John 4 · WEB
Aa

John 4

The woman at the well

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples), he left Judea and departed into Galilee. He needed to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The 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.)

Jesus 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.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”

Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but 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.”

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

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

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

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

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The 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.”

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

Travelling from Judea to Galilee, Jesus rests at Jacob's well in Samaria and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. Their conversation moves from well water to "living water", to her personal history, to the right place to worship God. Jesus tells her that he is the Messiah she is expecting.

What does this mean?

"Living water" meant fresh, flowing water, as from a spring, but Jesus uses it for the life he gives. "The sixth hour" is about noon. "This mountain" is Mount Gerizim, the Samaritans' holy mountain. Jesus' reply "I am he" is in Greek simply "I am".

Historical context

Samaritans worshipped the God of Israel but accepted only the five books of Moses and held that Gerizim, not Jerusalem, was the true place of worship. A Jewish ruler destroyed their temple there in the late second century BC, and hostility ran deep. A Jewish teacher speaking alone with a Samaritan woman, and asking to drink from her vessel, would have surprised onlookers. Jacob's well is traditionally located near modern Nablus.

Why does it matter?

This is one of the longest conversations Jesus has with any individual in the Gospels. It is the first time he openly declares himself the Messiah, and it is to an outsider. Interpreters differ on how to read her five husbands, whether literally, morally or symbolically.

Editorial notes, not scripture.

Fields ready for harvest

Just 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?” So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

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

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

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

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Don’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. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

From 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.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They 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.”

The disciples return, surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman, and she leaves her water jar to tell her town about him. While the disciples urge him to eat, Jesus speaks of doing God's will as his food and of fields ready for harvest. Many Samaritans believe, first because of her word and then by hearing him themselves.

What does this mean?

"Meat" (KJV) means food in general. "White already to harvest" means ripe. The proverb "one sows and another reaps" describes people benefiting from others' work; here it frames the disciples as gathering a harvest others prepared.

Historical context

Grain was sown in late autumn and harvested in spring, so "four months until the harvest" may have been a proverb or may hint at the season. The Samaritans, like many Jews, expected a coming figure; later Samaritan sources call him the Taheb, "the one who returns".

Why does it matter?

The Samaritans' confession that Jesus is "the Saviour of the world" widens the Gospel's horizon beyond Israel. The woman acts as a witness who brings others, as Andrew and Philip did in chapter 1, though their faith then rests on hearing Jesus themselves.

Editorial notes, not scripture.

The royal official's son

After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So 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. Jesus 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. When 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. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

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

Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” So 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.” So 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. This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

Back in Cana of Galilee, a royal official from Capernaum begs Jesus to come and heal his dying son. Jesus tells him to go home, because his son will live; the man believes him and sets off, and his servants meet him with news that the boy recovered at that very hour. John calls this Jesus' second sign.

What does this mean?

"Nobleman" (KJV) translates a word meaning a royal official, someone in a king's service. "Signs and wonders" is a traditional phrase for miracles. "The seventh hour" is about one in the afternoon.

Historical context

Galilee was ruled by Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, whom people loosely called a king, so this official probably served at his court. Capernaum lay on the Sea of Galilee, roughly a day's walk from Cana.

Why does it matter?

The story frames Galilean ministry with two signs at Cana, numbered by the narrator. The man moves from asking for a visit to trusting Jesus' word alone, a contrast with faith that depends on seeing wonders. A similar healing at a distance appears in Matthew 8 and Luke 7; scholars debate whether these are versions of the same story.

Editorial notes, not scripture.

Translation

KJVTraditional biblical languageWEBContemporary English

Chapters

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21

Back to the Gospels

Reading

Translation

KJVTraditional biblical languageWEBContemporary English

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Appearance

Verse numbersSmall numerals within the text
About John