John 4:43-54

Onward to Galilee

4:43 After the two days he departed from there to Galilee. 4:44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ¹  4:45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem ²  at the feast ³  (for they themselves had gone to the feast). ⁴ 

Healing the Royal Official’s Son

4:46 Now he came again to Cana ⁵  in Galilee where he had made the water wine. ⁶  In ⁷  Capernaum ⁸  there was a certain royal official ⁹  whose son was sick. 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him ¹⁰  to come down and heal his son, who was about to die. 4:48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people ¹¹  see signs and wonders you will never believe!” ¹²  4:49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my child dies.” 4:50 Jesus told him, “Go home; ¹³  your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and set off for home. ¹⁴ 

4:51 While he was on his way down, ¹⁵  his slaves ¹⁶  met him and told him that his son was going to live. 4:52 So he asked them the time ¹⁷  when his condition began to improve, ¹⁸  and ¹⁹  they told him, “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon ²⁰  the fever left him.” 4:53 Then the father realized that it was the very time ²¹  Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household. 4:54 Jesus did this as his second miraculous sign ²²  when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

[4:44]  ¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[4:45]  ² sn All the things he had done in Jerusalem probably refers to the signs mentioned in John 2:23.

[4:45]  ³ sn See John 2:23-25.

[4:45]  ⁴ sn John 4:44-45. The last part of v. 45 is a parenthetical note by the author. The major problem in these verses concerns the contradiction between the proverb stated by Jesus in v. 44 and the reception of the Galileans in v. 45. Origen solved the problem by referring his own country to Judea (which Jesus had just left) and not Galilee. But this runs counter to the thrust of John’s Gospel, which takes pains to identify Jesus with Galilee (cf. 1:46) and does not even mention his Judean birth. R. E. Brown typifies the contemporary approach: He regards v. 44 as an addition by a later redactor who wanted to emphasize Jesus’ unsatisfactory reception in Galilee. Neither expedient is necessary, though, if honor is understood in its sense of attributing true worth to someone. The Galileans did welcome him, but their welcome was to prove a superficial response based on what they had seen him do at the feast. There is no indication that the signs they saw brought them to place their faith in Jesus any more than Nicodemus did on the basis of the signs. But a superficial welcome based on enthusiasm for miracles is no real honor at all.

[4:46]  ⁵ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[4:46]  ⁶ sn See John 2:1-11.

[4:46]  ⁷ tn Grk “And in.”

[4:46]  ⁸ sn Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region.

[4:46]  ⁹ tn Although βασιλικός (basiliko") has often been translated “nobleman” it is almost certainly refers here to a servant of Herod, tetrarch of Galilee (who in the NT is called a king, Matt 14:9, Mark 6:14-29). Capernaum was a border town, so doubtless there were many administrative officials in residence there.

[4:47]  ¹⁰ tn The direct object of ἠρώτα (hrwta) is supplied from context. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[4:48]  ¹¹ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the verb is second person plural (referring to more than the royal official alone).

[4:48]  ¹² tn Or “you never believe.” The verb πιστεύσητε (pisteushte) is aorist subjunctive and may have either nuance.

[4:50]  ¹³ tn Grk “Go”; the word “home” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[4:50]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and left.” The words “for home” are implied by the following verse.

[4:51]  ¹⁵ sn While he was on his way down. Going to Capernaum from Cana, one must go east across the Galilean hills and then descend to the Sea of Galilee. The 20 mi (33 km) journey could not be made in a single day. The use of the description on his way down shows the author was familiar with Palestinian geography.

[4:51]  ¹⁶ tn Traditionally, “servants.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[4:52]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the hour.”

[4:52]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 558 s.v. κομψότερον translates the idiom κομψότερον ἔχειν (komyoteron ecein) as “begin to improve.”

[4:52]  ¹⁹ tn The second οὖν (oun) in 4:52 has been translated as “and” to improve English style by avoiding redundancy.

[4:52]  ²⁰ tn Grk “at the seventh hour.”

[4:53]  ²¹ tn Grk “at that hour.”

[4:54]  ²² tn This sentence in Greek involves an object-complement construction. The force can be either “Jesus did this as,” or possibly “Jesus made this to be.” The latter translation accents not only Jesus’ power but his sovereignty too. Cf. 2:11 where the same construction occurs.