John 4:8-9

4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. ¹ ) ²  4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ³  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ⁴  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ⁵  with Samaritans.) ⁶ 

¹ tn Grk “buy food.”

² 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).

³ 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.

⁴ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

⁵ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.