1 Therefore, when the Lord [Jesus] knew that the Pharisees were aware of Him making and immersing more disciples than John,
1 PM, if Jewish time were meant].
2 (OMITTED TEXT)
3 He left Judea and returned to Galilee. (Although it was actually His disciples who did the immersing and not Jesus Himself).
4 [Now to get to Galilee] it required that Jesus travel through Samaria [Note: Samaria was the next country north of Judea].
5 So, He arrived at the Samaritan town called Sychar, which was near the piece of property that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's [spring-fed] well was there so Jesus, tired from His [long] journey, sat down beside the well just as He was [i.e., before doing anything else]. It was about six o'clock in the morning [Note: This would have been
7 [About then] a Samaritan woman came [to the well] to draw water. Jesus said to her, "[Please] give me a drink."
8 (Now Jesus' disciples had gone away to town to buy some food).
9 Therefore, the Samaritan woman asked Him, "Why is it that you, being a Jew, would ask a Samaritan woman [like me] for a drink?" (For Jews do not have any fellowship with Samaritans). [Note: The reason for this stemmed from longstanding religious, cultural and ethnic prejudices].
10 Jesus answered her, "If you [only] knew the [real] gift of God, and who it is that said to you, '[Please], give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
11 The woman [then] said to Him, "Sir, you do not have anything to draw [water] with, and the well is deep. Where will you get that living water?
12 noon if Jewish time were meant].
12 Are you greater than our forefather Jacob, who gave us this well? He himself and his sons and cattle [all] drank from it."
13 Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never get thirsty [again]. For the water I will give him will become in him [i.e., in his spirit] a spring of water, bubbling up and producing never ending life." [See John 7:38].
15 The woman [then] said to Him, "Sir, [please] give me [some of] that water, so that I do not get thirsty [again], or have to come all the way here to draw [water]."
17 The woman said to Him, "I do not have a husband." Jesus said to her, "You were right when you said, 'I do not have a husband,'
18 because you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not [really] your husband. So, you have told the truth."
19 [Then] the woman said to Jesus, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our forefathers worshiped on this mountain [i.e., Mt. Gerizim, which was visible from where they were sitting]; but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people should worship [God]."
20 miles away from Cana].
21 Jesus replied to her, "[My dear] woman, believe me [when I tell you], the time will come when you people will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
22 You [Samaritans] do not [really] know what you worship; we [Jews] know what we worship because salvation is from the Jews [i.e., through Jewish prophets, Jewish Scriptures and a Jewish Messiah].
23 But the time will come, and is now [actually] here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [i.e., from the heart] and truth [i.e., according to God's revealed will], for these are the people whom the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
25 [Then] the woman said to Jesus, "I know that Messiah is coming ([He is] the One who is called Christ). And when He does come, He will tell us everything."
27 Just about then Jesus' disciples returned [from town], and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. [Note: It was not customary for a Jewish male to engage a woman in extended conversation in that day, much less a stranger, and certainly not a Samaritan], yet no one said [to Him], "What are you looking for?" or "Why are you talking to her?"
28 So, the woman left her water jar and went back into town and told the people [there],
29 "Come [and] see a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"
30 [So], the people went out from the town and came to where Jesus was.
33 So, the disciples said to one another, "No one has brought Him anything to eat [have they]?"
34 Jesus answered them, "My food is doing what God, who sent me, wants me to, and accomplishing His work.
35 Are you not [always] saying, 'There are still four months before harvest time comes'? Look, I am telling you [disciples], lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white and ripe for harvest [i.e., people are ready to make a spiritual response].
36 Already the person who is harvesting [the crop] is being paid for his work, and is gathering a crop for never ending life, so that the one planting and the one harvesting [the crop] may rejoice together.
37 So, the saying is true that one person plants and another harvests [the crop].
38 I sent you [disciples] to harvest [a crop] that you did not work on; other people have done the work and you have reaped the results of their work." [Note: This is probably an allusion to the preliminary work of preaching done by John, the Immerser, with results occurring under the preaching of the apostles].
39 Then many Samaritans from Sychar believed in Jesus because of the testimony of the woman, who said, "He told me everything that I ever did."
40 When the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Jesus to stay with them, so He remained there for two days.
41 And many more people believed [in Jesus] because of His [own] words,
42 and they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not just because of what you said, but because we have heard [it] for ourselves and know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
43 Two days later Jesus left Sychar and went to Galilee.
44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet does not receive honor in his own country. [Note: Jesus' reference here to his "own country" means Judea, while in Matt., Mark and Luke it refers to Nazareth].
45 So, when He got to Galilee, the people there welcomed Him, for they had also gone to the [Passover] Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything He had done there during the festival.
46 Then Jesus returned again to Cana, in Galilee, where He had turned water into wine. There was a government official there whose son was sick at Capernaum [Note: Capernaum was about
47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him and begged Him to come down [to Capernaum] and heal his son who was about to die.
48 So, Jesus said to him, "None of you people will believe [in me] unless you see [miraculous] signs and wonders, [will you?]."
49 The government official replied, "Sir, [please] come down [to Capernaum] before my child dies."
50 Jesus said to him, "Go on [home]; your son will live." And the man believed what Jesus said to him and went [home].
51 While he was going along, his slaves met him and told him that his son was [still] alive.
52 Then he asked them what the [exact] time was when his son began to get better. They said to him, "[It was] yesterday at seven o'clock in the morning that the fever left him." [Note: This would have been
53 So [then], the father realized that it was at that [exact] hour that Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So, he and his entire family believed [in Jesus].