John 4
4
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and #ch. 3:22, 26baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3he left Judea and departed #ch. 2:11, 12again for Galilee. 4#[Luke 13:33]And he had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field #ver. 12; Gen. 33:19; 48:22; Josh. 24:32that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, #ch. 19:28; [Matt. 4:2; 8:24; 21:18]wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.#4:6 That is, about noon
7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, #[See ver. 6 above]“Give me a drink.” 8(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (#Luke 9:53; [ch. 8:48; Ezra 4:3, 10]; See Matt. 10:5For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you #ch. 7:38; Jer. 2:13; 17:13living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12#[ch. 8:53] Are you greater than our father Jacob? #ver. 5He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but #[ch. 6:35, 51, 58; 7:37] whoever drinks of the water that I will give him #[Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16] will never be thirsty again.#4:14 Greek forever The water that I will give him will become #ch. 7:38in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, #[ch. 6:34]give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, #ch. 16:8call your husband, and come here.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that #ch. 9:17; [ch. 6:14] you are #Luke 7:16, 39; See Matt. 21:11a prophet. 20#Gen. 12:6, 7; 33:18, 20; Deut. 11:29; 27:12; Josh. 8:33 Our fathers worshiped on #Judg. 9:7 this mountain, but you say that #See Deut. 12:5 in Jerusalem is #[ch. 11:48]the place where people ought to worship.” 21Jesus said to her, #ch. 2:4 “Woman, believe me, #ver. 23; ch. 5:25, 28; 16:2, 25, 32 the hour is coming when #Zeph. 2:11; Mal. 1:11; 1 Tim. 2:8neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22#[2 Kgs. 17:28-34; Acts 17:23] You worship what you do not know; #Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5 we worship what we know, for #Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5 salvation is #Matt. 2:4, 5; Acts 13:23; Rom. 11:26from the Jews. 23But #ver. 21 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father #[Rom. 8:15; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Phil. 3:3] in spirit and #Ps. 145:18; [ch. 1:17] truth, for the Father #[ch. 6:44]is seeking such people to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that #See ch. 1:41 Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, #Deut. 18:18; [ver. 29]he will tell us all things.” 26Jesus said to her, #ch. 9:35-37“I who speak to you am he.”
27Just then #ver. 8his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man #ver. 17, 18; [ver. 25]who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, #See ch. 1:38“Rabbi, eat.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, #[ver. 11, 15; ch. 3:4; 6:34, 52]“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, #[Job 23:12] “My food is #ch. 5:30; 6:38; 14:31 to do the will of him who sent me and #ch. 5:36; 17:4to accomplish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that #Matt. 9:37; Luke 10:2; [ver. 25, 30]the fields are white for harvest. 36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that #[Matt. 13:37; Mark 4:14] sower and #ver. 38 reaper #Isa. 9:3; [Amos 9:13]may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, #[Job 31:8]‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap #Josh. 24:13 that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, #[Acts 8:5-17, 25]and you have entered into their labor.”
39Many Samaritans #ver. 5, 8 from that town believed in him #[ch. 17:20] because of #ver. 29the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed #ch. 8:30because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, #[1 John 5:20] and we know that this is indeed #1 John 4:14; [ch. 3:17; 12:47; 1 Tim. 4:10] the Savior #See ch. 1:29of the world.”
43After #ver. 40the two days he departed for Galilee. 44(For Jesus himself had testified #See Matt. 13:57that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, #ch. 2:23; 3:2 having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For #ver. 20they too had gone to the feast.
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
46So he came again to #ch. 2:1 Cana in Galilee, #ch. 2:9where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47When this man heard that Jesus #ver. 3, 54had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48So Jesus said to him, #ch. 2:18; 6:30; [ch. 20:29]“Unless you#4:48 The Greek for you is plural; twice in this verse see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49The official said to him, “Sir, come down #[ch. 11:21, 32; Mark 5:35; Luke 8:49]before my child dies.” 50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51As he was going down, his servants#4:51 Or bondservants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour#4:52 That is, at 1 p.m. the fever left him.” 53The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, #Acts 16:34; 18:8; See Acts 11:14and all his household. 54#[ch. 2:11 with ver. 45, 46]This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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John 4
4
1When Jesus realized that the Pharisees had discovered that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2(although it wasn't Jesus who was baptizing, but his disciples), 3he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4On the way he had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to the Samaritan city of Sychar, near to the field that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, who was tired from the journey, sat straight down beside the well. It was around noon.
7A Samaritan woman came to fetch water. Jesus said to her, “Please could you give me a drink?” 8for his disciples had gone to the town to buy food.
9“You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” the woman replied, for Jews don't associate with Samaritans.#4:9. Or “Jews do not share dishes with Samaritans.”
10Jesus answered her, “If you only recognized God's gift, and who is asking you, ‘Please could you give me a drink?’ you would have asked him and he would have given you the water of life.”
11“Sir, you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get the water of life from?” she replied. 12“Our father Jacob gave us the well. He drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock. Are you greater than he?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks water from this well will become thirsty again. 14But those who drink the water I give won't ever be thirsty again. The water I give becomes a bubbling spring of water inside them, bringing them eternal life.”
15“Sir,” replied the woman, “Please give me this water so I won't be thirsty, and I won't have to come here to fetch water!”
16“Go and call your husband, and come back here,” Jesus told her.
17“I don't have a husband,” the woman answered.
“You're right in saying you don't have a husband,” Jesus told her. 18“You've had five husbands, and the one you're living with now is not your husband. So what you say is true!”
19“I can see you're a prophet, sir,” the woman replied. 20“Tell me this: our ancestors worshiped here on this mountain, but you#4:20. As a Jew. say that Jerusalem is where we must worship.”
21Jesus replied,#4:21. Jesus addresses her as “woman” which is the normal term used, but sounds impolite in English. “Believe me the time is coming when you won't worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You really don't know the God#4:22. Literally, “what.” you're worshiping, while we worship the God we know, for salvation comes from the Jews. 23But the time is coming—and in fact it's here already—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for these are the kind of worshipers the Father wants. 24God is Spirit, so worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “Well, I know that the Messiah is coming,” (the one who is called Christ). “When he comes he will explain it all to us.”
26Jesus replied, “I AM—the one who is speaking to you.”#4:26. “I AM” is used in the Old Testament as a name for God. Jesus is telling her he is the Messiah and also identifying his divinity.
27Just then the disciples returned. They were shocked that he was talking to a woman, but none of them asked “What are you doing?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28The woman left her water jar behind and ran back to the town, telling the people, 29“Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?”
30So they went out of the town to go and see him. 31Meanwhile Jesus' disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, please eat something!”
32But Jesus replied, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33“Did someone bring him food?” the disciples asked one another.
34Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work. 35Don't you have a saying, ‘four more months until harvest?’#4:35. It was usually four months between sowing and reaping. Open your eyes and look around! The crops in the fields are ripe, ready for harvest. 36The reaper is being paid and harvesting a crop for eternal life so that both the sower and the reaper can celebrate. 37So the proverb ‘one sows, another reaps,’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you didn't work for. Others did the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of what they did.”
39Many Samaritans from that town trusted in him because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when they came to see him they pleaded with him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, 41and because of what he told them many more trusted in him. 42They said to the woman, “Now our trust in him isn't just because of what you told us but because we have heard him for ourselves. We're convinced that he really is the Savior of the world.”
43After the two days he continued on to Galilee. 44Jesus himself had made the comment that a prophet is not respected in his own country. 45But when he arrived in Galilee, the people welcomed him, because they had also been at the Passover feast and had seen everything he'd done in Jerusalem. 46He visited Cana in Galilee again, where he had turned water into wine. Nearby in the town of Capernaum lived a royal official whose son was very sick. 47When he heard that Jesus had returned from Judea to Galilee, he went to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his son who was close to death.
48“Unless you see signs and wonders you people really won't trust me,” said Jesus.
49“Lord, just come before my child dies,” the official pleaded.
50“Go on home,” Jesus told him. “Your son will live!”
The man trusted what Jesus told him and left for home. 51While he was on his way, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and recovering. 52He asked them what time it was when his son began to get better. “Yesterday at one p.m. the fever left him,” they told him. 53Then the father realized this was the precise time when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live!” So he and everyone in his household trusted in Jesus. 54This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com