John 4:7

4:7 A Samaritan woman ¹  came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water ²  to drink.”

John 4:13

4:13 Jesus replied, ³  “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty ⁴  again.

John 6:56

6:56 The one who eats ⁵  my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. ⁶ 

John 6:54

6:54 The one who eats ⁷  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁸ 

John 4:9

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 

John 4:12

4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor ¹³  Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.” ¹⁴ 

John 4:14

4:14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, ¹⁵  but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain ¹⁶  of water springing up ¹⁷  to eternal life.”

John 6:53

6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁸  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ¹⁹  you have no life ²⁰  in yourselves.

John 7:37

Teaching About the Spirit

7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, ²¹  Jesus stood up and shouted out, ²²  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

John 18:11

18:11 But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” ²³ 

John 4:10

4:10 Jesus answered ²⁴  her, “If you had known ²⁵  the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water ²⁶  to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ²⁷ 

[4:7]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:13]  ³ tn Grk “answered and said to her.”

[4:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “will thirst.”

[6:56]  ⁵ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:56]  ⁶ sn Resides in me, and I in him. Note how in John 6:54 eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood produces eternal life and the promise of resurrection at the last day. Here the same process of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood leads to a relationship of mutual indwelling (resides in me, and I in him). This suggests strongly that for the author (and for Jesus) the concepts of ‘possessing eternal life’ and of ‘residing in Jesus’ are virtually interchangeable.

[6:54]  ⁷ tn Or “who chews”; Grk ὁ τρώγων (Jo trwgwn). The alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) may simply reflect a preference for one form over the other on the author’s part, rather than an attempt to express a slightly more graphic meaning. If there is a difference, however, the word used here (τρώγω) is the more graphic and vivid of the two (“gnaw” or “chew”).

[6:54]  ⁸ sn Notice that here the result (has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day) is produced by eating (Jesus’) flesh and drinking his blood. Compare John 6:40 where the same result is produced by “looking on the Son and believing in him.” This suggests that the phrase here (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood by the phrase in 6:40 (looks on the Son and believes in him).

[4:9]  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.

[4:9]  ¹⁰ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:9]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[4:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “our forefather”; Grk “our father.”

[4:12]  ¹² tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end. In this instance all of v. 12 is one question. It has been broken into two sentences for the sake of English style (instead of “for he” the Greek reads “who”).

[4:14]  ¹³ tn Grk “will never be thirsty forever.” The possibility of a later thirst is emphatically denied.

[4:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “well.” “Fountain” is used as the translation for πηγή (phgh) here since the idea is that of an artesian well that flows freely, but the term “artesian well” is not common in contemporary English.

[4:14]  ¹⁵ tn The verb ἁλλομένου (Jallomenou) is used of quick movement (like jumping) on the part of living beings. This is the only instance of its being applied to the action of water. However, in the LXX it is used to describe the “Spirit of God” as it falls on Samson and Saul. See Judg 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Kgdms 10:2, 10 LXX (= 1 Sam 10:6, 10 ET); and Isa 35:6 (note context).

[6:53]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ¹⁶ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ¹⁷ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[7:37]  ¹⁷ sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.

[7:37]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”

[18:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “The cup that the Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?” The order of the clauses has been rearranged to reflect contemporary English style.

[4:10]  ²¹ tn Grk “answered and said to her.”

[4:10]  ²² tn Or “if you knew.”

[4:10]  ²³ tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:10]  ²⁴ tn This is a second class conditional sentence in Greek.