John 4

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John was. The Lord knew that they had heard this.

1When therefore the LORD knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

NoteThe Pharisees were a Jewish movement known for strict, detailed observance of the law of Moses and for their influence over ordinary people's religious practice. In this Gospel they act as the group that watches and assesses Jesus. The oldest manuscripts are divided here between "the Lord" and "Jesus" as the subject of "knew."

2(Jesus himself was not the one doing the baptizing. His disciples, the people who followed him, were doing it.)

2(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

3So he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

3He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.

NoteJudea was the southern territory around Jerusalem; Galilee was the northern region around the lake, roughly seventy miles away. Samaria lay between them.

4And on the way he had to pass through Samaria.

4And he must needs go through Samaria.

NoteSamaria was the territory between Judea and Galilee. It was the shortest route north, about three days on foot, but Jewish travelers sometimes crossed the Jordan and went around it instead. The Greek says he "had to" go, which can mean either that it was the practical route or that it was necessary for some other reason; John does not specify.

5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

NoteSychar was a village in Samaria, probably near modern Askar at the foot of Mount Gerizim. The plot of ground is the one mentioned in Genesis 33 and Genesis 48, which Jacob bought and left to Joseph, and where Joseph's bones were buried according to Joshua 24.

6Jacob's well was there. Jesus was worn out from the journey, so he sat down just as he was beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

NoteThe sixth hour is about midday. Hours were counted from sunrise, so the first hour is roughly six in the morning and the sixth is roughly noon. The King James "sat thus on the well" translates a Greek phrase meaning "just as he was," that is, without ceremony, and "on the well" means at the wellhead, on its low stone rim. The well itself is deep, something over a hundred feet.

7A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

NoteWater was normally fetched in the cool of early morning or evening, and usually by several women together. Drawing at noon alone is unusual, though John does not say why.

8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

8(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

NoteWhere the King James says "meat" here and in verses 32 and 34, it means food of any kind. In 1611 "meat" was the general word for anything eaten, and flesh was only one sort of it.

9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How is it that you are asking me for a drink?" She said this because Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

NoteThe Samaritans were the population of the central hill country who kept their own version of the five books of Moses and worshiped at Mount Gerizim rather than at the Jerusalem temple. Jews regarded them as ethnically and religiously compromised, and the hostility ran both ways and went back centuries. The Greek phrase behind "have no dealings with" can mean either that Jews do not associate with Samaritans at all, or more narrowly that they do not share drinking and eating vessels with them, because a Samaritan woman's jar would be counted unclean.

10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Note"Living water" was the ordinary term for running water: a spring, a stream, water that moves, as opposed to the still water standing in a cistern or drawn up from a well. The woman first hears it in that plain sense, which is why her reply in verse 11 is about buckets and depth.

11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?

11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

NoteThe Greek word she uses, translated "Sir," is the everyday polite address to a stranger, though it is the same word that elsewhere means "Lord." A traveler would need a leather bucket and a long rope to reach the water in a well this deep, and Jesus has neither.

12Are you greater than our father Jacob? He is the one who gave us this well, and he drank from it himself, and so did his children and his livestock."

12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

NoteThe Samaritans traced their descent from Jacob through his sons Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, so "our father Jacob" is a claim she expects a Jew to dispute. The King James "cattle" means livestock generally, not cows in particular.

13Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again.

13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14But whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I give him will become a spring inside him, bubbling up into life that lasts forever."

14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

NoteThe word rendered "spring" and translated "well" by the King James is a different word from the one used for Jacob's well earlier in the chapter. Jacob's is a dug shaft holding still water; this one is a natural source that flows up of itself.

15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty and will not have to keep coming here to draw water."

15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16Jesus said to her, "Go and call your husband, and come back here."

16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right to say, 'I have no husband.'

17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

18You have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you said is true."

18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

NoteA woman in this period could not normally end a marriage herself; a man could divorce his wife with relative ease, and death was common. The text says only that she has had five husbands and that the present man is not one, without saying how any of the marriages ended.

19The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet, someone who speaks for God.

19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Note"This mountain" is Mount Gerizim, which stood directly above them. The Samaritan version of the books of Moses commands that the altar be built there, and a Samaritan temple stood on it until the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed it around 128 BC, roughly a century and a half before this conversation. The dispute over which mountain God had chosen was the central religious quarrel between the two communities.

21Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain, and not in Jerusalem either.

21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22You worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews.

22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

Note"Salvation is of the Jews" uses "of" in its older sense of "out of" or "from," meaning that salvation has its origin and comes by way of the Jewish people.

23But a time is coming, and is here now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. These are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for.

23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

25The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

25The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

Note"Messiah" is the Hebrew and Aramaic word for "anointed one," and "Christ" is the Greek translation of it; the two words mean exactly the same thing, which is why John pauses to explain. Kings and priests were anointed with oil when installed. Samaritans did not use the royal title in the Jewish way; they expected a figure often called the Taheb, a restorer and teacher who would make everything known, which matches her description of him explaining all things.

26Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you right now."

26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

NoteThe Greek is literally "I am, the one speaking to you." The phrase "I am" is the ordinary way of saying "that's me," but it is also the wording used of God's self-naming in the Greek Old Testament, and John uses it repeatedly in this Gospel.

27Just then his disciples came back, and they were surprised that he was talking with a woman. Still, no one asked him, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

27And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

NoteA respected teacher holding a public conversation alone with a woman, and a Samaritan woman at that, went against the social convention of the time. The disciples' surprise is at the fact of the conversation, not at anything said in it.

28Then the woman left her water jar behind, went back into the town, and said to the people there,

28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

NoteThe water jar was a large clay vessel, heavy enough that leaving it behind means she went off in a hurry and intended to come back.

29"Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

NoteThe Greek question is framed so as to expect a hesitant or doubtful answer: something like "this couldn't be the Christ, could it?" She raises the possibility without asserting it.

30So they left the town and started out toward him.

30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

31In the meantime his disciples were urging him, "Teacher, eat something."

31In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

NoteThe word the King James gives as "Master" is "rabbi," the title of a recognized teacher of the law. It carries no sense of ownership.

32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

32But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

33So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to eat?"

33Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?

NoteThe King James "ought" here is the old spelling of "aught," meaning "anything."

34Jesus said to them, "My food is to do what the one who sent me wants, and to finish his work.

34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

35Don't you say, 'There are still four months, and then the harvest comes'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They are already white and ready for harvest.

35Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Note"There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest" appears to be a farming proverb about the gap between sowing and reaping. "White" describes grain that has turned from green to pale gold, the color that says it is ripe and must be cut now.

36The one who harvests is being paid his wages, and he is gathering a crop for life that lasts forever. So the one who plants and the one who harvests can be glad together.

36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

NoteHarvest laborers were paid daily, in cash or in a share of the crop. Normally the one who sows waits months for the one who reaps; the point of their rejoicing together is that the usual gap has closed.

37In this case the saying is true: one plants, and another harvests.

37And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

38I sent you to harvest a crop you did not work for. Other people did the hard work, and you have stepped into the good of what they did."

38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

NoteThe King James "ye are entered into their labours" means you have come into the benefit of work other people did. Who those others were is not specified here.

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she told them, "He told me everything I ever did."

39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

40So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

40So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

41And many more of them believed because of his own words.

41And many more believed because of his own word;

42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe only because of what you said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Christ, the Savior of the world."

42And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Note"Savior of the world" was a title in wide public use in the Roman world, applied to the emperor and to certain gods. Coming from Samaritans, it is a striking phrase, since the deliverer they expected was tied to their own mountain and their own people.

43After those two days he left that place and went into Galilee.

43Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.

44For Jesus himself had said plainly that a prophet gets no honor in his own home country.

44For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

NoteThis is a proverb Jesus quotes elsewhere as well. The word behind "his own country" means one's home town or native district. John does not say here which region he means, and readers have long disagreed: it could be Galilee, where he grew up, or Judea, the homeland of a prophet in the larger sense, which he has just left.

45When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen everything he did in Jerusalem at the festival, because they had gone to the festival too.

45Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.

Note"The feast" is the Passover in Jerusalem described in John 2. Adult Jewish men were expected to travel to Jerusalem for the major festivals, so Galileans had been in the city and seen what he did there.

46So Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum.

46So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

NoteThe King James "nobleman" translates a word meaning a man in royal service, an officer or courtier rather than a titled aristocrat. The king in question would be Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee under Rome. Capernaum lay on the shore of the lake, about sixteen miles from Cana and far below it, which is why the man asks Jesus to "come down."

47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, who was close to death.

47When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.

48Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."

48Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

Note"Except" in the King James means "unless." The "ye" is plural in Greek: Jesus is not addressing the father alone but the wider crowd. "Signs and wonders" is a stock pair of words from the Old Testament for displays of power that demand attention.

49The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

49The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.

Note"Ere" means "before."

50Jesus said to him, "Go on home. Your son lives." The man believed what Jesus had said to him, and he started on his way.

50Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.

51While he was still going down the road, his servants met him and told him, "Your son is alive."

51And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.

52So he asked them what time his son had begun to get better. They said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour."

52Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

NoteThe seventh hour is about one in the afternoon, counting from sunrise. The King James "amend" means to get better, to mend. Cana is roughly a day's journey from Capernaum, which is why the servants say "yesterday."

53So the father knew that this was the very hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and so did everyone in his household.

53So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.

54This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus did after he came from Judea into Galilee.

54This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

NoteJohn counts miracles in Galilee as "signs," acts meant to point beyond themselves. The first was the water turned to wine at the same town, Cana, in John 2. The counting here is of signs done after coming from Judea into Galilee, not of everything Jesus had done anywhere.