John 4 · The Lantern

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

When therefore Jesus knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus makes and baptizes more disciples than John —

If, however, the Lord, by His deeds withal, issued any such proclamation in favour of sinners; as when He permitted contact even with his own body to the "woman, a sinner,"-washing, as she did, His feet with tears, and wiping them with her hair, and inaugurating His sepulture with ointment; as when to the Samaritaness-not an adulteress by her now sixth marriage, but a prostitut…

The Lord manifested himself above to the disciples and to the Jews: in this part he manifests himself to the Samaritans, and this by preaching and announcing to them the word of salvation. And this part has two parts.

Having set forth the teaching of Christ on spiritual regeneration, and that Christ had given this grace of spiritual regeneration to the Jews, he now shows how Christ gave this grace to the Gentiles. Now the salutary grace of Christ had been dispensed in two ways to the Gentiles: through teaching and through miracles.

and certainly indeed Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples —

"But behold, "say some, "the Lord came, and baptized not; for we read, `And yet He used not to baptize, but His disciples!' " As if, in truth, John had preached that He would baptize with His own hands!

Whence our history proceeds to this point, or from what commencement the order of the narrative progressing, introduces the Lord as knowing that the Pharisees had learnt what they enquired, it will not be amiss (it appears) to say.

Then when he says, although Jesus did not himself baptize, he explains what he has just said about Christ's baptizing. Augustine says that there is an apparent inconsistency here: for he had stated that Jesus was baptizing, whereas now he says, as though correcting himself, Jesus did not himself baptize. There are two ways to understand this.

He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.

(Hom. xxxi. 2) Christ on withdrawing from Judæa, joined those whom He was with before, as we read next, And departed again into Galilee. As the Apostles, when they were expelled by the Jews, went to the Gentiles, so Christ goes to the Samaritans.

The Lover of mankind, having once become incarnate for us, does everything for our benefit. So now too, having learned that the Pharisees heard of His fame, and knowing that they would envy Him and rise up against Him, He withdraws to Galilee, teaching us two things: first, to spare our enemies and to make every effort not to give them occasion for offense or envy; second, not…

He then mentions Christ's going away, he left Judea. He left for three reasons. First, to get away from the envy of the Pharisees, who were disturbed because of what they had heard about Christ, and were preparing to harass him. By this he gives us the example that we should, with gentleness, yield ground to evil for a time: "Do not pile wood on his fire" (Sir 8:4).

Now it was necessary for Him to pass through Samaria.

"And He must needs go through Samaria." Showing that He made this the bye-work of the journey. Which also the Apostles did; for just as they, when persecuted by the Jews, came to the Gentiles; so also Christ, when the Jews drove Him out, then took the Samaritans in hand, as He did also in the case of the Syrophenician woman.

He must needs pass through Samaria; because that country lay between Judea and Galilee. Samaria was the principal city of a province of Palestine, and gave its name to the whole district connected with it. The particular place to which our Lord went is next given: Then cometh He to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar.

Then he describes the intermediate place through which Christ passed. On his way to Galilee, Christ passes through Samaria; hence he says, He had to pass through Samaria.

He comes therefore to a city of Samaria being named Sychar, nearby the plot of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph his son;

"He cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there." Why is the Evangelist exact about the place? It is, that when thou hearest the woman say, "Jacob our father gave us this well," thou mayest not think it strange.

Why does the Evangelist speak in detail about the place and the well of Jacob? First, so that you would not be amazed when you hear the woman say: "Our father Jacob gave us this well." For this place was Sychem (Shechem), where the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, carried out a cruel slaughter because their sister Dinah had been violated by the prince of the Shechemites.

Describing it in more detail, he adds, He came therefore to a city of Samaria, i.e., of the region of Samaria, called Sychar. This Sychar is the same as Shechem. Genesis (33:18) says that Jacob camped near here and that two of his sons, enraged at the rape of Dinah, Jacob's daughter, by the son of the king of Shechem, killed all the males in that city.

and Jacob’s well was there. Therefore Jesus, already wearying from the journey, was sitting thus at the well; the hour was about the sixth.

A woman comes out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, “Give Me to drink.”

First, then, from the wind-that is, from the serpent-has resulted the originating principle of generation in the manner declared, all things having simultaneously received the principle of generation.

The Savior asks for water from the woman, then, and feigns thirst so that he might give eternal grace to the thirsty. For the source was not able to be thirsty, nor was he in whom there is living water able to draw water full of earthly sediment. Did Christ thirst, then? He thirsted, to be sure, but for salvation and not [merely] for human drink.

Next, we have a preliminary remark concerning the one who listens to Christ. First, we are introduced to the person who is taught. Secondly, we are given her preparation for his teaching. The teaching is given to a Samaritan woman; so he says, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. This woman signifies the Church, not yet justified, of the Gentiles.

For His disciples had gone away into the city, that they may buy food.

Our Lord came to the spring of water like a hunter. He asked for water in order to give water, with water as a pretext. He sought something to drink, like a thirsty person, so that the way could be opened for him to quench thirst. He asked from her in order to teach her, and she in turn would ask from him.

"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." It is asked concerning what it says, that t…

Christ had the opportunity to ask this of the woman because his disciples, whom he would have asked for the water, were not there, thus the Evangelist says, His disciples had gone to the town. Here we might notice three things about Christ. First, his humility, because he was left alone. This is an example to his disciples that they should suppress all pride.

The Samaritan woman says therefore to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, a Samaritan woman being?” For Jews have no association with Samaritans.

And all this was, not of works of righteousness which we have done, nor because we loved Thee,-for our first earthly forefather, who was honourably entertained, in the delightful abode of Paradise, despised Thy divine and saving commandment, and was judged unworthy of that life-giving place, and mingling his seed with the bastard off-shoots of sin, he rendered it very weak;-but…

(Tract. xiii) The Jews would not even use their vessels. So it would astonish the woman to hear a Jew ask to drink out of her vessel; a thing so contrary to Jewish rule.

Our Lord prepared the woman to receive his spiritual teaching by giving her an occasion to question him. First, her question is given. Secondly, her reason for asking it (v 9). Here we should point out that our Lord, when asking the woman for a drink, had in mind more a spiritual drink than a merely physical one.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me to drink,’ you yourself would then have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

[Heracleon] is not wrong when he says that "the water that the Savior gives is of his spirit and power." And he has explained the statement "But he shall not thirst forever" as follows with these very words: "For the life he gives is eternal and never perishes, as, indeed, does the first life that comes from the well; the life he gives remains.

Enquiry is the beginning of learning, and to those who are ignorant upon any subject, doubt concerning it is the root of understanding. This commencement the discourse aims at: wherefore the Saviour wisely hints, that He accounts of no value the customs of the Jews.

Now (v 10), the Evangelist gives us Christ's spiritual teaching. First, he gives the teaching itself. Secondly, the effect it had (v 27). As to the first, he does two things. First, a summary of the entire instruction is given. Secondly, he unfolds it part by part (v 11).

The woman says to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from where then have You the water which is living?

The Scriptures, therefore, are introductions, and are called Jacob's well. Once they have now been accurately understood, one must go up from them to Jesus, that he may freely give us the fountain of water that leaps into eternal life. But everyone does not draw water from Jacob's well in the same way.… Some who are wise in the Scriptures drink as Jacob and his sons.

Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast Thou that living water? The woman imagines nothing more than what she is accustomed to; and by no means understands the force of what is said, but supposes that like some of those who are accustomed to work wonders by means of charms and devilish deceit, without a line or other contrivance He will…

When he says, The woman challenged him, he treats these three things explicitly. First, the gift; secondly, asking for the gift (v 19); and thirdly, the giver (v 25). He does two things about the first. First, he explains the gift by showing its power. Secondly, he considers the perfection of the gift (v 15). About the first he does two things.

You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and himself drank of it, and his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who is drinking of this water will thirst again;

One must investigate what is meant by "will thirst" in the statement "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again." … What is meant in the first place would be something like this: he who partakes of supposedly profound thoughts, even if he is satisfied for a little while and accepts the ideas that are drawn out and that he thinks he has discovered to be most profound,…

There is a great difference, he says, between that water [in the well] and the water I promise to give. That [water], after they have drunk it, extinguishes their thirst for a short time. But then, when it has been consumed according to its nature, it leaves the one who shortly before had drunk it thirsty again.

Then when he says, Jesus replied and said, he sets down the Lord's response, in which he explains the power of his doctrine. First, with respect to the fact that he had called it water. Secondly, with respect to the fact that he called it living water (v 14).

but whoever may drink of the water that I myself will give him will certainly not thirst to the age. Instead, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into life eternal.”

For though I am alive while I write to you, yet I am eager to die for the sake of Christ. My love has been crucified, and there is no fire in me that loves anything; but there is living water springing up in me, and which says to me inwardly, Come to the Father. I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life.

He says that visible water can quench one's thirst for a little while, but the unseen water cures one of thirst altogether because there is no longer a thirst for life when immortality is gushing forth on you.

Then when he says, The water that I give will become a fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life, he shows from the movement of the water that his doctrine is living water; thus he says that it is a leaping fountain: "The streams of the river bring joy to the city of God" (Ps 45:4).

The woman says to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.”

Seest thou how little by little she is led up to the highest doctrines? First she thought Him some Jew who was transgressing the Law; then when He had repelled that accusation, (for it was necessary that the person who was to teach her such things should not be suspected,) having heard of "living water," she supposed that this was spoken of material water; afterwards, having le…

What disposition does the woman show at this point? Although not yet a lofty one, for she thinks the discussion is about physical water, nevertheless she does reveal some forward progress.

Then when he says, The woman said, he states her request for the gift. First, her understanding of the gift is noted. Secondly, the woman is found guilty (v 17). As was said, the way to obtain this gift is by prayer and request. And so first, we have the woman's request. Secondly, Christ's answer (v 16).

He says to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”

The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus says to her, “Correctly you have spoken that ‘A husband I have not’;

for you have had five husbands, and he whom you have now is not your husband. This you have spoken truly.”

(tom. xiii. c. 8) And what more proper place than Jacob's well, for exposing the unlawful husband, i. e. the perverse law? For the Samaritan woman is meant to figure to us a soul, that has subjected itself to a hind of law of its own, not the divine law. And our Saviour wishes to marry her to a lawful husband, i. e.

Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing. Some understand the "five" husbands of the Samaritan woman to mean the five books which alone the Samaritan woman accepted.

Then the Evangelist reports that Jesus said to her: You are right in saying you have no husband, a legitimate husband; for you have had five, before this one, and the man you are living with now, using as a husband, is not your husband. What you said is true, because you do not have a husband.

The woman says to Him, “Sir, I understand that You are a prophet.

O how great the wisdom of the woman! how meekly doth she receive the reproof! "How should she not," saith some one? Tell me, why should she? Did He not often reprove the Jews also, and with greater reproofs than these?

Did she not become annoyed upon hearing this? Did she not leave Him and run away? No, she was even more amazed, even more strengthened, and says: "Lord, I see that You are a prophet"; and she asks Him about divine matters, not about worldly ones, such as bodily health or possessions. So chaste and well-disposed toward virtue is her soul! What then does she ask about?

Now the Evangelist treats of the request by which the gift is obtained, which is prayer. First there is the woman's inquiry about prayer. Secondly, Christ's answer (v 21). Concerning the first the woman does two things. First, she admits that Christ is qualified to answer her question. Secondly, she asks the question (v 20).

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you yourselves say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.”

Jesus says to her, “Believe Me, woman, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

The Jews stand for those who think intelligently and salvation is from them. The Samaritans represent the heterodox. So they deify Gerizim, which means "separation" or "division." The Jews, on the other hand, revere Zion, which signifies "watchtower." … Inasmuch, then, as the hour mentioned by the Lord has not yet come when they worship the Father neither on this mountain nor i…

He condemns alike the folly of all, saying that the mode of worship of both shall be transformed to the more truthful. For no longer (saith He) shall a place be sought, wherein they shall deem that God properly dwells, but as filling and able to contain all things, shall they worship the Lord every one from his place, as one of the holy Prophets says.

Christ's answer is now set down (v 21). First he distinguishes three types of prayer. Secondly, he compares them to each other (v 22).

You yourselves worship what you do not know; we ourselves worship what we know, for the salvation is of the Jews.

Accordingly, He who said, "Woe unto them that trust in the mountain of Samaria," vouchsafing now to restore that very region, purposely requests the men "to go and show themselves to the priests," because these were to be found only there where the temple was; submitting the Samaritan to the Jew, inasmuch as "salvation was of the Jews," whether to the Israelite or the Samaritan…

CHAPTER V. That the Son is not in the number of worshippers, in that He is Word and God, but rather is worshipped with the Father.

Then (v 22), he compares the different kinds of worship to each other. First, he compares the second to the first. Secondly, the third to the first and second (v 23). As to the first he does three things. First, he shows the shortcomings of the first type of worship. Secondly, the truth of the second. Thirdly, the reason for each statement.

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such who worship Him.

Or go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces one honey-comb. And if "thou prayest in the closet," as the Lord taught, "to worship in spirit," thy management will no longer be solely occupied about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured u…

"For the Father seeketh such to worship Him." If then He in times past sought such as these, He allowed to those others their way of worship, not willingly, but from condescension, and for this reason, that He might bring them in also. Who then are "the true worshipers"?

Now (v 23), he compares the third kind of worship to the first two. First, he mentions its superiority to the others. Secondly, how appropriate this kind of worship is (v 23b).

God is Spirit, and those worshiping Him it behooves to worship in spirit and truth.”

Our God did not begin to be in time: He alone is without beginning, and He Himself is the beginning of all things. God is a Spirit, not pervading matter, but the Maker of material spirits, and of the forms that are in matter; He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself the Father of both sensible and invisible things.

Since God cannot be seen, his incorporeal nature follows directly on his invisibility. For if God is unseen, then he must be incorporeal. And if this is the case, then the Spirit spoken of here cannot be air that has been set in motion. For among people a body reveals its spirit; however, we cannot say the same about God.

Then he shows that the third type of worship is appropriate from the very nature of God, saying, God is spirit. As is said in Sirach (13:19), "Every animal loves its like"; and so God loves us insofar as we are like him.

The woman says to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when He may come, He will tell us all things.”

Whom, indeed, did He reveal to the woman of Samaria? Was it not "the Messias which is called Christ? " And so lie showed, of course, that He was not the Father, but the Son; and elsewhere He is expressly called "the Christ, the Son of God," and not the Father.

Upon Christ teaching that the hour and season will come, rather is already present, wherein the true worshippers shall offer to God the Father the worship in spirit; forthwith the woman is winged to thoughts above her wont unto the hope spoken of by the Jews.

When he says, The woman said to him, he mentions the one who gives the gift; and this corresponds to what our Lord said before, If you knew the gift of God, and realized who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you perhaps would have asked him. First, we have the woman's profession. Secondly, the teaching of Christ (v 26). As to the first, he does two things.

Jesus says to her, “I myself am He, who is speaking to you.”

"And if you are a king, how is it that you are asking me for water?" It was not in this way that he first made reference about himself to her, but rather first as a Jew, and then as a prophet, and thereafter as the Messiah. Step by step he brought and placed her at the highest level.

When, thus, the very course of the conversation demanded it, the Lord already reveals Himself to her (the Samaritan woman). If He had said from the very beginning that Christ is I, He would not have convinced the woman, and might even have appeared somewhat arrogant and proud.

And so Jesus says: I who speak to you am he, i.e., I am the Christ: "Wisdom goes to meet those who desire her, so she may first reveal herself to them" (Wis 6:14), and below (14:21): "I will love him, and reveal myself to him." Our Lord did not reveal himself to this woman at once because it might have seemed to her that he was speaking out of vainglory.

The Disciples Return and Marvel

And upon this His disciples came, and were amazed that He was speaking with a woman; no one, however, said, “What seek You?” or, “Why speak You with her?”

The woman then left her water pot and went away into the city, and says to the men,

He also uses the woman as an apostle, as it were, to those in the city. His words to her are so forceful that she leaves her water jar to go to the city and tells them to her fellow townspeople.… I think there was a definite purpose why the Evangelist recorded that the woman left her water jar and went into the city.

But when the Merciful One was near the spring, … Then the woman of Samaria, coming from her native village, Sichar, arrived, and she had her urn on her shoulders; And who would not call blessed the arrival and departure of this woman? For she departed in filth; she entered into the figure of the church as blameless; She departed, and she drew out life like a sponge.

Then (v 28), we have the fruit which relates to the woman; by what she said to her people, she was taking on the role of an apostle. From what she says and does, we can learn three things. First, her affective devotion; secondly, her way of preaching; thirdly the effect her preaching had (v 30). Her affection is revealed in two ways.

“Come, see a man who told me all things, as much as I did; surely this is not the Christ?”

"Is not this the Christ?" Observe again here the great wisdom of the woman; she neither declared the fact plainly, nor was she silent, for she desired not to bring them in by her own assertion, but to make them to share in this opinion by hearing Him; which rendered her words more readily acceptable to them.

It is only by degrees, however, that she comes to the preaching of Christ. First she calls Him a man, not Christ; for fear those who heard her might be angry, and refuse to come.

Next we see her manner of preaching (v 29). She first invites them to see Christ, saying, Come and see the man. Although she had heard Christ say that he was the Christ, she did not at once tell the people that they should come to the Christ, or believe, so as not to give them a reason for scoffing.

They went forth out of the city and were coming unto Him.

They went out of the city, and came unto Him. The obedience of the Samaritans is a conviction of the hardness of heart of the Jews, and their inhumanity is clearly shown in the gentleness of these.

"They went out of the city and were coming to him." Rightly they went out, because Christ was before the gate as one unknown, and suffered outside the gate: whence in the last chapter of Hebrews: "Christ suffered outside the gate: let us therefore go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach." In this it is intimated that those who wish to be taught by Christ must leave…

The fruit of her preaching is given when he says, At that they set out from the town, to where she had returned, to meet him, Christ. We see by this that if we desire to come to Christ, we must set out from the town, i.e., leave behind our carnal desires: "Let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing the abuse he took," as we read in Hebrews (13:13).

But in the meantime the disciples were asking Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

How unworthy, also, is the way in which you interpret to the favour of your own lust the fact that the Lord "ate and drank" promiscuously!

Most excellently doth the Divine Evangelist manage the compilation of this book, and omits nothing which he believes will at all be of use to the readers. Hear therefore how he introduces Jesus again as the Ensample of a most note-worthy act.

Now the effect of this spiritual teaching is elaborated. First, by what Christ said to his disciples; secondly, by the effect of all this on the Samaritans (v 39). Concerning the first he does two things. First, we have the situation in which Christ speaks to his disciples; secondly, what he said (v 32). The situation is the insistence of the apostles that Christ eat.

But He said to them, “I myself have food to eat that you yourselves do not know.”

"I," says the Lord, "have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." You see another kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called catachrestically "a cup," when He alone had to drink and drain it.

(Tr. xv. c. 31) What wonder that the woman did not understand about the water? Lo, the disciples do not understand about the meat.

After presenting the situation, he gives its fruit. First, it is given in figurative language. Secondly, we see the disciples are slow in understanding this. Thirdly, the Lord explains what he meant (v 34). The fruit of his spiritual teaching is proposed under the symbols of food and nourishment, so the Lord says, I have food to eat.

The disciples were saying therefore to one another, “Surely no one did bring Him something to eat?”

Jesus says to them, “My own food is that I may do the will of the One having sent Me and may finish His work.

Do you yourselves not say that it is yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the fields, because they are white toward harvest already!

For which reason the Lord declared to the disciples: "Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look upon the districts (regiones), for they are white [already] to harvest. For the harvest-man receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

Behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. That is, raising up the eye of your understanding a little from the affairs of the earth, consider ye the spiritual sowing, that it hath progressed already and whitened unto the floor, and at length calls for the reaper's sickle unto itself.

Then when he says, Do you not have a saying: There are still four months, and it will be harvest time? he makes use of a simile. Note that when Christ asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, "Give me a drink," he made use of a simile concerning water. But here, the disciples are urging the Lord to eat, and now he makes use of a simile concerning spiritual food.

The one reaping receives a reward and gathers fruit unto life eternal, so that the one who is sowing may rejoice together with the one who is reaping.

For in this the saying is true, that One is who is sowing and another is the one who is reaping.

For although Abraham was one, he did in himself prefigure the two covenants, in which some indeed have sown, while others have reaped; for it is said, "In this is the saying true, that it is one `people' who sows, but another who shall reap; " but it is one God who bestows things suitable upon both-seed to the sower, but bread for the reaper to eat.

A true saying he calls the proverb that was in common use among the people: "One sows, and another reaps." For the prophets sowed, but did not reap; nevertheless, through this they were not deprived of enjoyment, but rejoice together with us, even though they do not reap together with us. In material harvests this does not happen.

Then when he says, For here the saying is verified, we are given a proverb. As if to say: For here, i.e., in this fact, the saying is verified, i.e., the proverb in current use among the Jews is fulfilled: One man sows, another reaps.

I myself sent you to reap what you yourselves have not toiled for; others have toiled, and you yourselves have entered into their labor.”

"I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labors; other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." By this He the more encourageth them; for when it seemed a very hard matter to go through all the world and preach the Gospel, He showeth them that it is even most easy.

"I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor." The Lord says this so that, when He sends the disciples to preach, they would not be troubled by the fact that they are being sent to a difficult task.

Then (v 38), he applies the proverb. First, he calls the apostles reapers. Secondly, he says they are laborers. He says concerning the first: I say that it is one who reaps, because you are reapers, and another who sows, for I have sent you to reap what you have not worked for. He does not say, "I will send you," but I have sent you. He says this because he sent them twice.

Many Samaritans Believe

Now out of that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman testifying that “He told me all things whatever I did.”

Nothing is worse than envy and malice, nothing more mischievous than vainglory; it is wont to mar ten thousand good things. So the Jews, who excelled the Samaritans in knowledge, and had been always familiar with the Prophets, were shown from this cause inferior to them.

The Samaritans believe based on the woman's word, reasonably judging by themselves that a woman would not have openly revealed her life before everyone to please another, if the one she proclaimed were not truly great and superior to many.

Above, the Lord foretold to the apostles the fruit to be produced among the Samaritans by the woman's witness. Now the Evangelist deals with this fruit. First, the fruit of the woman's witness is given. Secondly, the growth of this fruit produced by Christ (v 41). The fruit of the woman's witness is shown in three ways.

When therefore the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to abide with them. And He stayed there two days.

John has not written that the Samaritans "asked him" to enter Samaria or to enter the city but "to remain with them." … In what follows he does not say, "And he remained in that city two days" or "he remained in Samaria" but "he remained there," that is, with those who asked.

Therefore, proving their faith by deeds, they asked Him to remain with them permanently. For "to stay" means precisely to settle completely. But He does not agree to this, and spends only two days with them.

Secondly, the fruit of her witness is shown in their coming to Christ: for faith gives rise to a desire for the thing believed. Accordingly, after they believed, they came to Christ, to be perfected by him. So he says, So when the Samaritans came to him.

And many more believed because of His word,

But as many as feared God, and were anxious about His law, these ran to Christ, and were all saved. For He said to His disciples: "Go ye to the sheep of the house of Israel, which have perished." And many more Samaritans, it is said, when the Lord had tarried among them, two days, "believed because of His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying,…

"And many more believed because of his word." Nor is this surprising, because, as Peter says to him below in chapter 6, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Nor did he only multiply, but also confirmed.

Then (v 41), the Evangelist says that the fruit resulting from the witness of the woman was increased by the presence of Christ; and this in three ways. First, in the number of those who believed. Secondly, in their reason for believing. Thirdly, in the truth they believed.

and to the woman they were saying that “No longer because of your speech do we believe; for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

The Samaritans renounce their faith that was based on the speech of the woman when they discover that hearing the Savior himself is better than that faith, so that they, too, know "that this is truly the Savior of the world." It is better indeed to become an eyewitness of the Word and to hear him [directly].… And so, there is nothing astonishing in the fact that some are said t…

Look, indeed, in a short time the people surpassed their teacher. For they call Him not a prophet, not the Savior of Israel, but the Savior of the world, and even with the article: He is that Savior, who properly and truly saved all. Many came to save: both the law, and the prophets, and the angels, but the true Savior is He.

Secondly, this fruit was increased because of the way in which they believed: for they say to the woman: Now we believe not just because of your story. Here we should note that three things are necessary for the perfection of faith; and they are given here in order. First, faith should be right; secondly, it should be prompt; and thirdly, it should be certain.

Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

After then the two days He went forth from there into Galilee.

(Tr. xvi) After staying two days in Samaria, He departed into Galilee, where He resided: Now after two days He departed thence, and went into Galilee. Why then does the Evangelist say immediately, For Jesus Himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

The Lord, having left Samaria, comes to Galilee. Then, lest someone begin to investigate and wonder why He did not always remain in Galilee, but came to it at intervals, even though He apparently came from Galilee, he says: "The reason He did not live in Galilee was that the Galileans showed Him no honor." For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own count…

Having described the conversion of the Gentiles due to teaching, their conversion due to miracles is now given. The Evangelist mentions a miracle performed by Christ: first, giving the place; secondly, describing the miracle; and thirdly, its effect (v 53). He does two things about the first. First, he gives the general location of the miracle, that is, Christ's own homeland.

For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.

The country of the prophets, of course, was in Judea, and it is clear that they had had no honor among the Jews since they were stoned, sawn in two, tried and put to death by the sword. Because they were dishonored, they went about in sheepskins and goat skins, being in need, afflicted and ill-treated. … The truth of the Savior's statement is amazing.

Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. For we people ordinarily despise what has become commonplace, while we always pay attention to what is strange and unusual. What then? Do we not see many who are honored among their own? Yes, but this is very rare.

Then he gives a certain reason, saying: Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. There are two questions here: one is about the literal meaning; and the other about the continuity of this passage with the first.

When therefore He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all things, how much He had done in Jerusalem during the feast; for they also themselves had gone to the feast.

It is possible … that a Galilean happened to be in Jerusalem, where the temple of God is located, to celebrate the festival and saw everything that Jesus did there. He may have especially seen how he cast out all those selling cattle, sheep and doves, along with the sheep, the cattle, and the rest, with the scourge he made from cords.

They had seen Him at Jerusalem, For they also went unto the feast. Our Lord's return has a mystical meaning, viz. that, when the Gentiles have been confirmed in the faith by the two precepts of love, i. e. at the end of the world, He will return to His country, i. e. Judæa.

Then he shows that Christ was received by the Galileans more respectfully than before, saying, When however he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, respectfully. The reason behind this was because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem on the festive day, where they too had gone, as the law commanded.

He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum.

He, having heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, went to Him and was asking that He may come down and heal his son; for he was about to die.

The nobleman cometh as to One able to heal, but he understandeth not yet that He is by Nature God: he calleth Him Lord, but giveth not at all the true dignity of Lordship.

The courtier asks the Lord to come and heal his son, but the Lord rebukes him for believing not fully, but only in part. For the words "come down before my child dies" (John 4:49) reveal that his faith is weak. He does not believe that even in the event of his son's death, the Lord is powerful enough to raise him.

Now we see the person making his request (v 47). First, we have the incentive for making his request. Secondly, the request itself. Thirdly, the need for the request. The incentive for making the request was the arrival of Christ. So he says, When he, the official, heard that Jesus had come to Galilee from Judea, he went to him.

Jesus said therefore to him, “Unless you people may see signs and wonders, you shall certainly not believe.”

"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." Yet the very coming and beseeching Him was a mark of faith. And besides, after this the Evangelist witnesses to him, declaring that when Jesus said, "Go, thy son liveth," he believed His word, and went. What then is that which He saith here?

The reading of the holy Gospel which you have just heard, brothers, does not require explanation. But lest we seem to have passed over it in silence, let us say something about it by way of exhortation rather than exposition.

Now he deals with the request for Christ to heal the son of the official. First, our Lord's criticism is given. Secondly, the official's request. Thirdly, the granting of the request. Our Lord criticizes him for his lack of faith, saying, Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.

The royal official says to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Feeble indeed unto understanding is the nobleman, for he is a child in his petition for grace, and almost dotes without perceiving it. For by believing that Christ had power not only when present, but that He would surely avail even absent, he would have had a most worthy conception of Him.

Since the nobleman was unsteady in his thoughts and insisted that the Lord come to heal his son, the Savior shows him that He can heal him even from a distance, and says: "Go, your son lives." Thus, in one stroke He healed the son of his fever and the father of his unbelief. Know also that a miracle is one thing, and a sign is another.

Now we see the official's persistence, for he does not give up after the Lord's criticism, but insists, saying, Lord, come down before my child dies: "We should pray always, and not lose heart" (Lk 18:1).

Jesus says to him, “Go, your son lives.” The man believed in the word that Jesus said to him, and he was going.

But it is greatly to be wondered at, how it has come to pass that, while affirming that they have found out the mysteries of God, they have not examined the Gospels to ascertain how often after His baptism the Lord went up, at the time of the passover, to Jerusalem, in accordance with what was the practice of the Jews from every land, and every year, that they should assemble a…

The nobleman believed that Jesus needed to come [to his son to heal him]. But Christ does not reject our lack of apprehension; rather, as God, he helps even the stumbling. What the man then should have been admired for doing is what Jesus teaches him even when he does not end up doing it.

His request is granted by the Lord, for persevering prayer is answered. Jesus said to him: Go, your son lives. Here we have first, the statement by Christ, who cured the boy, that the boy was cured. Secondly, we are told of the persons who witnessed the cure (v 51).

And already, when he is going down, his servants met with him, saying that his boy lives.

He inquired therefore of them the hour in which he got better. They said therefore to him that “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

The words of the suppliant, indeed, we have heard: we have not seen the heart of the doubter; but He who both heard the words and saw the heart has told us this. In short, the evangelist himself, by the testimony of his narrative, shows us that the man who desired the Lord to come to his house to heal his son, had not yet believed.

Having learned from the servants the hour in which the son got better, that is, when the son came into a better and healthy condition, the father completely believes in the Lord. For his previous faith was imperfect. Do not tell me that he would not have gone to Christ if he had not believed.

Because this official did not yet believe either fully or soundly, he still wanted to know whether his son had been cured by chance or by the command of Christ. Accordingly, he asks about the time of the cure. He asked them, the servants, at what time his boy got better. And he found that his son was cured at exactly the same hour that our Lord said, Go, your son lives.

The father knew therefore that it was in that very hour at which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

Now this is again the second sign Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

The saying is ambiguous. On the one hand it means something like this: In coming from Judea into Galilee Jesus has performed two signs. The second sign is the one concerning the royal official's son. On the other hand it could mean something like this: While there are two signs that Jesus performed in Galilee, he did the second after he came from Judea to Galilee.

Why does the evangelist say that this was the second miracle Jesus performed in Cana? In order to show what praise the Samaritans deserve; for although, he says, this was the second miracle, nevertheless the Galileans did not reach the height of those who had not seen a single sign and yet believed.

Finally, this miracle is linked with the previous one, This was the second sign Jesus had performed on returning from Judea to Galilee. We can understand this in two ways. In one way, that our Lord performed two miracles during this one trip from Judea to Galilee; but the first of these was not recorded, only the second.

John4

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

The Disciples Return and Marvel

Many Samaritans Believe

Jesus Heals the Official’s Son