John 4:5–6
“He comes therefore to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to Joseph his son. And there was Jacob’s well.”
It is worthwhile, he says, to explain from where the Samaritans derived their origin and how they came to bear that name. “Somor” was the name of a mountain, so called from its possessor, as Isaiah also says: “The head of Somor is Ephraim.” Those who first dwelt on that mountain were not called Samaritans but Israelites.
When they offended God, they were handed over at various times to the Assyrians. At last the Assyrian king, suspecting them of plotting revolt, came upon them, took them captive, and did not permit them to return to their own land, fearing further rebellion. He transported them to Babylon and Media, and settled Samaria with colonists gathered from various nations.
When these things had occurred, God—wishing to show the barbarians that it was not from weakness but because of sins that He had allowed the Jews to be subjected—sent lions among those barbarians dwelling in Samaria, and they destroyed them. When the king heard this, he sent to certain elders of the Jews and asked what should be done so that the lions would no longer destroy those dwelling there. They explained that the God of Israel watched over that place and did not permit those ignorant of His laws to dwell there. Therefore, if the barbarians wished to remain safely, the king should send Jewish priests to teach them the ordinances of God, and thus they would appease Him.
The king obeyed and sent a priest to teach the Law of God to those barbarians dwelling in Samaria. Yet they did not receive all the divine books, but only the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Nor did they entirely abandon impiety; though in later times they refrained from idolatry and worshiped God, their religion was imperfect.
When the Jews returned from captivity, they were jealous of them, since they were Assyrians by race, and called them Samaritans from the mountain. The Samaritans, however, named Abraham and Jacob as their forefathers—Abraham because he was a Chaldean, and Jacob because of the well he had there, which they claimed as their own. The Jews abhorred them along with other nations; thus, reproaching the Lord, they said to Him, “You are a Samaritan.” And He Himself said to His disciples, “Do not enter into the city of the Samaritans.”
Why does the Evangelist speak so carefully about Jacob’s land and the well? First, so that when you hear the woman say, “Our father Jacob gave us this well,” you may not be surprised. That place was Sychem, where the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, committed that grievous slaughter because the ruler of the Shechemites had violated their sister Dinah. Moreover, from the Evangelist’s account we learn that the Jews had formerly been cast out for their sins, and when they offended God, the nations possessed their land. What the patriarchs had gained through faith in God, they lost through impiety. Therefore, it is nothing new if now the Gentiles are admitted into the kingdom of heaven instead of the Jews.
The parcel of land given by Jacob to Joseph was called Sychem. Since Jacob’s sons had destroyed the Shechemites and laid the city waste, their father gave it to Joseph as an inheritance.
John 4:6–8
“Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, ‘Give Me to drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.”
By recounting that the Lord was wearied from the journey, the Evangelist shows that He was far removed from pride and luxury. He did not use beasts of burden for travel but went on foot, teaching us that we need little. He also walked vigorously and not sluggishly, from which we learn to perform the work of God with constancy and diligence.
That He “sat thus” indicates simply and without ceremony that He sat as occasion offered—not upon a seat, but plainly upon the ground, refreshing His body by the well. Another reason is given: it was the sixth hour, midday, and because of the heat He needed refreshment.
Or again, lest someone reproach Him for entering Samaria when He had commanded the disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles, it is said that He sat there from weariness and that His conversation with the woman had a reasonable cause—thirst. Being thirsty, He naturally required drink.
To the One seeking water comes a woman eager to learn. What then should He have done—driven away one so earnest and desirous to hear what she did not understand? Far from it; such conduct would not be fitting for divine mercy.
See also how free the Lord was from pride. He remained alone while His disciples went into the city to buy food. They were so unconcerned about bodily indulgence that at the hour when most people rest after a meal, they were purchasing food—and only bread—teaching us moderation.
Note also the Evangelist’s care: he does not assert precisely “it was the sixth hour,” but says “about the sixth hour,” so as not to invite unnecessary contention.
John 4:9–15
The Samaritan woman says to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask drink of me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
From His clothing, appearance, and speech she concluded that He was a Jew. Notice her prudence: if caution were needed, it was the Lord who should have exercised it, not she. For it is not that Samaritans have no dealings with Jews, but that Jews avoid Samaritans. Yet she does not remain silent; thinking He acts unlawfully, she gently corrects Him.
Christ does not at once reveal Himself, but waits until the woman’s virtue appears. Once her circumspection and attentiveness are manifest, He begins to speak of higher things.
“If you knew the gift of God,” He says—that is, if you understood what God gives, namely eternal and incorruptible things—and who it is who says to you, “Give Me to drink,” you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water.
He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit “water” because it brings great refreshment to those who receive it. It is not stagnant water like that in wells and ponds, which becomes foul and corrupt, but living water—springing up and in motion. Grace always renders the soul active toward good, ever ready and advancing. Such water, living and ever-moving, Paul drank when he pressed forward toward what lay ahead.
The woman calls Him “Lord,” having moved beyond her earlier low conception. Yet she does not penetrate deeply into His words, for she still thinks of sensible water.
John 4:12–15
“Are You greater than our father Jacob…?”
She claims Jacob as her father, inserting herself into Jewish nobility. Observe her reasoning: if You give better water, You must be greater than Jacob. The well’s goodness is praised because Jacob himself drank from it, and his sons, and his cattle—indicating both sweetness and abundance.
The Lord does not openly say, “I am greater,” lest He appear arrogant before giving proof. But by saying that whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, whereas whoever drinks of His water will never thirst, He implies His superiority.
The water He gives becomes a fountain, ever increasing. The saints do not merely preserve what they receive; they cultivate and increase it, as the parable of the talents shows.
The woman, though still thinking materially, progresses. At first she doubted, asking, “From where do You have living water?” Now she says confidently, “Give me this water.” In this she appears more perceptive than Nicodemus. She even begins to disregard Jacob’s well, preferring the Lord: “If You have such water, give it to me.”
John 4:16–22
“Go, call your husband.”
Seeing her eagerness, He tells her to call her husband, so that he too may share in the gift. She answers, “I have no husband.” The Lord, revealing prophetic knowledge, recounts her five former husbands and exposes the present irregular union.
She does not flee but is amazed and strengthened: “Lord, I perceive that You are a prophet.” Immediately she asks about divine matters—about the proper place of worship—not about bodily concerns, showing her love of wisdom.
Christ does not dwell on her minor doctrinal error but reveals something greater, which He had not disclosed even to Nicodemus or Nathanael: that the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will the Father be worshiped.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” The Samaritans thought God was confined to a place. The Jews, though not all rightly, knew there is one God of all. “Salvation is from the Jews” either because knowledge of the true God came through them, or because the Savior Himself came from them according to the flesh—κατὰ σάρκα.
John 4:23–24
“The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”
Not only will the place change, but the manner of worship. True worshipers are those who live according to God’s law—not confining God to a place like the Samaritans, nor worshiping through bodily rites like the Jews, but “in spirit and truth.”
Because God is Spirit—incorporeal—He must be worshiped incorporeally, that is, in the soul. “In spirit” signifies inward, spiritual worship. But since some seem to worship inwardly yet hold false doctrine, He adds “in truth”: one must worship with right belief.
One may also see here practice and contemplation. “In spirit” suggests mortifying the works of the flesh (πρᾶξις), while “in truth” points to contemplation (θεωρία), concerned with the truth of doctrine.
The literal Jewish law was shadow and figure; “spirit” stands opposed to the letter, and “truth” to shadow.
John 4:25–27
“I know that Messiah is coming…”
How did she know? From the Scriptures, especially the books of Moses which the Samaritans accepted. From them she learned the prophecies concerning Christ: “A Prophet shall the Lord raise up for you,” and “The scepter shall not depart from Judah…”
Now, at the proper moment, the Lord reveals Himself: “I am He who speaks to you.” Had He said this at the beginning, she would not have believed and He might have seemed boastful. But now, led step by step to expectation, she is ready.
Why did He not reveal Himself to the Jews who asked, “Are You the Christ?” Because they asked not to learn but to accuse. She asked with simplicity and desire for instruction; therefore He revealed Himself to her.
When the disciples returned, they marveled at His humility—that so glorious and renowned a man would converse so gently with a poor Samaritan woman. Yet they did not question Him, so disciplined were they in reverence. On other occasions they spoke boldly when the matter concerned them directly. Here, since it did not, they kept silence.
John 4:28–30
“The woman therefore left her water jar, went into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and were coming to Him.”
So inflamed was the woman’s heart by the Lord’s words that she left even the water behind. Immediately she preferred the water of Christ to the well of Jacob. She becomes an apostle, ordained by the faith that had taken hold of her heart; she teaches and draws the whole city.
“Come,” she says, “see the one who told me everything I ever did.” Because her soul was kindled with divine fire, she no longer looks to anything earthly—not to shame, not to disgrace, nor to anything else. See how she does not hesitate to reveal her secrets publicly, saying, “who told me all that I did.” She could have said, “Come see a prophet who prophesied,” but she does not. She despises her own reputation and is concerned only to proclaim the truth.
Nor does she say definitively, “This is the Christ,” but rather, “Can this be the Christ?”—wishing them also to exercise judgment and making her report easier to receive. Had she boldly asserted that He was the Christ, some might have recoiled and refused to believe such a woman of doubtful reputation.
Some have understood the “five husbands” of the Samaritan woman as symbolizing the five books of Moses, which alone the Samaritans received. And when He says, “The one whom you now have is not your husband,” this means, according to them, “the word you now receive from Me is not yet your husband,” for you have not yet been united to My teaching.
Another may say that the Samaritan woman represents human nature. Our nature once dwelt upon a mountain—that is, in the lofty mind filled with divine grace. Before Adam sinned, he was adorned with every divine gift; he was even a prophet, for upon awaking from sleep he spoke of the formation of the woman and of the bond of marriage: “This now is bone of my bones…” and “For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother.”
Thus our nature once stood upon the high mountain of the mind. But when it offended God, it was led away captive. The holy seed within us—that is, every more divine thought—the devil carried off into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this world. In place of those thoughts he settled barbarous ones, which the lions—namely good thoughts that once dwelt in us—devoured, until it was persuaded to receive the divine oracles. Yet even then it did not receive them perfectly; once malice has taken up residence in the mountain of our mind, it may receive the books of Moses, but it does not wholly embrace the good and remains under a curse.
Therefore Jesus, “journeying”—that is, employing many ways and methods for our salvation, sometimes threats, sometimes afflictions, sometimes benefits and promises—seeks to win our life. Though wearied in attempting to correct us by these means, He found another method that pleased Him and upon which He rested. And what is that? The fountain of baptism, in which He benefited our nature as though it were a Samaritan woman.
This fountain of baptism is rightly called the fountain of Jacob—that is, of the supplanter—for in it we supplant the devil. In that same water the Lord crushed the head of the dragon and gave him as food to the peoples of Ethiopia—that is, to darkened and blackened souls deprived of divine light.
Our nature had five husbands: various laws given by God—the law in paradise, the law in the time of Noah, the law given to Abraham, the law given through Moses, and the law given through the prophets. For Noah after the flood received a command, Abraham circumcision, and so forth. Joined to these five laws, nature then received a sixth which she did not have as a husband. She had not yet been united to the law of the New Testament.
One might also understand by the sixth “husband,” whom she did not truly have, the law of idolatry. This was not given by God as a lawful spouse but was embraced as an adulterer. Hence the prophet says, “They committed adultery under the tree,” and again, “They committed fornication after every tree,” referring to idols and sacred groves. Such madness had overtaken human nature that it sacrificed even to beautiful trees—cypresses and plane trees—for the sake of their beauty.
When men loved this sixth adulterer and fell into idolatry, the Lord came and freed us from it. Therefore He says, “the one whom you now have,” for even at the time of Christ’s coming some among the Jews’ learned men had fallen into Gentile error, as the Pharisaic heresy, believing in fate and astrology, shows.
Every soul is a Samaritan when it is imprudently enslaved to the five senses and then accepts some dangerous teaching as a sixth adulterer. To such a soul Jesus brings benefit, either through baptism or through the fountain of tears. Tears also are called the fountain of Jacob, for the mind thereby supplants evil. From this water the mind drinks, and its thoughts—called its children—and even its beasts—that is, the irrational parts of the soul, anger and desire—are refreshed. Tears bring refreshment to the mind, to thoughts, and to the rest.
John 4:31–34
Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat which you do not know.” The disciples therefore said among themselves, “Has anyone brought Him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”
The disciples urged Him to eat not rashly, but out of deep affection, seeing Him weary from the journey and from the burning heat.
But the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman was about to call nearly the whole city and that many would believe, says, “I have food to eat.” That is, the salvation of men, which He desired more fervently than any of us desire bodily food. “You do not know this food,” for being still somewhat dull and unable to grasp obscure sayings, you do not understand that I call the salvation of men My food. Or again, you do not know that the Samaritans will believe in Me and be saved.
The disciples, out of reverence, do not dare to question Him directly. Yet He reveals what was obscure: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” The will of God is the salvation of men, and “to finish His work.”
The prophets and the Law could not complete the work of God, for they were imperfect, containing only shadows and types of future realities. The Lord, however, completed God’s work—our salvation and renewal.
One might also understand “the work of God” as man himself, whom the Son of God perfected in Himself by assuming our nature without sin, showing it complete in every good work, victorious over the world unto the end.
He speaks somewhat obscurely to make His hearers more attentive and eager to learn. By calling salvation “food,” He teaches the disciples—future teachers of the world—to make the salvation of others their nourishment and chief desire.
Observe also that the Lord accepted food offered by others—not because He needed their service, for how could He who gives food to all flesh be dependent?—but so that those who offered it might receive a reward and learn to feed others. He gives an example that we should not be ashamed of poverty nor consider it burdensome to be supported by others, especially those who teach. For this reason He commanded the disciples to be sustained by those whom they instructed.
John 4:35–38
“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are already white for harvest…”
Now He speaks more openly. You speak of a harvest four months away, He says, but I speak of a spiritual harvest—of the Samaritans already coming toward Him.
“Lift up your eyes”—whether spiritual or bodily—and behold the multitude of Samaritans and their souls eager and ready for faith, like fields white for harvest. As grain when white is ready for reaping, so these are prepared for salvation.
“The one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto eternal life, that both the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together.” The prophets sowed but did not reap; yet they are not deprived of joy, for they rejoice with us. In bodily harvests, if one sows and another reaps, there is sorrow for the one who did not reap. In spiritual matters, however, it is not so.
“I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others labored, and you have entered into their labors.” Thus He encourages the disciples not to shrink from preaching as though it were burdensome; the difficult labor had already been undertaken by the prophets. They are sent into prepared fields.
Notice how He speaks with authority: “I sent you.” Let the accursed Marcionites and Manicheans hear this, who separate the Old Testament from the New. If the Old were alien, how could the apostles reap what the prophets sowed? Since they reap what was sown in the Old, the two Testaments are one.
Let the Arians also hear how He sends as Lord and Master.
The apostles are sent to reap men from the earth—to cut them away from earthly attachments, whether Jew or Gentile, and bring them into the threshing floor of the Church, where they are trodden by oxen—that is, by teachers—until the chaff and all that is fit for burning is removed and they become pure grain stored in the heavenly granary and made food for God, who rejoices in their salvation. Thus Paul reaped, cutting us off from earth and teaching that “our citizenship is in heaven” (τὸ πολίτευμα ἡμῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὑπάρχει).
John 4:39–42
“Many of the Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified… So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word, and they said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard and know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’”
Many believed because of the woman’s word, reasoning wisely that she would not have exposed her life publicly merely to please another unless He were truly great.
They asked Him to remain with them—meaning to dwell permanently. He does not grant this but stays only two days. Yet many more believe because of His teaching. Though the Evangelist does not record His words in detail, the result shows their divine power. The Evangelists omit many things, writing not for display but to reveal the truth.
It is likely that among the Samaritans He spoke even more divine things, since without seeing signs they believed and begged Him to remain. The Jews, though they enjoyed more words and signs, continued to persecute Him—indeed, “a man’s enemies are those of his own household.”
Observe also how quickly the multitude surpasses the woman from whom they learned. They do not call Him merely prophet, nor “Savior of Israel,” but “the Savior of the world”—and with the article: this is the Savior, the one truly and properly saving all. Many had come claiming to save—the Law, the prophets, angels—but He alone is the true Savior.
CONTINUE
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