John 4 - New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Chapter 4

^{1 [a]}Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, just his disciples),^{[b] 3} he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

The Samaritan Woman. ⁴ He had to^[c] pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,^[d] near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(A) 6} Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. ^{9 [e]}The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”^(B) (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) ^{10 [f]}Jesus answered and said to her,^(C) “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ [The woman] said to him, “Sir,^[g] you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”^{(D) 13} Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”^{(E) 15} The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ ¹⁸ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”^{(F) 19} The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.^{(G) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;^[h] but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^{(H) 21} Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(I) 23} But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;^[i] and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”^{(J) 25 [j]}The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,^(K) the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he,^[k] the one who is speaking with you.”^(L)

²⁷ At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,^[l] but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and came to him. ³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.^{(M) 35} Do you not say, ‘In four months^[m] the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.^{(N) 36} The reaper is already^[n] receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.^{(O) 37} For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(P) 38} I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman^[o] who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” ⁴⁰ When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more began to believe in him because of his word, ⁴² and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”^(Q)

Return to Galilee. ^{43 [p]}After the two days, he left there for Galilee. ^{44 [q](R)}For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. ⁴⁵ When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Second Sign at Cana.^{[r] 46 (S)}Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”^{(T) 49} The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.^{(U) 51} While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. ⁵² He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” ⁵³ The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. ⁵⁴ [Now] this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.^(V)

Footnotes

1. 4:1–42 Jesus in Samaria. The self-revelation of Jesus continues with his second discourse, on his mission to “half-Jews.” It continues the theme of replacement, here with regard to cult (Jn 4:21). Water (Jn 4:7–15) serves as a symbol (as at Cana and in the Nicodemus episode).
2. 4:2 An editorial refinement of Jn 3:22, perhaps directed against followers of John the Baptist who claimed that Jesus imitated him.
3. 4:4 He had to: a theological necessity; geographically, Jews often bypassed Samaria by taking a route across the Jordan.
4. 4:5 Sychar: Jerome identifies this with Shechem, a reading found in Syriac manuscripts.
5. 4:9 Samaritan women were regarded by Jews as ritually impure, and therefore Jews were forbidden to drink from any vessel they had handled.
6. 4:10 Living water: the water of life, i.e., the revelation that Jesus brings; the woman thinks of “flowing water,” so much more desirable than stagnant well water. On John’s device of such misunderstanding, cf. note on Jn 3:3.
7. 4:11 Sir: the Greek kyrios means “master” or “lord,” as a respectful mode of address for a human being or a deity; cf. Jn 4:19. It is also the word used in the Septuagint for the Hebrew ’adônai, substituted for the tetragrammaton YHWH.
8. 4:20 This mountain: Gerizim, on which a temple was erected in the fourth century B.C. by Samaritans to rival Mount Zion in Jerusalem; cf. Dt 27:4 (Mount Ebal = the Jews’ term for Gerizim).
9. 4:23 In Spirit and truth: not a reference to an interior worship within one’s own spirit. The Spirit is the spirit given by God that reveals truth and enables one to worship God appropriately (Jn 14:16–17). Cf. “born of water and Spirit” (Jn 3:5).
10. 4:25 The expectations of the Samaritans are expressed here in Jewish terminology. They did not expect a messianic king of the house of David but a prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15).
11. 4:26 I am he: it could also be translated “I am,” an Old Testament self-designation of Yahweh (Is 43:3, etc.); cf. Jn 6:20; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5–6, 8. See note on Mk 6:50.
12. 4:27 Talking with a woman: a religious and social restriction that Jesus is pictured treating as unimportant.
13. 4:35 ‘In four months… ’: probably a proverb; cf. Mt 9:37–38.
14. 4:36 Already: this word may go with the preceding verse rather than with Jn 4:36.
15. 4:39 The woman is presented as a missionary, described in virtually the same words as the disciples are in Jesus’ prayer (Jn 17:20).
16. 4:43–54 Jesus’ arrival in Cana in Galilee; the second sign. This section introduces another theme, that of the life-giving word of Jesus. It is explicitly linked to the first sign (Jn 2:11). The royal official believes (Jn 4:50). The natural life given his son is a sign of eternal life.
17. 4:44 Probably a reminiscence of a tradition as in Mk 6:4. Cf. Gospel of Thomas 31: “No prophet is acceptable in his village, no physician heals those who know him.”
18. 4:46–54 The story of the cure of the royal official’s son may be a third version of the cure of the centurion’s son (Mt 8:5–13) or servant (Lk 7:1–10). Cf. also Mt 15:21–28; Mk 7:24–30.

Cross references

1. 4:5 : Gn 33:18–19; 48:22; Jos 24:32.
2. 4:9 : Sir 50:25–26; Mt 10:5.
3. 4:10 : Sir 24:20–21; Is 55:1; Jer 2:13.
4. 4:12 : 8:53; Mt 12:41.
5. 4:14 : 6:35, 58; 7:37–39; Is 44:3; 49:10; Jl 4:18; Rev 7:16; 21:6.
6. 4:18 : 2 Kgs 17:24–34.
7. 4:19 : 9:17; Hos 1:3.
8. 4:20 : Dt 11:29; 27:4; Jos 8:33; Ps 122:1–5.
9. 4:22 : 2 Kgs 17:27; Ps 76:2–3.
10. 4:24 : 2 Cor 3:17.
11. 4:25 : 1:41.
12. 4:26 : 9:37.
13. 4:34 : 5:30, 36; 6:38; 9:4; 17:4.
14. 4:35 : Mt 9:37–38; Lk 10:2; Rev 14:15.
15. 4:36 : Ps 126:5–6; Am 9:13–14.
16. 4:37 : Dt 20:6; 28:30; Jb 31:8; Mi 6:15.
17. 4:42 : 1 Jn 4:14.
18. 4:44 : Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4; Lk 4:24.
19. 4:46–54 : 2:1–11; Mt 8:5–13; 15:21–28; Mk 7:24–30; Lk 7:1–10.
20. 4:48 : 2:18, 23; Wis 8:8; Mt 12:38; 1 Cor 1:22.
21. 4:50 : 1 Kgs 17:23.
22. 4:54 : 2:11.