. How, then, may one know God, sir? We may learn something about His goodness and handiwork from what we see in yonder garden, and in these beautiful trees. You are right, massa; but is there no other way of knowing him? Yes, maam, we may also learn something of Him from His dealings with the sons of men, the history of nations, and the lives of individuals. Can we? But in no other way? From the Bible we gain more knowledge of God than from all the other sources put together. Yes, indeed! and is there no other way? By experience. Laying her hand upon her heart, and lifting her bleared eyes to heaven, she exclaimed, Ah, now you have it, massa! (New Cyclopaedia.)
Ignorant worshippers
The Dowager-Duchess of Richmond went one Sunday with her daughter to the Chapel-Royal, at St. Jamess, but being late, they could find no places. After looking about some time, and seeing the case was hopeless, she said to her daughter, Come away, Louisa; at any rate, we have done the civil thing. (Raikes Diary.)
Ignorant worship affects the life for evil
A Thug at Meirut, who had been guilty of many murders; was arrested, and cast, heavily ironed, into prison. There a missionary visited him, and preached Christ to him with such success, that he professed conversion. As he was brought before the judge, and confronted by many witnesses, he said, pointing to them, No need of these; I am ready to avow the crimes of my dreadful life. He then proceeded to declare, that, having been brought up among the Thugs, he fully believed, that, by the shedding of the blood of each victim, he had not only pleased the dreadful goddess Kali, but procured her favour for himself. And he recounted murder after murder in which he had been engaged, some of them attended with such cruelty, that those present who had begun to feel some pity for him again shrunk back; the judge himself lifting up his bands, and exclaiming, How could you be guilty of enormities like these! The only reply the poor man made to the judge was to place his hand in the bosom of his linen vest to take forth a little book; then, holding it up in his hand, he said, Had I but received this book sooner, the book of Jesus, my Saviour and my God, I should not have done it.
God may be worshipped anywhere
Isaacs closet was a field. He went out to meditate in the field at the eventide. Davids closet was his bedchamber. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Our Lords closet was a mountain. When he had sent the multitude away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray, and when the evening was come, He was there alone. Peters closet was upon the house-top. Peter went upon the house-top to pray, about the sixth hour. Hezekiahs closet was turning his face towards the wall, and praying unto the Lord. (E. Bakersteth.)
Salvation is of the Jews
One nation and all nations
I. THE WHOLE PRIDE OF MODERN WISDOM IS THIS: SALVATION OF MAN IS FROM MAN. This has been differently understood.
1. Human nature formerly was each individual man.
2. Latterly human nature has been considered one person or society.
3. However, at no time could man have regarded himself merely as an individual being, for society is to man what the soil is to the plant.
4. Between the two man found a resting place in nationality, a beneficent idea when we place it in the line where individuality and humanity meet. But so far from this individuality lost its finest character. Personal religion, by being made national property, was merged in the community and humanity was almost entirely effaced.
II. HISTORY IS FROM ONE POINT OF VIEW THE CHRONOLOGY OF NATIONALITIES, AND GOD HAS RECTIFIED AND CONSECRATED THE IDEA OF NATIONALITY TO THE TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLES OF INDIVIDUALITY AND HUMANITY.
1. Thus the Christian can accept Christs statement that Christianity is of the Jews. Non-Christians, however, object.
(1) One would not deny that salvation in a sense is of, say, the French.
(2) Others refuse to allow a particular people to be the dispenser of common felicity. But none but a Christian wishes it to come from the Jews.
2. About the term salvation there is no dispute. It is the welfare of human nature and the fulfilment of its destinies. Christ came to save humanity as well as man.
3. In what sense, then, can it come from the Jews? No one will, of course, mistake the channel for the source (Rev 7:10). In its ignorance ancient poetry represented certain countries as the abode of the sun. This is false in physics but true in morals. In the world of grace the rising sun has a home. Salvation is of the Jews. How? Not because Christ was born and lived in Palestine, spoke its language, chose Jews as disciples, or was crucified by Jews. Salvation is of the Jews as the water of stream comes from the basin in the rock at the top of the mountain. There the water is collected and from thence it flows, but the water is from heaven.
4. This being established, let us avail ourselves of the doctrine that each people is the bearer and representative of an idea, and that each idea in order to fix itself in the world has need of a people. This truth is invariably cultivated at the expense of other truths, and thus becomes exaggerated, and is never more than part of the truth. Now if this be the case, might not a whole people in conformity with this great law be the apostle of the truth which contains all truth! Now God has dealt with a certain people in a manner favourable to the discharge of this function. The Jews were a Theocracy, a people amongst whom God lived, whom God governed, to whom He spake, and whose law was His worship, a people elected for this very purpose.
5. But why confine this truth to the Jews? Was it the whole truth? How is this national deposit reconciliable with the doctrine that salvation is personal acceptance of Christ? Let us see. Christ and your soul have met! But at what cost? You are dying with thirst; a drop of water from the river revives you. It was only a drop, not the river, but the whole volume of water was necessary to carry along the drop. The river therefore saved you. In the same way the Church saved you because it gave you the knowledge of Christ whom you savingly received. The Church by its volume and might carries forward that element by which you are renewed. How has that current been formed? Look well at those waves red with human blood and dark with martyr ashes. Your Christianity, however individual it may be, is extracted from the Christianity of sixty generations.
6. Why, then, since each of us proceeds from the Church, should not the Church proceed from the Jews. As everything ends with the individual, so everything begins. The Church was within the Jewish nation, this whole nation was in the loins of Abraham the father of us all. So the ancient posterity of Jacob find a place in the work of individual salvation.
III. OUR PROPOSITION WOULD BE TOO EASILY DEFENDED IF WE COULD SAY THAT CHRIST IS ONLY THE LAST DEVELOPMENT OF THE WISDOM OF THE JEWS. It is not because He is a Jew, but because He is God manifest in the flesh, that He is our salvation. Yet
1. The Jewish race from which He came fulfilled an important function in preparing for His advent. The Old Testament is a progressive instruction that leads us gradually up to Him. The law in the letter is succeeded by the law in the Spirit, a ritual worship by the worship of the heart, legislation by prophecy, Abraham by Moses, Moses by Isaiah, so that when the King arrives there is a people ready to receive Him.
2. This people, which will be the first fruits of a universal Father, could only be drawn from the Jewish people.
3. But apart from the spiritual Israel, the Jewish people as a whole received from God the education necessary to be the forerunner of Christ among the nations, and when Christianity, after having collected in Judaea all that belonged to it, finds Jewish colonies which Divine Providence had scattered which became the first Christian churches.
4. The Jews also carried their history with them which became an immortal lesson for the human race, viz., the manner in which God interposes in human affairs, just as a specimen of a plant explains the whole species.
5. Here we must turn to Rom 11:12. As a political society and race, the Jews had to fall away, because the new economy appealed to individuals. But the falling away is not to be for ever. It must, is, and will be gathered anew according to the principle of individuality and the law of liberty. The world will yet see its fulness, and what will that fulness be? Isa 49:16-19). (A. Vinet, D. D.)
The spiritual ignorance of the Samaritans
The assertion of this, as the great calamity of the Samaritan–that he knew not what he worshipped–is abundantly borne out by history. It was in all times a country ofsuperstition, the early home of Baal worshippers, the later home of enchanters and fanatics, and of sects putting forward pretensions to all kind of spiritual powers. The Jew, on the contrary, clung to a distinct object of adoration. He was a protestant against the worship of spiritual fantasies. This poor shadow showed what the substance was which the Jew had inherited, and which was his distinction among all nations. Salvation was to go forth from his land. And salvation, so our Lord teaches us, consists in knowing what we worship; for that knowledge saves men from slavery to the worlds idols, and to the idols of their own hearts, which is their great curse and misery. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
The straightforwardness of Jesus
In speaking here to a Samaritan, He indicates some points in which the Jews were superior, and in which her nation might well follow them: while to the Jews, on the other hand (as in the case of the parable of the good Samaritan, and in His remark after the miracle of healing ten lepers), He takes occasion to notice some superiority in the conduct of Samaritans, wherein their nation might well follow them. Thus He corrects the failings of each by pointing out some superiority in the other: reproving each to their own face, but commending them to others: exactly the converse of that conduct which is too common among those who profess to be His disciples, who, on the contrary, are often in the unchristian habit of flattering people in their presence and slandering them behind their back: keeping their faults from themselves, but making them known to others. (G. J. Brown, M. A.)
Aptness of Christ
Our Saviour always had in view the posture of mind of the persons whom He addressed. He did not entertain the Pharisees with invectives against the open impiety of their Sadducean rivals; nor, on the other hand, did He soothe the Sadducees ear with descriptions of Pharisaical pomp and folly. In the presence of the Pharisees, He preached against hypocrisy;to the Sadducees He proved the resurrection of the dead. In like manner, of that known enmity, which subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans, this faithful Teacher took no undue advantage to make friends or proselytes of either. Upon the Jews He inculcated a more comprehensive benevolence; with the Samaritan He defended the orthodoxy of the Jewish creed. (Archdeacon Paley.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. Ye worship ye know not what] The Samaritans believed in the same God with the Jews; but, as they rejected all the prophetical writings, they had but an imperfect knowledge of the Deity: besides, as they incorporated the worship of idols with his worship, they might be justly said to worship him whom they did not properly know. See the account of their motley worship, 2Kg 17:26-34. But after Sanballat had built the temple on Mount Gerizim, the idolatrous worship of the Cutheans and Sepharvites, c., was entirely laid aside the same religious service being performed in the Samaritan temple which was performed in that at Jerusalem.
We know what we worship] We Jews acknowledge all the attributes of his nature, and offer to him only the sacrifices prescribed in the law.
Salvation is of the Jews.] , Salvation is from the Jews. Salvation seems here to mean the Saviour, the Messiah, as it does Lu 2:30; Ac 4:12: and so the woman appears to have understood it, Joh 4:25. The Messiah was to spring from the Jews-from them, the preaching of the Gospel, and the knowledge of the truth, were to go to all the nations of the world. It was to the Jews that the promises were made; and it was in their prophetic Scriptures, which the Samaritans rejected, that Jesus Christ was proclaimed and described. See Isa 11:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
You have no certain rule for your worship, but only do things which your fathers did, without any revelation of the Divine will, by which you may be assured that what you do is acceptable to God. We know that God hath revealed his will, that his people should worship him at Jerusalem by such rites and performances as he himself hath instituted in his word, so as we are certain that what we do is acceptable to God: for unto the Jews (of old) were committed the oracles of God, the ordinary means of salvation; Out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, Isa 2:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. Ye worship ye know notwhatwithout any revealed authority, and so very much inthe dark. In this sense, the Jews knew what they were about.But the most glorious thing here is the reason assigned,
for salvation is of theJewsintimating to her that Salvation was not a thingleft to be reached by any one who might vaguely desire it of a God ofmercy, but something that had been revealed, prepared, depositedwith a particular people, and must be sought in connectionwith, and as issuing from them; and that people, “the Jews.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye worship ye know not what,…. However, as to her question, he more directly replies by condemning the Samaritans, and their ignorance in worship, and by approving the Jews; and so manifestly gives the preference to the Jews, not only with respect to the place, and object of worship, but with respect to knowledge and salvation. As for the Samaritans, he suggests, that they were ignorant, not only of the true object of worship, but knew not what they themselves worshipped; or, at least, were not agreed in it. The original inhabitants of those parts, from whence these Samaritans sprung, were idolatrous Heathens, placed by the king of Assyria in the room of the ten tribes he carried away captive; and these feared not the Lord, for they “knew not the manner of the God of the land”: wherefore lions were sent among them which slew many of them; upon which the king of Assyria ordered a priest to be sent to instruct them: but notwithstanding this, they had everyone gods of their own, some one, and some another; and so served divers graven images, they and their children, and their children’s children, to the time of the writer of the Book of Kings; see 2Ki 17:24. And though after Manasseh, and other Jews were come among them, and they had received the law of Moses, they might have some knowledge of the true God, yet they glorified him not as God; and though they might in words profess him, yet in works they denied him; and even after this they are very highly charged by the Jews with idolatrous practices on this mount. Sometimes they say g the Cuthites, or Samaritans, worshipped fire; and at other times, and which chiefly prevails with them, they assert h, that their wise men, upon searching, found that they worshipped the image of a dove on Mount Gerizim; and sometimes they say i, they worshipped the idols, the strange gods, or Teraphim, which Jacob hid under the oak in Sichem; which last, if true, may serve to illustrate these words of Christ, that they worshipped they knew not what, since they worshipped idols hid in the mount.
“R. Ishmael bar Jose, they say k went to Neapolis, (Sichem, called Naplous,) the Cuthites, or Samaritans came to him (to persuade him to worship with them in their mountain); he said unto them, I will show you that ye do not “worship at this mountain”, but “the images which are hid under it”; for it is written, Ge 35:4; “and Jacob hid them” under the oak which was by Shechem.”
And elsewhere l it is reported of the same Rabbi, that he went to Jerusalem to pray, as before related on Joh 4:20, and after what passed between him, and the Samaritan he met with at Mount Gerizim, before mentioned, he added;
“and said to him, I will tell you what ye are like, (ye are like) to a dog that lusts after carrion; so because ye know the idols are hid under it, (the mountain,) as it is written, Ge 35:4 and Jacob hid them, therefore ye lust after it: they said–this man knows that idols are hid here, and perhaps he will take them away; and they consulted together to kill him: he arose, and made his escape in the night.”
But this was not the case of the Jews:
we know what we worship; Christ puts himself among them, for he was a Jew, as the woman took him to be; and, as man, was a worshipper of God; he feared, loved, and obeyed God; he trusted in him, and prayed unto him; though, as God, he was the object of worship himself: and the true worshippers among the Jews, of which sort Christ was, knew God, whom they worshipped, spiritually and savingly; and the generality of that people had right notions of the God of Israel, having the oracles, and service of God, and being instructed out of Moses, and the prophets:
for salvation is of the Jews; the promises of salvation, and of a Saviour, were made to them, when the Gentiles were strangers to them; the means of salvation, and of the knowledge of it, as the word, statutes, and ordinances, were enjoyed by them, when others were ignorant of them; and the Messiah, who is sometimes styled “Salvation”, see Ge 49:18, was not only prophesied of in their books, and promised unto them, but came of them, as well as to them; and the number of the saved ones had been for many hundreds of years, and still was among them; the line of election ran among them, and few among the Gentiles were called and saved, as yet.
g T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 5. 2. h Maimon. in Misn. Beracot, c. 8. sect. 8. & Bartenora in ib. c. 7. sect. 1. & in Nidda, c. 4. sect. 1. i Shalshelet Hakkabala, fol. 15. 2. k T. Hieros. Avoda Zara, fol. 44. 4. l Bereshit Rabba, sect. 81. fol. 71. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That which ye know not ( ). Cf. Ac 17:23. “You know whom to worship, but you do not know him” (Westcott). The Samaritans rejected the prophets and the Psalms and so cut themselves off from the fuller knowledge of God.
We (). We Jews. Jesus is a Jew as he fully recognizes (Mt 15:24).
That which we know ( ). Neuter singular relative as before. The Jews, as the chosen people, had fuller revelations of God (Ps 147:19; Rom 9:3-5). But even so the Jews as a whole failed to recognize God in Christ (John 1:11; John 1:26; John 7:28).
For salvation is from the Jews ( ). “The salvation,” the Messianic salvation which had long been the hope and guiding star of the chosen people (Luke 1:69; Luke 1:71; Luke 1:77; Acts 13:26; Acts 13:47). It was for the whole world (Joh 3:17), but it comes “out of” () the Jews. This tremendous fact should never be forgotten, however unworthy the Jews may have proved of their privilege. The Messiah, God’s Son, was a Jew.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Ye know not what [ ] . Literally, what ye know not. Rev., rightly, that which ye know not. Compare Act 17:23, where the correct reading is o, what, instead of on, whom : “what therefore ye worship in ignorance.” This worship of the unknown is common to vulgar ignorance and to philosophic culture; to the Samaritan woman, and to the Athenian philosophers. Compare Joh 7:28; Joh 8:19, 27. The neuter expresses the unreal and impersonal character of the Samaritan worship. As the Samaritans received the Pentateuch only, they were ignorant of the later and larger revelation of God, as contained especially in the prophetic writings, and of the Messianic hope, as developed among the Jews. They had preserved only the abstract notion of God.
Jesus here identifies Himself With the Jewish people. The essence of the true Jewish worship is represented by Him.
Know what we worship [ ] . Literally, and as Rev., we worship that which we know. On know, see on 2 24. The neuter that which, is used of the true as of the unreal object of worship, perhaps for the sake of correspondence with the preceding clause, or because the object of worship is conceived abstractly and not personally. Compare Joh 14:9.
Salvation [ ] . The word has the article : the salvation, promised and to be revealed in Christ.
Is of the Jews. Rev., rightly, from the Jews [] . Not therefore belongs to, but proceeds from. See Genesis 12; Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2. Even the Old Testament idea of salvation is bound up with Christ. See Rom 9:4, 5. The salvation is from the Jews, even from that people which has rejected it. See on 1 19. On the characteristic is from, see on 1 46. The passage illustrates John’s habit of confirming the divine authority of the Old Testament revelation, and of showing its fulfillment in Christ.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”Ye worship ye know not what:- (humeis proskuneito ho ouk oidate) “You all do not recognize or perceive what you worship:- Such was described Psa 115:4-9. The Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch, the first of the five Old Testament books, but they rejected the prophets through whom the Messiah was more specifically revealed, Deu 18:15-18; Isa 53:1-12. They had therefore become a housing center for idolatrous worship and admiration, much as Athens in Greece, 2Ki 17:29; Act 17:22-23.
2) “We know what we worship:- (hemeis proskunoumen -ho oidamen) “We perceive, recognize, or realize the One we worship.” The Samaritans simply did not know the utter emptiness and ignorance of their false, idolatrous worship, Psa 115:1-11; Act 17:23-31.
3) “For salvation is of the Jews.” (hoti he soteria ek ton loudaaon estin) Because salvation is or exists out of or from among the Jews,” of the Jewish nation, Isa 2:1-5; Rom 1:16; Rom 9:4-5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
He now explains more largely what he had briefly glanced at about the abolition of the Law; but he divides the substance of his discourse into two parts. In the former, he charges with superstition and error the form of worshipping God which had been used by the Samaritans, but testifies that the true and lawful form was observed by the Jews. And he assigns the cause of the difference, that from the word of God the Jews obtained certainty as to his worship, while the Samaritans received nothing certain from the mouth of God. In the second part, he declares that the ceremonies hitherto observed by the Jews would soon be at an end.
22. You worship what you know not, we worship what we know. This is a sentence worthy of being remembered, and teaches us that we ought not to attempt any thing in religion rashly or at random; because, unless there be knowledge, it is not God that we worship, but a phantom or idol. All good intentions, as they are called, are struck by this sentence, as by a thunderbolt; for we learn from it, that men can do nothing but err, when they are guided by their own opinion without the word or command of God. For Christ, defending the person and cause of his nation, shows that the Jews are widely different from the Samaritans. And why?
Because salvation is from the Jews. By these words he means that they have the superiority in this respect, that God had made with them a covenant of eternal salvation. Some restrict it to Christ, who was descended from the Jews; and, indeed, since
all the promises of God were confirmed and ratified in him, (2Co 1:20,)
there is no salvation but in him. But as there can be no doubt that Christ gives the preference to the Jews on this ground, that they do not worship some unknown deity, but God alone, who revealed himself to them, and by whom they were adopted as his people; by the word salvation we ought to understand that saving manifestation which had been made to them concerning the heavenly doctrine.
But why does he say that it was from the Jews, when it was rather deposited with them, that they alone might enjoy it? He alludes, in my opinion, to what had been predicted by the Prophets, that the Law would go forth from Zion, (Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2,) for they were separated for a time from the rest of the nations on the express condition, that the pure knowledge of God should flow out from them to the whole world. It amounts to this, that God is not properly worshipped but by the certainty of faith, which cannot be produced in any other way than by the word of God. Hence it follows that all who forsake the word fall into idolatry; for Christ plainly testifies that an idol, or an imagination of their own brain, is substituted for God, when men are ignorant of the true God; and he charges with ignorance all to whom God has not revealed himself, for as soon as we are deprived of the light of his word, darkness and blindness reign.
It ought to be observed that the Jews, when they had treacherously set aside the covenant of eternal life which God had made with their fathers, were deprived of the treasure which they had till that time enjoyed; for they had not yet been driven out of the Church of God. Now that they deny the Son, they have nothing in common with the Father;
for whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father, (1Jo 2:23.)
The same judgment must be formed concerning all who have turned aside from the pure faith of the Gospel to their own inventions and the traditions of men. Although they who worship God according to their own judgment or human traditions flatter and applaud themselves in their obstinacy, this single word, thundering from heaven, lays prostrate all that they imagine to be divine and holy, You worship what you do not know It follows from this that, if we wish our religion to be approved by God, it must rest on knowledge obtained from His word.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) For salvation is of the Jews.This verse has sorely tried critics who seek to construct the Gospel out of their judgments of what it should be. It can be no difficulty to those who seek to form their judgments from the Gospel as it is. Assume that the Gospel belongs to the Greek thought of the close of the second century, and the verse must be omitted, though it is certainly part of the original text; accept the Gospel as belonging to the Hebrew thought of the first century, and this touch of Jewish theology is in entire harmony with it. The contrast between the Samaritan and the Jewish worship lay in its history, its state at that time, and its rejection of the fuller teaching of the prophetical books of the Old Testament. In every way the Jews had much advantage, but chiefly that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Little as they knew the treasure they possessed, they were the guardians of spiritual truth for the world, and in a sense deeper than they could fathom, salvation was of the Jews. (Comp. Rom. 3:2; Rom. 9:4-5, Notes; Isa. 2:3; Mic. 4:2.)
The we of this verse is in answer to the ye of Joh. 4:20. She identifies Him with those who claim Jerusalem as the place of worship. That ye contained its own answer. In using it she had said that the Messiah was of the Jews.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Ye worship ye know not what Ye worship; ye, in fact, worship God; but ye know not what is the true character of the God ye worship. It is a factitious, narrow, Samaritan deity you adore, standing in supposed special covenant relations to you, which relations are historically and really untrue. So that even if, through its ignorant sincerity, your prayer reaches through the mists and darkness to the true God, that true God which you thus successfully worship, ye do not truly know.
We know what we worship The God worshipped by the Jews was the God of the Pentateuch and the prophets, standing truly in the historical relations in which the true Jews believed.
Salvation is of Rather from the Jews. For theirs was the covenanted and prophesied Christ, in whom salvation is embodied. And even if that salvation went forth to save the pious Samaritan in his twilight, it truly went forth from the Jews.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 4:22. Ye worship ye know not what: The Samaritans worshipped the true God, and seem to have had as just notions of his perfections in general as the Jews; for they drew them from the five books of Moses, the authority of which they acknowledged. If so, the meaning of the clause in the original, can hardly be what our version has affixed to it, Ye worship ye know not what; but its proper translation seems to be, Ye worship the Deity whom ye do not know; viz. “by any revelation which he has made of himself to you,” the words , the Deity, being understood, “Whereas we Jews worship the Deity, whom we know; viz. by a revelation which he has made of himself to us;for salvation is of the Jews:What knowledge you have of salvation, as well as the author of salvation, cometh, by your own confession, from us;you have your religion from us.” If the reader thinks that this interpretation makes too great a supplement necessary, let him look to the following passages, particularly the words inserted in italics merely by the translators, as they stand in the common version: Mar 7:4; Mar 7:11. Luk 6:22. Joh 1:8; Joh 9:1; Joh 15:25 and particularly Joh 18:28 where the original words , must be rendered, But stood without, that they might eat the passover. These examples prove, that the elliptical stile is familiar to St. John; and the one last mentioned is no less peculiar than that which may be supposed in the passage under consideration. See also 2Th 2:3 where the words, that day shall not come, are necessarilysupplied in our language by our translators. Some indeed give our Lord’s words a more easy sense, thus: “Since God has declared that Jerusalem is the place of offering sacrifices acceptably, ye worship him without just conceptions of him, when you fancy he has chosen Gerizim.” Yet it may be doubted whether the error of the Samaritans concerning the place of worship, would be reckoned by our Lord as a sufficient reason for saying of them, that they worshipped they knew not what. There are others who would paraphrase the whole passage thus: “As you take me for a prophet, believe me, that the occasion of this dispute about the place of worship, will soon be removed; sacrifices, now offered at both places, shall ere long cease for ever; a new dispensation will be opened, which will require the true disciples of it to worship in all places; every where offering up their hearts to God, and disposed to obey him in all things. When your ancestors came into this land, they knew not the manner of God’s worship; and indeed knew not God himself: And even you, though better instructed, are yet, in both respects, defective in your knowledge. Knowledge is more abundant with us the people of the Jews; and from among the Jews cometh salvation, by reason of the Messiah’s birth among them, who is to introduce this new dispensation, and to render a temple unnecessary, either on Gerizim, or at Jerusalem.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 4:22 . Jesus has answered the question as to the where of worship; He now turns, unasked, to the object of worship, and in this He pronounces in favour of the Jews. The chain of thought is not: “as matters now stand,” and so on (Lcke and most others); such a change of time must have been indicated .
] ye worship what ye know not. God is meant, who is named not personally, but by the neuter, according to His essence and character, not as He who is worshipped, but as that which is worshipped (comp. the neuter, Act 17:23 , according to the more correct reading); and this is simply God Himself , not or (Lcke), which would not be in keeping with the conception expressed in ; for what is worshipped is not what pertains to God , but God (comp. Joh 4:21 ; Joh 4:23-24 ). The is to be understood relatively; comp. Joh 7:28 . As the Samaritans received the Pentateuch only, they were without the developed revelation of God contained in the subsequent books of the O. T., particularly in the Prophets, especially the stedfast, pure, and living development of Messianic hope, which the Jews possessed, so also they had lost, with the temple and its sacred shrines, the abiding presence of the Deity (Rom 3:2 ; Rom 9:4-5 ). Jesus, therefore, might well speak of their knowledge of God, in comparison with that of the Jews ( ), who possessed the full revelation and promise, as ignorance; and He could regard this great superiority of the Jews as unaffected by the monotheism, however spiritual, of the Samaritans. According to de Wette, whom Ebrard follows, the meaning is: “ye worship, and in so doing, ye do what ye know not,” which is said to refer to the arbitrary and unhistorical manner in which the Samaritan worship originated. According to this, the would have to be taken as in , Gal 2:20 (comp. Bengel), so that it would denote the itself, which is accomplished in the (see Bernhardy, p. 106). But in that case it would have been more logical to write , . Tittmann, Morus, Kuinoel, also erroneously say that stands for , pro vestra ignorantia . It is the accusative of the object, in which is included the dative, or even the accusative of the demonstrative (for . is construed in both ways; see Lobeck, ad Phyrn . p. 463).
] i.e. Jews, without a conjunction, and hence all the more emphatic. According to the whole connection, it must mean we Jews , not Christians , as if were intended in the Gnostic sense to denote, as something altogether new, the distinctively Christian consciousness, as contrasted with the unconscious worship of the Israelitish race in its Samaritan and Jewish branches (Hilgenfeld, comp. his Zeitschr . 1863, p. 213 ff.). That Jesus, being Himself a Jew (Gal 4:4 ; Joh 1:11 ), should reckon Himself among the Jews, cannot be thought strange in the antithesis of such a passage as this. But in what follows, the Lord rises so high above this antithesis between Samaritan and Jew, that in the future which He opens up to view (Joh 4:23-24 ), this national distinctiveness ceases to have any significance. Still, in answer to the woman’s question, He could simply and definitely assign to the Jews that superiority which historically belonged to them before the manifestation of that higher future; but He could not intend “to set her free from the unreality of her national existence” (Luthardt), but rather, considering the occasion which presented itself, could make no concession to the injury of the rights of His patriotism as Messiah, based as this was upon historical fact and upon the divine purpose (Rom 1:16 ).
., . . .] because salvation (of course, not without the , though this is not named ) proceeds from the Jews (not from the Samaritans), a general doctrinal statement, incontestably true, based upon the promise to Abraham, Gen 12 (comp. Isa 2:3 ; Mic 4:2 ), concerning the of the Messiah’s kingdom, whose future establishment is represented as present , as is natural in such an axiomatic statement of historic fact. As salvation is of the Jews , this design of their existence in the economy of grace constitutes the reason ( ) why they , as a nation, possessed the true and pure revelation of God, whose highest culmination and consummation is that very ; comp. Rom 9:4-5 . It must not, indeed, be overlooked that was not true of every individual of the (not of those who rejected the ), but refers to the nation as a whole in its ideal existence as the people of God , whose prerogative as such could not be destroyed by empirical exceptions. Thus the invisible church is hidden in the visible.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1617
SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS
Joh 4:22. Salvation is of the Jews.
THIS is part of the answer of our blessed Lord to the Samaritan woman. He had taken occasion, from an observation of hers, to shew her that he was well acquainted with the most secret history of her past life; and not from report merely, but from his own omniscient mind, from which nothing could be hid. He had told her, that she had had five husbands; (all of whom, it is probable, had put her away for her adulteries;) and that the person with whom she was now living was not her husband. She, wishing to get rid of so painful a subject, proposed a question relative to a controversy which then existed between the Samaritans and the Jews, as to the place where God was to be worshipped. Our Lord, satisfied with having discovered to her his character as a prophet of the Most High, graciously waved the prosecution of a subject which was so painful to her, and turned his attention to that which she had submitted to him. In reply to her question, he informed her, that the time was coming when all distinctions of places should be lost; so far, at least, as related to acceptable worship: for that all, of whatever place or country, who should worship God in spirit and in truth, should be accepted of him. At the same time he informed her that the question itself must be determined in favour of the Jews. The Samaritans, indeed, had much to say in their own behalf, and in support of the cause which they maintained. They could say, that on Mount Gerizim, for the sanctity of which they pleaded, Abraham himself had built an altar [Note: Gen 12:6-7.], as had Jacob also; (for Sichem, or Shechem, where he built it, was so close to Mount Gerizim, that a mans voice might be distinctly heard from the one to the other [Note: Gen 33:18-20. with Jdg 9:7.]:) and that, consequently, that place had a prior claim to Zion, on which no altar had been raised, till many hundred years had elapsed. They could also with truth affirm, that Moses himself, under the special direction of Jehovah, had commanded, that all the congregations of Israel, as soon as they should gain possession of the Promised Land, should assemble round Mount Gerizim; and that from thence the blessings of Jehovah should be pronounced, whilst his curses should be declared from Mount Ebal, which was near to it [Note: Deu 11:29; Deu 27:11-13.]. They could also appeal to the Jewish Scriptures, that Joshua and all Israel had actually complied with this command [Note: Jos 8:33-34.]; and had thereby sanctified that mountain in a more especial manner, and marked it out as the place which God had chosen for his more peculiar worship in all future ages.
But, in answer to all this, our Lord informed her, that the Samaritans knew not whom they worshipped. Though they occupied the land of Israel, they were not Israelites, but foreigners, whom the king of Assyria had sent to occupy the land, when he carried captive the ten tribes of Israel [Note: 2Ki 17:24.]. Nor did they, in reality, know the true God: for it was only in consequence of the judgments which God had inflicted on them for their idolatries, by sending lions to devour them, that they had ever thought of worshipping him at all. To avert his displeasure, they had desired that a Jewish priest might be sent back to the land, to instruct them how to worship Jehovah; but, at the same time, they retained their own idolatries; thus fearing the Lord, and serving other Gods [Note: 2Ki 17:25-27.]. The Jews, on the contrary, worshipped Jehovah alone; (for never after the Babylonish captivity did they return to idolatry;) and they possessed that revelation of Gods will, through the knowledge of which alone any human being could be saved: Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.
Thus was the controversy determined in favour of the Jews. But that being no longer of any consequence to the Church, we forbear to notice it any further; and shall fix our attention on that general declaration, which is still of as great importance as ever, that salvation is of the Jews.
It is of them originally, as derived from them; and it is of them instrumentally, as communicated altogether by them.
I.
It is of the Jews, as being originally derived from them
The way of salvation has been one and the same, from the very moment that the promise was given in Paradise, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. But, having been only traditionally handed down, it was but very imperfectly known, even in the family of Abraham; and by the world at large it was almost, if not entirely, forgotten. But it pleased God, when he brought out from their bondage in Egypt the descendants of Abraham, to give them a written revelation of his will, and to make known to them the way of salvation, not only in its great leading article, the sacrifice of Christ, but in many minute particulars, as we shall see by an investigation of their Ceremonial Law.
The Jewish religion, so far as the way of salvation was concerned, was founded altogether on sacrifice. No person could approach unto God without a sacrifice: but by means of sacrifices specially appointed, every one might hope to obtain forgiveness of sin, and acceptance with his reconciled God. For this end there were sacrifices offered every morning and every evening throughout the year; and on the Sabbath-day they were doubled [Note: Num 28:3-4; Num 28:9-10.]: but on the great day of annual atonement they were multiplied, with the most significant rites that can be imagined. The high priest was to take the blood of the sacrifices, and to carry it within the vail, and to sprinkle it upon the Mercy-seat, and before the Mercy-seat, in token that the hopes of all Israel were founded upon the sacrifices thus offered as an atonement for their sins [Note: Lev 16:14.]. After that was done, he was to offer incense, and then to come out and bless the people.
But, as has been observed, there were many peculiar ordinances appointed for their instruction, as to the more minute points to be attended to in this great work. On some occasions, the offenders themselves were to lay their hands upon the head of their sacrifices: on some, the blood of the sacrifices was to be sprinkled on the offerers: on some the blood was to be sprinkled, mixed with water [Note: Lev 14:6-7. Heb 9:19.]. And the efficacy of all these offerings was pre-eminently marked in the ordinance of the scape-goat. One goat having been killed, and its blood carried within the vail, another goat, called the scape-goat, which had been chosen by lot for this purpose, was brought forth, and had all the sins of all the Children of Israel laid upon it by the hands of the High Priest; and it was then led, with all the guilt of Israel upon its head, into the wilderness, never more to be seen by man; that so all the people might see that their iniquities were taken away, and that the punishment due to them should not be inflicted.
Now, all this was designed to shadow forth to that people the way of salvation. And, in truth, to those who had any spiritual discernment, salvation was exhibited with a clearness quite sufficient for the circumstances under which the people were. They were children; and were to be taught like children, by types and shadows: and all who looked through those types to the sacrifice which they shadowed forth, were saved as effectually as we are by looking back upon the offering which has now been once offered upon Calvary.
In all this was Christianity depicted. On what are the hopes of Christians founded, but on sacrifice, even the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ? Except through his atoning blood, not a creature in the universe can ever come to God. In presenting that offering, he himself was the Priest, as well as the victim: and having offered himself up to God upon the cross, he rose from the dead, and went with his own blood within the vail, there to present it before the Mercy-seat: and on that he founds his all-prevailing intercession.
But, let us come to a few particulars, and we shall see how the light beams upon us from every part of the Jewish Scriptures. We have said, that, on some occasions, the offender laid his hands upon the head of his offering, just as Aaron did on the scape-goat, when he confessed over him all the sins of all the Children of Israel. And this teaches us, that it is not sufficient for us that the Lord Jesus Christ has been offered for our sins: we must go to him: we must confess over him, as it were, our sins: and we must by faith transfer to him our guilt, and declare before God, that we have no hope whatever but in his atoning blood. It has been said also, that on some occasions, the offerer was sprinkled with the blood of his offering: and this, also, must we do; taking, as it were, the bunch of hyssop in our hands, and dipping it in the Redeemers blood, and sprinkling our own souls with it, as the only possible means of purging our consciences from guilt, and of bringing us into a state of peace with God. It is in reference to this that we are said to have come to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel. The sacrifice of Abel received, indeed, a sweet token of Gods favourable acceptance; but the blood of our sacrifice washes all our sins away, and gives us a title to an everlasting inheritance.
It has been observed, that, on some occasions, the blood was mixed with water, and then sprinkled on the offerer. This shews us, that we must have the Holy Spirit also poured out upon us: according as it is said, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. The Lord Jesus Christ, we are told, came not by water only, but by water and blood: and this very mystery was intimated at the time of our Saviours crucifixion, when the soldier pierced our Saviours side, and forthwith came, in two distinguishable streams, blood and water: the one to cleanse us from the guilt of sin; the other, from its power: according as it is written, Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
We might prosecute this subject in a great variety of particulars, and shew in all of them the correspondence between the salvation shadowed forth by the law, and that exhibited by the Gospel. But we wish to keep the subject as simple as possible, and not to perplex it by too great a variety. There is, however, one point which it is of great importance to mention. It will be remembered, that, when Moses was about to make the tabernacle, a very strict and solemn command was given him, (the injunction is repeatedly mentioned in the Pentateuch,) See thou make all things according to the pattern shewn to thee in the mount. The same injunction was given to David, also, when he was desirous to build the temple. And St. Paul very particularly notices the former, as of vast importance. But whence was it that such stress was laid on this apparently unimportant matter? It was from hence: The law was given to shadow forth the Gospel: and it was to be the model to which the whole edifice of Christianity was to be conformed, in every the minutest particular. Now, if there was any one thing added to the tabernacle, or omitted in it, or altered in any respect, it would not be a perfect representation of Christianity. But the two were to correspond with each other, as the impression with the seal: and if there were any thing in the tabernacle superfluous or defective, the correspondence would be lost, and God would be greatly dishonoured. But the necessary care was taken: Moses was faithful in all his house as a Servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after: and the same fidelity has Christ shewn as a Son, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of our hope firm unto the end.
Thus it appears that we have received salvation originally from the Jews; to whom, in every particular, it was first revealed. But we go on to observe, 2dly, That we have also received it instrumentally from them, in that it has been altogether communicated to us through their ministrations.
It was first preached to us by Moses and the prophets. We had known nothing of a Messiah, if they had not pointed him out. We have already seen how much we are indebted to Moses for his writings: which make known to us the very first prophecy of a Saviour; and shew us how Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, found acceptance with God. To him we owe it, that the model shewn to him in the mount was so carefully copied, that there is not so much as a pin in his tabernacle which has not its corresponding article in the Christian Edifice. From him we have such a view of Christianity as the Gospel itself can scarcely be said to afford. Doubtless, till the ceremonies prescribed by him had the true light reflected on them, they were very obscure: but now that they have been explained to us from above, we see the Gospel embodied, as it were, and made visible even to the eye of sense. Who that contemplates one goat offered in sacrifice to God, and the other bearing away all the sins of all the people of Israel that had been laid upon his head, does not see, before his very face, what the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is daily effecting for all that believe in him? Even the moral law itself, which Moses also has recorded, has the very same tendency, and, in the ears of all who understand it, proclaims the utter impossibility of being saved, except by the sacrifice that should in due time be offered; insomuch that St. Paul calls it a schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ. All the prophets concur with him in the very same testimony; and proclaim with one voice, that there is no remission of sins but by blood; and that there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ. We are told, that to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Ask we of Isaiah? His testimony is, He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed. To the same effect speaks also the Prophet Daniel: Messiah shall be cut off; but not for himself. He shall make an end of sin, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. And Joel points him out, as that Lord, on whom whosoever shall call, shall be saved.
The last and greatest of all the prophets was John the Baptist: and he pointed out the very Saviour himself in these emphatic words; Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! Here we see the union of the law and of the Gospel to be precisely such as we have represented it. The lamb was at that very time offered every morning and evening in sacrifice to God for the sins of Israel; and here was Jesus pointed out as the Lamb that should take away, not the sins of one people only, but of the whole world.
And what was the testimony borne by our Lord himself? Did he not declare, that He was come to give his life a ransom for many? Did He not, when he administered the sacramental cup to his Disciples, say, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins?
But what said his Apostles, when the time was come for the full disclosure of the great mystery of Redemption? They with one voice declare, that he died the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; that we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins; and that all who believe in him are justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the parallel between the law and the Gospel is distinctly drawn; so that nothing is left to fancy or conjecture; but all is declared on infallible authority to have been accomplished in him, to the unspeakable advantage of our souls; since, if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God.
And to whom are we indebted for all this knowledge? To Jews, from first to last: to Jewish prophets and to Jewish Apostles: yea, the very Saviour himself who effected this salvation, and to whom they all bare witness; he himself proclaimed it; he himself displayed its power whilst he yet hanged on the cross; and after his resurrection he gave this commission to his Disciples, Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: and he that believeth not, shall be damned.
Now, what of all these things can we learn from the philosophers of Greece and Rome? No more than from the beasts themselves. It was hidden from them altogether. If we want to know what kind of a Saviour was to come, we must learn it from Jews. If we would know what ground there is to believe that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies; to Jews we must go, to obtain the desired information. If we would learn how we are to come to the Saviour, and to obtain acceptance through him; we must sit at the feet of Jews, and receive instruction from their lips. We have not a hope that is not founded on their word; nor can a ray of consolation shine into our souls, that is not emitted from their writings. We do not sufficiently consider this: but we ought never to forget how greatly we are indebted to the Jews: since, whether in its primary structure or its subsequent conveyance, our salvation is altogether of them; of them originally, of them instrumentally, of them exclusively: so that not a soul amongst us shall ever go forth from this devoted land to the mountains of eternal bliss, but as instructed, instigated, and assisted by a Jew.
From this subject we cannot but learn our duty in two important respects: first, to seek this salvation for ourselves; and next, to exert ourselves in order to impart this salvation to those from whom we have received it.
First, then, let us seek this salvation for ourselves.
It cannot be that Almighty God should have done so much for our salvation, and we be at liberty to neglect it. The Apostles question is full of awful and impressive energy, How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation? Surely, if God has given his only dear Son to be a sacrifice for sin; if, in order to prepare the world for the reception of him, he shadowed forth all his work and offices with such precision, that it should be impossible for any considerate mind not to see and understand the way of salvation; if Prophets and Apostles, for such a series of ages, bare witness to him at the peril of their lives, in order that we might know him, and be partakers of his benefits; does it become us to despise it all, as if it were no better than a cunningly-devised fable 2 Surely, we must see that it is our bounden duty to flee for refuge to this hope that is set before us. We must remember what the very term Salvation implies: it implies, that we are lost: for if in ourselves we be not lost, we cannot need a Saviour. But we are lost, every one of us; for we are sinners, condemned by Gods righteous law; and the wrath of God abideth on us. I fear it will appear harsh to say, that we are in this respect on a footing with the fallen angels, even with the spirits that are already in the prison of hell. But, if I say the truth before God, this is the only difference between them and us: they are lost beyond redemption; whereas we, though lost, have salvation offered to us: but, if we neglect this salvation, we shall perish, under a load of guilt beyond all expression aggravated, and under a punishment beyond all conception terrible. Whatever may have been the guilt of the fallen angels, from this, at least, they are free; they have never poured contempt on a redeeming God, never rejected a proffered salvation: but these are the sins that will be charged on us, if we embrace not the salvation which is revealed to us in the Gospel.
I say, then, to every soul before me, seek this salvation which the Jews have brought unto you: seek it simply, mixing nothing with it, but relying altogether on the atoning blood of Christ, who, though he knew no sin, was made sin for you, that you, who had no righteousness, might be made the righteousness of God in him. And seek it humbly, confessing over the Lord Jesus Christ your every sin, and transferring it by faith to his sacred head. In point of dependence, you must renounce your most righteous acts as much as your vilest sins; and you must look to his blood to cleanse you from the iniquity even of your holiest things. Seek it constantly too: it was every day in the year that the offerings for sin were made: and every day and hour must you look to your great Sacrifice, if you would have it available for your eternal good. Seek it, moreover, unreservedly. Neglect not the water, any more than the blood. It will be a fatal mistake to think of ever being saved by the sacrifice of Christ, if you be not renewed and sanctified by his Spirit. These two are inseparably joined by God himself; and it will be at the peril of your souls, if ever you attempt to put them asunder. Lastly, I would say, seek it to the full extent of your necessities. I have purposely deferred till now all mention of the sacrifices that were appointed for the sins of ignorance. They are particularly stated in the fourth chapter of the Book of Leviticus. There you will see, that, if a man had ever so ignorantly and unintentionally contracted defilement, (say, by the touching of a bone or a grave, or any thing that had been previously touched by one unclean,) he must bring his offering, as soon as ever he discovered that he had transgressed: and, if he should refuse to bring his appointed offering, he must be cut off from the Lords people, as a despiser of the law, and a rebel against his God. Thus must we do, even for the slightest inadvertence or defect. And if, from an idea that our offence has been light and venial, we hope to remove its guilt by any other means than the blood of Christ, we shall surely perish. If we had never violated Gods holy law but once, and that only by an inadvertent thought, there remains for us but one way of salvation, one only door of hope: and, if we will not enter at that door, and walk in that way, there remains nothing for us but a certain fearful looking-for of wrath and fiery indignation to consume us. I say then, again, to every soul amongst you, seek for salvation in Christ alone. There was but one brazen serpent erected in the camp of Israel: and there is but one Saviour appointed for the whole world. There is no other way unto the Father but by Him: but those who come to God in his Sons name, he will in no wise cast out.
Next, let us exert ourselves to impart this salvation to those from whom we have received it. I appeal to all: if we are so indebted to the Jewish people of former ages, should we not endeavour, in some respect, to requite them by shewing kindness to their descendants? and if we are constrained to say that salvation is of the Jews, should we not, now that the Jews themselves are ignorant of that salvation, endeavour to impart to them the light which we enjoy, and constrain them, in their turn, to say, Salvation is of the Christians? For, surely, if it be of them in its commencement, it is, and ought to be, of us in its progress and consummation. And I would ask, is it not a scandal to the whole Christian world, that they should have so long and so shamefully neglected those to whose ancestors they are so greatly indebted? It was never Gods design that we should hide our candle under a bushel, and conceal it from the very persons who have put it into our hands. On the contrary, St. Paul expressly says, that as we have been benefited by their unbelief, so we should strive to benefit them by our faith: As we in times past have not believed God, but have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; so have these also now not believed, that through our mercy they also may obtain mercy. Whilst, therefore, we withhold from them the instruction which God has qualified us to impart, we defeat the very designs of God himself, and may well have required at our hands the blood of all who perish through our neglect.
If we would know in what way we ought to exert ourselves for them, we need only inquire how they exerted themselves for us. Behold the Prophets and Apostles, in the different ages in which they lived: which of them all, with the exception of the Prophet Jonah, did not engage in his work with zeal, and execute it with fidelity? Of all the Apostles, there was but one who did not actually seal the truth with his blood; as John also was willing to do, if he had been called to it. And all the first Christian converts, when driven from Jerusalem, went everywhere preaching the word, happy if by any means they might impart to us benighted heathens the salvation which they had found. Should not, then, some measure, at least, of that zeal be shewn by us? Should not their souls be precious in our eyes, as ours were in theirs? It is a shame to us that we think so lightly of this matter; and that we, who ought to take the lead in every thing that is good and great, are so backward to exert ourselves in this holy cause. I well know that sloth and indifference will furnish us with reasons enough for delay: but I would ask, what reason has any man for neglecting this duty, which might not have been urged with still greater force by the Jews for a neglect of us? The attempt to convert the Jews might have been deemed visionary a few years ago: but shall it be judged visionary now? I say, without fear of contradiction, that the efforts which have been made within these few years have produced a great effect, if not in numerous conversions, yet at least in that which must precede conversion; and which conversion may reasonably, in many instances, be expected to follow; I mean, the conviction of their minds of the truth of Christianity. I do say, that this effect is seen, felt, and acknowledged by the Jews themselves: and if the periodical publications which are issued forth on this subject were perused, the truth of this assertion would most abundantly appear. Permit me, then, to call the attention of this assembly to this momentous subject; and to press on all who hear me this day, to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty, even against the mighty prejudices of the Jewish people, and the no less formidable indifference of the Christian world. A good example here would be felt throughout the land, and would tend not a little to diffuse, both among Jews at home and Jews abroad, the light which we possess, and the salvation we enjoy. I ask, is that true which our Lord has spoken, If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins? If this be true, then are that whole people perishing by millions. And shall we suffer them thus to perish for lack of knowledge? God forbid. If any of us know what salvation is, we ought to impart it to others. We feel this obligation in some measure to the heathen, to whom we are not at all indebted; and yet overlook it in reference to the Jews, from whom we have received all the light and knowledge we possess. This ought not so to be: this should not continue one hour longer: we ought all to rise, as one man, to repair, as far as possible, our past neglect, and to fulfil our duties to God and man. But, if we will still continue to hide our talent in a napkin, know all of you, that you shall be called into judgment for it, and that the doom of the unprofitable servant must await you. But let me hope better things, though I thus speak, even things that accompany salvation. I thank God that some at least have awaked to the calls of justice and of mercy; of justice to God, who has entrusted them with their talents; and of mercy to the Jews, who so greatly need their improvement of them. And I pray God that this spirit may abound more and more; and that they who embark in this good cause may soon have the happiness to see that they have not laboured in vain, nor run in vain.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Ver. 22. We know what we worship ] Christ also, as man, worshippeth, being less than himself as God. Christ is worshipped by angels as God, being greater than himself as man.
Ye worship ye know not what ] And yet these Samaritans thought themselves the only right worshippers. As Turks hold themselves the only Moslems, that is, true believers; as Hermotimus, the Stoic in Lucian, thought his sect the best of all other, as being ignorant of any other himself.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22. ] But he will not leave the temple of Zion and the worship appointed by God without His testimony. He decides her question not merely by affirming, but by proving the Jewish worship to be the right one. In the Samaritan worship there was no leading of God to guide them, there were no prophetic voices revealing more and more of His purposes. The neuter is used to shew the want of personality and distinctness in their idea of God: the second , merely as corresponding to it in the other member of the sentence. Or perhaps better, both , as designating merely the abstract object of worship , not the personal God.
The is remarkable, as being the only instance of our Lord thus speaking. But the nature of the case accounts for it. He never elsewhere is speaking to one so set in opposition to the Jews on a point where Himself and the Jews stood together for God’s truth. He now speaks as a Jew . The nearest approach to it is in His answer to the Canaanitish woman, Mat 15:24 ; Mat 15:26 .
, because: this is the reason why we know what we worship, because the promises of God are made to us, and we possess them and believe them: see Rom 3:1-2 .
. . . . ] It was in this point especially, expectation of the promised salvation by the great Deliverer (see Gen 49:18 ), that the Samaritan rejection of the prophetic word had made them so deficient in comparison of the Jews. But not only this; the Messiah Himself was to spring from among the Jews, and had sprung from among them; not , but , the abstract present, but perhaps with a reference to what was then happening. See Isa 2:1-3 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:22 . . The distinction between Jewish and Samaritan worship lies not in the difference of place, but of the object of worship. The neuter refers abstractly to the object of worship. “You do not know the object of your worship;” suggested by the of the preceding clause. Cf. Act 17:23 . . The Jews worshipped a God who had made Himself known to them in their history by His gracious and saving dealings with them. That it is this knowledge which is meant appears in the following clause: , that is to say, God has manifested Himself as Saviour to the Jews, and through them to all. “A powerful repudiation of the theory which makes the author of this Gospel a Gentile of the second century with a Gnostic antipathy to Judaism and Jews,” Reynolds.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Ye worship . . . what. See 2Ki 17:24-34, esp. Joh 4:33.
salvation = the salvation [which the prophets foretold]. Compare Luk 2:30.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] But he will not leave the temple of Zion and the worship appointed by God without His testimony. He decides her question not merely by affirming, but by proving the Jewish worship to be the right one. In the Samaritan worship there was no leading of God to guide them, there were no prophetic voices revealing more and more of His purposes. The neuter is used to shew the want of personality and distinctness in their idea of God:-the second , merely as corresponding to it in the other member of the sentence. Or perhaps better, both, as designating merely the abstract object of worship, not the personal God.
The is remarkable, as being the only instance of our Lord thus speaking. But the nature of the case accounts for it. He never elsewhere is speaking to one so set in opposition to the Jews on a point where Himself and the Jews stood together for Gods truth. He now speaks as a Jew. The nearest approach to it is in His answer to the Canaanitish woman, Mat 15:24; Mat 15:26.
, because: this is the reason why we know what we worship, because the promises of God are made to us, and we possess them and believe them: see Rom 3:1-2.
. . . .] It was in this point especially, expectation of the promised salvation by the great Deliverer (see Gen 49:18), that the Samaritan rejection of the prophetic word had made them so deficient in comparison of the Jews. But not only this;-the Messiah Himself was to spring from among the Jews, and had sprung from among them;-not , but , the abstract present, but perhaps with a reference to what was then happening. See Isa 2:1-3.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:22. ) Ye know not what. He shows under how great ignorance they labour; wherefore He also adds, , the Father, which the woman had not added. Although , what, inasmuch as it is not repeated in the subsequent member of the sentence, does not seem to denote the object of worship, but the form; in this sense, Ye know not what worship ye practise; we know, what is our worship.-, we) He speaks as an ordinary Jew; inasmuch as not being yet known to the Samaritan woman.- , Salvation) Truly so! The very derivation of the name Jesus, whom the woman calls a Jew, Joh 4:9. Comp. Joh 4:42, [The Samaritans] We know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.-, is) For such was the promise: that the Saviour and the knowledge of Him would originate from the Jews, and that from the Jews that knowledge would be extended to others. [Jesus speaks of the Jews in more glorifying terms when addressing foreigners than when addressing Jews.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:22
Joh 4:22
Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know;-He kept before her the truth that in forsaking Gods appointments they ceased to worship God. They did not know who they were worshiping. Jesus, while seeking to open the mind of the woman to the truth, condemns the sin of the Israelites in forsaking Jerusalem and the temple worship. In doing so they forsook God, and worshiped they knew not what. They claimed to worship God, but to reject his order is to turn from him.
for salvation is from the Jews.-Salvation was to come through the family of Abraham of whom the Jews were the representatives. Salvation comes through the Jews that were true to the worship of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
salvation
(See Scofield “Rom 1:16”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
ye know: 2Ki 17:27-29, 2Ki 17:41, Ezr 4:2, Act 17:23, Act 17:30
we worship: 2Ch 13:10-12, Psa 147:19, Rom 3:2, Rom 9:5
for: Gen 49:10, Psa 68:20, Isa 2:3, Isa 12:2, Isa 12:6, Isa 46:13, Zep 3:16, Zep 3:17, Zec 9:9, Luk 24:47, Rom 9:4, Rom 9:5, Heb 7:14
Reciprocal: Exo 15:2 – my salvation Ezr 4:3 – Ye have nothing Psa 45:11 – worship Psa 85:4 – O God Isa 45:15 – O God Jer 3:23 – in the Lord Eze 23:4 – Aholah Joe 2:32 – for Jon 2:9 – Salvation Mat 10:5 – of the Samaritans Luk 17:16 – and he Act 13:46 – It was Act 17:24 – dwelleth Eph 2:12 – having 1Pe 2:5 – spiritual Rev 7:10 – Salvation Rev 19:10 – worship Rev 22:9 – worship God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
The Samaritans rejected most of the Old Testament, which ruled out all of the prophetic writings except the few passages to be found in the five books of Moses. With such a partial basis for their guide, Jesus declared they did not know what they were doing when they professed to perform their services. Salvation is of the Jews. Every writer of the Old Testament was a Jew except Job, and he had some of the blood of Abraham in his veins. (See notes on page 351, volume 2 of the Old Testament Commentary.) Since the entire volume of religious revelation from God was given through the Jews, they would certainly know something of the subject. (See Rom 3:1-2.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 4:22. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know. The two questions at issue between Jews and Samaritans were those of holy place and holy Scripture. The former, though of far inferior importance (as the Jews themselves were by their dispersion being gradually trained to know), was the more easily seized upon by national prejudice and zeal. Of this question Jesus has spoken. He passes on immediately to the other, which the woman had not raised, but which was of vital moment. The Samaritans did really worship God,there is no slur cast on the intention and aim of their worship; their error consisted in clinging to an imperfect revelation of Him, receiving Moses but rejecting the prophets. Hating and avoiding Jews, they cut themselves off from the training given by God to that people through whom His final purposes were to be made known to the world. It was the essential characteristic of the whole of Jewish history and prophecy that it gradually led up to the Messiah; that the successive prophets made known with increasing clearness the nature of His kingdom; and that every one who could understand their word saw that the Divine purpose to save the world was to be accomplished through One arising out of Israel. He who knew not God as thus revealing and giving salvation did not really know Him. Every Jew who truly received and understood the oracles of God committed to his trust (Rom 3:2) might be said to know the object of his worship; and it is because our Lord is speaking of such knowledge,knowledge respecting God given by the Scriptures which the Jews possessed,that He says that which we know, not Him whom we know. The Samaritans then worshipped that which they knew not,in this more enlightened than the Athenians who built an altar to an unknown God, but inferior even to those of Israel who had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge, and standing far below those meant by our Lord when He says we worship,we, namely, who have really appropriated Israels inheritance of truth and hope.
Because the Salvation is of the Jews. The Salvation is that foretold in Scripture, and long waited for. The words are those of Jesus; but, remembered and quoted as they are by the Evangelist, they show how unfounded is the charge sometimes laid against this Gospel, that it is marked by enmity to the Jewish people. It is only when the Jews have apostatized and rejected Jesus that the term becomes one of condemnation, designating the enemies of all goodness and truth.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 4:22. Ye worship ye know not what Or rather, as the original words, , ye worship what ye know not, that is, ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but, in a great measure, also of the very object of worship. They believed indeed, in a sense, in the one living and true God, as the Jews did; drawing their knowledge of him from the five books of Moses, the authority of which they acknowledged. But as they did not receive the writings of the prophets as canonical, or of divine inspiration, it is not to be supposed that they were, in general, so well acquainted with God, and the service he required, as the Jews were. On the contrary, it is probable that they were sunk into a state of gross ignorance in these respects. For, if the writings of the prophets were of importance for conveying to mankind the knowledge of the perfections and will of God, the Samaritans, who rejected all those writings, must, on this head, have been more ignorant than the Jews. Doubtless, many of them were like their progenitors, of whom we read, (2Ki 17:32,) that they feared the Lord, namely, after a fashion; but, at the same time, served their own gods, that is, they joined the worship of idols with his worship: or worshipped him merely as a local deity, as is plainly intimated, Joh 4:26-27 of that chapter, where they twice term him, the God of the land. We know what we worship Or rather, as the Greek is, we worship what we know, or, we know the God we worship. Our Lord and his disciples, and such Jews as were pious, certainly knew the God they worshipped; and the Jews in general had much more correct ideas of the nature and attributes of God than the Samaritans had. Christ elsewhere condemns the corruptions of the Jewish worship; yet here defends their worship with regard to its object: for we may be right with respect to the object of our worship, even when there is much that is faulty and corrupt in the manner of it. For salvation is of the Jews All the prophets spoke of the Saviour as one that should come out of the Jewish nation, and that through him the knowledge of the true God, and of the true way of worshipping and serving him, should be communicated to the rest of mankind. For, as the author of salvation came of the Jews, appeared among them, and was sent first to bless them, affording them, in an extraordinary way, the means of salvation; so the word of salvation was of them, and was delivered to them, to be derived from them to other nations. This was a sure guide to them in their worship, and they who followed it knew what they worshipped. As they, therefore, were thus privileged and advanced, it was presumption for the Samaritans to vie with them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 22. Ye worship that which ye do not know; we worship that which we know, because salvation comes from the Jews.
The antithesis, which is so clearly marked between ye and we proves, whatever Hilgenfeld may say, who wrongly cites Hengstenberg as being of his opinion (comp. the Commentary of the latter, I. pp. 264-269), that the ye denotes the Samaritans and the we Jesus and the Jews. After having put His impartiality beyond suspicion by the revelation of the great future announced in Joh 4:21, Jesus enters more closely into the question proposed to Him and decides it, as related to the past, in favor of the Jews. It is at Jerusalem that the living God has made Himself known; and that because it is by means of the Jews that He intends to give salvation to the world. God is known only so far as He gives Himself to be known. The seat of the true knowledge of Him can, therefore, only be where He makes His revelation; and this place is Jerusalem. By breaking with the course of theocratic development since the time of Moses, and rejecting the prophetic revelations, the Samaritans had separated themselves from the historic God, from the living God. They had preserved only the abstract idea of the one God, a purely rational monotheism. Now the idea of God, as soon as it is taken for God Himself, is no more than a chimera. Even while worshiping God, therefore, they do not know what they worship. The Jews, on the contrary, have developed themselves in constant contact with the divine manifestations; they have remained in the school of the God of revelation, and in this living relation they have preserved the principle of a true knowledge. And whence comes this peculiar relation between this people and God? The answer is given in what follows. If God has made Himself so specially known to the Jews, it is because He wished to make use of them, in order to accomplish the salvation of the world. It is salvation which, retroactively in some sort, has produced all the previous theocratic revelations, as it is the fruit which, although appearing at the end of the annual vegetation, is the real cause of it. The true cause of things is their aim. Thus is the , because, explained.
This passage has embarrassed rationalistic criticism, which, making the Jesus of our Gospel an adversary of Judaism, does not allow that He could have proclaimed Himself a Jew, and have Himself united in this we His own worship and that of the Israelitish people. And indeed if, as d’ Eichthal alleges (Les Evangiles I. p. xxviii.), the Jesus of the fourth Gospel, from one end to the other of His preaching, seems to make sport of the Jews, and consequently cannot be one of them, there is a flagrant contradiction between our passage and the entire Gospel.Hilgenfeld thinks that, at Joh 4:21, Jesus addresses the Jews and the Samaritans taken together, as by a kind of prosopopoeia, and that at Joh 4:22, by the words: we worship that which we know, he designates Himself, (with the believers) in opposition to these Jews and Samaritans. We have already seen at Joh 4:21 that this explanation cannot be sustained, and this appears more clearly still from the words of Joh 4:22 : Because salvation comes from the Jews, which evidently prove that the subject of we worship can only be the Jews. D’Eichthal and Renan make use here of different expedients. The enigma is explained, says the first, when it is observed that this expression is only the annotation, or rather the protest, which a Jew of the old school had inscribed on the margin of the text, and of which an error of the copyist has made a word of Jesus (p. xxix., note). And this scholar is in exstacies over the services which criticism can render to the interpretation of the sacred writings! Renan makes a similar hypothesis. The 22d verse, which expresses an opposite thought to that of Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23, seems an awkward addition of the evangelist alarmed at the boldness of the saying which he reports (p. 244, note). Arbitrariness could not be pressed further. The critic begins by decreeing what the fourth Gospel must be; an anti-Jewish book. Then, when he meets an expression which contradicts this alleged character, he rejects it with a stroke of the pen. He obtains, thus, not the Gospel which is, but that which he would have. But is it supposed that the first Jew whom one might meet was in possession of the authentic copy of our Gospel, to modify it according to his fancy; or that it was very easy for any chance foreigner, when this writing was once spread abroad, to introduce an interpolation into all the copies which were in circulation among the Churches? As for Renan’s hypothesis, it supposes that the evangelist thought he knew more than the Master whom he worshiped; which is not very logical. The alleged incompatibility of this saying with Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23, and with spirit of the fourth Gospel in general, is an assertion without foundation. (See Introduction, p. 127-134.)
At Joh 4:21 Jesus has transferred the question to the future, when the localized worship of ancient times should no longer exist. In Joh 4:22, He has justified the Jews, historically speaking. At Joh 4:23 He returns to the future announced in Joh 4:21, and describes all its grandeur.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
By "you" Jesus meant the Samaritans (plural "you" in Gr.). They worshipped a God whom they did not really know. The reason for this was their rejection of most of His revelation in the Old Testament. Moreover the Samaritans had added pagan concepts to their faith that had come from their Gentile forefathers. If the woman truly believed that Jesus was a prophet, as she claimed, she would have had to accept His statement. There was more and truer information about God that she and her fellow Samaritans needed to learn than they presently knew. Jesus was providing that correction and that new revelation.
In contrast, the Jews accepted all of God’s revelation in the Old Testament and therefore knew the God whom they worshipped. Additionally they were the people through whom that revelation had come. Jesus here summarized all Old Testament revelation as being essentially soteriological. God intended His revelation to result in salvation for humankind (cf. Joh 3:17). In that sense salvation had come through the Jews (cf. Rom 3:2; Rom 9:4-5). Salvation also came from the Jews in that Messiah came from Judah’s tribe (Gen 49:10) whereas the Samaritans traced their ancestry through Joseph. [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 11:8:6.]
Jesus did not take sides on the question of the place of worship, but He did clarify the proper basis of authority as being the whole Old Testament.