Thematic Bible
John 4:1 (show verse)
Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard of Jesus gaining and baptizing more disciples than John
John 4:2 (show verse)
(though Jesus himself did not baptize, it was his disciples),
John 4:3 (show verse)
he left Judaea and went back to Galilee.
John 4:4 (show verse)
He had to pass through Samaria,
John 4:5 (show verse)
and in so doing he arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar; it lay near the territory which Jacob had given to his son Joseph,
John 4:6 (show verse)
and Jacob's spring was there. Jesus, exhausted by the journey, sat down at the spring, just as he was. It was about noon,
John 4:7 (show verse)
and a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink"
John 4:8 (show verse)
(his disciples had gone to the town to buy some food).
John 4:9 (show verse)
The Samaritan woman said, "What? You are a Jew, and you ask me for a drink ??me, a Samaritan!" (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
John 4:10 (show verse)
Jesus answered, "If you knew what is the free gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given you 'living' water."
John 4:11 (show verse)
"Sir," said the woman, "you have nothing to draw water with, and it is a deep well; where do you get your 'living' water?
John 4:12 (show verse)
Are you a greater man than Jacob, our ancestor? He gave us this well, and he drank from it, with his sons and his cattle."
John 4:13 (show verse)
Jesus answered, "Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
John 4:14 (show verse)
but anyone who drinks the water I shall give him will never thirst any more; the water I shall give him will turn into a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 4:15 (show verse)
"Ah, sir," said the woman, "give me this water, so that I need not thirst or come all this road to draw water."
John 4:16 (show verse)
Jesus said to her, "Go and call your husband, then come back here."
John 4:17 (show verse)
The woman replied, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You were right in saying, 'I have no husband';
John 4:18 (show verse)
you have had five husbands, and he whom you have now espoused is not your husband. That was a true word."
John 4:19 (show verse)
"Sir," said the woman, "I see you are a prophet.
John 4:20 (show verse)
Now our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, whereas you Jews declare the proper place for worship is at Jerusalem."
John 4:21 (show verse)
"Woman," said Jesus, "believe me, the time is coming when you will be worshipping the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem.
John 4:22 (show verse)
You are worshipping something you do not know; we are worshipping what we do know ??for salvation comes from the Jews.
John 4:23 (show verse)
But the time is coming, it has come already, when the real worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in reality; for these are the worshippers that the Father wants.
John 4:24 (show verse)
God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in Spirit and in reality."
John 4:25 (show verse)
The woman said to him, "Well, I know messiah (which means Christ) is coming. When he arrives, he will explain it all to us."
John 4:26 (show verse)
"I am messiah," said Jesus, "I who am talking to you."
John 4:27 (show verse)
At this point his disciples came up; they were surprised that he was talking to a woman, but none of them said, "What is it?" or, "Why are you talking to her?"
John 4:28 (show verse)
Then the woman left her water-pot, and going off to the town told the people,
John 4:29 (show verse)
"Come here, look at a man who has told me everything I ever did! Can he be the Christ?"
John 4:30 (show verse)
They set out from the town on their way to him.
John 4:31 (show verse)
Meanwhile the disciples pressed him, saying, "Rabbi, eat something."
John 4:32 (show verse)
But he said to them, "I have food, of which you know nothing."
John 4:33 (show verse)
So the disciples asked each other, "Can anyone have brought him something to eat?"
John 4:34 (show verse)
Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
John 4:35 (show verse)
You have a saying, have you not, 'Four months yet, then harvest'? Look round, I tell you; see, the fields are white for harvesting!
John 4:36 (show verse)
The reaper is already getting his wages and harvesting for eternal life, so that the sower shares the reaper's joy.
John 4:37 (show verse)
That proverb, 'One sows and another reaps,' holds true here:
John 4:38 (show verse)
I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not toil; other men have toiled, and you reap the profit of their toil."
John 4:39 (show verse)
Now many Samaritans belonging to that town believed in him on account of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
John 4:40 (show verse)
So when the Samaritans arrived, they pressed him to stay with them; he did stay there two days,
John 4:41 (show verse)
and far more of them believed on account of what he said himself.
John 4:42 (show verse)
As they told the woman, "We no longer believe on account of what you said; we have heard for ourselves, we know that he is really the Saviour of the world."
John 4:43 (show verse)
When the two days were over, he left for Galilee
John 4:44 (show verse)
(for Jesus himself testified that a prophet enjoys no honour in his own country);
John 4:45 (show verse)
on reaching Galilee, he was welcomed by the Galileans, who had seen all he did at the festival in Jerusalem ??for they too had gone to the festival.
John 4:46 (show verse)
Once more he came to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a royal official, whose son was lying ill at Capernaum;
John 4:47 (show verse)
when he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judaea, he went to him and begged him to come down and cure his son, who was at the point of death.
John 4:48 (show verse)
Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you never will believe."
John 4:49 (show verse)
The official said, "Come down, sir, before my boy is dead."
John 4:50 (show verse)
Jesus told him, "Go yourself, your son is alive." The man believed what Jesus told him, and started on his journey.
John 4:51 (show verse)
And on the road his servants met him with the news that his boy was alive.
John 4:52 (show verse)
So he asked them at what hour he had begun to improve; they told him, "Yesterday at one o'clock the fever left him."
John 4:53 (show verse)
Then the father realized that it had left him at the very time when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is alive"; and he became a believer with all his household.
John 4:54 (show verse)
This was the second Sign which Jesus performed again after leaving Judaea for Galilee.