The Gospels · New Testament
John 4
John 4: the woman at Jacob's well and the nobleman's son
General context
Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee and goes through Samaria to a city called Sychar, near the ground Jacob gave Joseph. Tired from the journey, he sits at Jacob's well at about the sixth hour and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. She questions why a Jew asks this of her. He speaks of living water; she asks how he can draw it from a deep well without a vessel. When he tells her to call her husband she says she has none, and he says she has had five husbands and the man she has now is not her husband. She calls him a prophet and raises the question of the mountain against Jerusalem. He speaks of worship in spirit and in truth, and when she mentions the coming Messias he says he is the one speaking to her. The disciples return and marvel. The woman leaves her waterpot and tells the men of the city, and many Samaritans believe, first for her saying and then for his own word. In Galilee a nobleman asks him to heal his son at Capernaum; Jesus says the son lives, and the servants report the fever left at the seventh hour.
Cited passages: John 4:3, John 4:4, John 4:5, John 4:6, John 4:7, John 4:9, John 4:10, John 4:11, John 4:16, John 4:18, John 4:19, John 4:20, John 4:23, John 4:25, John 4:26, John 4:27, John 4:28, John 4:39, John 4:41, John 4:46, John 4:50, John 4:52
John 4 (KJV)
1When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.
4And he must needs go through Samaria.
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.
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.
7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
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.
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.
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?
12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
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.
15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
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 a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
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?
28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
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.
36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
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 were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41And many more believed because of his own word;
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.
43Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
44For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
45Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilæans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.
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.
47When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa 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 said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.
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.
51And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
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.
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 is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judæa into Galilee.
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Historical context
The narrator supplies three explanations in the chapter: that Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples did, that the disciples had gone into the city to buy food, and that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. The woman is never named, and neither is the nobleman or his son. Two hours are given, the sixth when Jesus sits at the well and the seventh when the fever leaves, and the report of the second comes from the servants. The chapter counts the healing as the second such act done on coming out of Judea into Galilee, matching the earlier count at Cana. The saying that a prophet has no honour in his own country is attributed to Jesus himself by the narrator, and Cana is identified as the place where he made the water wine.
Cited passages: John 4:2, John 4:8, John 4:9, John 4:6, John 4:52, John 4:53, John 4:54, John 4:44, John 4:46, John 4:47
Literary context
The long exchange at the well works by a running double sense. Water drawn from a deep well is set against water that becomes a well within a person, and food bought in the city is set against food the disciples do not know of. The woman's questions move the talk forward step by step, from the request for a drink to the well, the husband, the mountain and the Messias, and the answer at each step goes past what she asked. Her report to the city repeats his knowledge of her rather than his claim, and the townsmen then say their believing no longer rests on her saying. The harvest sayings join the two halves of the chapter, and the closing scene turns on a word believed before any result is seen.
Cited passages: John 4:11, John 4:14, John 4:15, John 4:32, John 4:34, John 4:12, John 4:20, John 4:29, John 4:42, John 4:35, John 4:37, John 4:50
Key moments
- Give me to drink (John 4:7). Jesus asks a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well for water.
- Living water offered (John 4:10). He tells her that she would have asked him and received living water.
- Five husbands named (John 4:18). He tells her she has had five husbands and the man she has now is not her husband.
- I that speak unto thee (John 4:26). When she mentions the coming Messias, Jesus says he is the one speaking to her.
- The waterpot left behind (John 4:28). She leaves her waterpot and goes to tell the men of the city.
- Heard for ourselves (John 4:42). The Samaritans tell her they now believe from hearing him themselves.
- The second sign counted (John 4:54). The narrator numbers the healing of the nobleman's son as the second such act in Galilee.
For reflection
The Samaritans move from believing because of the woman's report to saying they have heard for themselves. What does the chapter suggest about the difference between those two kinds of belief?