Father Corluy's Commentary on John 4:5-42

 

Jn 4:5 He came therefore to a city of Samaria called Sichar. Sichar is the same place that in the Old Testament is called Sichem (Gen 33:18; Josh 20:7, 21:21). It was the capital of the region, situated between Mount Garizim (the sacred mountain of the Samaritans) and Mount Hebal (Josephus, Antiquities IV, 8, 44). When it was rebuilt and granted the rights of a Roman city by Vespasian, it was named Flavia Neapolis in his honor. From this derives its present Arabic name Nablos (pronounced by Europeans as Naplouse). Even today a few Samaritan families still live there. One may now ask where this city got the name Sichar (Σιχάρ). This name nowhere appears in the Old Testament. Some think it is a contemptuous nickname (French: un sobriquet) that the Jewish people attached to the city of the despised Samaritan nation. For in Hebrew שכר (shikkor) means “drunkard.” It is quite probable. Near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. See Gen 33:18–19: “And he passed on to Salem, a city of Shechem, and bought a portion of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money.” See also Josh 24:32: “The bones of Joseph… they buried in Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor…” Cf. also Gen 48:22.

Jn 4:6 Now there was a well of Jacob there, that is, the well that Jacob—who had dwelt there a long time—dug for himself, just as is related concerning Abraham and Isaac (Gen 21:25–26, 15, 18, 21). He sat thus, appearing to be doing nothing else, above the well (at the edge of the well; a Hebraism: pra = “near,” “by”; cf. Gen 24:13,30; Num 23:3).

Jn 4:7-8 He asked to drink from this woman because he was alone there. Give me to drink. How fittingly his disciples had gone away—and how gently he insinuates himself into the woman’s favor.

Jn 4:9 For Jews do not associate with Samaritans — these are explanatory words of the evangelist. Jews and Samaritans avoided one another even in ordinary daily life. On the Samaritans and their relations with the Jews, see 2 Kings 17:24ff; 1 Ezra 4:1; Nehemiah 4. Even today they detest the Jews. You, being a Jew — she perceived this either from his Aramaic dialect (different from Samaritan) or perhaps from his clothing.

Jn 4:10 If you knew the gift of God — he means the gift of grace and truth that you could obtain from God through me (emphatic contrast). Perhaps (Greek ἂν with the indicative; better translated “certainly” — Jesus has no doubt about the matter) living water. He draws the metaphor from natural water to designate supernatural gifts. Living = continuously flowing, springing up unto eternal life (as he explains in v. 14).

Jn 4:11–12 The woman understands natural water and wonders — not without irony, though with respect — that the water of this well could be better. She calls him Lord and calls Jacob our father because the Samaritans traced their origin to Gentiles mixed with Israelites (cf. 2 Kings 17:24ff; 2 Chr 35:18?).

Jn 4:13 Jesus answered — commending his own water as better and indirectly asserting himself greater than Jacob — Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.

Jn 4:14 But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst — because it will always be available to him to prevent thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life — through the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and bestowing the gifts of grace. Here he clearly asserts supernatural water. Marvel at Christ’s skillful way of speaking, stirring up the woman’s desire.

Jn 4:15 Lord, give me this water — the woman answers either because she still does not grasp it or because she is (half-)mocking Jesus.

Jn 4:16 From here Jesus changes the direction of the conversation to show that he is endowed with supernatural knowledge and at the same time to prepare the conversion of this sinful woman. Go, call your husband.

St. Cyril: “I think he commanded her to call her husband for this reason: in a certain obscure way he was rebuking her as one untaught and dull in receiving the doctrine of wisdom, while at the same time instituting something most beautiful.”

Jn 4:17–18 You have had five husbands — who either died or lawfully divorced her. And the one you now have is not your husband — she is living in an illicit union. The good Savior applied his finger to the wound, and the pus of her wounded heart burst forth.

Jn 4:19 Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. She confesses her sins and acknowledges Jesus as sent by God. She does not yet say “Messiah”; she says prophet without the article — a prophet, because he revealed things naturally unknown to her.

Jn 4:20 Our fathers — that is, the Samaritan patriarchs — worshiped on this mountain (Garizim, which was in plain sight) in the temple built on its summit (Josephus, Ant. 11, 8, 4). And you say — she immediately seizes on the chief point of controversy between the two peoples. She does not bring this up to evade the unwelcome rebuke of her sinful life, but because she sincerely desires to learn the truth about what seems to her the gravest matter from so great a prophet.

Jn 4:21 Woman, believe me, the hour is coming (ἔρχεται — the time is near; as he will say later, this time is already present; in John’s style “the hour” means the time is imminent; cf. 5:25). This hour is the time of the New Covenant economy, which in a true sense was already present because the divine author of this economy was present. He asserts that the worship of God is now no longer exclusively bound to any one definite place, but will be far more spiritual. You will worship the Father — such is God in the New Testament to the faithful who have attained the status of sons. Therefore, he implies, there is no longer any need to care about this controversy.

Jn 4:22 You worship what you do not know — yet he warns that the condition of Jews and Samaritans in offering worship to God is not equal. What you do not know is put in the neuter to indicate the general object of worship. The Samaritans did not know the object of their worship relatively to the Jews, because their knowledge of true religion was imperfect and full of many errors (e.g., they accepted only the Pentateuch, etc.). We worship what we know — we Jews, to whom belongs Christ according to the flesh, have true and full knowledge of religion, for salvation is from the Jews (cf. Isa 2:3; Rom 1:3, 9:5, 11:17; Mic 5:2). Christ seems to suppose this was known even to the Samaritans, surely from Gen 49:10.

Jn 4:23 But (nevertheless) true worshipers — who will perfectly worship God. Here true is not opposed to false, but to imperfect (cf. John 6:32, 1:9, 15:1; 1 John 2:8, 5:20). In spirit and truth — that is, spiritually and truly, or according to spirit and truth. In the Mosaic worship hitherto acceptable to God is now declared to be abolished, and a new worship is to be substituted: in spirit and truth. Several interpretations exist of what “in spirit and truth” means (the text surveys five main views, preferring the third):

1. “In spirit” opposes Jewish worship (true but corporeal, bound to many external rites and one physical place); “in truth” opposes Samaritan worship (false). (Tol.)
2. “In spirit” = not in a corporeal place nor in carnal ceremonies; “in truth” = not in figure. (Most Fathers, St. Thomas, Maldonat, etc.)
3. “In spirit” and “in truth” are synonymous: whoever worships with interior acts proceeding from faith and grace is thereby a true worshiper. (Maldonat, Beelen — this is considered the more probable view.)
4. Calvinist view: worship by faith alone, excluding external cult properly so called. (Refuted by Maldonat.)
5. Rationalist view: worship freed from biblical dogmas, consisting in moral honesty according to natural reason alone. (Rejected.)

Jn 4:24 God is spirit — that is, incorporeal — and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Such worship alone pleases him because like rejoices in like. Worship consisting of interior/spiritual acts proceeding from grace is congruent with God who is spirit.

The just of the Old Testament were also true worshipers in spirit and truth — not because the Mosaic rites as such pleased God, but because through faith and grace in the coming Christ they offered them as figures of him. In a similar way one should explain St. Paul on the Law (Rom 3:20–21, 4:13; Gal 3:10).

Scholion (Dogmatic Note) Some heretics taught that Christ here abolished all external worship. This is wrongly held; even Hengstenberg, Olshausen (Protestants) and de Wette (rationalist) defend the opposite. Christ here abstracts from external worship but by no means excludes it from true adoration, provided it is animated by interior acts of religion. Otherwise:

1. He would contradict himself (he practiced external worship many times: Luke 24:50, 22:41, etc.).
2. The apostles would not have obeyed him (Acts 9:40, 16:25; 1 Cor 11:4; Eph 3:14; 1 Tim 2:8; Revelation frequently presents norms of external worship). Moreover, he does not exclude the true sacrifice of the New Law; he excludes only Jewish sacrifices insofar as they consisted almost entirely in merely external and corporeal offerings. But the sacrifice of the Mass, although it has a corporeal element, is spirit and truth — it belongs per se to the supernatural order of faith, grace, and glory; hence its value ex opere operato. The same applies to the sacraments. Christ implicitly condemns those faithful who are so preoccupied with external acts of worship that they neglect the interior spirit.

Jn 4:25 I know that Messiah is coming (ὅτι Μεσσίας ἔρχεται). They firmly believed his advent was imminent. The Samaritans knew the Messiah would come from Deut 18:18 (to which she alludes without obscurity when she says he will tell us all things). Why the Samaritans expected him can be gathered from the Pentateuch; perhaps they also received reports from the Jews based on Daniel’s prophecy. The woman seems not yet to have fully understood Jesus, so she appeals to the Messiah.

Jn 4:26 I who speak to you am he. This is the climax of the whole dialogue. The divine Master had arranged everything preceding for the sake of this great revelation. Here also the evangelist’s purpose in narrating the conversation is attained: Jesus himself gives the clearest testimony about himself — a testimony the evangelist had already given in his own name and in the Baptist’s name. For the praise of the Samaritan woman, see Chrysostom, Homily 32, no. 3.

Jn 4:27 They marveled that he was talking with a woman (μετὰ γυναικὸς — without the article). Among the Jews women were considered too lowly for a teacher of the Law or prominent man to speak publicly with them, especially alone. Ascetics especially explain the amazement by Christ’s angelic modesty, for whom even public conversation with a woman seemed unbecoming. Yet no one said — out of reverence they did not ask — What do you seek? Or, Why are you talking with her?

Jn 4:28–30 Interrupted by the arrival of the disciples, the woman left her water jar — concerned with greater things — and went into the city and said, Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? — Hyperbole. She herself does not doubt, but speaks in this way to draw others. She exercises an excellent apostolate.

Jn 4:31–34 Meanwhile (while this was happening in the city) the disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. Obscure reply to arouse attention. When they do not understand, he explains: My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. What work? From the context it is clear: to imbue the people of Sichar — who are now about to come to him — with heavenly doctrine. Therefore for an apostolic man, bodily food and every bodily comfort must be subordinated to the work of saving souls.

Jn 4:35 The natural harvest (grain) comes after four months; but the spiritual harvest is already ripe — namely, the city of Sichar is ready to be gathered into Christ’s faith; its inhabitants are even now approaching him in plain sight. Note: Some (e.g. Maldonat) think “four months yet” is merely a proverb usable at any time of year, but without probable reason. More correctly it refers to the actual season — December, four months before harvest — and thus provides a precious chronological clue for evangelical harmony.

Jn 4:36 The reward in this harvest belongs not only to the sower but also to the reaper — thus encouraging the disciples to undertake the labors of this harvest.

Jn 4:37 The proverb is ambiguous:

1. Often one does the labor and another receives the fruit (not true in this case).
2. One sows and another reaps (and to each belongs reward) — true in this case.

Jn 4:38 Others have labored — the prophets, John the Baptist, the whole Old Covenant economy — and you have entered into their labor. The discourse concerns the mission of the disciples in general and specifically the conversion of the Samaritans then taking place.

Jn 4:39–42 Many Samaritans… believed in him — that Jesus is the Messiah. The woman is not thought to have kept silent long. Not because of your word — a Hebraism: not so much because of your word (though they began to believe partly because of it). Praise of the effectiveness of Jesus’ preaching. We know — with the certainty of faith — that this is truly the Savior of the world. They surely learned this from Jesus’ own preaching; hence they profess him as the spiritual Savior of the world, that is, of all nations.

CONTINUE