John 4

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This article is about the chapter of John's Gospel. For people named John 4, see John IV.
John 4
John 4:9-10 on the verso side of Papyrus 63, c. AD 500.
BookGospel of John
CategoryGospel
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part4

John 4 is the fourth chapter of the

Sychar. In verses 43-54, he returns to Galilee, where he heals a royal official's son
.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 54 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Old Testament references

Jesus leaves Judea (4:1–4)

The

Westcott-Hort translation) learns this, leaves Judea, and sets off to return to Galilee. Swedish-based commentator René 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] In Eugene 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 through

Anglican bishop Charles 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 of Sychar, and rests after his journey at Jacob'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]

Samaritan woman (4:5–26)

Main article: Samaritan woman at the well
Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Angelica Kauffman, 1796.

While Jesus is waiting for his disciples to return, a

Samaritan 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] although Neo-Lutheran theologian Ernst 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 and Jews 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 her husband and bring him back. The woman states she has no husband, and Jesus says that in fact she has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not her husband. She then perceives that he is a prophet 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 the messiah 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 the

northern 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: in John 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]

Evangelization of the Samaritans (4:27–42)

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 theologian Hermann 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 the

John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14–15
).

Jesus returns to Galilee (4:43–45)

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 the Passover and had seen the signs which Jesus performed there.[20]

The royal official's son (4:46–54)

Main article: Healing the royal official's son

In Galilee, Jesus returns to

Acts 13:1, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch) have both been identified as possibly being referred to in this section.[23]

Verse 48

Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe".[24]

Jesus seems annoyed because people only seem to believe in him if he performs miracles (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.

Verse 49

The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies".[26]

"Down", because Capernaum was located "down on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee".[27]

Verse 54

According to John's own comment concluding this narrative, this is Jesus' second sign or

Marriage in Cana
):

This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.[28]

Plummer prefers the wording "This again, as a second miracle (or sign) ..."

feast of tabernacles, healing the blind man, chapter 9; the third, on the dead man Lazarus, before the Passover, in chapter 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]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1
    .
  2. ^ "Biblical concordances of John 4 in the 1611 King James Bible".
  3. ^ a b Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote e at John 4:9
  4. ^ a b Bengel, J. A., Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament on John 4, accessed 4 November 2020
  5. ^ Kieffer, R., John, in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary Archived 2019-05-02 at the Wayback Machine, p. 967
  6. ^ John 4:1–3: The Message
  7. ^ John 4:4: International Standard Version
  8. ^ Pulpit Commentary on John 4, accessed 23 February 2016
  9. ^ Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xx. 6, § 1
  10. ^ Watkins, H. W., Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers on John 4, accessed 23 February 2016
  11. ^ John 4:5–6
  12. ^ Marvin Vincent (1887), Vincent's Word Studies on John 4, accessed 25 February 2016
  13. ^ a b c d Plummer, A., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 4, accessed 1 March 2016
  14. ^ Meyer, H. A. W. (1880), Meyer's NT Commentary on John 4, translated from the German sixth edition, accessed 29 July 2022. Meyer does not support Hengstenberg's reading.
  15. ^ 2 Kings 17:24–41
  16. ^ Alexander MacLaren, MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture on John 4, accessed 27 February 2016
  17. ^ Quoted in Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on John 4, accessed 28 February 2016
  18. ^ Nicoll, W. R., Expositor's Greek Testament on John 4, accessed 30 July 2022
  19. ^ See The Living Bible's paraphrase for John 4:45
  20. ^ See John 2:23 and 3:2
  21. ^ See John chapter 2
  22. ^ Google Maps, Kafr Kanna to Capernaum via modern Highways 65 and 90, accessed 31 July 2022
  23. ^ Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary on John 4, accessed 1 March 2016
  24. ^ John 4:48: Revised Standard Version (RSV)
  25. ^ John 2:48
  26. ^ John 4:48: RSV
  27. ^ Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on John 4, accessed 31 July 2022
  28. ^ John 4:54
  29. ^ Alford, H. (1868), Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary on John 4, accessed 7 November 2020

External links

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Samaritan Woman at the Well
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