Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:26
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am [he.]
26. am he ] This is correct, although ‘He’ is not expressed in the Greek. It is the ordinary Greek affirmative (comp. Luk 22:70); there is no reference to the Divine name ‘I AM,’ Exo 3:14; Deu 32:39. This open declaration of His Messiahship is startling when we remember Mat 16:20; Mat 17:9; Mar 8:30. But one great reason for reserve on this subject, lest the people should ‘take him by force to make him a king’ (Joh 6:15), is entirely wanting here. There was no fear of the Samaritans making political capital out of Him. Moreover it was one thing for Christ to avow Himself when He saw that hearts were ready for the announcement; quite another for disciples and others to make Him known promiscuously.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I that speak onto thee am – he I am the Messiah. This was the first time that he openly professed it. He did not do it yet to the Jews, for it would have excited envy and opposition. But nothing could be apprehended in Samaria; and as the woman seemed reluctant to listen to him as a prophet, and professed her willingness to listen to the Messiah, he openly declared that he was the Christ, that by some means he might save her soul. From this we may learn:
- The great wisdom of the Lord Jesus in leading the thoughts along to the subject of practical personal religion.
- His knowledge of the heart and of the life. He must be therefore divine.
- He gave evidence here that he was the Messiah. This was the design of John in writing this gospel. He has therefore recorded this narrative, which was omitted by the other evangelists.
- We see our duty. It is to seize on all occasions to lead sinners to the belief that Jesus is the Christ, and to make use of all topics of conversation to teach them the nature of religion. There never was a model of so much wisdom in this as the Saviour, and we shall be successful only as we diligently study his character.
- We see the nature of religion. It does not consist merely in external forms. It is pure, spiritual, active – an ever-bubbling fountain. It is the worship of a pure and holy God, where the heart is offered, and where the desires of an humble soul are breathed out; for salvation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. Jesus saith unto her, I – am he.] Our Lord never spoke in such direct terms concerning himself to his own countrymen; nor even to his own disciples, till a little before his death. The reason given by Bishop Pearce is the following: The woman being alone when Jesus said it, and being a Samaritan, he had no reason to apprehend that the Samaritans, if they knew his claim, would disturb his ministry before the time of his suffering came; which seems to have been the reason why he concealed it so long from his own countrymen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The same Messiah, of whom thou declarest thyself to have some expectation, and from whom thou expectest to hear all things necessary to salvation. Some here inquire, why our Saviour maketh to this woman such a plain discovery of himself, whereas we find in the Gospel so cautious, and so often charging his disciples not to make him known. Some think our Saviour thus gratified the honesty and simplicity which he discerned in this woman, not coming to catch him, but to be instructed from him; but possibly, if we wistfully consider those texts wherein he charged his disciples not to make him known, we shall find that the thing which he cautioned them against, was their publishing of him as the Son of God, which our Saviour desired should be concealed, till he should be so declared with power by his resurrection from the dead, Rom 1:4; that his enemies, by a charge of blasphemy against him, might not cut him off before his hour was come. Now we shall observe that the Jews, though they expected a Messiah, yet had no such notion of him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. I that speak . . . am heHescarce ever said anything like this to His own people, the Jews. Hehad magnified them to the woman, and yet to themselves He is to thelast far more reserved than to herproving rather thanplainly telling them He was the Christ. But what would nothave been safe among them was safe enough with her, whosesimplicity at this stage of the conversation appears from thesequel to have become perfect. What now will the woman say? Welisten, the scene has changed, a new party arrives, the discipleshave been to Sychar, at some distance, to buy bread, and on theirreturn are astonished at the company their Lord has been holding intheir absence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jesus saith unto her,…. Upon her making mention of the Messiah, of his coming, and of his work, he took the opportunity of making himself known unto her:
I that speak unto thee am [he]; the Messiah; see Isa 52:6. This is a wonderful instance of the grace of Christ to this woman, that he should make himself known in so clear and plain a manner, to so mean a person, and so infamous a creature as she had been: we never find that he ever made so clear a discovery of himself, in such express terms, to any, as to her, unless it were to his immediate disciples; and these he would sometimes charge not to tell who he was.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I that speak unto thee am he ( ). “I am he, the one speaking to thee.” In plain language Jesus now declares that he is the Messiah as he does to the blind man (Joh 9:37).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I – am He [] . Literally, I am. The less political conception of the Samaritan Messiah made it possible for Jesus to announce Himself to the woman without fear of being misunderstood as He was by the Jews.
Compare Mt 8:4; Mt 16:20.
This incident furnishes a notable illustration of our Lord ‘s love for human souls, and of His skill, tact, and firmness in dealing with moral degradation and ignorant bigotry. He conciliates the woman by asking a favor. Her hesitation arises less from prejudice of race than from surprise at being asked for drink by a Jew (compare the story of Zacchaeus). He seizes upon a near and familiar object as the key – note of His great lesson. He does not overwhelm her with new knowledge, but stimulates question and thought. He treats her sin frankly, but not harshly. He is content with letting her see that He is aware of it, knowing that through Him, as the Discerner, she will by and by reach Him as the Forgiver. Even from her ignorance and coarse superstition He does not withhold the sublimest truth. He knows her imperfect understanding, but He assumes the germinative power of the truth itself. He is not deterred from the effort to plant His truth and to rescue a soul, either by His own weariness or by the conventional sentiment which frowned upon His conversation with a woman in a public place. Godet contrasts Jesus ‘ method in this case with that employed in the interview with Nicodemus. “With Nicodemus He started from the idea which filled every Pharisee ‘s heart, that of the kingdom of God, and deduced therefrom the most rigorous practical consequences. He knew that He had to do with a man accustomed to the discipline of the law. Then He unveiled to him the most elevated truths of the kingdom of heaven, by connecting them with a striking Old Testament type, and contrasting them with the corresponding features of the Pharisaic programme. Here, on the contrary, with a woman destitute of all scriptural training, He takes His point of departure from the commonest thing imaginable, the water of the well. He suddenly exalts it, by a bold antithesis, to the idea of that eternal life which quenches forever the thirst of the human heart. Spiritual aspiration thus awakened in her becomes the internal prophecy to which He attaches His new revelations, and thus reaches that teaching on true worship which corresponds as directly to the peculiar prepossessions of the woman, as the revelation of heavenly things corresponded to the inmost thoughts of Nicodemus. Before the latter He unveils Himself as the only – begotten Son, but this while avoiding the title of” Christ. “With the woman He boldly uses this term; but he does not dream of initiating into the mysteries of incarnation and redemption a soul which is yet only at the first elements of religious life and knowledge” (” Commentary on the Gospel of John “).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Jesus saith unto her,” (legei auto ho lesous) “Jesus said directly and plainly to her,” to cause her to understand and be without excuse for continuing in her sins, Rom 2:1.
2) “I that speak unto thee am he.” (ego eimi ho lalon soi) “I am that very one, now speaking to you,” I am that Christ, that Messiah-savior. His words were plainer than He had ever spoken, even to the twelve apostles. His previous disclosures of her sinful state of living prepared her for this plain testimony from Jesus, Joh 4:17-18; Joh 4:29; Joh 9:35-38; Mar 14:61-62. Jesus made this plain disclosure to her because it could not be used to charge political motives against Him.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
26. It is I who talk with thee. When he acknowledges to the woman that; he is the Messiah, he unquestionably presents himself as her Teacher, in compliance with the expectation which she had formed; and, therefore, I think it probable, that he proceeded to give more full instruction, in order to satisfy her thirst. Such a proof of his grace he intended to give in the case of this poor woman, that he might testify to all that he never fails to discharge his office, when we desire to have him for our Teacher. There is, therefore, no danger that he will disappoint one of those whom he finds ready to become his disciples. But they who refuse to submit to him, as we see done by many haughty and irreligious men, or who hope to find elsewhere a wisdom more perfect — as the Mahometans and Papists do — deserve to be driven about by innumerable enchantments, and at length to be plunged in an abyss of errors. Again, by these words, “ I who talk with thee am the Messiah, the Son of God,” he employs the name Messiah as a seal to ratify the doctrine of his Gospel; for we must remember that he was anointed by the Father, and that the Spirit of God rested on him, that he might bring to us the message of salvation, as Isaiah declares, (Isa 61:1.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(26) I that speak unto thee.The announcement is being made. The solution of some of the problems which she connects with the Messianic advent is contained in the very words she has heard.
Am hei.e., the Messiah. (Comp. especially Notes on Joh. 8:24; Joh. 8:58.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. I am he The all-important point is now attained: Jesus has announced himself as Jew, prophet, MESSIAH. No words from her of acknowledgment or surprise are recorded; but how full her faith that the Teacher had arrived who can tell us all things, her energetic and successful mission to her countrymen shows. As the Samaritans did not, in a spirit of national ambition, expect a Messiah of a political character as did the Jews, it was both easier for Jesus on the present occasion to adjust his character to their expectations, and safer from awakening political jealousies, for him with perfect explicitness to avow his own true character and title. The reasons for reserve existing in Judea or Galilee, existed not here in the centre of Samaria. As the time of Jesus in Samaria was short, it was necessary when he found this hearing to reveal himself explicitly and briefly. The more so at this moment, as his disciples were close at hand to cut the opportunity short. These views explain the wonderful fact, that Christ so early and so clearly declared himself to Samaria!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Jesus says to her, “I who speak to you am He”.’
Jesus had no hesitation in quietly letting her know that He was the promised One Who was to come. In Him the truth had come. Even if the term Messiah has been used there was no danger of a misunderstanding of the term in Samaria. They held completely different ideas from the Jews. There was no danger here of a popular uprising on these grounds. To the Jews He presented Himself as ‘the Son of Man’. But to the Samaritan He could be ‘the Messiah’, the ‘Taheb’, the Revealer of truth. They would not understand ‘Son of Man’.
So He gently shows her that He has come as God’s gift to men, offering living water to revive men’s hearts and bubble up within them so that their spiritual thirst can be continually satisfied. The result will be that they receive eternal life, the life of the Spirit, and can worship God in Spirit and truth.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 4:26. I that speak unto thee am he. That Christ was very cautious of acknowledging himself to be the promised Messiah, in his conversation with the Jews, is very apparent. The reason for that caution has been frequently explained in this commentary, and is intimated in the foregoing note, together with his reasons for acting otherwise at present.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he .
Ver. 26. I that speak unto thee, &c. ] No sooner do we think of Christ with any the least true desire after him, but he is presently with us. He invited himself to Zaccheus’s table, &c. Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccurret, said a Father.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
26. ] Of the reasons which our Lord had, thus to declare Himself to this Samaritan woman and through her to the inhabitants of Sychem ( Joh 4:42 ), as the Christ, thus early in his ministry, we surely are not qualified to judge. There is nothing so opposed to true Scripture criticism, as to form a preconceived plan and rationale of the course of our Lord in the flesh, and then to force recorded events into agreement with it. Such a plan will be formed in our own minds from continued study of the Scripture narrative: but by the arbitrary and procrustean system which I am here condemning, the very facts which are the chief data of such a scheme, are themselves set aside. When De Wette says, “This early and decided declaration of Jesus is in contradiction with Mat 8:4 ; Mat 16:20 ,” he forgets the very different circumstances under which both those injunctions were spoken: while he is forced to confess that it is in agreement with the whole spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. He who knew what was in man, varied His revelations and injunctions, as the time and place, and individual dispositions required.
] The verb involves in it the predicate.
has a reference to her words, . I am He, who am now speaking to thee fulfilling part of this telling all things: see also her confession Joh 4:29 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 4:26 . The woman’s despairing bewilderment is at once dissipated by the announcement , . “I that speak to thee am He.” This declaration He was free to make among a people with whom He could not be used for political ends. “I think, too, there will be felt to be something not only very beautiful, but very characteristic of our Lord, in His declaring Himself with greater plainness of speech than He had Himself hitherto done even to the Twelve, to this dark-minded and sin-stained woman, whose spiritual nature was just awakening to life under His presence and His words” (Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah , p. 275).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
‘GIVE ME TO DRINK’
Joh 4:7
This Evangelist very significantly sets side by side our Lord’s conversations with Nicodemus and with the woman of Samaria. The persons are very different: the one a learned Rabbi of reputation, influence, and large theological knowledge of the then fashionable kind; the other an alien woman, poor-for she had to do this menial task of water-drawing in the heat of the day-and of questionable character.
The diversity of persons necessitates great differences in the form of our Lord’s address to each; but the resemblances are as striking as the divergencies. In both we have His method of gradually unveiling the truth to a susceptible soul, beginning with symbol and a hint, gradually enlarging the hint and translating the symbol; and finally unveiling Himself as the Giver and the Gift. There is another resemblance; in both the characteristic gift is that of the Spirit of Life, and, perhaps, in both the symbol is the same. For we read in one of ‘water and the Spirit’; and in the other of the fountain within, springing into everlasting life. However that may be, the process of teaching is all but identical in substance in both cases, though in form so various.
The words of our Lord which I have taken for our text now are His first and last utterance in this conversation. What a gulf lies between! They are linked together by the intervening sayings, and constitute with these a great ladder, of which the foot is fast on earth, and the top fixed in heaven. On the one hand, He owns the lowest necessities; on the other, He makes the highest claims. Let us ponder on this remarkable juxtaposition, and try to gather the lessons that are plain in it.
I. First, then, I think we see here the mystery of the dependent Christ.
So, then, here stands, pathetically set forth before us, our Lord’s true participation in two of the distinguishing characteristics of our weak humanity-subjection to physical necessities and dependence on kindly help. We find Him weary, hungry, thirsty, sometimes slumbering. And all these instances are documents and proofs for us that He was a true man like ourselves, and that, like ourselves, He depended on ‘the woman that ministered to Him’ for the supply of His necessities, and so knew the limitations of our social and else helpless humanity.
But then a wearied and thirsty man is nothing of much importance. But here is a Man who humbled Himself to be weary and to thirst. The keynote of this Gospel, the one thought which unlocks all its treasures, and to the elucidation of which, in all its aspects, the whole book is devoted, is, ‘The Word was made flesh.’ Only when you let in the light of the last utterance of our text, ‘I that speak unto thee am He,’ do we understand the pathos, the sublimity, the depth and blessedness of meaning which lie in the first one, ‘Give Me to drink.’ When we see that He bowed Himself, and willingly stretched out His hands for the fetters, we come to understand the significance of these traces of His manhood. The woman says, with wonder, ‘How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me?’ and that was wonderful. But, as He hints to her, if she had known more clearly who this Person was, that seemed to be a Jew, a deeper wonder would have crept over her spirit. The wonder is that the Eternal Word should need the water of the well, and should ask it of a poor human creature.
And why this humiliation? He could, as I have said, have wrought a miracle. He that fed five thousand, He that had turned water into wine at the rustic marriage-feast, would have had no difficulty in quenching His thirst if he had chosen to use His miraculous power therefore. But He here shows us that the true filial spirit will rather die than cast off its dependence on the Father, and the same motive which led Him to reject the temptation in the wilderness, and to answer with sublime confidence, ‘Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God,’ forbids Him here to use other means of securing the draught that He so needed than the appeal to the sympathy of an alien, and the swift compassion of a woman’s heart.
And then, let us remember that the motive of this willing acceptance of the limitations and weaknesses of humanity is, in the deepest analysis, simply His love to us; as the mediaeval hymn has it, ‘Seeking me, Thou satest weary.’
In that lonely Traveller, worn, exhausted, thirsty, craving for a draught of water from a stranger’s hand, is set forth ‘the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ A strange manifestation of divine glory this! But if we understand that the glory of God is the lustrous light of His self-revealing love, perhaps we shall understand how, from that faint, craving voice, ‘Give Me to drink,’ that glory sounds forth more than in the thunders that rolled about the rocky peak of Sinai. Strange to think, brethren, that the voice from those lips dry with thirst, which was low and weak, was the voice that spoke to the sea, ‘Peace! be still,’ and there was a calm; that said to demons, ‘Come out of him!’ and they evacuated their fortress; that cast its command into the grave of Lazarus, and he came forth; and which one day all that are in the grave shall hear, and hearing shall obey. ‘Give Me to drink.’ ‘I that speak unto thee am He.’
II. Secondly, we may note here the self-revealing Christ.
Then note, not only the process, but the substance of the revelation of Himself. The woman had a far more spiritual and lofty conception of the office of Messiah than the Jews had. It is not the first time that heretics have reached a loftier ideal of some parts of the truth than the orthodox attain. To the Jew the Messiah was a conquering king, who would help them to ride on the necks of their enemies, and pay back their persecutions and oppressions. To this Samaritan woman-speaking, I suppose, the conceptions of her race-the Messiah was One who was to ‘tell us all things.’
Jesus Christ accepts the position, endorses her anticipations, and in effect presents Himself before her and before us as the Fountain of all certitude and knowledge in regard to spiritual matters. For all that we can know, or need to know, with regard to God and man and their mutual relations; for all that we can or need know in regard to manhood, its ideal, its obligations, its possibilities, its destinies; for all that we need to know of men in their relation to one another, we have to turn to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who ‘will tell us all things.’ He is the Fountain of light; He is the Foundation of certitude; and they who seek, not hypotheses and possibilities and conjectures and dreams, but the solid substance of a reliable knowledge, must grasp Him, and esteem the words of His mouth and the deeds of His life more than their necessary food.
He meets this woman’s conceptions as He had met those of Nicodemus. To him He had unveiled Himself as the Son of God, and the Son of Man who came down from heaven, and is in heaven, and ascends to heaven. To the woman He reveals Himself as the Messiah, who will tell us all truth, and to both as the Giver of the gift which shall communicate and sustain and refresh the better life. But I cannot help dwelling for a moment upon the remarkable, beautiful, and significant designation which our Lord employs here. ‘I that speak unto thee.’ The word in the original, translated by our version ‘speak,’ is even more sweet, because more familiar, and conveys the idea of unrestrained frank intercourse. Perhaps we might render ‘I who am talking with Thee!’ and that our Lord desired to emphasise to the woman’s heart the notion of His familiar intercourse with her, Messiah though He were, seems to me confirmed by the fact that He uses the same expression, with additional grace and tenderness about it, when He says, with such depth of meaning, to the blind man whom He had healed, ‘Thou hast both seen Him,’ with the eyes to which He gave sight and object of sight, ‘and it is He that talketh with thee.’ The familiar Christ who will come and speak to us face to face and heart to heart, ‘as a man speaketh with his friend,’ is the Christ who will tell us all things, and whom we may wholly trust.
Note too how this revelation has for its condition the docile acceptance of the earlier and imperfect teachings. If the woman had not yielded herself to our Lord’s earlier words, and, though with very dim insight, yet with a heart that sought to be taught, followed Him as He stepped from round to round of the ascending ladder, she had never stood on the top and seen this great vision. If you see nothing more in Jesus Christ than a man like yourself, compassed with our infirmities, and yet sweet and gracious and good and pure, be true to what you know, and put it into practice, and be ready to accept all the light that dawns. They that begin down at the bottom with hearing ‘Give me to drink,’ may stand at the top, and hear Him speak to them His unveiled truth and His full glory. ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ ‘If any man wills to do His will he shall know of the teaching.’
III. Lastly, we have here the universal Christ.
Brother, answer His proffer of the gift as this woman did: ‘Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not; neither go all the way to the world’s broken cisterns to draw’; and He will put into your hearts that indwelling fountain of life, so that you may say like this woman’s townspeople: ‘Now I have heard Him myself, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
That speak, &c. = I am [He) Who am speaking, &c. This is the seventh and last of the Lord’s seven utterances, and marks the climax. See note on Joh 4:7, and App-176.
speak = am talking.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
26.] Of the reasons which our Lord had, thus to declare Himself to this Samaritan woman and through her to the inhabitants of Sychem (Joh 4:42), as the Christ, thus early in his ministry, we surely are not qualified to judge. There is nothing so opposed to true Scripture criticism, as to form a preconceived plan and rationale of the course of our Lord in the flesh, and then to force recorded events into agreement with it. Such a plan will be formed in our own minds from continued study of the Scripture narrative:-but by the arbitrary and procrustean system which I am here condemning, the very facts which are the chief data of such a scheme, are themselves set aside. When De Wette says, This early and decided declaration of Jesus is in contradiction with Mat 8:4; Mat 16:20,-he forgets the very different circumstances under which both those injunctions were spoken:-while he is forced to confess that it is in agreement with the whole spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. He who knew what was in man, varied His revelations and injunctions, as the time and place, and individual dispositions required.
] The verb involves in it the predicate.
has a reference to her words, . -I am He, who am now speaking to thee-fulfilling part of this telling all things: see also her confession Joh 4:29.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 4:26. , saith) He hastened to say the whole before the coming of His disciples. John did not hear the conversation. But afterwards, at the dictation of the Spirit, he wrote it out, ch. Joh 14:26, The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.-, I) Nowhere did He speak of Himself more directly, even to the disciples themselves.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 4:26
Joh 4:26
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.-This is the most direct declaration made by Jesus to one he was teaching that he was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the Prophet that was to come. He more frequently called himself the Son of man and left his works and teaching to declare him to be the Son of God. But this woman was a Samaritan, in many respects mentally and socially and in knowledge of the scriptures inferior to the Jews. She was fleshly, sensual, dull of perceiving spiritual truth, but frank and candid, simple-hearted, ready to receive the truth, and Jesus met her in the same spirit of open and direct declaration of the truth suited to her wants. The pains and patience of Jesus to reach this woman with the stains on her character ought to be an assurance to his followers that such are open to salvation and frequently the first to be reached. Another thought worthy of consideration is when Jesus would reach the people of Samaria he did not seek the great, the noble, the intellectual. He met the humble, ignorant woman, who lived with a man not her husband and brought the truth to her heart and through her reached others. It is much more easy to reach the poor, simple-minded, open sinners than the self-righteous, who pride themselves upon their wealth, social position, or learning, and who cover and hide their sins. All who can be really reached by the word of God can be much more readily reached by Christians of this class than by those in what is called the higher circle of life. Man looks at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. When the heart is right, God uses the person, and works his own ends.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I that: Joh 9:37, Mat 16:20, Mat 20:15, Mat 26:63, Mat 26:64, Mar 14:61, Mar 14:62, Luk 13:30, Rom 10:20, Rom 10:21
Reciprocal: Luk 4:21 – This day Joh 4:10 – and who Act 8:5 – preached
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6
Jesus made this “good confession” to the woman, that he virtually made later to Pilate (chapter 18:37), and that others are asked to make of Him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 4:26. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. She has sought and found the truth. The hope rising in her heart receives full confirmation; and a revelation not yet so clearly and expressly given by Jesus to Israel is granted to this alien, whose heart is prepared for its reception.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Ver. 26. Jesus says to her: I who speak unto thee am he.
Jesus, not having to fear, as we have just seen, that he would call forth in this woman a whole world of dangerous illusions, like those which, among the Jews, were connected with the name of Messiah, reveals Himself fully to her. This conduct is not therefore, as de Wette claims, in contradiction with such words as Mat 8:4; Mat 16:20, etc. The difference in the soil explains the difference in the seed which the hand of Jesus deposits in it.
How can we describe the astonishment which such a declaration must have produced in this woman? It expresses itself, better than by words, in her silence and her conduct (Joh 4:28). She had arrived, a few minutes before, careless and given up to earthly thoughts; and lo, in a few moments, she is brought to a new faith, and even transformed into an earnest missionary of that faith. How did the Lord thus raise up and elevate this soul? When speaking with Nicodemus, He started from the idea which filled the heart of every Phariseethat of the kingdom of God, and he drew from it the most rigorous moral consequences; for He knew that He was addressing a man accustomed to the discipline of the law. Then, He unfolded to him the truths of the divine kingdom, by connecting them with a striking Old Testament type and putting them in contrast with the corresponding features of the Pharisaic programme. Here, on the contrary, conversing with a woman destitute of all Scriptural preparation, He takes His point of departure from the commonest of things, the water of this well. Then, by a bold antithesis, He wakens in her mind the thought, in her heart the want, of a supernatural gift which may forever quench the heart’s thirst. The aspiration for salvation once awakened becomes in her an inward prophecy to which He attaches His new revelations. By the teaching with reference to the true worship, He responds to the religious prepossessions of this woman, as directly as by the revelation of the heavenly things He had responded to the inmost thoughts of Nicodemus. With the latter He reveals Himself as the onlybegotten Son, while still avoiding the title of Christ. With the Samaritan He boldly uses this latter term; but without dreaming of initiating into the mysteries of the incarnation and of redemption this soul which is yet only in the first rudiments of the moral life. Certain analogies have been observed in the outward course of these two conversations, and an argument has been drawn from them against the truth of the two stories. But this resemblance naturally results from what is analogous in the two meetings: on both sides, a soul wholly earthly finding itself in contact with a heavenly thought, and the latter trying to raise the other to its own level. This similarity in the situations sufficiently explains the correspondences of the two conversations, the diversity of which is, moreover, quite as remarkable as the resemblance.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus then identified Himself to the woman as the Messiah whom she hoped for. Jesus did not reveal Himself to the Jews as the Messiah because of their identification of Messiah with a military deliverer almost exclusively. If He had done so, He may well have ignited a revolution. However, He did not hesitate to identify Himself as Messiah to this woman because as a Samaritan she did not hold the common Jewish view of Messiah. The writer used Jesus’ own clear testimony here as another witness to His identity so his readers would believe in Him. Jesus’ self-revelation here climaxes John’s account of this conversation. This is the only time that Jesus clearly identified Himself as the Messiah before His trial. However, Mar 9:41 records that He used the term of Himself on another occasion indirectly. His self-identification here constituted an invitation for the woman to come to Him for salvation.
Nicodemus contrasts with the Samaritan woman in many ways. As John used them in His narrative, they seem to typify Jews and non-Jews as well as the normal reactions of those groups to Jesus. [Note: Chart adapted from The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, p. 284.]
|
Contrasts between Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman |
|
Nicodemus |
The Samaritan Woman |
|
|
Sex |
Male |
Female |
|
Race |
Pure Jewish |
Mixed Gentile |
|
Social status |
Highly respected, ruler, teacher |
Not respected, servant, learner |
|
Place |
Jewish territory |
Samaritan territory |
|
Time |
At night |
About noon |
|
Condition |
Darkness |
Light |
|
Setting |
Indoors |
Outdoors |
|
Occasion |
Pre-planned |
Spontaneous |
|
Subject |
New birth |
Living water |
|
Initiator |
Nicodemus |
Jesus |
|
Conversation |
Faded out |
Continued strong |
|
Result |
Unbelief |
Belief |
|
Consequence |
No witness to others |
Witness to others |