Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:38
I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
38. I sent you, &c.] The pronouns are again emphatically opposed, as in Joh 4:32.
other men ] Christ, the Sower; but put in the plural to balance ‘ye’ in the next clause. In Joh 4:37 both are put in the singular for the sake of harmony; ‘One soweth’ (Christ), ‘another reapeth’ (the disciples). All the verbs in this verse are perfects excepting ‘sent;’ have not laboured, have laboured, have entered.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I sent you – In the commission given you to preach the gospel. You have not labored or toiled in preparing the way for the great harvest which is now to be gathered in.
Other men laboured –
- The prophets, who long labored to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
(2)The teachers among the Jews, who have read and explained the law and taught the people.
- John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way. And,
- The Saviour himself, who by his personal ministry taught the people, and prepared them for the success which was to attend the preaching of the apostles.
Especially did Jesus lay the foundation for the rapid and extensive spread of the gospel. He saw comparatively little fruit of his ministry. He confined his labors to Judea, and even there he was occupied in sowing seed which chiefly sprang up after his death. From this we may learn:
1. That the man who is crowned with eminent success has no cause of boasting over others, any more than the man who reaps a field of grain should boast over the man who sowed it. The labor of both is equally necessary, and the labor of both would be useless if God did not give the increase. Compare 1Co 3:6.
2. We should not be discouraged if we do not meet with immediate success. The man that sows is not disheartened because he does not see the harvest immediately spring up. We are to sow our seed in the morning, and in the evening we are not to withhold our hand, for we know not whether shall prosper, this or that; and we are to go forth bearing precious seed, though weeping, knowing that we shall come again rejoicing, bearing our sheaves with us, Ecc 11:4; Psa 126:6.
3. Every part of the work of the ministry and of teaching men is needful, and we should rejoice that we are permitted to bear any part, however humble, in bringing sinners to the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1Co 12:21-24.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
I have sent you to reap that which you did not first labour for; the prophets, and John the Baptist, and myself, have sown the seed, and by their doctrine prepared for the Lord a people; you enter upon their labours, gathering them into a gospel church.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
38. I sent you, &c.The Iis emphaticI, the Lord of the whole harvest: “sent you,”points to their past appointment to the apostleship, though ithas reference only to their future discharge of it, for theyhad nothing to do with the present ingathering of the Sycharites.
ye bestowed no labourmeaningthat much of their future success would arise from the preparationalready made for them. (See on Joh4:42).
others labouredReferringto the Old Testament laborers, the Baptist, and by implicationHimself, though He studiously keeps this in the background, thatthe line of distinction between Himself and all His servants mightnot be lost sight of. “Christ represents Himself as theHusbandman [rather the Lord of the laborers], who has the directionboth of the sowing and of the harvest, who commissions all theagentsthose of the Old Testament as well as of the Newandtherefore does not stand on a level with either the sowers or thereapers” [OLSHAUSEN].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I sent you to reap,…. To preach the Gospel, and gather in souls by your ministry; referring to the mission of them in
Mt 10:6;
that whereon ye bestowed no labour; being sent to the Jews, who had the writings of the prophets, and were versed in them; and had learned from them that the Messiah was to come, and were now in general expectation of him; so that they had nothing more to do, than to declare to those persons who were cultivated by the prophets, and were like to ground tilled and manured, that the Messiah was come, and the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Other men laboured; the prophets, and John the Baptist:
and ye are entered into their labours; to finish the work they had begun, and which was almost done to their hands.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I sent ( ). Emphatic use of and first aorist active indicative of common in John for to send.
Whereon ye have not laboured ( ). Perfect active indicative of for which see 4:6. So also in next line. The disciples had done no sowing here in Sychar, only Jesus and the woman.
Others (: Jesus, the Baptist, the prophets).
And ye ( ). Emphatic contrast.
Have entered (). Perfect active indicative of .
Into their labour ( ). Into the fruit and blessed results of their toil (). This is always true as seen in Acts 8:5-7; Acts 8:14.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I sent [ ] . The I is emphatic. The aorist tense points back to the mission of the disciples as involved in their original call. Other men. Jesus himself and all who had prepared the way for Him, such as John the Baptist.
Labored [] . The perfect tense. Rev., rightly, have labored, their labor showing its effects in the present case. On the word labor, see on Luk 5:5. Compare Jos 24:13.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I sent you to reap,” (ego apesteila humas therizein) “I sent you all busily to reap,” in the over-ripe fields, an application of the idea of Joh 4:37; 1Ti 1:15.
2) “That whereon ye bestowed no labor:” (ho ouch humeis kekopiakate) “What you all have not labored,” to produce or to prepare for the harvest, for those who may follow you, Deu 6:10-11.
3) “Other men laboured,” (alloi kekopiakasin) ”Other people have labored,” gone before you, entailing to you a benefit and debt of gratitude. The prophets had labored and witnessed and John the Baptist had prepared them for the way of Jesus, Act 10:43; Act 1:22-23.
4) “And ye are entered into their labours.” (kai humeis eis ton kopon auton eiseleluthate) “And you all have entered into their labor,” to share in reaping what others have sown, watered, and cultivated, Jer 7:25; Jer 25:4; Jer 29:19; Jer 44:4; 2Ch 36:15-16; 1Pe 1:12; This spirit is expressed by Paul, Rom 1:14-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(38) I sent you to reap . . .The pronouns are again emphatic. I sent you to reap; and the statement is of wide meaning. He is ever the Sower. All others are more or less fully reapers, though in the degree in which they really reap they will become likened unto Him, and will become sowers too. We all inherit from the past the greatest part of our mental and spiritual knowledge. The child of to-day knows more than the philosopher of early history.
Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.Or, others have laboured. In the immediate application to the present case, the others is to be interpreted of Christ Himself, who had been sowing during their absence, and it may be of the woman who has sown this seed by her testimony to the Samaritans. Or the plural may be chosen as in contrast with the plural ye, and as pointing to the general truth, while the immediate reference is to Christ only.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
38. I The Lord of the harvest, sent you; as he truly had all their predecessors.
Other men laboured ye into their labours As Charles Wesley says, “God buries his workmen but carries on his work.” Moses, the holy priests, the prophets, and the Baptist had preceded, and Christ’s apostles and the ministry of these latter ages are all in the same line of succession. And, no doubt, this passage is a prophetic anticipation of the harvest afterward reaped in Samaria by his apostles. See note on Joh 4:42.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
Ver. 38. Other men have laboured ] Laboured even to lassitude, as the word signifies ( , ). The ministry is not then an easy trade, an idle man’s occupation. Luther was wont to say, Sudor aeconomicus est magnus, Politicus maior, Ecclesiasticus maximus, The householder hath somewhat to do, the magistrate more, but the minister most of all.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
38. ] Here, as often, our Lord speaks of the office and its work as accomplished , which is but beginning (see Isa 46:10 ).
By here He cannot mean the O.T. Prophets (Grotius, Bengel, Lange), for then His own place would be altogether left out; and besides, all Scripture analogy is against the idea of the O.T. being the seed of which the N.T. is the fruit: nor can it be right , as Olshausen maintains, to leave Him out, as being the Lord of the Harvest: for He is certainly elsewhere , and was by the very nature of the case here, the Sower . The plural is I believe merely inserted as the correspondent word to in the explanation, as it was , in the proverb. (So Lcke, Tholuck, Stier. De Wette denies their interpretation, but gives none of his own.)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:38 . The exemplification in our Lord’s mind is given in Joh 4:38 , where the pronouns and are emphatic. “I sent you to reap.” When? Holtzmann thinks the past tenses can only be explained as spoken by the glorified Lord looking back on His call of the twelve as Apostles. That is, the words were not spoken as John relates. But may not the reference be to the baptising of many by the disciples in the preceding months? This would be quite a natural and obvious reference. The work in Judaea which justifies the preterites was now alluded to, because now again the same division of labour is apparent. The Samaritans come not because of anything the disciples had said while making purchases in the town, but because of their Master’s talk with the woman.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
sent. App-174.
other men. Greek. Plural of allos.
laboured = have laboured.
are entered = have entered.
their: i.e. John the Baptist and the Lord.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
38.] Here, as often, our Lord speaks of the office and its work as accomplished, which is but beginning (see Isa 46:10).
By here He cannot mean the O.T. Prophets (Grotius, Bengel, Lange), for then His own place would be altogether left out;-and besides, all Scripture analogy is against the idea of the O.T. being the seed of which the N.T. is the fruit:-nor can it be right, as Olshausen maintains, to leave Him out, as being the Lord of the Harvest:-for He is certainly elsewhere, and was by the very nature of the case here, the Sower. The plural is I believe merely inserted as the correspondent word to in the explanation, as it was -, in the proverb. (So Lcke, Tholuck, Stier. De Wette denies their interpretation, but gives none of his own.)
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:38. , I) The Lord of the whole harvest.-, I sent) I have begun to send (Joh 4:2) you to the Jews, intending hereafter to send you through the whole earth.-, others) the prophets.-) He does not say, we, but you. Christ is the Lord.-, their labour) the results obtained by their labours: Neh 5:13, I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour (the fruit of it), that performeth not this promise.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:38
Joh 4:38
I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor.-Jesus sent his disciples to preach and reap what had been sown by others. This is the order of God in the natural and spiritual world. One sows; they who follow him reap.
[Sent is a verb past and refers to an event previous to the present incident. The disciples had baptized more than John (Joh 4:1), so many that Johns disciples reported that all men come to him (Joh 3:26). Christs disciples who had baptized all of these (Joh 4:2) were reaping the fruit of Johns sowing, to a great degree, supplemented by the labors of Christ. John had sown; they were reaping. While on earth Christ sowed and later at Pentecost, in Judea, and in Samaria, his disciples entered into his labors. See the reaping of what he had sown in Samaria. (Act 8:5-8). This principle is true now.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
sent: Act 2:41, Act 4:4, Act 4:32, Act 5:14, Act 6:7, Act 8:4-8, Act 8:14-17
other: Joh 1:7, 2Ch 36:15, Jer 44:4, Mat 3:1-6, Mat 4:23, Mat 11:8-13, Act 10:37, Act 10:38, Act 10:42, Act 10:43, 1Pe 1:11, 1Pe 1:12
Reciprocal: Jos 5:12 – but they did eat 1Ch 22:5 – David prepared Luk 19:9 – This day 1Th 5:12 – labour 1Ti 5:17 – labour
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
The other men means the Old Testament prophets and the work of John the Baptist. All of these servants of God had done much to prepare the way for the apostles to gather up the results. Paul teaches the same lesson in 1Co 3:6-8.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 4:38. I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not toiled: others have toiled, and ye have entered into their toil. The disciples are the reapers of this harvest; their commissionincluding, however, that of the disciples of Jesus throughout all timewas to reap a harvest which had not been prepared by their own toil. Whatever toil may be theirs, it is toil in reaping,in joyfully gathering the results of earlier toil. The surprise and gladness with which they would shortly witness the faith of the men of Sychar was an emblem of what should repeat itself continually in the history of the Church. While the disciples are reapers, this harvesting in Samaria shows clearly who is the sower, whose has been the earlier toil. The words point to Jesus Himself. From beginning to end of the narrative His word, first in the conversation with the woman, and then as spoken to the Samaritans (Joh 4:39), is the instrument by which the joyful result is gained. Nor must we limit our thought of His toil to what is related of the work of this evening by Jacobs well. The toil that has made any harvest possible is that of His whole mission. All that was necessary that He might be able to say I am the Christ, the self-renunciation and sorrow and pain of His atoning and redeeming work,virtually included in His one act of acceptance of that work, and present to His thought from the beginning,is involved in His toil. He says, indeed, Others have toiled, and neither here nor in chap. Joh 3:11 can we take the plural as simply standing for the singular. He Himself is chiefly intended, but others are joined as having shared in the preparatory work. He had been alone in conversing with the woman of Samaria; but He had taken up and made use of all that she had received from the teaching of Moses (Joh 4:25), and all that the Jews had learnt from the prophets. Thus He includes with Himself those who had prepared the way for His coming. For Him, and therefore with Him, they too had toiled; but all His servants who come after Him find the field prepared, the toil past, the harvest of that toil ready to be reaped.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 38
Other men, labored, &c.; the Prophet and other religious teachers of the Jews, whose instructions might be considered as preparatory to the publication of the gospel of Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
The proverb was true in the situation of Jesus and His disciples. The purpose of the disciples’ calling was reaping believers in Jesus. The Apostle John did not record Jesus’ commissioning them for that purpose earlier, but that was His purpose (cf. Joh 4:2). The Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist had sowed, but now Jesus and His disciples were reaping (cf. Acts 2).