返回Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Jn. 4:1. When Jesus learned that the report had reached the Pharisees that He was gaining more disciples and baptizing than John, –
Jn. 4:2. Although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples,
The Evangelist, hinting at the slander of the envious, says that although Jesus did not baptize, nevertheless the envious, wishing to incite the Pharisees against Christ, slandered Him by saying that He was baptizing.
Jn. 4:3. He left Judea and went again into Galilee.
The Lover of mankind, having once become incarnate for us, does everything for our benefit. So now too, having learned that the Pharisees heard of His fame, and knowing that they would envy Him and rise up against Him, He withdraws to Galilee, teaching us two things: first, to spare our enemies and to make every effort not to give them occasion for offense or envy; second, not to subject ourselves to temptations senselessly and without profit, but to withdraw for a time until the fury subsides.
Though He is powerful enough to stop His enviers even if they were to rush upon Him, He nevertheless withdraws, so that the matter of the Incarnation would not appear to be phantasmal. For if He were constantly removing Himself from their midst, what would the phantasiadocetists not have said — that is, Manes, Valentinus, the accursed Eutyches, and their disciples?
Jn. 4:4. And He had to pass through Samaria.
He comes to the Samaritans as if in passing. Notice: He did not say "it was necessary to go to Samaria," but "to pass through Samaria." He wanted to deprive the Jews of every pretext for accusation, so that they could not say that He, having left them, went over to the unclean—the Gentiles. For only when they drove Him out did He go over to the Gentiles, and even then not deliberately, but in passing.
It is worth saying where the Samaritans came from and from what they received such a name. Somoron was the name of a mountain, after the name of its owner, as Isaiah also says: "the head of Ephraim is Somoron" (Isa. 7:9). Those living beneath the mountain were originally called not Samaritans but Israelites. But for their offenses against God they were at various times delivered over to the Assyrians. Finally, when they resolved to rebel, the Assyrian took them captive and, fearing a new apostasy, did not permit them to remain any longer in their own country, but resettled them among the Babylonians and Medes, and from there brought peoples from various places and settled them in Samaria. After this, God, wishing to show the barbarians that He had delivered the Jews to them not out of His own powerlessness but for their sin, sent lions upon the barbarians who had resettled in Samaria, and the lions destroyed them all without exception. When this was brought to the attention of the king, he summons certain Jewish elders who were in captivity and asks what should be done so that the lions would no longer destroy the barbarians living in Samaria. They explain to him that the God of Israel watches over that place and does not suffer those ignorant of His laws to dwell there. Therefore, if he cares about the barbarians there, it is necessary to send Jewish priests who would teach the barbarians the laws of God; and in this way God would be appeased. The king heeds them and sends a priest to teach the Samaritan barbarians the law of God (2 Kings 17:24–28). But they accepted not all the divine books, only the five of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Nor did they completely abandon impiety, but only from time to time turned away from idols and honored God. Therefore the Jews, upon their return from captivity, always treated them with hatred as Assyrians by origin, and called them Samaritans after the name of the mountain. But they called themselves descendants of Abraham and Jacob, because Abraham was a Chaldean, and they considered Jacob their own on account of the well that was located there. The Jews, however, considered them unclean along with all the Gentiles, which is why as a reproach to the Lord they said: "You are a Samaritan" (John 8:48). And He Himself said to the disciples: "Do not enter a city of the Samaritans" (Matt. 10:5).
Jn. 4:5. So He comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Why does the Evangelist speak in detail about the place and the well of Jacob? First, so that you would not be amazed when you hear the woman say: "Our father Jacob gave us this well." For this place was Sychem (Shechem), where the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, carried out a cruel slaughter because their sister Dinah had been violated by the prince of the Shechemites. Then, from what the Evangelist conveys to us about the place and the well, we learn that the rejection of the Jews was from of old on account of their sins, and when they offended God, the Gentiles took possession of their places, and that they destroyed through impiety what the patriarchs had acquired through faith in Christ. Therefore it is nothing new if even now the Gentiles have been brought into the Kingdom of Heaven in place of the Jews. The place given by Jacob to Joseph was called Sychem. The sons of Jacob, having destroyed the Shechemites, laid waste the city, and once laid waste it was given by the father as an inheritance to Joseph.
Jn. 4:6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, being wearied from His journey, sat down by the well.
The Evangelist, by saying that the Lord grew weary from the journey, shows us His humility and moderation, for He did not use beasts of burden for traveling, but went on foot, teaching us also not to require much. He also shows that He made the journey with effort, and not carelessly; from which we too learn to carry out the work of God with effort and diligence.
The word "sat" means that He sat down simply and, as it happened, not on a throne, but quite simply, resting His body on the pavement and refreshing it at the well.
Jn. 4:6. It was about the sixth hour.
Then He introduces another reason for why He sat by the well – that it was midday: "It was," he says, "about the sixth hour."
Note, if you will, the precision of the Evangelist as well. He did not say definitively "it was the sixth hour," but, so as not to err against the truth, he said "it was about the sixth hour," lending credibility to his word.
Jn. 4:7. A woman from Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give Me to drink.
And furthermore, lest anyone accuse the Lord of the fact that, having commanded His disciples not to go on the path to the Gentiles, He Himself comes to the Samaritans, for this reason he says that His sitting in this place was due to weariness, and that the conversation with the woman had a reasonable pretext — thirst. Since as a result of His human nature He thirsted, He also had need of drink.
When He asks for a drink, a woman with an inquisitive soul enters into conversation with Him. What then was to be done? Should He have rejected a woman so inquisitive and thirsting to hear the resolution of her perplexities? But this is by no means characteristic of the love of God for mankind.
Jn. 4:8. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Note, if you will, the Lord's modesty here as well. He remains alone by the road while the disciples have gone off to the city to buy food. They considered the needs of the stomach so secondary that at a time when nearly everyone had already dined and was resting, they were only just buying food — that is, bread alone — so that we too might learn not to concern ourselves with a variety of dishes.
Jn. 4:9. The Samaritan woman says to Him: How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
By appearance and, perhaps, by clothing, and by other bodily bearing, and by the conversation itself, the Samaritan woman took the Lord for a Jew, which is why she says to Him: "How is it that you, being a Jew," and so on. See how perceptive the woman was. If anyone needed to be on guard, it would have been the Lord, not her. For she did not say "Samaritans have no dealings with Jews," but rather "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." Nevertheless, the woman does not stop at this, but, having thought that the Lord was doing something unlawful, she corrects what was not according to the law.
Jn. 4:10. Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that says to you: Give Me to drink, you yourself would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
Christ does not reveal Himself until the woman's virtue has been made manifest. But when the woman's virtue was revealed — her perceptiveness and exactness — then He begins to converse with her about higher matters. "If you," He says, "knew the gift of God," that is, if you knew what God grants, that He grants eternal and imperishable blessings, if you also knew Me, knew that I, as God, am able to give them to you — then you would have asked and would have received living water.
He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit "water," because it cleanses those who receive it and imparts to them great refreshment — not stagnant water, such as is found in pits and wells, putrid and spoiled, but "living" water, that is, springing up, leaping forth, flowing swiftly. For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul always active toward good, always making ascents (Ps. 84:5). Such water, living and always active, Paul drank, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13–14).
Jn. 4:11. The woman says to Him: Sir! You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then do You get living water?
The woman says to Him, "Lord!" Do you see how quickly she abandoned her low opinion and renders Him great honor, calling Him Lord. However, she did not grasp the depth of Christ's words, but He speaks of water in one sense, while she understands it in another sense.
Jn. 4:12. Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, and his children, and his livestock?
He considers Jacob his father and counts himself among the Jewish nobility. Look, if you will, at the woman's intelligence, how quickly she concludes from the difference of the waters about the difference of the givers. "If," she says, "You give such water, then without a doubt You are greater than Jacob, who gave us this present water."
The words "and he himself drank from it" indicate the pleasantness of the water. "The patriarch," he says, "was so pleased with this spring that both he himself and his children drank from it."
The words "and his cattle drank" point to the abundance of water. "This water," he says, "is not only pleasant, and so pleasant that Jacob drank it, but also abundant, and so abundant that it sufficed for the multitude of the patriarch's cattle."
Jn. 4:13. Jesus said to her in reply: everyone who drinks this water will thirst again,
Jn. 4:14. But whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
When the woman said "are You greater than our father," the Lord, although He does not say directly that I am indeed greater, lest He appear vainglorious before having yet presented proof of His power, nevertheless prepares her for this with His words: "whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks My water will not thirst." That is, if you marvel at Jacob, who gave this water, then all the more should you marvel at Me, who gives far better water. For the water that I give becomes a source of water that constantly and unceasingly multiplies. For the saints not only preserve to the end what they receive from God, but through grace they receive the seeds and firstfruits of good, and themselves multiply and increase them.
The Lord points to this with the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–31) and of the innkeeper (Luke 10:35). He who received two talents through putting them to work acquired another two (Matt. 25:17). And to the innkeeper who took in the man wounded by robbers, the Lord promises: "whatever more you spend, I will repay you" (Luke 10:35).
The Lord points to this here as well. I give water to the thirsty; but the water that I give does not remain in the same measure, but multiplies and becomes a source. Thus, in the instructions of Ananias, the Lord gave Paul a little water (Acts 9:17); but this small water of Ananias's teaching Paul showed to be a source, so that the streams of this source reached from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
Jn. 4:15. The woman says to Him: Sir! Give me this water, so that I may not thirst and not come here to draw.
What disposition does the woman show at this point? Although not yet a lofty one, for she thinks the discussion is about physical water, nevertheless she does reveal some forward progress. Before, she was perplexed and said, "Where do You have living water?" But now, having accepted that word as certain, she says, "Give me this water."
Therefore she appears more understanding than Nicodemus. He, after hearing a great many similar things, said: "How can this be?" (John 3:9). But she already begins to disregard even the well of Jacob. "If," she says, "You have such water, then give it to me, and I will no longer come here to draw." Do you see how she already places the Lord above Jacob.
Jn. 4:16. Jesus says to her: Go and call your husband and come here.
Seeing that she insists on receiving, and urges Him to give, He says: "Call your husband," as if showing that he too must share with you in this gift of Mine.
Jn. 4:17. The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: you have rightly said that you have no husband,
She, in order to more quickly conceal and at the same time obtain, says: "I have no husband."
Jn. 4:18. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.
Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing.
Some understand the "five" husbands of the Samaritan woman to mean the five books which alone the Samaritan woman accepted. "The one," He says, "whom you now have, that is, My teaching, which you now receive from Me, is not your husband; for you have not yet been joined to My teaching—that of Jesus."
Another may say that the Samaritan woman serves as an image of human nature. Our nature formerly dwelt on a mountain, possessing a mind full of divine grace. For Adam, before he sinned, was adorned with all divine gifts. He was also a prophet. Having awakened from sleep, he spoke clearly about the creation of his wife and the relationship of a husband to her, for he said: "This is now bone of my bones" and "For this reason... a man shall leave his father and mother" (Gen. 2:23–24). On this mountain, this lofty mind, was our nature, but for offending God it was led away into captivity. And the devil, having taken us captive, carried off the holy seed, that is, every divine thought, into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this present world. In place of holy thoughts he settled coarse thoughts: lions reigning in us devoured our good thoughts, until they were persuaded to accept the sayings of God. But they did not accept them wholly. For wickedness, having once settled on our mountain, that is, in the mind, although it accepted the books of Moses, nevertheless did not become wholly good, but was still under a curse. And so Jesus, having completed His journey, that is, having traversed the many paths of the dispensation and the means for our salvation, improving our life now by threats, now by the blows of calamities, now by benefactions, now by promises of good things, and laboring to correct us by such means, grew weary. But He found yet another dispensation, upon which, as satisfactory, He sat down and rested. What was it? The fountain of baptism, by which He bestowed grace upon our nature, as upon a certain Samaritan woman. This fountain of baptism may rightly be called the fountain of Jacob, that is, of the supplanter, for in this fountain everyone tramples upon the devil. In it the Lord also crushed the head of the dragon, whom He gave as food to the Ethiopian people (Ps. 73:14). For it is none other than people darkened and black in soul, having no share in the divine light, who delight in and feed upon this dragon.
Five husbands entered into union with this nature of ours—the different laws given to it by God: the law in paradise, the law under Noah, the law under Abraham, the law under Moses, the law through the prophets. For Noah after the flood received a certain commandment (Gen. 9:1–17), and Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Gen. 17:1–14). Having been joined to these five laws, our nature afterwards also received the sixth law of the New Testament, which it had not had as a husband and with which it had not yet been united.
Another person may understand the sixth husband, whom our nature did not have as a husband, as the law of idolatry. For this law was not given to it by God as a husband, but it mingled with it as an adulteress. Therefore the prophet also says: "and they committed fornication upon the wood" (Jer. 2:20), and again: "she committed fornication behind every tree" (Ezek. 16), speaking, evidently, of the fact that they worshipped idols and trees. For our nature descended to such madness that they even offered sacrifices to beautiful trees—cypresses, sycamores, and the like—on account of their beauty. So when man loved this sixth adulterer and fell into idolatry, then the Lord comes and frees us from him, and therefore He says: "the one whom you now have." For by the time of Christ's coming, indeed, even the wise men among the Jews had turned to paganism, as the heresy of the Pharisees shows, who believed in fate and astrology.
The Samaritan woman is also every soul that has foolishly submitted itself to the five senses, and then accepted false teachings as well, as a sort of sixth adulterer, but upon which Jesus bestows His grace either through baptism or through a fountain of tears. Tears too can be called the well of Jacob, that is, of our mind that tramples upon evil. This water is drunk both by the mind itself, and by its children—the thoughts, and by its cattle—the irrational parts of the soul: anger and desire. For tears serve as refreshment for the mind, for the thoughts, and for the other powers of the soul.
Jn. 4:19. The woman says to Him: Lord! I see that You are a prophet.
Did she not become annoyed upon hearing this? Did she not leave Him and run away? No, she was even more amazed, even more strengthened, and says: "Lord, I see that You are a prophet"; and she asks Him about divine matters, not about worldly ones, such as bodily health or possessions. So chaste and well-disposed toward virtue is her soul! What then does she ask about?
Jn. 4:20. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,
She says this about Abraham and his successors. "For here," they say, "Isaac was offered by him as a sacrifice."
You say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.
"How is it then," she says, "that you say one must worship in Jerusalem?" Do you see how she rose higher? Shortly before this she was concerned about not suffering from thirst, but now she asks about doctrine (dogmas).
Jn. 4:21. Jesus says to her: Believe Me, that the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Therefore Christ too, seeing her understanding, although He does not resolve this perplexity of hers (for it was not of particular importance), reveals another, more important truth, which He had not revealed either to Nicodemus or to Nathanael. "The time is coming," He says, "when God will be worshipped neither in Jerusalem nor here." "You," He says, "are trying to prove that the Samaritan customs are worthier than the Jewish customs. But I tell you that neither the one nor the other have worth, but another certain order will come which is better than both of these. But even in this I declare that the Jews are worthier than the Samaritans."
Jn. 4:22. You do not know what you worship, but we know what we worship,
"You," He says, "worship what you do not know, but we, the Jews, worship what we know." He numbers Himself among the Jews, because He speaks in accordance with the woman's understanding, and she regarded Him as a Jewish prophet. For this reason He also says: "we" worship.
How then did the Samaritans not know what they worshipped? They thought that God was limited to a place. Therefore, when lions were devouring them, as was said above, they sent messengers to report to the king of the Assyrians that the God of that place did not tolerate them. However, even after that they long continued to serve idols, and not God Himself. But the Jews were free from such a notion and, though not all of them, acknowledged Him as the God of all.
Jn. 4:22. For salvation is from the Jews.
These words present to us a twofold meaning. Either that the blessings for the world came from the Jews, for the knowledge of God and the rejection of idols has its beginning from them, and all the other teachings (dogmas), and this very form of your Samaritan worship, although incorrect, received its beginning from the Jews as well. Or He calls His coming "salvation," which was from the Jews. One may also understand by "salvation" the Lord Himself, Who according to the flesh was from the Jews.
Jn. 4:23. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.
Jn. 4:24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Although we Jews surpass you Samaritans in the form of worship, the form of Jewish worship will also eventually come to an end. And the change will occur not only in the place, but also in the manner of worship, and this change is very near and has already arrived. For these things will not hold significance for all time, as the sayings of the prophets do.
He calls true worshippers those who live according to His law, who do not confine God to a place, as the Samaritans do, nor honor Him with bodily service, as the Jews do, but worship in spirit and truth, that is, with the soul, with purity of mind. Since God is spirit, that is, incorporeal, one must also worship Him incorporeally, that is, with the soul. This is what is meant by the words "in spirit." For the soul is a spirit and an incorporeal being. And since many apparently worship Him with the soul but do not have a true conception of Him — for example, heretics — He therefore added: "and in truth." For one must worship God with the mind, but one must also have a true conception of Him.
Another might say that here by these two words "in spirit and truth" are hinted the two parts of our philosophy: the practical and the contemplative. By the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at. For, according to the words of the divine apostle, all who are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13–14). And again: "the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh" (Gal. 5:17). Thus, by the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at, while by the word "in truth" the contemplative. So also Paul (1 Cor. 5:8) understands it, when he says "with the unleavened bread of sincerity," that is, purity of life, or what is the same, the practical, "and truth," that is, the contemplative, for contemplation is occupied with the truth of dogmatic teaching.
And in another sense: since the Samaritans confined God to a place and said that one must worship in this place, while among the Jews everything was performed in types and shadows, against the distinction of the Samaritans He uses the word "in spirit," so that the meaning is as follows: you Samaritans perform some local worship of God, but the true worshippers will perform not a local one, for they will worship "in spirit," that is, with the mind and soul. They will not worship under a type and shadow, as the Jews, but "in truth," since the customs and rites of the Jews will be abolished.
Since the Jewish law, understood literally, was a type and shadow, perhaps the word "in spirit" is used to distinguish from the letter; for in us the law that operates is no longer the law of the letter, but of the spirit, for "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). To distinguish from the type and shadow, the word "in truth" is used.
"The time is coming," He says, "and has already come," namely: the time of My manifestation in the flesh, when true worshippers will worship not in one place, as the Samaritans, but in every place "in spirit," performing worship that is not merely bodily, as Paul also says (Whom (God) I serve "in my spirit" (Rom. 1:9)), they will perform a service that is not figurative, shadowy, and pointing to the future, as the Jews did, but a service that is true and has no shadows whatsoever. For God seeks such worshippers for Himself: as Spirit — spiritual ones, as Truth — true ones.
Jn. 4:25. The woman says to Him: I know that the Messiah is coming, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will declare all things to us.
From where did the woman know that the Messiah, called Christ, would come? From the writings of Moses. For we said above that the Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch of Moses. Since they accepted the books of Moses, from them they knew the prophecy about Christ and that He is the Son of God.
Thus the words "let us make man" (Gen. 1:26) were obviously spoken by the Father to the Son. The One who conversed with Abraham in the tent was the Son (Gen. 18); Jacob spoke prophetically about Him: "the scepter shall not depart from Judah, until he comes to whom it is reserved" (Gen. 49:10), and Moses himself: "the Lord will raise up a prophet from among your brothers, like me; him you shall hear" (Deut. 18:15), and many other passages proclaim the coming of Christ.
Therefore the woman also says: "I know that Messiah is coming."
Jn. 4:26. Jesus says to her: It is I, Who am speaking with you.
When, thus, the very course of the conversation demanded it, the Lord already reveals Himself to her (the Samaritan woman). If He had said from the very beginning that Christ is I, He would not have convinced the woman, and might even have appeared somewhat arrogant and proud. But now, having little by little caused her to recall the promise concerning Christ, He already reveals Himself as well.
Why then does He tell the woman that He is the Messiah, but does not reveal Himself to the Jews, who often asked: "Tell us, are You the Christ?" He said nothing to them because they asked not in order to learn the truth, but in order to slander Him all the more; but to her He clearly reveals Himself, because she is well-intentioned. She asked sincerely and with a desire to learn the truth. This is evident also from what follows. Having heard the revelation, she not only believed herself, but also drew others to the faith, and in everything she shows herself to be a woman of substance and of faith.
Jn. 4:27. At that point His disciples came, and they marveled that He was talking with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
While the conversation with the woman and the teaching were already coming to an end, the disciples came and marveled at His humility, by which He spoke with such condescension to a woman who was poor and a Samaritan, whereas He was held in glory and renown by all. They marvel, yet do not dare to ask what He is speaking about with her. So well trained were they, and so well did they maintain the proper respect of disciples toward their Teacher!
In other cases they appear to be bold. For example, John reclines on His breast (Jn. 13:25); they come forward with the question: "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (Mt. 18:1); the sons of Zebedee ask that one might sit at the right hand and the other at the left (Mk. 10:35, 37). In these cases they ask about what concerned themselves and what seemed to them at that time to be necessary. But since here the question did not occupy them so much and was not absolutely necessary, they do not employ boldness as being untimely.
Jn. 4:28. Then the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city, and says to the people:
From the Lord's words, the woman's heart was so inflamed that she even left her water jar behind. So quickly did she prefer the water of Christ to the well of Jacob, and by the faith that embraced her heart, she is elevated to the rank of apostle, teaching and drawing an entire city.
Jn. 4:29. Come, see a Man who told me everything that I have done.
Truly, a soul inflamed by divine fire looks upon nothing earthly, neither upon shame nor upon dishonor. And so she is not ashamed to reveal her deeds, but says: "Who told me everything that I have done." She could have said otherwise: "Come, see a prophet who prophesies"; but she does not say so, rather she disregards the opinion about herself and has in mind one thing only – to proclaim the truth.
Jn. 4:29. Is He not the Christ?
She does not say affirmatively that He is the Christ, but rather "is not this the Christ?" in order to bring them to the same opinion as herself and to make her word more readily acceptable. For if she had affirmed that He is the Christ, some perhaps would not have agreed and would not have accepted the opinion of a woman who was rejected.
Jn. 4:30. They went out of the city and came to Him.
Jn. 4:31. In the meanwhile His disciples asked Him, saying: Rabbi, eat.
The disciples were asking, that is, urging the Lord to eat, not out of impudence, but out of great love for the Teacher, for they saw that He was wearied from the journey and from the scorching heat.
Jn. 4:32. He said to them: I have food to eat that you do not know about.
But the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman would draw almost the entire city to Him and that the Samaritans would believe in Him, says: "I have something to eat, namely, the salvation of people, because I desire this salvation as none of you desire physical food. The food that I have to eat, you, My disciples, do not know. You are still carnal and cannot understand what I say in a veiled manner, and therefore you do not know that by food I mean the salvation of people." And in another sense: "You do not know this food, for you do not know that the Samaritans will believe in Me and be saved."
Calling the salvation of people His food, the Lord teaches the disciples so that they too, when they are ordained as teachers of the universe, would not concern themselves much with bodily food, but would devote all their zeal to the salvation of people.
Jn. 4:33. Therefore the disciples said to one another: has anyone brought Him something to eat?
What about the disciples? They are still wondering whether someone has brought Him something to eat. But they do not dare to put the question to Him, out of their customary reverence for Him.
Note also that the Lord would accept food whenever someone brought it to Him. For the disciples say: "Has anyone brought Him something to eat?"
The Lord did this not because He needed the service of others, for He Himself gives food to all flesh (Ps. 135:25), but so that those who brought offerings would have a reward and would grow accustomed to feeding others as well, and to show all people that one need not be ashamed of poverty nor be burdened when receiving sustenance from others. For teachers it is both fitting and even necessary to entrust the cares of food to others, so that they themselves might carry out the ministry of the Word without distraction. For this reason He even commanded the disciples to be fed at the expense of those whom they instructed (Luke 10:7).
Jn. 4:34. Jesus says to them: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
However, He, although they did not ask, explains what was said cryptically and says: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me (for the salvation of people is the will of God) and to finish His work." The prophets and the law could not finish the work of God, because, being types and shadows of future blessings, they themselves were imperfect. But the Lord finished the work of God, that is, our salvation and renewal. By the work of God, understand, perhaps, man, whom only the Son of God perfected, since He in Himself showed our nature to be sinless and, through the divine life in the flesh, perfected in every good deed, showed it to be complete and conquered the world to the end.
And the law is a work of God, since it was written by the finger of God (Deut. 9:10). The Lord fulfilled this law, because Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). He brought to an end everything that was performed under the law and elevated its service from the bodily to the spiritual.
The Lord often speaks in a veiled manner in order to make His listeners more attentive, to arouse them to investigate and understand what is said in a hidden way.
Jn. 4:35. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'?
The Lord now begins to reveal more clearly to the disciples what He had previously said in a veiled manner. He says: "You say, that is, you think, that in four months the harvest will come, that is, the physical harvest; but I say to you that the spiritual harvest has already arrived." He said this about the Samaritans, who were already coming to Him.
Jn. 4:35. But I say to you: lift up your eyes and look at the fields, how they have turned white and are ripe for harvest.
"Lift up your eyes," both intellectual and sensory, and look at the multitude of Samaritans coming here, and at their souls, disposed and ready for faith, which, like whitened fields, are in need of harvest. For just as ears of grain, when they turn white, are ready for harvest, so too are they ready for salvation.
Some apply the words "look at the fields, how they are white and ready for harvest" to the elderly, on account of their gray hair and their being reaped by death.
Jn. 4:36. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, so that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
The meaning of these words is as follows: the prophets sowed, but did not reap. Nevertheless, through this they were not deprived of enjoyment, but rejoice together with us, even though they do not reap together with us. In material harvests this does not happen. There, if it happens that one sows and another reaps, the one who does not reap grieves. But in spiritual harvests it is not so. Rather, even the prophets, who preached and predisposed the minds of people, rejoice together with us who have drawn people to salvation.
Jn. 4:37. For in this case the saying is true: one sows, and another reaps.
A true saying he calls the proverb that was in common use among the people: "One sows, and another reaps."
Jn. 4:38. I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor: others labored, and you have entered into their labor.
"I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor." The Lord says this so that, when He sends the disciples to preach, they would not be troubled by the fact that they are being sent to a difficult task. "The most difficult part," He says, "the prophets took upon themselves, but I am sending you to what is already prepared."
See how He says everything with authority and command: "I sent you to reap." Let the disciples of the accursed Marcion hear this, and of Manes, and of those like them, who alienate the Old Testament from the New. They are refuted here as well. For if the Old Testament were foreign to the New, how would the apostles have reaped what was sown by the prophets? But if the apostles reaped what was sown in the Old Testament, then it is not foreign to the New Testament, but both are one Testament. Let the Arians also hear that Christ sends His disciples as Lord and Master. He sends them so that they might reap and cut away from earthly things the Gentiles and Jews who had become attached to them, and carry them to the threshing floor, that is, to the Church. In it, through the threshing by oxen, that is, by teachers, and through submission to them, they are ground down and, being freed from all chaff, from everything carnal and consumed by fire, are stored as pure grain in the heavenly granary, and then become food for God, who rejoices in their salvation. Thus Paul reaped, cutting us away from the earth and teaching that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Jn. 4:39. And many of the Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman, who testified that He told her everything she had done.
The Samaritans believe based on the woman's word, reasonably judging by themselves that a woman would not have openly revealed her life before everyone to please another, if the one she proclaimed were not truly great and superior to many.
Jn. 4:40. And so, when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Jn. 4:41. And a still greater number believed because of His word.
Therefore, proving their faith by deeds, they asked Him to remain with them permanently. For "to stay" means precisely to settle completely. But He does not agree to this, and spends only two days with them, and through His teaching an even greater number of them believed.
Although the Evangelist does not narrate in detail the wondrous words of His teaching, he gives us to understand the power of His divine teaching from the outcome of the matter. For the Evangelists omit much even of the great deeds, because they write not from motives of vainglory, but for the sake of truth. It is likely that while among the Samaritans the Lord also taught something divine, because they, without having seen any miracle, believe in Him and ask Him to stay. But the Jews, who were granted by Him countless words and miracles, still drove Him away. Truly, "a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Mic. 7:6; Matt. 10:36).
Jn. 4:42. And they said to that woman: we no longer believe because of your words, for we ourselves have heard and know that He is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.
Look, indeed, in a short time the people surpassed their teacher. For they call Him not a prophet, not the Savior of Israel, but the Savior of the world, and even with the article: He is that Savior, who properly and truly saved all. Many came to save: both the law, and the prophets, and the angels, but the true Savior is He.
Jn. 4:43. After the two days He departed from there and went into Galilee,
The Lord, having left Samaria, comes to Galilee. Then, lest someone begin to investigate and wonder why He did not always remain in Galilee, but came to it at intervals, even though He apparently came from Galilee, he says: "The reason He did not live in Galilee was that the Galileans showed Him no honor."
Jn. 4:44. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. For we people ordinarily despise what has become commonplace, while we always pay attention to what is strange and unusual. What then? Do we not see many who are honored among their own? Yes, but this is very rare. And if some are honored even in their own country, in a foreign land they will be esteemed far more, so that the honor shown in one's homeland, when compared with the honor in a foreign land, will seem like dishonor. For envy does not allow fellow countrymen to render due glory, but they render it diminished, considering it a shame to themselves to glorify one of their own tribe.
Jn. 4:45. When He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast — for they also had gone to the feast.
When the Lord came to Galilee, the Galileans believed, having seen the signs which He had done in Jerusalem. But the Samaritans are worthy of greater commendation, because they believed without signs, by the word of the woman.
Look: those considered rejected are everywhere distinguished by faith; I mean the Samaritans and the Galileans. For these latter too were despised as living in a rustic manner, which is why they said that no prophet comes from Galilee (John 7:52). But those considered chosen, such as the Jerusalem Jews, are rejected. Truly, we Gentiles too have been rightly received. For in His own homeland, understood in another sense as the Jewish synagogue, the "Prophet" Christ had no honor, as Moses calls Him: the Lord our God will raise up a prophet (Deut. 18:15).
Jn. 4:46. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. And there was a certain nobleman in Capernaum, whose son was sick.
The Evangelist reminds us of the miracle at Cana, where water was turned into wine, first of all, in order to more clearly set forth the merit of the Samaritans. "The Galileans," he says, "received the Lord on account of the signs performed in Jerusalem and among them, but the Samaritans — on the sole testimony of a woman and on the teaching of the Lord Himself."
Secondly, in order to show us that from the miracle at Cana the royal official also received a certain good, though not entirely worthy, understanding of Christ. He calls him "royal" either because he was of royal lineage, or because he held some dignity of authority bearing that title. Someone might say: "Is this royal official not one and the same as the centurion mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 8:5–15)? For he too was in Capernaum."
I think that it is not the same person, but another. That one, when Christ wants to come, holds Him back, saying: "I am not worthy that You should come under my roof" (Matt. 8:8). But this one earnestly calls Jesus to his house. That one had a servant suffering from paralysis, that is, a slave, while this one had a son — with a fever. There the Lord came to Capernaum after descending from the mountain, but now He comes from Samaria, and not to Capernaum, but to Cana. In every respect that one is a centurion, and this one is a nobleman by rank.
Jn. 4:47. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come and heal his son, who was at the point of death.
The courtier asks the Lord to come and heal his son, but the Lord rebukes him for believing not fully, but only in part. For the words "come down before my child dies" (John 4:49) reveal that his faith is weak. He does not believe that even in the event of his son's death, the Lord is powerful enough to raise him.
Jn. 4:48. Jesus said to him: you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders.
Therefore, reproaching him, He says: "you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders," condemning along with him the other inhabitants of Capernaum as well. For they are everywhere presented as guilty of great unbelief.
Jn. 4:49. The royal official says to Him: Lord! Come before my son dies.
Jn. 4:50. Jesus says to him: Go, your son is well. He believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went.
Since the nobleman was unsteady in his thoughts and insisted that the Lord come to heal his son, the Savior shows him that He can heal him even from a distance, and says: "Go, your son lives." Thus, in one stroke He healed the son of his fever and the father of his unbelief.
Know also that a miracle is one thing, and a sign is another. A miracle is that which is beyond nature, for example, to open the eyes of one born blind, to raise the dead; while a sign is that which is not outside of nature, for example, to heal the sick.
Such a miracle the Lord performs even now upon everyone who comes to Him. Every person is, as it were, a royal man, not only because he is akin in soul to the King of all, but also because he himself has received royal authority over everything. It often turns out that someone's mind, like the son of a courtier, suffers from the fire of inappropriate pleasures and from lusts. If he goes to Jesus and asks Him to come, that is, to show the condescension of His love for mankind and to forgive him his sins, before he dies completely from the disease of lusts (for if God does not condescend to us but looks upon our iniquities and judges according to them, then "who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3))—so then, if he goes to Christ, he will, as it is said (Matt. 7:7–8), find what he seeks and obtain health for his mind.
However, notice that the Lord says to him: "Go, your son lives," that is, do not be immovable toward the good, but go and show unceasing movement toward the good. For in that case your son is alive. But if you cease your journey, then your mind will finally die, having received deadness from immovability toward the good.
Jn. 4:51. On the road his servants met him and said: your son is well.
The servants, astonished by the sudden change in the illness, meet their master and tell him about his son's health. For he was freed from the fever not gradually or as if by chance, but suddenly.
This matter was obviously not a consequence of nature, but an action of the power of Christ.
Jn. 4:52. He inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
Jn. 4:53. From this the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said to him: your son is well, and he himself believed, and his whole house.
Having learned from the servants the hour in which the son got better, that is, when the son came into a better and healthy condition, the father completely believes in the Lord. For his previous faith was imperfect.
Do not tell me that he would not have gone to Christ if he had not believed. For fathers, out of love for their children, usually turn to physicians not only skilled but also unskilled, not wishing to leave anything undone. So he came by faith, let us grant this too, but by a faith cold and imperfect, which one would not even call faith; and then, when he learned also of the hour, he believed completely.
Jn. 4:54. This is the second miracle Jesus performed after returning from Judea to Galilee.
Why does the evangelist say that this was the second miracle Jesus performed in Cana? In order to show what praise the Samaritans deserve; for although, he says, this was the second miracle, nevertheless the Galileans did not reach the height of those who had not seen a single sign and yet believed.
Jn. 4:1. When Jesus learned that the report had reached the Pharisees that He was gaining more disciples and baptizing than John, –
Jn. 4:2. Although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples,
The Evangelist, hinting at the slander of the envious, says that although Jesus did not baptize, nevertheless the envious, wishing to incite the Pharisees against Christ, slandered Him by saying that He was baptizing.
Jn. 4:3. He left Judea and went again into Galilee.
The Lover of mankind, having once become incarnate for us, does everything for our benefit. So now too, having learned that the Pharisees heard of His fame, and knowing that they would envy Him and rise up against Him, He withdraws to Galilee, teaching us two things: first, to spare our enemies and to make every effort not to give them occasion for offense or envy; second, not to subject ourselves to temptations senselessly and without profit, but to withdraw for a time until the fury subsides.
Though He is powerful enough to stop His enviers even if they were to rush upon Him, He nevertheless withdraws, so that the matter of the Incarnation would not appear to be phantasmal. For if He were constantly removing Himself from their midst, what would the phantasiadocetists not have said — that is, Manes, Valentinus, the accursed Eutyches, and their disciples?
Jn. 4:4. And He had to pass through Samaria.
He comes to the Samaritans as if in passing. Notice: He did not say "it was necessary to go to Samaria," but "to pass through Samaria." He wanted to deprive the Jews of every pretext for accusation, so that they could not say that He, having left them, went over to the unclean—the Gentiles. For only when they drove Him out did He go over to the Gentiles, and even then not deliberately, but in passing.
It is worth saying where the Samaritans came from and from what they received such a name. Somoron was the name of a mountain, after the name of its owner, as Isaiah also says: "the head of Ephraim is Somoron" (Isa. 7:9). Those living beneath the mountain were originally called not Samaritans but Israelites. But for their offenses against God they were at various times delivered over to the Assyrians. Finally, when they resolved to rebel, the Assyrian took them captive and, fearing a new apostasy, did not permit them to remain any longer in their own country, but resettled them among the Babylonians and Medes, and from there brought peoples from various places and settled them in Samaria. After this, God, wishing to show the barbarians that He had delivered the Jews to them not out of His own powerlessness but for their sin, sent lions upon the barbarians who had resettled in Samaria, and the lions destroyed them all without exception. When this was brought to the attention of the king, he summons certain Jewish elders who were in captivity and asks what should be done so that the lions would no longer destroy the barbarians living in Samaria. They explain to him that the God of Israel watches over that place and does not suffer those ignorant of His laws to dwell there. Therefore, if he cares about the barbarians there, it is necessary to send Jewish priests who would teach the barbarians the laws of God; and in this way God would be appeased. The king heeds them and sends a priest to teach the Samaritan barbarians the law of God (2 Kings 17:24–28). But they accepted not all the divine books, only the five of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Nor did they completely abandon impiety, but only from time to time turned away from idols and honored God. Therefore the Jews, upon their return from captivity, always treated them with hatred as Assyrians by origin, and called them Samaritans after the name of the mountain. But they called themselves descendants of Abraham and Jacob, because Abraham was a Chaldean, and they considered Jacob their own on account of the well that was located there. The Jews, however, considered them unclean along with all the Gentiles, which is why as a reproach to the Lord they said: "You are a Samaritan" (John 8:48). And He Himself said to the disciples: "Do not enter a city of the Samaritans" (Matt. 10:5).
Jn. 4:5. So He comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Why does the Evangelist speak in detail about the place and the well of Jacob? First, so that you would not be amazed when you hear the woman say: "Our father Jacob gave us this well." For this place was Sychem (Shechem), where the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, carried out a cruel slaughter because their sister Dinah had been violated by the prince of the Shechemites. Then, from what the Evangelist conveys to us about the place and the well, we learn that the rejection of the Jews was from of old on account of their sins, and when they offended God, the Gentiles took possession of their places, and that they destroyed through impiety what the patriarchs had acquired through faith in Christ. Therefore it is nothing new if even now the Gentiles have been brought into the Kingdom of Heaven in place of the Jews. The place given by Jacob to Joseph was called Sychem. The sons of Jacob, having destroyed the Shechemites, laid waste the city, and once laid waste it was given by the father as an inheritance to Joseph.
Jn. 4:6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, being wearied from His journey, sat down by the well.
The Evangelist, by saying that the Lord grew weary from the journey, shows us His humility and moderation, for He did not use beasts of burden for traveling, but went on foot, teaching us also not to require much. He also shows that He made the journey with effort, and not carelessly; from which we too learn to carry out the work of God with effort and diligence.
The word "sat" means that He sat down simply and, as it happened, not on a throne, but quite simply, resting His body on the pavement and refreshing it at the well.
Jn. 4:6. It was about the sixth hour.
Then He introduces another reason for why He sat by the well – that it was midday: "It was," he says, "about the sixth hour."
Note, if you will, the precision of the Evangelist as well. He did not say definitively "it was the sixth hour," but, so as not to err against the truth, he said "it was about the sixth hour," lending credibility to his word.
Jn. 4:7. A woman from Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give Me to drink.
And furthermore, lest anyone accuse the Lord of the fact that, having commanded His disciples not to go on the path to the Gentiles, He Himself comes to the Samaritans, for this reason he says that His sitting in this place was due to weariness, and that the conversation with the woman had a reasonable pretext — thirst. Since as a result of His human nature He thirsted, He also had need of drink.
When He asks for a drink, a woman with an inquisitive soul enters into conversation with Him. What then was to be done? Should He have rejected a woman so inquisitive and thirsting to hear the resolution of her perplexities? But this is by no means characteristic of the love of God for mankind.
Jn. 4:8. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Note, if you will, the Lord's modesty here as well. He remains alone by the road while the disciples have gone off to the city to buy food. They considered the needs of the stomach so secondary that at a time when nearly everyone had already dined and was resting, they were only just buying food — that is, bread alone — so that we too might learn not to concern ourselves with a variety of dishes.
Jn. 4:9. The Samaritan woman says to Him: How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
By appearance and, perhaps, by clothing, and by other bodily bearing, and by the conversation itself, the Samaritan woman took the Lord for a Jew, which is why she says to Him: "How is it that you, being a Jew," and so on. See how perceptive the woman was. If anyone needed to be on guard, it would have been the Lord, not her. For she did not say "Samaritans have no dealings with Jews," but rather "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." Nevertheless, the woman does not stop at this, but, having thought that the Lord was doing something unlawful, she corrects what was not according to the law.
Jn. 4:10. Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that says to you: Give Me to drink, you yourself would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
Christ does not reveal Himself until the woman's virtue has been made manifest. But when the woman's virtue was revealed — her perceptiveness and exactness — then He begins to converse with her about higher matters. "If you," He says, "knew the gift of God," that is, if you knew what God grants, that He grants eternal and imperishable blessings, if you also knew Me, knew that I, as God, am able to give them to you — then you would have asked and would have received living water.
He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit "water," because it cleanses those who receive it and imparts to them great refreshment — not stagnant water, such as is found in pits and wells, putrid and spoiled, but "living" water, that is, springing up, leaping forth, flowing swiftly. For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul always active toward good, always making ascents (Ps. 84:5). Such water, living and always active, Paul drank, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13–14).
Jn. 4:11. The woman says to Him: Sir! You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then do You get living water?
The woman says to Him, "Lord!" Do you see how quickly she abandoned her low opinion and renders Him great honor, calling Him Lord. However, she did not grasp the depth of Christ's words, but He speaks of water in one sense, while she understands it in another sense.
Jn. 4:12. Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, and his children, and his livestock?
He considers Jacob his father and counts himself among the Jewish nobility. Look, if you will, at the woman's intelligence, how quickly she concludes from the difference of the waters about the difference of the givers. "If," she says, "You give such water, then without a doubt You are greater than Jacob, who gave us this present water."
The words "and he himself drank from it" indicate the pleasantness of the water. "The patriarch," he says, "was so pleased with this spring that both he himself and his children drank from it."
The words "and his cattle drank" point to the abundance of water. "This water," he says, "is not only pleasant, and so pleasant that Jacob drank it, but also abundant, and so abundant that it sufficed for the multitude of the patriarch's cattle."
Jn. 4:13. Jesus said to her in reply: everyone who drinks this water will thirst again,
Jn. 4:14. But whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
When the woman said "are You greater than our father," the Lord, although He does not say directly that I am indeed greater, lest He appear vainglorious before having yet presented proof of His power, nevertheless prepares her for this with His words: "whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks My water will not thirst." That is, if you marvel at Jacob, who gave this water, then all the more should you marvel at Me, who gives far better water. For the water that I give becomes a source of water that constantly and unceasingly multiplies. For the saints not only preserve to the end what they receive from God, but through grace they receive the seeds and firstfruits of good, and themselves multiply and increase them.
The Lord points to this with the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–31) and of the innkeeper (Luke 10:35). He who received two talents through putting them to work acquired another two (Matt. 25:17). And to the innkeeper who took in the man wounded by robbers, the Lord promises: "whatever more you spend, I will repay you" (Luke 10:35).
The Lord points to this here as well. I give water to the thirsty; but the water that I give does not remain in the same measure, but multiplies and becomes a source. Thus, in the instructions of Ananias, the Lord gave Paul a little water (Acts 9:17); but this small water of Ananias's teaching Paul showed to be a source, so that the streams of this source reached from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
Jn. 4:15. The woman says to Him: Sir! Give me this water, so that I may not thirst and not come here to draw.
What disposition does the woman show at this point? Although not yet a lofty one, for she thinks the discussion is about physical water, nevertheless she does reveal some forward progress. Before, she was perplexed and said, "Where do You have living water?" But now, having accepted that word as certain, she says, "Give me this water."
Therefore she appears more understanding than Nicodemus. He, after hearing a great many similar things, said: "How can this be?" (John 3:9). But she already begins to disregard even the well of Jacob. "If," she says, "You have such water, then give it to me, and I will no longer come here to draw." Do you see how she already places the Lord above Jacob.
Jn. 4:16. Jesus says to her: Go and call your husband and come here.
Seeing that she insists on receiving, and urges Him to give, He says: "Call your husband," as if showing that he too must share with you in this gift of Mine.
Jn. 4:17. The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: you have rightly said that you have no husband,
She, in order to more quickly conceal and at the same time obtain, says: "I have no husband."
Jn. 4:18. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.
Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing.
Some understand the "five" husbands of the Samaritan woman to mean the five books which alone the Samaritan woman accepted. "The one," He says, "whom you now have, that is, My teaching, which you now receive from Me, is not your husband; for you have not yet been joined to My teaching—that of Jesus."
Another may say that the Samaritan woman serves as an image of human nature. Our nature formerly dwelt on a mountain, possessing a mind full of divine grace. For Adam, before he sinned, was adorned with all divine gifts. He was also a prophet. Having awakened from sleep, he spoke clearly about the creation of his wife and the relationship of a husband to her, for he said: "This is now bone of my bones" and "For this reason... a man shall leave his father and mother" (Gen. 2:23–24). On this mountain, this lofty mind, was our nature, but for offending God it was led away into captivity. And the devil, having taken us captive, carried off the holy seed, that is, every divine thought, into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this present world. In place of holy thoughts he settled coarse thoughts: lions reigning in us devoured our good thoughts, until they were persuaded to accept the sayings of God. But they did not accept them wholly. For wickedness, having once settled on our mountain, that is, in the mind, although it accepted the books of Moses, nevertheless did not become wholly good, but was still under a curse. And so Jesus, having completed His journey, that is, having traversed the many paths of the dispensation and the means for our salvation, improving our life now by threats, now by the blows of calamities, now by benefactions, now by promises of good things, and laboring to correct us by such means, grew weary. But He found yet another dispensation, upon which, as satisfactory, He sat down and rested. What was it? The fountain of baptism, by which He bestowed grace upon our nature, as upon a certain Samaritan woman. This fountain of baptism may rightly be called the fountain of Jacob, that is, of the supplanter, for in this fountain everyone tramples upon the devil. In it the Lord also crushed the head of the dragon, whom He gave as food to the Ethiopian people (Ps. 73:14). For it is none other than people darkened and black in soul, having no share in the divine light, who delight in and feed upon this dragon.
Five husbands entered into union with this nature of ours—the different laws given to it by God: the law in paradise, the law under Noah, the law under Abraham, the law under Moses, the law through the prophets. For Noah after the flood received a certain commandment (Gen. 9:1–17), and Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Gen. 17:1–14). Having been joined to these five laws, our nature afterwards also received the sixth law of the New Testament, which it had not had as a husband and with which it had not yet been united.
Another person may understand the sixth husband, whom our nature did not have as a husband, as the law of idolatry. For this law was not given to it by God as a husband, but it mingled with it as an adulteress. Therefore the prophet also says: "and they committed fornication upon the wood" (Jer. 2:20), and again: "she committed fornication behind every tree" (Ezek. 16), speaking, evidently, of the fact that they worshipped idols and trees. For our nature descended to such madness that they even offered sacrifices to beautiful trees—cypresses, sycamores, and the like—on account of their beauty. So when man loved this sixth adulterer and fell into idolatry, then the Lord comes and frees us from him, and therefore He says: "the one whom you now have." For by the time of Christ's coming, indeed, even the wise men among the Jews had turned to paganism, as the heresy of the Pharisees shows, who believed in fate and astrology.
The Samaritan woman is also every soul that has foolishly submitted itself to the five senses, and then accepted false teachings as well, as a sort of sixth adulterer, but upon which Jesus bestows His grace either through baptism or through a fountain of tears. Tears too can be called the well of Jacob, that is, of our mind that tramples upon evil. This water is drunk both by the mind itself, and by its children—the thoughts, and by its cattle—the irrational parts of the soul: anger and desire. For tears serve as refreshment for the mind, for the thoughts, and for the other powers of the soul.
Jn. 4:19. The woman says to Him: Lord! I see that You are a prophet.
Did she not become annoyed upon hearing this? Did she not leave Him and run away? No, she was even more amazed, even more strengthened, and says: "Lord, I see that You are a prophet"; and she asks Him about divine matters, not about worldly ones, such as bodily health or possessions. So chaste and well-disposed toward virtue is her soul! What then does she ask about?
Jn. 4:20. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,
She says this about Abraham and his successors. "For here," they say, "Isaac was offered by him as a sacrifice."
You say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.
"How is it then," she says, "that you say one must worship in Jerusalem?" Do you see how she rose higher? Shortly before this she was concerned about not suffering from thirst, but now she asks about doctrine (dogmas).
Jn. 4:21. Jesus says to her: Believe Me, that the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Therefore Christ too, seeing her understanding, although He does not resolve this perplexity of hers (for it was not of particular importance), reveals another, more important truth, which He had not revealed either to Nicodemus or to Nathanael. "The time is coming," He says, "when God will be worshipped neither in Jerusalem nor here." "You," He says, "are trying to prove that the Samaritan customs are worthier than the Jewish customs. But I tell you that neither the one nor the other have worth, but another certain order will come which is better than both of these. But even in this I declare that the Jews are worthier than the Samaritans."
Jn. 4:22. You do not know what you worship, but we know what we worship,
"You," He says, "worship what you do not know, but we, the Jews, worship what we know." He numbers Himself among the Jews, because He speaks in accordance with the woman's understanding, and she regarded Him as a Jewish prophet. For this reason He also says: "we" worship.
How then did the Samaritans not know what they worshipped? They thought that God was limited to a place. Therefore, when lions were devouring them, as was said above, they sent messengers to report to the king of the Assyrians that the God of that place did not tolerate them. However, even after that they long continued to serve idols, and not God Himself. But the Jews were free from such a notion and, though not all of them, acknowledged Him as the God of all.
Jn. 4:22. For salvation is from the Jews.
These words present to us a twofold meaning. Either that the blessings for the world came from the Jews, for the knowledge of God and the rejection of idols has its beginning from them, and all the other teachings (dogmas), and this very form of your Samaritan worship, although incorrect, received its beginning from the Jews as well. Or He calls His coming "salvation," which was from the Jews. One may also understand by "salvation" the Lord Himself, Who according to the flesh was from the Jews.
Jn. 4:23. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.
Jn. 4:24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Although we Jews surpass you Samaritans in the form of worship, the form of Jewish worship will also eventually come to an end. And the change will occur not only in the place, but also in the manner of worship, and this change is very near and has already arrived. For these things will not hold significance for all time, as the sayings of the prophets do.
He calls true worshippers those who live according to His law, who do not confine God to a place, as the Samaritans do, nor honor Him with bodily service, as the Jews do, but worship in spirit and truth, that is, with the soul, with purity of mind. Since God is spirit, that is, incorporeal, one must also worship Him incorporeally, that is, with the soul. This is what is meant by the words "in spirit." For the soul is a spirit and an incorporeal being. And since many apparently worship Him with the soul but do not have a true conception of Him — for example, heretics — He therefore added: "and in truth." For one must worship God with the mind, but one must also have a true conception of Him.
Another might say that here by these two words "in spirit and truth" are hinted the two parts of our philosophy: the practical and the contemplative. By the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at. For, according to the words of the divine apostle, all who are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13–14). And again: "the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh" (Gal. 5:17). Thus, by the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at, while by the word "in truth" the contemplative. So also Paul (1 Cor. 5:8) understands it, when he says "with the unleavened bread of sincerity," that is, purity of life, or what is the same, the practical, "and truth," that is, the contemplative, for contemplation is occupied with the truth of dogmatic teaching.
And in another sense: since the Samaritans confined God to a place and said that one must worship in this place, while among the Jews everything was performed in types and shadows, against the distinction of the Samaritans He uses the word "in spirit," so that the meaning is as follows: you Samaritans perform some local worship of God, but the true worshippers will perform not a local one, for they will worship "in spirit," that is, with the mind and soul. They will not worship under a type and shadow, as the Jews, but "in truth," since the customs and rites of the Jews will be abolished.
Since the Jewish law, understood literally, was a type and shadow, perhaps the word "in spirit" is used to distinguish from the letter; for in us the law that operates is no longer the law of the letter, but of the spirit, for "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). To distinguish from the type and shadow, the word "in truth" is used.
"The time is coming," He says, "and has already come," namely: the time of My manifestation in the flesh, when true worshippers will worship not in one place, as the Samaritans, but in every place "in spirit," performing worship that is not merely bodily, as Paul also says (Whom (God) I serve "in my spirit" (Rom. 1:9)), they will perform a service that is not figurative, shadowy, and pointing to the future, as the Jews did, but a service that is true and has no shadows whatsoever. For God seeks such worshippers for Himself: as Spirit — spiritual ones, as Truth — true ones.
Jn. 4:25. The woman says to Him: I know that the Messiah is coming, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will declare all things to us.
From where did the woman know that the Messiah, called Christ, would come? From the writings of Moses. For we said above that the Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch of Moses. Since they accepted the books of Moses, from them they knew the prophecy about Christ and that He is the Son of God.
Thus the words "let us make man" (Gen. 1:26) were obviously spoken by the Father to the Son. The One who conversed with Abraham in the tent was the Son (Gen. 18); Jacob spoke prophetically about Him: "the scepter shall not depart from Judah, until he comes to whom it is reserved" (Gen. 49:10), and Moses himself: "the Lord will raise up a prophet from among your brothers, like me; him you shall hear" (Deut. 18:15), and many other passages proclaim the coming of Christ.
Therefore the woman also says: "I know that Messiah is coming."
Jn. 4:26. Jesus says to her: It is I, Who am speaking with you.
When, thus, the very course of the conversation demanded it, the Lord already reveals Himself to her (the Samaritan woman). If He had said from the very beginning that Christ is I, He would not have convinced the woman, and might even have appeared somewhat arrogant and proud. But now, having little by little caused her to recall the promise concerning Christ, He already reveals Himself as well.
Why then does He tell the woman that He is the Messiah, but does not reveal Himself to the Jews, who often asked: "Tell us, are You the Christ?" He said nothing to them because they asked not in order to learn the truth, but in order to slander Him all the more; but to her He clearly reveals Himself, because she is well-intentioned. She asked sincerely and with a desire to learn the truth. This is evident also from what follows. Having heard the revelation, she not only believed herself, but also drew others to the faith, and in everything she shows herself to be a woman of substance and of faith.
Jn. 4:27. At that point His disciples came, and they marveled that He was talking with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
While the conversation with the woman and the teaching were already coming to an end, the disciples came and marveled at His humility, by which He spoke with such condescension to a woman who was poor and a Samaritan, whereas He was held in glory and renown by all. They marvel, yet do not dare to ask what He is speaking about with her. So well trained were they, and so well did they maintain the proper respect of disciples toward their Teacher!
In other cases they appear to be bold. For example, John reclines on His breast (Jn. 13:25); they come forward with the question: "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (Mt. 18:1); the sons of Zebedee ask that one might sit at the right hand and the other at the left (Mk. 10:35, 37). In these cases they ask about what concerned themselves and what seemed to them at that time to be necessary. But since here the question did not occupy them so much and was not absolutely necessary, they do not employ boldness as being untimely.
Jn. 4:28. Then the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city, and says to the people:
From the Lord's words, the woman's heart was so inflamed that she even left her water jar behind. So quickly did she prefer the water of Christ to the well of Jacob, and by the faith that embraced her heart, she is elevated to the rank of apostle, teaching and drawing an entire city.
Jn. 4:29. Come, see a Man who told me everything that I have done.
Truly, a soul inflamed by divine fire looks upon nothing earthly, neither upon shame nor upon dishonor. And so she is not ashamed to reveal her deeds, but says: "Who told me everything that I have done." She could have said otherwise: "Come, see a prophet who prophesies"; but she does not say so, rather she disregards the opinion about herself and has in mind one thing only – to proclaim the truth.
Jn. 4:29. Is He not the Christ?
She does not say affirmatively that He is the Christ, but rather "is not this the Christ?" in order to bring them to the same opinion as herself and to make her word more readily acceptable. For if she had affirmed that He is the Christ, some perhaps would not have agreed and would not have accepted the opinion of a woman who was rejected.
Jn. 4:30. They went out of the city and came to Him.
Jn. 4:31. In the meanwhile His disciples asked Him, saying: Rabbi, eat.
The disciples were asking, that is, urging the Lord to eat, not out of impudence, but out of great love for the Teacher, for they saw that He was wearied from the journey and from the scorching heat.
Jn. 4:32. He said to them: I have food to eat that you do not know about.
But the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman would draw almost the entire city to Him and that the Samaritans would believe in Him, says: "I have something to eat, namely, the salvation of people, because I desire this salvation as none of you desire physical food. The food that I have to eat, you, My disciples, do not know. You are still carnal and cannot understand what I say in a veiled manner, and therefore you do not know that by food I mean the salvation of people." And in another sense: "You do not know this food, for you do not know that the Samaritans will believe in Me and be saved."
Calling the salvation of people His food, the Lord teaches the disciples so that they too, when they are ordained as teachers of the universe, would not concern themselves much with bodily food, but would devote all their zeal to the salvation of people.
Jn. 4:33. Therefore the disciples said to one another: has anyone brought Him something to eat?
What about the disciples? They are still wondering whether someone has brought Him something to eat. But they do not dare to put the question to Him, out of their customary reverence for Him.
Note also that the Lord would accept food whenever someone brought it to Him. For the disciples say: "Has anyone brought Him something to eat?"
The Lord did this not because He needed the service of others, for He Himself gives food to all flesh (Ps. 135:25), but so that those who brought offerings would have a reward and would grow accustomed to feeding others as well, and to show all people that one need not be ashamed of poverty nor be burdened when receiving sustenance from others. For teachers it is both fitting and even necessary to entrust the cares of food to others, so that they themselves might carry out the ministry of the Word without distraction. For this reason He even commanded the disciples to be fed at the expense of those whom they instructed (Luke 10:7).
Jn. 4:34. Jesus says to them: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
However, He, although they did not ask, explains what was said cryptically and says: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me (for the salvation of people is the will of God) and to finish His work." The prophets and the law could not finish the work of God, because, being types and shadows of future blessings, they themselves were imperfect. But the Lord finished the work of God, that is, our salvation and renewal. By the work of God, understand, perhaps, man, whom only the Son of God perfected, since He in Himself showed our nature to be sinless and, through the divine life in the flesh, perfected in every good deed, showed it to be complete and conquered the world to the end.
And the law is a work of God, since it was written by the finger of God (Deut. 9:10). The Lord fulfilled this law, because Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). He brought to an end everything that was performed under the law and elevated its service from the bodily to the spiritual.
The Lord often speaks in a veiled manner in order to make His listeners more attentive, to arouse them to investigate and understand what is said in a hidden way.
Jn. 4:35. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'?
The Lord now begins to reveal more clearly to the disciples what He had previously said in a veiled manner. He says: "You say, that is, you think, that in four months the harvest will come, that is, the physical harvest; but I say to you that the spiritual harvest has already arrived." He said this about the Samaritans, who were already coming to Him.
Jn. 4:35. But I say to you: lift up your eyes and look at the fields, how they have turned white and are ripe for harvest.
"Lift up your eyes," both intellectual and sensory, and look at the multitude of Samaritans coming here, and at their souls, disposed and ready for faith, which, like whitened fields, are in need of harvest. For just as ears of grain, when they turn white, are ready for harvest, so too are they ready for salvation.
Some apply the words "look at the fields, how they are white and ready for harvest" to the elderly, on account of their gray hair and their being reaped by death.
Jn. 4:36. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, so that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
The meaning of these words is as follows: the prophets sowed, but did not reap. Nevertheless, through this they were not deprived of enjoyment, but rejoice together with us, even though they do not reap together with us. In material harvests this does not happen. There, if it happens that one sows and another reaps, the one who does not reap grieves. But in spiritual harvests it is not so. Rather, even the prophets, who preached and predisposed the minds of people, rejoice together with us who have drawn people to salvation.
Jn. 4:37. For in this case the saying is true: one sows, and another reaps.
A true saying he calls the proverb that was in common use among the people: "One sows, and another reaps."
Jn. 4:38. I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor: others labored, and you have entered into their labor.
"I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor." The Lord says this so that, when He sends the disciples to preach, they would not be troubled by the fact that they are being sent to a difficult task. "The most difficult part," He says, "the prophets took upon themselves, but I am sending you to what is already prepared."
See how He says everything with authority and command: "I sent you to reap." Let the disciples of the accursed Marcion hear this, and of Manes, and of those like them, who alienate the Old Testament from the New. They are refuted here as well. For if the Old Testament were foreign to the New, how would the apostles have reaped what was sown by the prophets? But if the apostles reaped what was sown in the Old Testament, then it is not foreign to the New Testament, but both are one Testament. Let the Arians also hear that Christ sends His disciples as Lord and Master. He sends them so that they might reap and cut away from earthly things the Gentiles and Jews who had become attached to them, and carry them to the threshing floor, that is, to the Church. In it, through the threshing by oxen, that is, by teachers, and through submission to them, they are ground down and, being freed from all chaff, from everything carnal and consumed by fire, are stored as pure grain in the heavenly granary, and then become food for God, who rejoices in their salvation. Thus Paul reaped, cutting us away from the earth and teaching that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Jn. 4:39. And many of the Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman, who testified that He told her everything she had done.
The Samaritans believe based on the woman's word, reasonably judging by themselves that a woman would not have openly revealed her life before everyone to please another, if the one she proclaimed were not truly great and superior to many.
Jn. 4:40. And so, when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Jn. 4:41. And a still greater number believed because of His word.
Therefore, proving their faith by deeds, they asked Him to remain with them permanently. For "to stay" means precisely to settle completely. But He does not agree to this, and spends only two days with them, and through His teaching an even greater number of them believed.
Although the Evangelist does not narrate in detail the wondrous words of His teaching, he gives us to understand the power of His divine teaching from the outcome of the matter. For the Evangelists omit much even of the great deeds, because they write not from motives of vainglory, but for the sake of truth. It is likely that while among the Samaritans the Lord also taught something divine, because they, without having seen any miracle, believe in Him and ask Him to stay. But the Jews, who were granted by Him countless words and miracles, still drove Him away. Truly, "a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Mic. 7:6; Matt. 10:36).
Jn. 4:42. And they said to that woman: we no longer believe because of your words, for we ourselves have heard and know that He is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.
Look, indeed, in a short time the people surpassed their teacher. For they call Him not a prophet, not the Savior of Israel, but the Savior of the world, and even with the article: He is that Savior, who properly and truly saved all. Many came to save: both the law, and the prophets, and the angels, but the true Savior is He.
Jn. 4:43. After the two days He departed from there and went into Galilee,
The Lord, having left Samaria, comes to Galilee. Then, lest someone begin to investigate and wonder why He did not always remain in Galilee, but came to it at intervals, even though He apparently came from Galilee, he says: "The reason He did not live in Galilee was that the Galileans showed Him no honor."
Jn. 4:44. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. For we people ordinarily despise what has become commonplace, while we always pay attention to what is strange and unusual. What then? Do we not see many who are honored among their own? Yes, but this is very rare. And if some are honored even in their own country, in a foreign land they will be esteemed far more, so that the honor shown in one's homeland, when compared with the honor in a foreign land, will seem like dishonor. For envy does not allow fellow countrymen to render due glory, but they render it diminished, considering it a shame to themselves to glorify one of their own tribe.
Jn. 4:45. When He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast — for they also had gone to the feast.
When the Lord came to Galilee, the Galileans believed, having seen the signs which He had done in Jerusalem. But the Samaritans are worthy of greater commendation, because they believed without signs, by the word of the woman.
Look: those considered rejected are everywhere distinguished by faith; I mean the Samaritans and the Galileans. For these latter too were despised as living in a rustic manner, which is why they said that no prophet comes from Galilee (John 7:52). But those considered chosen, such as the Jerusalem Jews, are rejected. Truly, we Gentiles too have been rightly received. For in His own homeland, understood in another sense as the Jewish synagogue, the "Prophet" Christ had no honor, as Moses calls Him: the Lord our God will raise up a prophet (Deut. 18:15).
Jn. 4:46. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. And there was a certain nobleman in Capernaum, whose son was sick.
The Evangelist reminds us of the miracle at Cana, where water was turned into wine, first of all, in order to more clearly set forth the merit of the Samaritans. "The Galileans," he says, "received the Lord on account of the signs performed in Jerusalem and among them, but the Samaritans — on the sole testimony of a woman and on the teaching of the Lord Himself."
Secondly, in order to show us that from the miracle at Cana the royal official also received a certain good, though not entirely worthy, understanding of Christ. He calls him "royal" either because he was of royal lineage, or because he held some dignity of authority bearing that title. Someone might say: "Is this royal official not one and the same as the centurion mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 8:5–15)? For he too was in Capernaum."
I think that it is not the same person, but another. That one, when Christ wants to come, holds Him back, saying: "I am not worthy that You should come under my roof" (Matt. 8:8). But this one earnestly calls Jesus to his house. That one had a servant suffering from paralysis, that is, a slave, while this one had a son — with a fever. There the Lord came to Capernaum after descending from the mountain, but now He comes from Samaria, and not to Capernaum, but to Cana. In every respect that one is a centurion, and this one is a nobleman by rank.
Jn. 4:47. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come and heal his son, who was at the point of death.
The courtier asks the Lord to come and heal his son, but the Lord rebukes him for believing not fully, but only in part. For the words "come down before my child dies" (John 4:49) reveal that his faith is weak. He does not believe that even in the event of his son's death, the Lord is powerful enough to raise him.
Jn. 4:48. Jesus said to him: you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders.
Therefore, reproaching him, He says: "you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders," condemning along with him the other inhabitants of Capernaum as well. For they are everywhere presented as guilty of great unbelief.
Jn. 4:49. The royal official says to Him: Lord! Come before my son dies.
Jn. 4:50. Jesus says to him: Go, your son is well. He believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went.
Since the nobleman was unsteady in his thoughts and insisted that the Lord come to heal his son, the Savior shows him that He can heal him even from a distance, and says: "Go, your son lives." Thus, in one stroke He healed the son of his fever and the father of his unbelief.
Know also that a miracle is one thing, and a sign is another. A miracle is that which is beyond nature, for example, to open the eyes of one born blind, to raise the dead; while a sign is that which is not outside of nature, for example, to heal the sick.
Such a miracle the Lord performs even now upon everyone who comes to Him. Every person is, as it were, a royal man, not only because he is akin in soul to the King of all, but also because he himself has received royal authority over everything. It often turns out that someone's mind, like the son of a courtier, suffers from the fire of inappropriate pleasures and from lusts. If he goes to Jesus and asks Him to come, that is, to show the condescension of His love for mankind and to forgive him his sins, before he dies completely from the disease of lusts (for if God does not condescend to us but looks upon our iniquities and judges according to them, then "who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3))—so then, if he goes to Christ, he will, as it is said (Matt. 7:7–8), find what he seeks and obtain health for his mind.
However, notice that the Lord says to him: "Go, your son lives," that is, do not be immovable toward the good, but go and show unceasing movement toward the good. For in that case your son is alive. But if you cease your journey, then your mind will finally die, having received deadness from immovability toward the good.
Jn. 4:51. On the road his servants met him and said: your son is well.
The servants, astonished by the sudden change in the illness, meet their master and tell him about his son's health. For he was freed from the fever not gradually or as if by chance, but suddenly.
This matter was obviously not a consequence of nature, but an action of the power of Christ.
Jn. 4:52. He inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
Jn. 4:53. From this the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said to him: your son is well, and he himself believed, and his whole house.
Having learned from the servants the hour in which the son got better, that is, when the son came into a better and healthy condition, the father completely believes in the Lord. For his previous faith was imperfect.
Do not tell me that he would not have gone to Christ if he had not believed. For fathers, out of love for their children, usually turn to physicians not only skilled but also unskilled, not wishing to leave anything undone. So he came by faith, let us grant this too, but by a faith cold and imperfect, which one would not even call faith; and then, when he learned also of the hour, he believed completely.
Jn. 4:54. This is the second miracle Jesus performed after returning from Judea to Galilee.
Why does the evangelist say that this was the second miracle Jesus performed in Cana? In order to show what praise the Samaritans deserve; for although, he says, this was the second miracle, nevertheless the Galileans did not reach the height of those who had not seen a single sign and yet believed.