Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:21
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
21. believe me ] This formula occurs here only; the usual one is ‘I say unto you.’
the hour cometh ] No article in the Greek; there cometh an hour. Christ decides neither for nor against either place. The utter ruin on Gerizim and the glorious building at Jerusalem will soon be on an equality. Those who would worship the Father must rise above such distinctions of place. A time is coming when all limitations of worship will disappear.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
21 24. “We shall surely be justified in attributing the wonderful words of Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23-24, to One greater even than S. John. They seem to breathe the spirit of other worlds than ours ‘of worlds whose course is equable and pure;’ where media and vehicles of grace are unneeded, and the soul knows even as it is known. There is nothing so like them in their sublime infinitude of comprehension, and intense penetration to the deepest roots of things, as some of the sayings in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:45; Mat 6:6). It is words like these that strike home to the hearts of men, as in the most literal sense Divine.” S. p. 95.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Believe me – As she had professed to believe that he was a prophet, it was right to require her to put faith in what he was about to utter. It also shows the importance of what he was about to say.
The hour cometh – The time is coming, or is near.
When neither in this mountain … – Hitherto the public solemn worship of God has been confined to one place. It has been a matter of dispute whether that place should be Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. That controversy is to be of much less importance than you have supposed. The old dispensation is about to pass away. The special rites of the Jews are to cease. The worship of God, so long confined to a single place, is soon to be celebrated everywhere, and with as much acceptance in one place as in another. He does not say that there would be no worship of God in that place or in Jerusalem, but that the worship of God would not be confined there. He would be worshipped in other places as well as there.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. The hour cometh, &c.] The time was now at hand in which the spiritual worship of God was about to be established in the earth, and all the Jewish rites and ceremonies entirely abolished.
Worship the Father.] This epithet shows the mild, benignant, and tender nature of the Gospel dispensation. Men are called to worship their heavenly Father, and to consider themselves as his children. In reference to this, our Lord’s prayer begins, Our FATHER, who art in heaven, &c. See Joh 4:23.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Woman, thou ownest me as a prophet, whose office it is to reveal the will of God unto men; it is therefore thy duty to give credit to what I shall reveal to time about the true and right way of worshipping God. The time is coming, yea, at hand, when you shall neither in this Mount Gerizim, (where your fathers have long worshipped God superstitiously without any direction from him), nor yet at Jerusalem, (which is the place which the Lord made choice of for his worship), worship my Father, or your Father. God is putting an end to both these places, and to all that worship which I shall not institute under the gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21-24. Woman, c.Here arethree weighty pieces of information: (1) The point raised will verysoon cease to be of any moment, for a total change of dispensation isabout to come over the Church. (2) The Samaritans are wrong, not onlyas to the place, but the whole grounds and natureof their worship, while in all these respects the truth lies with theJews. (3) As God is a Spirit, so He both invites anddemands a spiritual worship, and already all is inpreparation for a spiritual economy, more in harmony with thetrue nature of acceptable service than the ceremonial worship byconsecrated persons, place, and times, which God for atime has seen meet to keep up till fulness of the time should come.
neither in this mountain noryet at Jerusalemthat is, exclusively (Mal 1:111Ti 2:8).
worship the FatherShehad talked simply of “worship”; our Lord brings up beforeher the great OBJECT ofall acceptable worship”THEFATHER.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me,…. In what I am now going to say, since you own me to be a prophet:
the hour cometh; the time is at hand; it is very near; it is just coming:
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem,
worship the Father; that is, God, whom the Jews, and so the Samaritans, knew under the character of the Father of all men, as the Creator and preserver of them; for not God as the Father of Christ, or of the saints by adopting grace, is here intended, which this ignorant woman at least had no knowledge of: and the reason of our Lord’s speaking after this manner, signifying, that she need not trouble herself about the place of worship, was, partly, because in a little time Jerusalem, and the temple in it, would be destroyed, and not one stone left upon another; and that Samaria, and this mountain of Gerizim, with whatsoever edifice might be upon it, would be laid desolate, so that neither of them would continue long to be places of religious worship; and partly, because all distinction of places in religion would entirely cease; and one place would be as lawful, and as proper to worship in, as another; and men should lift up holy hands, and pray, and offer up spiritual sacrifices in every place, even from the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, Mal 1:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Believe me ( ). Correct text. Present active imperative. Unique phrase in place of the common (verily, verily).
The hour cometh ( ). “There is coming an hour.” The same idiom occurs also in John John 4:34; John 5:25; John 5:28; John 16:2; John 16:25; John 16:32.
Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem ( ). The worship of God will be emancipated from bondage to place. Both Jews and Samaritans are wrong as to the “necessity” (). “These ancient rivalries will disappear when the spirituality of true religion is fully realized.” Jesus told this sinful woman one of his greatest truths.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The hour cometh [ ] . Rather an hour. There is no article. Is coming; is even now on its way.
Shall ye worship [] . See on Act 10:25. The word was used indefinitely in ver. 20. Here with the Father, thus defining true worship.
The Father. This absolute use of the title the Father is characteristic of John. He speaks of God as the Father, and my Father, more commonly the former. On the distinction between the two Canon Westcott observes : “Generally it may be said that the former title expresses the original relation of God to being, and specially to humanity, in virtue of man’s creation in the divine image; and the latter more particularly the relation of the Father to the Son incarnate, and so indirectly to man in virtue of the Incarnation. The former suggests those thoughts which spring from the consideration of the absolute moral connection of man with God; the latter those which spring from what is made known to us, through revelation, of the connection of the Incarnate Son with God and with man.” See Joh 6:45; Joh 10:30; Joh 20:21; Joh 8:18, 19; Joh 14:6 – 10; Joh 14:8. John never uses our Father; only once your Father (xx. 17), and never Father without the article, except in address.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Jesus saith unto her,” (legei aute ho Iesous) “Jesus replied to her,” in a manner to avoid a controversy over issues between races, nationalities, and religious ceremonies, back to the issues and needs of her heart, Mal 1:11.
2) “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,” (posteue moi gunai hoti erchetai hora) “Trust me, woman, that there approaches an hour,” a specific time, following His death upon the cross, after which the New Covenant order of worship and service should begin, to each out to all nations, through the church, following the Holy Spirit empowering in Jerusalem on Pentecost, Luk 24:44-53; Mat 28:18-20; Act 1:8-11; Heb 10:24-25; Eph 3:21.
3) “When ye shall neither in this mountain,” (hote oute en to orei touto) “That neither in this mountain,” of Samaria, Mt. Gerizim and Ebal, as once sanctioned for a special place of teaching and worship, Deu 17:12-20.
4) “Nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” (oute en lerosolumois proskunesete to patri) “Nor in Jerusalem will you all worship the Father,” in a restricted, Divinely mandated way, as you have for 1,000 years. Because the law fulfillment order of worship was approaching Divine termination or abolition, to be taken out of the way, nailed to the cross, 2Co 3:7-11; Col 2:14-17; Gal 3:24-25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. Woman, believe me. In the first part of this reply, he briefly sets aside the ceremonial worship which had been appointed under the Law; for when he says that the hour is at hand when there shall be no peculiar and fixed place for worship, he means that what Moses delivered was only for a time, and that the time was now approaching when the partition-wall (Eph 2:14) should be thrown down. In this manner he extends the worship of God far beyond its former narrow limits, that the Samaritans might become partakers of it.
The hour cometh. He uses the present tense instead of the future; but the meaning is, that the repeal of the Law is already at hand, so far as relates to the Temple, and Priesthood, and other outward ceremonies. By calling God Father, he seems indirectly to contrast Him with the Fathers whom the woman had mentioned, and to convey this instruction, that God will be a common Father to all, so that he will be generally worshipped without distinction of places or nations.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Woman (comp. Note on Joh. 2:4), believe me, the hour cometh.Better, there cometh an hour. The Authorised version of the latter clause gives the correct sense, if it is punctuated as follows: When ye shall, neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father; when ye shall worship, but without the limitation of holy places; when ye shall worship the Father of mankind, before whom Jew, and Samaritan, and Gentile are brethren. Both these thoughts are suggested by her words. She had referred in the past tense to the worship on Gerizim, when for more than a century and a half the temple had been in ruins, but she refers in the present to the temple at Jerusalem, where the form of worship was every day gone through. From that temple He had just come. The ruins of the one are before Him, the ruins of the other are present to His thoughts (Joh. 2:18-22). Both centres of local worship are to cease. She had referred more than once to the claim which arose from direct descent from the patriarch (Joh. 4:12-20). But the Father is God, and the hour coming, and then present (Joh. 4:23), in Christs mission, had the Fatherhood of God and the sonship of humanity as its message to the world.
In this mountain.Sychar was between Ebal and Gerizim, and she would point out the holy mountain with the ruins of the temple then in sight.
The contrast between our fathers and the emphatic ye carries back the thoughts to the rival temple and worship on Mount Gerizim from the time of Nehemiah. The enmity took its rise in the refusal to accept the help of the Samaritans in the restoration of the temple at Jerusalem (Ezr. 4:2; comp. 2Ki. 17:24 et seq.). The next step is recorded in Neh. 13:28. Manasseh, the son of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, had married a daughter of Sanballat, and was chased from Jerusalem. Sanballat thereupon supported his son-in-law in establishing a rival worship, but it is not clear that the temple was built until a century later, in the time of Alexander the Great. The authority for the details of the history is Josephus (Ant. xi. 8, 2), but he seems to confuse Sanballat the Persian satrap, with Sanballat the Horonite. In any case, from the erection of the temple on Mount Gerizim, the schism was complete. The temple was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, about B.C. 129 (Ant. xiii. 9, 1), but the mountain on which it stood continued to be, and is to this day, the holy place of the Samaritans. All travellers in the Holy Land describe their Passover, still eaten on this mountain in accordance with the ritual of the Pentateuch. They claimed that this mountain, and not Jerusalem, was the true scene of the sacrifice of Isaac, and Gentile tradition marked it out as the meeting-place with Melchizedek (Euseb. Prp. Evang. ix. 22). In accordance with their claim, they had changed in every instance the reading of the Pentateuch, God will choose a spot (Deu. 12:14; Deu. 18:6, &c.), into He has chosen, i.e., Gerizim. Ebal, in Deu. 27:5, had become Gerizim, and the Ten Commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy are followed by an interpolated command to erect an altar in Mount Gerizim. Jerusalem, on the other hand, had never once been named in the Pentateuch, which was the only part of the Jewish canon which they accepted. It was but a modern city in comparison with the claim that Gerizin was a holy place from the time of Abraham downwards.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem That is, in neither exclusively. Locality shall have nothing to do with religion. A universal God shall receive a universal worship. And so the hearts of Jew and Samaritan may blend together, and acceptable worship may ascend alike from either Jerusalem or Gerizim.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Jesus says to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. You worship that which you know not, we worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews”.’
Jesus did not reply that both religions were as good. He acknowledged that the Jews had been the vehicle of God’s revelation to man, ‘salvation is of the Jews’. But He did put both in perspective. The time had come, He said, when such matters would be unimportant. Men would in future worship God away from either centre of worship, as indeed many Jews were already doing throughout the known world. And attachment to these centres would cease to be important (this the Jews had not yet realised).
‘Woman’. As with His mother earlier( see on Joh 2:4), a polite word for addressing women.
‘The hour is coming.’ His hour would introduce this hour, a time when worship would not be restricted to places but would be spiritual and from the heart. Then Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem would both cease to have importance. What would matter would be a heart right towards God and centred on Him.
‘You will worship the Father’. The ‘you’ (plural) here referred to Samaritans as a group and made clear that He recognised that some of them would come to experience this spiritual worship.
‘You worship what you do not know.’ Their means of revelation was limited to the Pentateuch. They had therefore rather a narrow view of God and were lacking the greater level of revelation through the prophets and the ‘holy writings’ (Psalms etc.). And because they lacked the fuller revelation given to Israel, their knowledge of God was lacking. They did not have the full knowledge of the intimacy of God as revealed to the Jews.
‘We worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews’. Israel had a more complete revelation in the books of the Old Testament. And furthermore, that fuller revelation promised that salvation for the world would come through the Jews and their promised Messiah. Jesus therefore acknowledged that the Jews thus had a fuller understanding of the ways of God and a greater privilege, and were to be the channels of God’s blessing to the world. As Paul summed it up ‘To them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ’ (Rom 9:4-5). The Samaritans could parallel some of these but not all. So He did not deny that the Jews were greatly privileged.
On the other hand He did not deny that the Samaritans genuinely worshipped God. Their faith might be somewhat lacking but it was a real faith. And now that He was here it could become a transformed faith.
The statement that ‘salvation is of the Jews’ is certainly one that we would expect from a Jewish prophet. But it is not one that we would expect to be inserted by an inventor, especially by a member of the early church who had suffered much at the hands of the Jews and was aware of rivalry with them. There can really be no doubt of the Jewish emphasis and the fact that this conversation took place.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 4:21. Woman, believe me, &c. To understand the force of our Lord’s reply, it will be necessary to recur to the origin of this dispute between the two nations. We shall first premise that Christ waves the decision of the question put to him by the woman, and with good reason; for he was about to destroy all local worship, by introducing a religion suited to all climates, and to be observed in all nations of the world. To talk then of the preference of this or that mountain, or to decide the point in favour of either, would have been inconsistent with his doctrine. This premised, we observe, that at the time of the migration of the Hebrews from Egypt, the whole world was sunk into idolatry; they alone were blessed with the knowledge of the true God; yet even they were perpetually relapsing into the absurdities of idol worship. Hence that load of peculiar ceremonies was imposed upon them; tending particularly, amongst other wise purposes, to the keeping them pure from idolatry, to the separating them from the worship of the Pagan nations which surrounded them, and to the confirming them in that of the true God: to this end the temple was built, and the worship established at Jerusalem. Hither the whole nation was obliged to resort at stated times, to prevent their relapse into idolatry. The Samaritans, who had divided from the Jews, had built a temple, partly for the same ends, on mount Gerizim, where theyperiodically performed the ceremonies enjoined by the law. These ceremonies, and this separation of Jews from Gentiles, were designed by Providence to be continued till the coming of Christ, when a glorious change was to take place. The world was prepared by higher degrees of knowledge for the reception of the gospel. This was the hour appointed for the sun of righteousness to arise: now was to be done away every circumstance and ceremony tending to keep up the former separation; nothing was to be established, save what conduced to a general union of mankind; and the peculiar, the local, and periodical worship of Jerusalem, was to be swallowed up in that more spiritual dispensation, which was designed to produce universal peace and love. In this view, we have only to read over the passage before us, to discover at once its meaning and propriety.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 4:21 . Jesus decides neither for the one place nor for the other; nor, on the other hand, does He pronounce both wrong (B. Crusius); but now that His aim is to give her the living water, divine grace and truth, He rises to the higher point of view of the future , whence both the local centres and limitations of God’s true worship disappear; and the question itself no longer arises, because with the triumph of His work all outward localizing of God’s worship comes to an end, not indeed absolutely, but as fettering the freedom of the outward service.
.] As spoken to the woman, this refers not to mankind generally (Godet), nor to the Israelites of both forms of religion (Hilgenfeld, comp. Hengstenberg), but to the future conversion of the Samaritans , who thus would be freed from the ritual on Mount Gerizim (which is therefore named first ), but were not to be brought to the ritual in Jerusalem, and therefore . has its warrant with reference to the Samaritans (against Hilgenfeld in the Theol. Jahrb . 1857, p. 517; and in his Zeitschr . 1863, p. 103). The divine ordainment of the temple service was educational . Christ was its aim and end , its ; the modern doctrine of the re-establishing of Jerusalem in its grandeur is a chiliastic dream (see Rom 11:27 , note).
] spoken from the standing-point of the future converts, to whom God, through their faith in the Reconciler, would be Father : “Tacite novi foederis suavitatem innuit,” Grotius.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ver. 21. Ye shall neither in this mountain, &c. ] Herod’s temple at Jerusalem was so set on fire by Titus’s soldiers, that it could not be quenched by the industry of man. And at the same time Apollo’s temple at Delphi was utterly overthrown by earthquakes and thunderbolts, and neither of them could ever since be repaired. The concurrence of which two miracles (saith mine author) evidently showeth that the time was then come when God would put an end both to Jewish ceremonies and heathenish idolatry, that the kingdom of his Son might be the better established. (Godw. Antiq. Heb.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] Our Lord first raises her view to a higher point than her question implied, or than indeed she, or any one, without His prophetic announcement, could then have attained.
. are exclusive: Ye shall worship the Father, but not (only) in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem : had it been . , it would have meant, ‘ Ye shall not worship the Father, either in this mountain, or even in Jerusalem .’
The , though embracing in its wider sense all mankind , may be taken primarily as foretelling the success of the gospel in Samaria, Act 8:1-25 .
, as implying the One God and Father of all. There is also, as Calvin remarks (Stier, iv. 129, edn. 2), a “tacita oppositio” between , and . . , Joh 4:12 , , Joh 4:20 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:21 . , . One of the greatest announcements ever made by our Lord; and made to one sinful woman, cf. Joh 20:16 . a time is coming; in Joh 4:23 is added. A great religious revolution has arrived. Localism in worship is abolished, , etc., “neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem,” exclusively or preferentially, “shall ye worship the Father”. What determines this “hour”? The manifestation of God in Christ, and the principle announced in Joh 4:24 and implied in ; for God being absolutely “the Father” all men in all places must have access to Him, and being of a like nature to man’s He can only receive a spiritual worship. Cf. Act 17:29 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Woman. See on Joh 2:4.
believe Me. App-150. See note on Joh 1:7. This formula occurs only here and 14. 11.
neither . . . nor. Greek. oute . . . oute.
at. Greek. en. App-104.
the Father. See App-98, and note on Joh 1:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] Our Lord first raises her view to a higher point than her question implied, or than indeed she, or any one, without His prophetic announcement, could then have attained.
. are exclusive: Ye shall worship the Father, but not (only) in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem:-had it been . , it would have meant, Ye shall not worship the Father, either in this mountain, or even in Jerusalem.
The , though embracing in its wider sense all mankind, may be taken primarily as foretelling the success of the gospel in Samaria, Act 8:1-25.
, as implying the One God and Father of all. There is also, as Calvin remarks (Stier, iv. 129, edn. 2), a tacita oppositio between ,-and . . , Joh 4:12, , Joh 4:20.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:21. , believe Me) Christ often said to the Jews and His disciples, I say unto you, Joh 4:35. In this passage alone, to the Samaritan woman, He says, Believe Me, They were more bound to believe than she. The formul employed follow this proportion [i.e. are proportioned to their degree of religious privileges respectively].-) It is called the hour, not because that whole time is short, but because its beginning is nigh: ch. Joh 5:25, The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, Joh 16:2, The hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.-, , neither, nor) He does not say, both there, and here; but, neither there, nor here. The Samaritans were not compelled to go to Jerusalem, Act 8:14, When the apostles at Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: and what need was there subsequently of the Cruciati?[84] What need is there of pilgrimages? Here all distinction of places is clearly abolished-a distinction which the ancients had strictly observed: Num 23:27, Balak said unto Balaam, Come I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence; 1Ti 2:8, I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands, etc. If distinction there still be, these words intimate that our worship ought to be anywhere else rather than at Jerusalem.-, ye shall worship) ye Samaritans and Jews. He fittingly speaks in the second person, not in the first; and there is a [anticipatory caution], and, as it were, correction of His subsequent speech, which is framed in the first person, in order to suit the apprehension of the woman.- , the Father) He admits the woman most familiarly into the stronghold of the faith. Comp. Mat 6:9, After this manner pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven. The antithesis to this is Joh 4:20-21, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain: Art thou greater than our father Jacob?
[84] The crusades to rescue Jerusalem were called from the French croises or cross-bearers, each soldier wearing a cross on his right shoulder.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:21
Joh 4:21
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.-Jesus had come to supplant and swallow up this work of a merely local nature of both Jews and Samaritans and to substitute the spiritual worship of which the Jewish law and order was a material type. Jesus did not mean that in the future persons might not worship God either in Jerusalem or in this mountain. He meant that hereafter the worship of God would not be confined to either of these places, but that all who would could worship God wherever they might be. Whoever worships God according to the truth would be accepted of him. The time had come when the true spiritual temple of God should be opened to all the nations of the earth, and when the worship should not be confined to Jerusalem nor to this mountain. Jesus came to introduce this era and says, The hour cometh, or is now coming, when this shall be done. The local and external shall give way to the spiritual and eternal.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
saith: Eze 14:3, Eze 20:3
when: Mal 1:11, Mat 18:20, Luk 21:5, Luk 21:6, Luk 21:24, Act 6:14, 1Ti 2:8
worship: Joh 4:23, Joh 14:6, Mat 28:19, Eph 2:18, Eph 3:14, 1Pe 1:17
Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:13 – a settled 2Ch 6:2 – I have built Psa 45:11 – worship Isa 19:21 – and shall Isa 27:13 – and shall Isa 56:7 – for mine Isa 66:1 – where is the house Zep 2:11 – and men Mat 11:3 – Art Luk 17:16 – and he Joh 16:32 – the hour Act 7:49 – what house
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Jesus did not enter into the controversy between the Samaritans and Jews as to which place was the more important. It was not worth while to do so, because He was going soon to set up a system of worship that would not depend upon any particular spot, geographically speaking, for its genuineness. That is why Jesus said, “neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem. Not that men would not be allowed to worship God in those places, but their services would not be accepted on the basis of where they were performed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 4:21. Jesus saith unto her, Believe me, woman, an hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. The woman can hardly have doubted that the decision of a Jewish prophet would be in favour of Jerusalem, but the answer of Jesus sets aside all ideas of sanctity of place. With neither of these two most hallowed spots shall the thought of true worship be bound up. In saying an hour cometh, Jesus shows that He is not repeating a truth belonging to the revelation of the past, but is proclaiming a new order of things. Yet the chief characteristic of the new order is, after all, not the equality of places where men worship, but the clear knowledge of the Being to whom worship is paid: from this the former flows. Samaritans shall offer worship in spite of Jewish exclusiveness, for they shall worship the Father. Israel is my son, even my first-born, were Gods words to Pharaoh; but now He offers the name to all, and the words of Jesus imply the abolition of every distinction, not of place only but of nation, in the presence of God, and for the purpose of true worship.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have our Saviour’s answer to the foregoing question, which consists of two parts.
1. Concerning the place of worship.
2. Concerning the worship itself.
As to the place of worship, our Saviour tells her, That though the Jews had heretofore by warrant of God’s word regularly worshipped at Jerusalem, and the Samaritans superstitiously worshipped at mount Gerizim, yet the hour was coming, namely, at his death, when all difference of places for God’s worship should be taken away, and therefore she need not trouble herself about the place of God’s worship, to know whether of the two places were holier, and the better to serve God in: for ere long the service of God should not be confined more to one place than another.
Learn hence, 1. That since the death of Christ, the religious difference of places is taken away, and the worship of God not confined to any one particular place or nation.
2. Our blessed Saviour resolves her, concerning the worship itself, namely, That the ceremonial worship, which the Jews and Samaritans used, should shortly be abolished, and instead thereof a more spiritual form of worship should be established, more suitable to the spiritual nature of the great and holy God, and containing in it the truth and substance of all that which the Jewish ceremonies prefigured and shadowed forth.
Learn hence, That the true worship of God under the gospel, doth not consist in the external pomp of any outward ceremonies, but is spiritual and substantial: no worship is acceptable to him, who is the Father of Spirits, but that which is truly spiritual.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 4:21. Jesus saith to her In answer to this case of conscience; Believe me Our Lord uses this expression only once, and that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you. The hour cometh Which will put an entire end to this controversy; when ye Both Jews and Samaritans; shall neither worship in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem As preferable to any other place: nay, when an end will be put to the worship at both places; and the true worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation. As if our Lord had said, Thou art expecting the hour to come, when either by some divine revelation, or some signal providence, this matter shall be decided in favour of Jerusalem or mount Gerizim; but I tell thee, the hour is at hand when it shall be no more a question: that which thou hast been taught to lay so much stress on, shall be set aside as a thing indifferent. Our Lord meant that the approaching dissolution of the Jewish economy, and the erection of the evangelical dispensation, should set this matter at rest, and lay all things respecting it in common, so that it should be perfectly indifferent whether in either of those places, or any other, men should worship God. Observe, reader, the worship of God is not now, under the gospel, appropriated to any place, as it was under the law: but it is his will that men should pray, give thanks, and worship and serve him everywhere. Our reason teaches us, indeed, to consult decency and convenience with respect to the places of our worship; but our religion enjoins that we give no preference to one place above another, in respect of holiness and acceptableness to God. They who prefer any act of worship merely for the sake of the house or building in which it is performed, (though it were as magnificent, and as solemnly consecrated as ever Solomons temple was,) forget that the hour is come when there should be no difference put in Gods account; no, not between Jerusalem, which had been so famous for sanctity, and the mount of Samaria, which had been so infamous for impiety.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
XX.
With reference to particular points in Joh 4:21-26 the following suggestions may be offered:
1. In the words of Joh 4:21 we may see from the outset that Jesus’ desire was to draw attention to the spirituality of worship, and it is not improbable that, as the account of the conversation was given to the disciples, it was His design to turn their thoughts also away from the ideas of place, which belonged to their former education, and to show them, at this early stage of their new life, the great difference between the new and the old.
2. The distinction made between the Jews and the Samaritans in Joh 4:22 is apparently to be determined as to its precise meaning by the last clause of the verse. It was because salvation was from the Jews, that it could be affirmed that they worshiped that which they knew and the Samaritans, that which they knew not. The latter did not stand on the same ground with the heathen nations. They were not entirely without the knowledge of the only true God. But they were not in the line of the Divine education under the Old Covenant, they did not receive the full revelation which had been made, and they were not the nation in the midst of whom appeared the Christto know whom, as well as the true God, is the eternal life. They were moving apart from the light, rather than in the light.
3. The true worship is evidently set in opposition to that of place, and thus to the ideas of both parties. But the added words show that Jesus in His thought goes beyond this mere opposition, and enters into the idea of spiritual worship as considered in itself. The foundation of it is the fact that God is a spirit. He therefore seeks as His worshipers those who worship in that sphere where He Himself dwells. The is the part of man which is kindred in its nature to God, and which is capable of real fellowship and communion with God. It is that part of man into which the Divine Spirit enters by His influence and power. The only full communion with God, therefore, must be in the . But as the of man is in and with him wherever he may be, he must be, as a worshiper, independent of place, so soon as he understands the true sphere and nature of worship. The addition of the word must also be explained, it would seem, by the contrast with the idea of place. It cannot, for this reason, as well as for those given by Godet and Meyer (that the Jew or Samaritan could offer a sincere prayer, and that it follows so soon after), have the meaning in sincerity. Doubtless, it partakes of the signification of in this place, and means truth as answering to the true idea.
4. Godet supposes that John may have been present with Jesus and thus have heard this conversation. This is not impossible, though the impression of the narrative is that all the disciples had left Him for the time. That Jesus should have repeated the substance of the conversation to them soon afterwards, would seem very natural. It was an interview so remarkable in its results, indeed, that the disciples could hardly have failed to question Him particularly concerning it, and the truth which He had expressed was so adapted to the needs of their minds that He could not but have desired to bring it before them. There is, therefore, no difficulty in the fact that John is able to report the conversation, even if he was not an ear-witness of it.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus avoided the temptation to abandon discussion of living water. He told the woman that the real issue was not where God’s people had worshipped Him in the past but how they would worship Him in the future. This was the more important issue since Messiah had come and would terminate worship as both the Jews and the Samaritans knew it. Jesus urged her to believe Him because she had already acknowledged him as a prophet. This command was an added guarantee that what He said was true. The hour (Gr. hora) or time that Jesus referred to was the time of His passion. [Note: See my comments on 2:4.] The "Father" was a term for God that Jesus employed frequently (cf. Joh 2:16; Joh 11:41; Joh 12:27-28; Joh 17:1).