| John 4 | |
|---|---|
 John 4:9-10 on theverso side ofPapyrus 63,c. AD 500 | |
| Book | Gospel of John |
| Category | Gospel |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 4 |
John 4 is the fourth chapter of theGospel of John in theNew Testament of theChristianBible. The eternality of Jesus. The major part of this chapter (verses 1-42) recallsJesus' conversation with theSamaritan woman at the well inSychar. In verses 43-54, he returns toGalilee, where heheals a royal official's son.
The original text was written inKoine Greek.This chapter is divided into 54 verses. Some earlymanuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
ThePharisees learn that Jesus isbaptizing more people thanJohn the Baptist.John 4:2 notes that "... in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but hisdisciples", althoughJohn 3:26 clearly suggests that Jesus himself was baptizing - "that man who was with you (John the Baptist) on the other side of theJordan". In the early church, baptizing may have been a task which was delegated to ministers ordeacons: Lutheran commentatorJohann Bengel notes that inActs 10:48,Peter "commanded [the new believers] to be baptized" but did not baptize them himself.[4] Jesus ('the Lord' in theTextus Receptus and theWestcott-Hort translation) learns this, leavesJudea, and sets off to return toGalilee. Swedish-based commentatorRené Kieffer notes that "his departure seems to be the consequence of the Pharisees' negative reaction to his success in Judea, but that reason remains unsatisfactory, because the Pharisees also had some influence in Galilee.[5] InEugene H. Peterson's paraphrase,The Message, the wording states that "Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people."[6]
Verse 4 records that in order to reach Galilee "it was necessary ... to go throughSamaria",[7] although an alternative route throughPeraea on the eastern side of the Jordan could have been taken.[8]Josephus spoke of this as the customary way of the Galileans going up during the feasts at Jerusalem.[9] H. W. Watkins, in the 19th-centuryAnglican bishopCharles Ellicott's commentaries, notes that the Pharisees "took the longer road through Peraea, to avoid contact with the country and people of Samaria". Watkins suggests that the necessity to travel through Samaria was not a matter of geographical necessity but arose from Jesus' purpose, to proclaim "the principles of true religion and worship ... for all nations".[10]
Jesus then goes to the Samarian town ofSychar, and rests after his journey atJacob's Well, while His disciples go into the town to buy food.[11] The gospel notes that it was "about the sixth hour" i.e. around noon (according to Jewish reckoning), or in the evening (according to Roman reckoning); the events recorded are more consistent with the latter, as noon was not the natural time either for resting after a journey or for drawing water.[12]
While Jesus is waiting for his disciples to return, aSamaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her for a drink. The obvious object of the request is for physical refreshment after the journey,[13] althoughNeo-Lutheran theologianErnst Wilhelm Hengstenberg suggests a spiritual interpretation, "Give me spiritual refreshment (by thy conversion)".[14] The woman is surprised that Jesus asks her for a drink and the narrator comments that Samaritans andJews do not associate. Jesus responds that if she really knew who he was, she would have asked and he would have given her "living water". "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman asks for this "water" and Jesus tells her to go and find herhusband and bring him back. The woman states she has no husband, and Jesus says that in fact she has had five husbands and is nowliving with a man who is not her husband. She then perceives that he is aprophet and raises the question of worship. Jesus then teaches her about worshipping God, how it has been done in the past, at certain locations, and how it will be done properly in the future. "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." The woman then says that themessiah will come and explain all. Jesus declares that he is the messiah: "I who speak to you am He” (John 4:26).
The editors of theJerusalem Bible link her five husbands with the five groups of settlers who were brought into Samaria byShalmaneser V, the king of Assyria who occupied Samaria according to the narrative in2 Kings 17: they came fromBabylon,Cuthah,Ava,Hamath, andSepharvaim and replaced the people of thenorthern Kingdom of Israel who were taken into exile.[15][3]
Several commentators have noted the openness of Jesus' self-revelation to the Samaritan woman, in contrast to his more reserved communication with the Jews: to the Jews "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" and therefore Jesus' claim to be the Messiah necessarily risked a political interpretation: inJohn 6:15 "when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone". But "to this Samaritan woman - speaking, I suppose, the conceptions of her race - the Messiah was One who was to "tell us all things" about the worship of God.[16]
Jesus' disciples return to meet him at the well, and the woman sets off in haste to the town, leaving her waterpot behind. She tells people that Jesus knew all about her, and wonders if he is the Messiah. The people decide to go and see for themselves. The disciples, meanwhile, try to give Jesus some food but he refuses, saying that his food "... is to do the will of HIM who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34).
Jesus comments on two sayings which would have been well known to his hearers: "There are still four months and then comes the harvest" (John 4:35) and "One sows and another reaps" (John 4:37). Many of the Samaritan people from town come and Jesus talks with them and they persuade him to stay for two days, teaching them. His words convince them that he is "the Messiah, the Savior of the world". Lutheran theologianHermann Olshausen described this incident as "further remarkable, as a rare instance of the Lord's ministry producing an awakening on a large scale".[17]
The writer of theActs of the Apostles noted that the commission given by Jesus to theapostles included preaching the gospel in Samaria (Acts 1:8) andPhilip the Evangelist is seen preaching the Christ (or Messiah) in that region (Acts 8:5). The narrative in Acts continues, saying that "when the apostles who were atJerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sentPeter andJohn to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive theHoly Spirit" (Acts 8:14–15).
After the two days, when Jesus stays in Sychar "in compliance with [the Samaritans'] invitation",[18] he then travels back to Galilee, resuming the journey commenced in verse 3. There the people "welcome" or "receive" him (Greek:ἐδέξαντο) with "open arms".[19]John 4:46 notes that many Galileans had also recently been to Jerusalem for thePassover and had seen the signs which Jesus performed there.[20]
In Galilee, Jesus returns toCana,[21] where a certain nobleman orroyal official (Greek:τις βασιλικὸς,tis basilikos) fromCapernaum, 38 kilometres (24 mi) away,[22] asks him to heal his sick son. TheKing James Version describes the man as a "nobleman"; theGeneva Bible has "a certain ruler" and refers toHerod's court; theNew Century Version has "one of the king's important officers"; and the Aramaic Bible in Plain English has "a servant of a certain King". Alfred Plummer, in theCambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, rejects the term "nobleman" as "inaccurate - the word has nothing to do with birth".[13] Chuza, King Herod's steward (whose wife wasJoanna, one of Jesus' disciples mentioned inLuke 8:3 and24:10) andManaen (a teacher and prophet inAntioch, mentioned inActs 13:1, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch) have both been identified as possibly being referred to in this section.[23]
Jesus seems annoyed because people only seem to believe in him if he performsmiracles (Greek:σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα,sēmeia kai terata, "signs and wonders").[25] Plummer notes the contrast with "the ready belief of the Samaritans".[13] Nevertheless, Jesus says the boy will be healed. The official goes back home to find his boy well again.
"Down", because Capernaum was located "down on the northwest shore of theSea of Galilee".[27]
According to John's own comment concluding this narrative, this is Jesus' second sign ormiracle (after theMarriage in Cana):
Plummer prefers the wording "This again, as a second miracle (or sign) ..."[13] Bengel compares three signs seen in Galilee (thefeeding of the 5,000 inchapter 6 being the third) with three seen in Judea, the first at the feast ofPentecost, on theimpotent man at Bethesda,chapter 5; the second, after thefeast of tabernacles, healing theblind man,chapter 9; the third, on the dead manLazarus, before thePassover, inchapter 11.[4]Henry Alford suggests that the sign at the wedding in Cana brought about the faith of his disciples, "his own", whereas this healing brought about a faith outside that circle.[29]
| Preceded by John 3 | Chapters of the Bible Gospel of John | Succeeded by John 5 |
Samaritan Woman at the Well | ||
| Preceded by | New Testament Events | Succeeded by |