Or it should be answered that Christ previously knew by foreknowledge, but afterwards knew by report: and this was not unfitting according to his human nature.
12. Question II. Likewise it is asked concerning what it says: the Lord left Judea on account of the Pharisees who now knew. — It seems that he feared and that he fled.
To this Chrysostom responds that it was not out of fear, but for the sake of avoiding their scandal and the zeal of envy.
But then it is objected: 1. Because "the truth of doctrine is not to be abandoned on account of scandal "; whence he did not cease to speak the truth to them on account of scandal in many places, as in Matthew 15; why then does he now desist on account of scandal?
2. Likewise, if on account of envy: I ask: why did they envy Christ more than John, since John likewise baptized?
I respond: It must be said that He left Judea for a threefold reason, namely to avoid scandal, to increase fruit, and to give an example. On account of scandal, lest the Jews be made worse through the kindling of zeal: but this was not the whole cause, indeed also on account of fruit, because there He would have accomplished little, and elsewhere He accomplished much: and preaching must be abandoned on account of scandal when greater fruit can be borne elsewhere. On account of example He also departed, as Augustine says, to show us that it is lawful to avoid the fury of persecutors.
2. As to what is asked: why did they persecute Christ more than John? The response is that John did not baptize in his own name, but in the name of the coming Christ, whereas Christ baptized in His own name: whence He taught and baptized as one having authority. Since therefore the envious Pharisees wished to have no superior, they envied Him all the more.
13. Question III. Likewise Augustine asks: How does the Evangelist say: Jacob's spring, when below it is called a well?
Augustine responds that "every well is a spring, but the converse does not hold. For where water flows forth from the earth at the surface, it is only a spring: where it flows in the depths, it is called both a spring and a well. "
14. A woman of Samaria came. Having determined the opportunity for preaching, here is determined the manifestation made through preaching. And because this manifestation was first made particularly, and secondly commonly: therefore first it treats of the preaching made to the woman; secondly, of the preaching made to the Samaritans, at the passage: The woman therefore left her water jar, etc.
And because the preaching of faith is not efficacious except with the consent of free will, and free will does not consent unless it is aroused by God: therefore the Lord first arouses the woman; secondly, to her once aroused and consenting, He announces the truth of faith, at the passage: The woman says to Him: Lord, give me this water, etc. The Lord therefore arouses the woman in this order, namely first by requesting a service; secondly, by promising or offering a benefit; thirdly, by explaining the benefit offered.
15. (Verse 7). First He arouses her by requesting the service of a drink, which the woman was able to provide, because she had come to draw water. For this reason it says: A woman of Samaria came to draw water: and so she was able to give a drink, and Christ was in need and therefore asked. Therefore it follows: Jesus says to her: Give me to drink. He was indeed in need of drink, because there was no one to serve Him: whence it says:
16. (Verse 8.). But His disciples had gone into the city to buy food. He rightly says to buy, not to seek gratuitously, because there was no one there who would give: whence it is said in Luke 9: "The disciples entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him: and they did not receive Him, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem."
17. (Verse 9.). The woman therefore says to Him. Here secondly He arouses her by promising or offering a benefit: because the woman, considering Him to be a Jew, did not wish to render service, but rather raises a question. Therefore he says: That Samaritan woman therefore says to Him, from whom namely He had asked a drink: How do You, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? "She recognized Him to be a Jew from His garb," as the Gloss says. And the Evangelist subjoins the reason for this question: For the Jews do not associate with the Samaritans, regarding them as unclean, because they were gentiles: whence Genesis 43: "It is unlawful for the Egyptians to eat with the Hebrews, and they consider such a banquet profane." Because therefore the woman had not been moved to render service, the Lord entices her by promising a benefit: on account of which He says:
18. (Verse 10.). Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit, concerning which Acts 2: "Repent, and let each one of you be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is called a gift, because it ought not to be sold: Acts 8: "May your money perish with you, because you thought the gift of God could be possessed with money." If this, I say,
you knew, and who it is that says to you: Give Me to drink, namely that He Himself is the giver of the Holy Spirit, you would not have raised a question, but a petition for the gift. Therefore He says: You perhaps would have asked of Him: perhaps is not a mark of doubt, but of free will; and He would have satisfied your petition. Therefore He says: And He would have given you living water: to you, asking, He would have given; Matthew 7: "Everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened." He calls living water the grace of faith, which makes one live: Habakkuk 2: "My just one lives by faith."
19. (Verse 11.). The woman says to Him. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the explanation of the gift or benefit offered. For the woman understood carnally concerning a temporal gift: and therefore she doubted and sought an explanation. On this account he says: The woman says to Him: Lord, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: and therefore You cannot give of the water of this well; but even from elsewhere, how can You have it? Whence there follows: Where then do You have living water? namely, this nobler water.
20. (Vers. 12.). Are you greater than our father Jacob? Similar below in the eighth chapter: "Are you greater than our father Abraham"? Who gave us the well: therefore he gave it, because he found it. Concerning this well, Genesis twenty-nine: "Jacob set out and came to the eastern land and saw there a well, whose mouth was closed with a great stone." Nor did he only give to others, but he also had it for his own use, as though not having anything better. Therefore it says: And he himself drank from it, and his sons, and his cattle. It is found in Genesis twenty-nine that Jacob there watered the cattle. The woman, therefore, understanding carnally and not knowing the Lord's power, was not attracted. Therefore Christ explains the gift; therefore he says:
21. (Vers. 13.). Jesus answered and said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water, namely visible and material, shall thirst again: and therefore it is no great thing to give this, nor do I promise this. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: below in the sixth chapter: "He who believes in me shall never thirst." And the reason is added why he shall not thirst:
22. (Vers. 14.). But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life: springing up, because it causes one to spring up to where the fountain is unfailing: Psalm: "With you is the fountain of life," etc.; a fountain also perfectly refreshing: whence in the Psalm: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure." To this water the Lord invites in Isaiah fifty-five: "All you who thirst, come to the waters; and you who have no money," etc. — Thus therefore he aroused the woman by asking a service, by offering a benefit, by explaining the gift offered.
QUESTIONS.
23. Question I. It is asked here: since the Lord commands his disciples not to enter the cities of the Samaritans nor to go into the way of the Gentiles, Matthew ten, and also says in Matthew fifteen: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: whence is it that the Lord now preaches to the Samaritans? For he seems to contradict his own precept, and thereby to give a bad example.
I respond: It must be said that the Lord prohibited this to his disciples not because it was evil, but lest he scandalize the Jews, to whom he had first come. Therefore he commanded that they should not go to them by principal intention, whence neither did the Lord thrust himself upon them. But because he wills all men to be saved, and the opportunity presented itself, and the woman came to him: therefore he opened the word of preaching.
24. Question II. Likewise it is asked: 1. Since the Jews regarded the Samaritans as unclean, and the Lord kept the Law: whence is it that he asked to drink from a Samaritan woman?
2. Furthermore, he knew her response before he asked, and he knew that she would not give the drink: therefore he was asking in vain and foolishly.