Genesis 24:18-20

24:18 “Drink, my lord,” she replied, and quickly lowering ¹  her jug to her hands, she gave him a drink. 24:19 When she had done so, ²  she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have drunk as much as they want.” 24:20 She quickly emptied ³  her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

Matthew 10:42

10:42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, I tell you the truth, ⁴  he will never lose his reward.”

John 4:7-11

4:7 A Samaritan woman ⁵  came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water ⁶  to drink.” 4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. ⁷ ) ⁸  4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ⁹  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ¹⁰  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ¹¹  with Samaritans.) ¹² 

4:10 Jesus answered ¹³  her, “If you had known ¹⁴  the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water ¹⁵  to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹⁶  4:11 “Sir,” ¹⁷  the woman ¹⁸  said to him, “you have no bucket and the well ¹⁹  is deep; where then do you get this ²⁰  living water? ²¹ 

¹ tn Heb “and she hurried and lowered.”

² tn Heb “when she had finished giving him a drink.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “and she hurried and emptied.”

⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁵ tn Grk “a woman from Samaria.” According to BDAG 912 s.v. Σαμάρεια, the prepositional phrase is to be translated as a simple attributive: “γυνὴ ἐκ τῆς Σαμαρείας a Samaritan woman J 4:7.”

⁶ tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

⁷ tn Grk “buy food.”

⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author, indicating why Jesus asked the woman for a drink (for presumably his disciples also took the water bucket with them).

⁹ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

¹⁰ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

¹¹ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

¹³ tn Grk “answered and said to her.”

¹⁴ tn Or “if you knew.”

¹⁵ tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

¹⁶ tn This is a second class conditional sentence in Greek.

¹⁷ tn Or “Lord.” The Greek term κύριος (kurios) means both “Sir” and “Lord.” In this passage there is probably a gradual transition from one to the other as the woman’s respect for Jesus grows throughout the conversation (4:11, 15, 19).

¹⁸ tc ‡ Two early and important Greek mss along with two versional witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ B sy^s ac²) lack ἡ γυνή (Jh gunh, “the woman”) here; א* has ἐκείνη (ekeinh, “that one” or possibly “she”) instead of ἡ γυνή. It is possible that no explicit subject was in the original text and scribes added either ἡ γυνή or ἐκείνη to make the meaning clear. It is also possible that the archetype of Ì⁷⁵ א B expunged the subject because it was not altogether necessary, with the scribe of א later adding the pronoun. However, ἡ γυνή is not in doubt in any other introduction to the woman’s words in this chapter (cf. vv. 9, 15, 17, 19, 25), suggesting that intentional deletion was not the motive for the shorter reading in v. 11 (or else why would they delete the words only here?). Thus, the fact that virtually all witnesses (Ì⁶⁶ א² A C D L W^s Θ Ψ 050 083 086 Ë^1,13 Ï latt sy^c,p,h sa bo) have ἡ γυνή here may suggest that it is a motivated reading, conforming this verse to the rest of the pericope. Although a decision is difficult, it is probably best to regard the shorter reading as authentic. NA²⁷ has ἡ γυνή in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity. For English stylistic reasons, the translation also includes “the woman” here.

¹⁹ tn The word for “well” has now shifted to φρέαρ (frear, “cistern”); earlier in the passage it was πηγή (phgh).

²⁰ tn The anaphoric article has been translated “this.”

²¹ sn Where then do you get this living water? The woman’s reply is an example of the “misunderstood statement,” a technique appearing frequently in John’s Gospel. Jesus was speaking of living water which was spiritual (ultimately a Johannine figure for the Holy Spirit, see John 7:38-39), but the woman thought he was speaking of flowing (fresh drinkable) water. Her misunderstanding gave Jesus the opportunity to explain what he really meant.