Discovery BoxJohn 4:1-10
Context4:1 Now when Jesus 1 knew that the Pharisees 2 had heard that he 3 was winning 4 and baptizing more disciples than John 4:2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 5 4:3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee. 6
4:4 But he had 7 to pass through Samaria. 8 4:5 Now he came to a Samaritan town 9 called Sychar, 10 near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 11 4:6 Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside 12 the well. It was about noon. 13
4:7 A Samaritan woman 14 came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water 15 to drink.” 4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. 16 ) 17 4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew 18 – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water 19 to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common 20 with Samaritans.) 21
4:10 Jesus answered 22 her, “If you had known 23 the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water 24 to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 25
[4:1] 1 tc Several early and important witnesses, along with the majority of later ones (Ì66c,75 A B C L Ws Ψ 083 Ë13 33 Ï sa), have κύριος (kurio", “Lord”) here instead of ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”). As significant as this external support is, the internal evidence seems to be on the side of ᾿Ιησοῦς. “Jesus” is mentioned two more times in the first two verses of chapter four in a way that is stylistically awkward (so much so that the translation has substituted the pronoun for the first one; see tn note below). This seems to be sufficient reason to motivate scribes to change the wording to κύριος. Further, the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is not without decent support, though admittedly not as strong as that for κύριος (Ì66* א D Θ 086 Ë1 565 1241 al lat bo). On the other hand, this Gospel speaks of Jesus as Lord in the evangelist’s narrative descriptions elsewhere only in 11:2; 20:18, 20; 21:12; and probably 6:23, preferring ᾿Ιησοῦς most of the time. This fact could be used to argue that scribes, acquainted with John’s style, changed κύριος to ᾿Ιησοῦς. But the immediate context generally is weighed more heavily than an author’s style. It is possible that neither word was in the original text and scribes supplied what they thought most appropriate (see TCGNT 176). But without ms evidence to this effect coupled with the harder reading ᾿Ιησοῦς, this conjecture must remain doubtful. All in all, it is best to regard ᾿Ιησοῦς as the original reading here.
[4:1] 2 sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.
[4:1] 3 tn Grk “Jesus”; the repetition of the proper name is somewhat redundant in English (see the beginning of the verse) and so the pronoun (“he”) has been substituted here.
[4:2] 5 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
[4:3] 6 sn The author doesn’t tell why Jesus chose to set out once more for Galilee. Some have suggested that the Pharisees turned their attention to Jesus because John the Baptist had now been thrown into prison. But the text gives no hint of this. In any case, perhaps Jesus simply did not want to provoke a confrontation at this time (knowing that his “hour” had not yet come).
[4:4] 7 sn Travel through Samaria was not geographically necessary; the normal route for Jews ran up the east side of the Jordan River (Transjordan). Although some take the impersonal verb had to (δεῖ, dei) here to indicate logical necessity only, normally in John’s Gospel its use involves God’s will or plan (3:7, 3:14, 3:30, 4:4, 4:20, 4:24, 9:4, 10:16, 12:34, 20:9).
[4:4] 8 sn Samaria. The Samaritans were descendants of 2 groups: (1) The remnant of native Israelites who were not deported after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722
[4:5] 9 tn Grk “town of Samaria.” The noun Σαμαρείας (Samareias) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
[4:5] 10 sn Sychar was somewhere in the vicinity of Shechem, possibly the village of Askar, 1.5 km northeast of Jacob’s well.
[4:5] 11 sn Perhaps referred to in Gen 48:22.
[4:6] 12 tn Grk “on (ἐπί, epi) the well.” There may have been a low stone rim encircling the well, or the reading of Ì66 (“on the ground”) may be correct.
[4:6] 13 tn Grk “the sixth hour.”
[4:7] 14 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.”
[4:7] 15 tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).
[4:8] 17 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).
[4:9] 18 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.
[4:9] 19 tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).
[4:9] 20 tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.
[4:9] 21 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
[4:10] 22 tn Grk “answered and said to her.”
[4:10] 23 tn Or “if you knew.”
[4:10] 24 tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).
[4:10] 25 tn This is a second class conditional sentence in Greek.
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