Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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John 4

1Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

2(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),

3he left Judea and departed into Galilee.

4He needed to pass through Samaria.

5So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

8For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

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?

12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”

13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,

14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”

16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’

18for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.

23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.

24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”

26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

27Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?”

28So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people,

29“Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?”

30They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

31In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

33The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

35Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

36He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

37For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’

38I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.”

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

41Many more believed because of his word.

42They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

43After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee.

44For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

45So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

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

47When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

49The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

51As he was going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!”

52So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”

53So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house.

54This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

Early Christian texts and source notes

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

1. 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. For in this is the saying true, that one soweth and another reapeth. For I have sent you forward to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour; other men have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours." Who, then, are they that have laboured, and have helped forward the dispensations of God? It is clear that they are the patriarchs and prophets, who even prefigured our faith, and disseminated through the earth the advent of the Son of God, who and what He should be: so that posterity, possessing the fear of God, might easily accept the advent of Christ, having been instructed by the prophets. And for this reason it was, that when Joseph became aware that Mary was with child, and was minded to put her away privily, the angel said to him in sleep: "Fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. For she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." And exhorting him [to this], he added: "Now all this has been done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken from the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel;" thus influencing him by the words of the prophet, and warding off blame from Mary, pointing out that it was she who was the virgin mentioned by Isaiah beforehand, who should give birth to Emmanuel. Wherefore, when Joseph was convinced beyond all doubt, he both did take Mary, and joyfully yielded obedience in regard to all the rest of the education of Christ, undertaking a journey into Egypt and back again, and then a removal to Nazareth. [For this reason,] those who knew not the Scriptures nor the promise of God, nor the dispensation of Christ, at last called him the father of the child. For this reason, too, did the Lord Himself read at Capernaum the prophecies of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me; to preach the gospel to the poor hath He sent me, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind." At the same time, showing that it was He Himself who had been foretold by Esaias the prophet. He said to them: "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

3. For it was requisite that certain facts should be announced beforehand by the fathers in a paternal manner, and others prefigured by the prophets in a legal one, but others, described after the form of Christ, by those who have received the adoption; while in one God are all things shown forth. 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. Just as it is one that planteth, and another who watereth, but one God who giveth the increase. For the patriarchs and prophets sowed the word [concerning] Christ, but the church reaped, that is, received the fruit. For this reason, too, do these very men (the prophets) also pray to have a dwelling-place in it, as Jeremiah says, "Who will give me in the desert the last dwelling-place?" in order that both the sower and the reaper may rejoice together in the kingdom of Christ, who is present with all those who were from the beginning approved by God, who granted them His Word to be present with them.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

4. Since the Son of God is always one and the same, He gives to those who believe on Him a well of water [springing up] to eternal life, but He causes the unfruitful fig-tree immediately to dry up; and in the days of Noah He justly brought on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the angels that sinned had commingled with them, and [acted as He did] in order that He might put a check upon the sins of these men, but [that at the same time] He might preserve the archetype, the formation of Adam. And it was He who rained fire and brimstone from heaven, in the days of Lot, upon Sodom and Gomorrah, "an example of the righteous judgment of God," that all may know, "that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire." And it is He who uses [the words], that it will be more tolerable for Sodom in the general judgment than for those who beheld His wonders, and did not believe on Him, nor receive His doctrine. For as He gave by His advent a greater privilege to those who believed on Him, and who do His will, so also did He point out that those who did not believe on Him should have a more severe punishment in the judgment; thus extending equal justice to all, and being to exact more from those to whom He gives the more; the more, however, not because He reveals the knowledge of another Father, as I have shown so fully and so repeatedly, but because He has, by means of His advent, poured upon the human race the greater gift of paternal grace.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

2. Superfluous, too, in that case is His descent into Mary; for why did He come down into her if He were to take nothing of her? Still further, if He had taken nothing of Mary, He would never have availed Himself of those kinds of food which are derived from the earth, by which that body which has been taken from the earth is nourished; nor would He have hungered, fasting those forty days, like Moses and Elias, unless His body was craving after its own proper nourishment; nor, again, would John His disciple have said, when writing of Him, "But Jesus, being wearied with the journey, was sitting [to rest];" nor would David have proclaimed of Him beforehand, "They have added to the grief of my wounds;" nor would He have wept over Lazarus, nor have sweated great drops of blood; nor have declared, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful;" nor, when His side was pierced, would there have come forth blood and water. For all these are tokens of the flesh which had been derived from the earth, which He had recapitulated in Himself, bearing salvation to His own handiwork.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 3, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 32–34.

Editorial footnote · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER VI. THE NAME CHILDREN DOES NOT IMPLY INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 13, 14.

Editorial footnote · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER IX. THAT IT IS THE PREROGATIVE OF THE SAME POWER TO BE BENEFICENT AND TO PUNISH JUSTLY. ALSO THE MANNER OF THE INSTRUCTION OF THE LOGOS. · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 6.

Editorial footnote · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER IX. THAT IT IS THE PREROGATIVE OF THE SAME POWER TO BE BENEFICENT AND TO PUNISH JUSTLY. ALSO THE MANNER OF THE INSTRUCTION OF THE LOGOS. · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. vi. 6; John iv. 23.

Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE MISCELLANIES. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER VI. THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE. · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 41.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 35, etc.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 37.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 50.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 2, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 14.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 24.

Editorial footnote · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. ON GOD. · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 20.

Editorial footnote · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. ON GOD. · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 23, 24.

Editorial footnote · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. ON GOD. · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

John iv. 2.

Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK THIRD. / Chapter lv · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Quoniam Spiritus Deus est, et de Deo natus est. These words are found at the end of John iii. 6 in the oldest Latin MS. (in the Bodleian Library), and their meaning appears to be, as given in the text, that whatsoever is born of the Spirit is spirit, since the Holy Ghost, being God, and born of, or proceeding from God, in virtue of His supreme power makes those to be spirits whom He regenerates. If the meaning had been (as Bishop Fell takes it), that "he who is born of the Spirit is born of God," the neuter "de Deo natum est" would have been required. To refer "Spiritus Deus est," with Migne, to John iv. 24, "God is a Spirit," reverses the grammar and destroys the sense of the passage. The above explanation is taken from the preface to Cyprian by the monk of St. Maur (Maranus), p. xxxvi., quoted by Routh, Rel. Sac. iii. 193.

Editorial footnote · On Baptism, Against the Donatists, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SIXTH. / Chapter xii · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Cf. John iv. 21, 24.

Editorial footnote · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK VI. / Chapter LXX. · Original source

Date uncertain | Clement of Alexandria

The readiness acquired by previous training conduces much to the perception of such things as are requisite; but those things which can be perceived only by mind are the special exercise for the mind. And their nature is triple according as we consider their quantity, their magnitude, and what can be predicated of them. For the discourse which consists of demonstrations, implants in the spirit of him who follows it, clear faith; so that he cannot conceive of that which is demonstrated being different; and so it does not allow us to succumb to those who assail us by fraud. In such studies, therefore, the soul is purged from sensible things, and is excited, so as to be able to see truth distinctly. For nutriment, and the training which is maintained gentle, make noble natures; and noble natures, when they have received such training, become still better than before both in other respects, but especially in productiveness, as is the case with the other creatures. Wherefore it is said, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and become wiser than it, which provideth much and varied food in the harvest against the inclemency of winter.” 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 up in it; and when it ought to be produced, and to whom. For it is not by nature, but by learning, that people become noble and good, as people also become physicians and pilots. We all in common, for example, see the vine and the horse. But the husbandman will know if the vine be good or bad at fruit-bearing; and the horseman will easily distinguish between the spiritless and the swift animal. And that some are naturally predisposed to virtue above others, certain pursuits of those, who are so naturally predisposed above others, show. But that perfection in virtue is not the exclusive property of those, whose natures are better, is proved, since also those who by nature are ill-disposed towards virtue, in obtaining suitable training, for the most part attain to excellence; and, on the other hand, those whose natural dispositions are apt, become evil through neglect.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE MISCELLANIES. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER VI. THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE. · Original source

Date uncertain | Origen

1. I know that some will attempt to say that, even according to the declarations of our own Scriptures, God is a body, because in the writings of Moses they find it said, that “our God is a consuming fire;” and in the Gospel according to John, that “God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Fire and spirit, according to them, are to be regarded as nothing else than a body. Now, I should like to ask these persons what they have to say respecting that passage where it is declared that God is light; as John writes in his epistle, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Truly He is that light which illuminates the whole understanding of those who are capable of receiving truth, as is said in the thirty-sixth Psalm, “In Thy light we shall see light.” For what other light of God can be named, “in which any one sees light,” save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth? Such is the meaning of the expression, “In Thy light we shall see light;” i.e. in Thy word and wisdom, which is Thy Son, in Himself we shall see Thee the Father. Because He is called light, shall He be supposed to have any resemblance to the light of the sun? Or how should there be the slightest ground for imagining, that from that corporeal light any one could derive the cause of knowledge, and come to the understanding of the truth?

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. ON GOD. · Original source

Date uncertain | Origen

4. But we must pass on to the language of the Gospel itself, in which it is declared that “God is a Spirit,” and where we have to show how that is to be understood agreeably to what we have stated. For let us inquire on what occasion these words were spoken by the Saviour, before whom He uttered them, and what was the subject of investigation. We find, without any doubt, that He spoke these words to the Samaritan woman, saying to her, who thought, agreeably to the Samaritan view, that God ought to be worshipped on Mount Gerizim, that “God is a Spirit.” For the Samaritan woman, believing Him to be a Jew, was inquiring of Him whether God ought to be worshipped in Jerusalem or on this mountain; and her words were, “All our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.” To this opinion of the Samaritan woman, therefore, who imagined that God was less rightly or duly worshipped, according to the privileges of the different localities, either by the Jews in Jerusalem or by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, the Saviour answered that he who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places, and thus expressed Himself: “The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshippers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” And observe how logically He has joined together the spirit and the truth: He called God a Spirit, that He might distinguish Him from bodies; and He named Him the truth, to distinguish Him from a shadow or an image. For they who worshipped in Jerusalem worshipped God neither in truth nor in spirit, being in subjection to the shadow or image of heavenly things; and such also was the case with those who worshipped on Mount Gerizim.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. ON GOD. · Original source