John 4

John 4:1-15

• The Samaritans were descendants of the Jews who married those who were resettled in Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
• They built a temple on Mt. Gerizim in 400 BC, but it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, a member of the Maccabeean family and governor of Palestine, in 108 BC.
• 4:2—This is an interesting side-note.
• 4:4—This affirms a Synoptic affirmation that Jesus did not go to Samaria on purpose, per se.
• Oscar Cullmann says that this text is the beginning of an isolated group of Samaritan Christians.
  a. He says that the reference to “other sheep” in John 10 refers to these Samaritan disciples and John winds up leading this community until he disappears in Acts 8.
  b. Could these passages be the “family memories” of people who were cast out of the Temple and isolated from the Christian synagogues in Palestine (1976)?
• 4:6—Soren Kierkegaard says that God has chosen to reveal Himself in particular people at particular times and now time has collapsed back on itself in the person of Jesus (“scandal of particularity” theory) (p. 94ff; Gouwens, p. 130-131).
• 4:9—This provides background material for the Gentile reader.
• Different Images of Water:
  1. 4:6—Jesus is sitting next to a spring.
  2. 4:11-12—The woman identifies it as a cistern.
  3. 4:13-14—Jesus says His water comes from “a living spring.”
  4. 4:15—She understands better than Nicodemus, yet she does not completely understand. She is willing to trust Him so that her life may be easier.

John 4:16-26

• Some scholars have suggested that her first five husbands represent the books of the Pentateuch.
  a. She is not just an immoral woman who is changing the subject; she has picked up on something important because she realizes who Jesus is.
  b. 4:19—She is trying to get deeper into the conversation with Jesus.
  c. 4:21-24—This is crisis time as a new reality will soon be revealed by God. This is not talking about being visible or accurate but about being in the new reality.
  d. 4:26—The One speaking is not only the Messiah but also the “I AM” (God).
• Deuteronomy 12:5—God would choose where people would seek Him.
  a. Eventually that place was Jerusalem, however the Samaritans did not know this.
  b. They were only familiar with the Pentateuch.
• 4:27—The disciples are shocked that Jesus is speaking openly with a woman.
  a. 4:29; cf. 1:46—She says, “Come and see.”
  b. The woman left her jar because she had moved from her earthly concern into a greater spiritual reality. She is placed into the role of midwife missionary, although she is still uncertain of Jesus’ identity.
  c. 4:33—The disciples, the “in” group, are just as dense as everyone else.
  d. 4:34-38—Food and mission are redefined.
  i. 4:35—Perhaps is was C. H. Dodd who said that Jesus motions across a flat plain to a group on oncoming Samaritans.
  ii. 4:37-38—Oscar Cullmann labored over the meaning of this passage (1963, p. 183-184):
  1) Does this refer to the Samaritans?
  2) Or does it refer to a looking back with the Gentile Christians accepting Christ?
• 4:39-42—The Samaritans ask Jesus to stay and He remains with them for two days.
  a. The presence of the Holy Spirit also remains with them.
  b. 4:42—They believe, not because of the woman’s chatter (lalain), but because they have heard the Word of God for themselves.
• Our faith needs to be based on our own experience in seeking the truth, rather than through being spoon-fed facts or hollow emotionalism.

John's View of Mission (from Dr. Stepp)

1. Jesus is God’s agent, sent by God to do God’s work by revealing what He has seen of God (1:18, 5:30-38, etc.).
2. Jesus passes part of this task on to his disciples (4:38, 17:18).
3. The disciples are to lead people to Jesus, yet the saving activity is God’s work (1:40-49, 4:29-42, 17:20.

John's Pattern of Conversion

1. 4:39; cf., 1:35-36—Someone bears witness to Jesus.
2. 4:40; cf., 1:37-39—Seekers come to Jesus.
3. 4:40; cf., 1:39—A decision to “abide with” or “dwell with” Jesus is made.
4. 4:42; cf., 1:41—The seeker becomes a disciple through confessing Jesus as “Savior of the world” (Talbert, p. 124).

John 4:43-54

• 4:43-45—Does this passage make any sense?
  a. Could the “country” be the Jewish nation as a whole?
  b. 4:45—The Galileans, Jesus’ own people, gladly receive Him.
  c. Remember that many were believing in His signs without seeing to whom the signs were pointing (“sign faith”).
• 4:46—An official, most likely a Gentile, asks Jesus to heal his son.
  a. 4:48—The “you” is plural, possibly being directed toward the Galilean crowd.
  b. 4:50—This is the first example of someone believing, coming to faith, without needing anything else in John’s narrative.
• Some literary critics would say that we move from an impersonal to an intimate identification of the official:
  a. 4:49—The official is the first to come to Jesus desperately.
  b. The woman may have shunned the Light at first, but she come to understand who Jesus is. Yet the official understands only the brevity of life.
  c. 4:53—The Word evokes faith in someone, and he is the first person to be commended for his faith.

References

Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963).

Oscar Cullmann, The Johnannine Circle (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976).

David J. Gouwens, Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Soren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity, Kierkegaard’s Writings, vol. 20, Trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).