John4

Jesus, departing Judaea for Galilee, passed through Samaria where he met a woman at Jacob's well. He offered her "living water," revealed her past, and declared himself the Messiah, leading her and many Samaritans to believe. Subsequently, he healed a nobleman's son in Galilee from a distance, demonstrating his authority and eliciting faith from the nobleman and his household.

Jesus Departs for Galilee

When Yeshua learned that the P’rushim had heard he was making and immersing more talmidim than Yochanan

(although it was not Yeshua himself who immersed but his talmidim),

Yeshua left Y’hudah and set out again for the Galil.

Jesus Must Go Through Samaria

This meant that he had to pass through Shomron.

He came to a town in Shomron called Sh’khem, near the field Ya‘akov had given to his son Yosef.

Ya‘akov’s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon.

The Encounter with the Samaritan Woman

A woman from Shomron came to draw some water; and Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.”

(His talmidim had gone into town to buy food.)

The woman from Shomron said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Shomron?” (For Jews don’t associate with people from Shomron.)

Yeshua answered her, “If you knew God’s gift, that is, who it is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink of water,’ then you would have asked him; and he would have given you living water.”

She said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep; so where do you get this ‘living water’?

You aren’t greater than our father Ya‘akov, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it, and so did his sons and his cattle.”

Yeshua answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!”

“Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so that I won’t have to be thirsty and keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus Reveals Her Past

He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”

She answered, “I don’t have a husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You’re right, you don’t have a husband!

You’ve had five husbands in the past, and you’re not married to the man you’re living with now! You’ve spoken the truth!”

“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman replied.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

“Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place where one has to worship is in Yerushalayim.”

Yeshua said, “Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim.

You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews.

But the time is coming — indeed, it’s here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him.

God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly.”

The woman replied, “I know that Mashiach is coming” (that is, “the one who has been anointed”). “When he comes, he will tell us everything.”

Yeshua said to her, “I, the person speaking to you, am he.”

The Urgent Call to Harvest

Just then, his talmidim arrived. They were amazed that he was talking with a woman; but none of them said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

So the woman left her water-jar, went back to the town and said to the people there,

“Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah?”

They left the town and began coming toward him.

Meanwhile, the talmidim were urging Yeshua, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But he answered, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

At this, the talmidim asked one another, “Could someone have brought him food?”

Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion.

Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest’? Well, what I say to you is: open your eyes and look at the fields! They’re already ripe for harvest!

The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together —

for in this matter, the proverb, ‘One sows and another reaps,’ holds true.

I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have done the hard labor, and you have benefited from their work.”

Many Samaritans Believe

Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things I did.”

So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days,

and many more came to trust because of what he said.

They said to the woman, “We no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus Returns to Galilee

After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil.

Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.”

But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.

Healing the Nobleman’s Son

He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum.

This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!”

The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left.

As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive

So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.”

The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted.

This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.

Study Notes for John 4

Verse 1

Jesus withdraws from Judea to avoid escalating conflict with the Pharisees, who were monitoring his growing popularity relative to John the Baptist.

Verse 2

This parenthetical note clarifies that Jesus oversaw the baptism ministry but his disciples performed the physical act, perhaps emphasizing his unique role or avoiding ritual entanglement.

Verse 4

The phrase 'must needs go through Samaria' suggests a divinely appointed necessity, not just geographical convenience. Jews usually took a longer route to avoid Samaritan territory due to deep ethnic and religious hostility.

Verse 5

Sychar was near Shechem, a location highly significant to Samaritan identity, containing Jacob's well and Mount Gerizim.

Verse 6

The 'sixth hour' (about noon) was the hottest part of the day, explaining why Jesus was weary; it was also an unusual time for a woman to be drawing water, suggesting she may have been avoiding others.

Verse 7

Jesus initiates contact, breaking three major social conventions simultaneously: conversing with a Samaritan, speaking alone with a woman, and asking her to handle a Jewish vessel.

Verse 9

The woman highlights the profound hostility: Jews viewed Samaritans as ritually impure half-breeds; asking for a drink involved sharing vessels, which was strictly forbidden.

Verse 10

Jesus shifts the conversation from physical water to 'the gift of God' (salvation) and introduces the metaphor of 'living water,' which signifies the Holy Spirit and eternal life (cf. John 7:37-39).

Verse 14

This verse defines the spiritual nature of the water Jesus offers: it permanently satisfies the soul's deepest needs and culminates in eternal life.

Verse 16

Jesus abruptly changes the subject, using his omniscience to confront her moral status and move her beyond physical curiosity to spiritual need.

Verse 18

The precise knowledge Jesus displays serves as a sign, confirming his prophetic authority and exposing the woman's broken relational history, which often characterized social outcasts.

Verse 19

Recognizing Jesus as a prophet, the woman immediately introduces the most sensitive religious dispute between Samaritans and Jews: the correct place of worship.

Verse 20

Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim, believing it was the original holy mountain designated by Moses, while Jews insisted on Jerusalem (Mount Zion).

Verse 22

While Jesus affirms that geographical worship is ending, he stresses that salvation history is rooted in the Jewish covenant and prophetic tradition, establishing the theological lineage of Christianity.

Verse 23

The 'true worshippers' inaugurated by Christ will focus on the authenticity of their inner relationship with God, rather than external location or ritual observance.

Verse 24

Because God is immaterial Spirit, human worship must be genuine (truth) and driven by the Spirit, transcending physical temples and cultural boundaries.

Verse 26

This is one of the clearest and most direct Messianic claims Jesus makes in the Gospels, revealing his identity to a Samaritan woman—a social and religious outcast.

Verse 27

The disciples were astonished not only that Jesus was speaking to a woman, but specifically to a Samaritan woman, violating deep-seated Jewish custom.

Verse 32

Jesus uses the disciples’ concern for his physical hunger to introduce a higher, spiritual sustenance—doing God's will.

Verse 34

Jesus defines his central purpose: complete obedience to the Father's mission, which is more satisfying and essential than physical food.

Verse 35

Jesus contrasts the four-month agricultural cycle with the immediate readiness of the spiritual harvest (the Samaritans coming from the city), urging immediate evangelistic action.

Verse 38

Jesus explains the continuity of mission: the disciples are reaping the harvest resulting from the labors of others, including the prophets, John the Baptist, and Jesus himself.

Verse 42

The Samaritans progress from believing based on the woman's testimony (secondary witness) to believing based on Jesus's own word (primary faith), recognizing him as the universal Savior.

Verse 43

Jesus continues his journey north, having successfully established a mission field among the historically neglected Samaritans.

Verse 44

This verse likely explains why Jesus did not stay in Judea (his 'own country' in a broader sense) where opposition was fierce, but sought acceptance in Galilee.

Verse 46

Returning to Cana, the site of his first sign (John 2:1-11), Jesus is approached by a royal official (likely an employee of Herod Antipas) seeking a miracle.

Verse 48

Jesus critiques the popular demand for miraculous signs as a prerequisite for belief, challenging the nobleman to move toward genuine, sign-independent faith.

Verse 50

This healing is performed remotely (a 'distance healing'), emphasizing that the power lies entirely in Jesus’s authoritative word, demanding faith before the physical evidence is observed.

Verse 53

The precise timing of the healing confirms the truth of Jesus’s word, leading to belief not just by the official but by his entire household, demonstrating the scope of the miracle.

Verse 54

John marks this as the ‘second sign’ in Galilee, signaling the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry in that region and confirming his Messianic credentials.

Use ← → arrow keys to navigate