28. ouv. Therefore, because of the interruption: see on iii. 25. 'Topía occurs ii. 6, 7 and nowhere else. Her leaving it to take care of itself (v. 3) shews that her original errand is of no moment compared with what now lies before her; it is also a pledge for her speedy return. This graphic touch is from one who was there, and saw, and remembered.

TOîs ȧveρúπois. The people, those whom she met anywhere. She feels that the wonderful news is for all, not for her husband' only (v. 16). Like Andrew, John, and Philip, her first impulse is to tell others of what she has found, and in almost the same words; 'Come, see' (i. 41-46). The learned Nicodemus had given no sign of being convinced. This ignorant schismatic goes forth in the enthusiasm of conviction to proclaim her belief.

29. Távta á. éπ. How natural is this exaggeration! In her excitement she states not what He had really told her, but what she is convinced He could have told her. Comp. Távtes in iii. 26, and ovdels in iii. 32. This strong language is in all three cases thoroughly in keeping with the circumstances. See on i. 50, xx. 28.

μηT OUтOS. Can this be the Christ? not 'Is not this,' as A.V., which has a similar error xviii. 17, 25. Comp. v. 33, vii. 31, 48, viii. 22, xviii. 35, xxi. 5; where in all cases a negative answer is anticipated; num not nonne. Here, although she believes that He is the Christ, she states it as almost too good to be true. Moreover she does not wish to seem too positive and dogmatic to those who do not yet know the evidence.

30. nov...OVTO. Went out...were coming (comp. v. 27): the single act (aorist) is contrasted with what took some time (imperf.). See on xi. 29. We are to see them coming across the fields as we listen to the conversation that follows (31-38).

31. év TÔ μET. Between her departure and their arrival.

pútav. Were beseeching Him (vv. 40, 47): they had left him exhausted with the journey (v. 6), and they urge, not their own wonder (v. 27), but His needs.

'Paßßl. See on i. 39. Here and in ix. 2 and xi. 8 our translators have rather regrettably turned Rabbi' into 'Master' (comp. Matt. xxvi. 25, 49; Mark ix. 5, xi. 21, xiv. 45); while 'Rabbi' is retained i. 38, 49, iii. 2, 26, vi. 25 (comp. Matt. xxiii. 7, 8). Apparently their principle was that wherever a disciple addresses Christ, Rabbi' is to be translated' Máster;' in other cases 'Rabbi' is to be retained; thus obscuring the view which the disciples took of their own relation to Jesus. He was their Rabbi.

·

32. yw...úpeîs. In emphatic opposition: they have their food; He has His. Joy at the fruit of His teaching prompts Him to refuse food; not of course that His human frame could do without it, but that in His delight He for the time feels no need of it. Bpwσis is rather eating' than food, which is Bpua, as in v. 34; comp. vi. 27, 55. S. Paul accurately distinguishes the two; Col. ii. 16; Rom. xiv.

17; 1 Cor. viii. 4; 2 Cor. ix. 10; so also Heb. xii. 16: wóσis and Tóμa the same; Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Cor. x. 3; also Heb. ix. 10.

OVK oldαTE. Know not; not (as A.V.) 'know not of,' which spoils the sense. The point is, not that He has had food without their knowledge, but a kind of food of which they have no conception.

33. πpòs dλ. Comp. v. 27, xvi. 17. They refrain from pressing Him with their difficulty.

6

veуKEV. Emphatic: 'Surely no one hath brought Him anything to eat.' This would be specially unlikely among Samaritans. Another instance of dulness as to spiritual meaning. In ii. 20 it was the Jews; in iii. 4 Nicodemus; in v. 11 the Samaritan woman; and now the disciples. What wonder that the woman did not understand the water? The disciples do not understand the food!' (Augustine). Comp. xi. 12, xiv. 5. These candid reports of what tells against the disciples add to the trust which we place in the narratives of the Evangelists.

34. ἐμὸν βρ. ἐστιν ἵνα. Εμόν is emphatic: My food is that I may do the will of Him that sent Me and (thus) perfect His work. Christ's aim and purpose is His food. See on i. 8; iva is no mere periphrasis for the infinitive (vi. 29, 40, xvii. 3; 1 John iii. 11, v. 3; comp. i. 27, ii. 25, v. 40). This verse recalls the reply to the tempter 'man doth not live by bread alone,' and to His parents Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' Luke iv. 4, ii. 49. It is the first of many such sayings in this Gospel, expressing Christ's complete conformity to His Father's will in doing His work (v. 30, vi. 38, xi. 4, xii. 49, 50, xiv. 31, xv. 10, xvii. 4). Teλeloûv (not merely reλeiv) means 'to bring to a full end, make perfect;' frequent in S. John (v. 36, xvii. 4, 23, xix. 28; 1 John ii. 5, iv. 12, 17) and in Hebrews.

35. ἔτι τετράμ. κ.τ.λ. This cannot be a proverb. No such proverb is known; and a proverb on the subject would have to be differently shaped; e.g. From seedtime to harvest is four months;' T points to a single case. So that we may regard this saying as a mark of time. Harvest began in the middle of Nisan or April. Four months from that would place this event in the middle of December: or, if (as some suppose) this was a year in which an extra month was inserted, in the middle of January. The words form an iambic verse.

ὅτι λευκαί εἰσιν. In the green blades just shewing through the soil the faith of the sower sees the white ears that will soon be there. So also in the flocking of these ignorant Samaritans to Him for instruction Christ sees the abundant harvest of souls that is to follow. "OTL should be taken after leáσao0e, behold that, not as A.V. 'for,' or 'because.' The punctuation is very uncertain, as to whether on belongs to this verse or the next. The balance of authority gives on to v. 36; but in punctuation MSS. are not of great authority, and ồn at the end of v. 35 seems intended to balance er at the beginning of it. Comp. 1 John iv. 3.

36. eis gwrjv ai. See on iii. 15, 16. Eternal life is regarded as the

granary into which the fruit is gathered; comp. v. 14, and for similar imagery Matt. ix. 37, 38.

iva. This is God's purpose. Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6 promises that the toil of sowing shall be rewarded with the joy of reaping; but in the Gospel the gracious work is so rapid that the sower shares in the joys of harvest. The contrast between His failure in Judaea and His success in Samaria fills Jesus with joy. Christ, not the Prophets, is the Sower. The Gospel is not the fruit of which the O.T. is the seed; rather the Gospel is the seed for which the O.T. prepared the ground. And His ministers are the reapers; in this case the Apostles.

37. év yap...dλnovós. For herein is the saying (proved) a true one, shewn by fulfilment to be a genuine proverb and not an empty phrase. See on v. 23, vii. 28, xix. 35. 'Ev TOUT refers to what precedes (comp. xv. 8, xvi. 30), in your reaping what others sowed (vv. 35, 36).

38. KEKOTTLάKaтe. Ye have laboured. The pronouns, as in v. 32, are emphatic and opposed. This will be the rule throughout; sic vos non vobis.

aλo. Christ, the Sower; but put in the plural to balance vμeîs. In v. 37 both are in the singular for the sake of harmony; ò σπeíρwv, Christ; Oepiswv, His ministers.

39. Toλλoì Éπ. els av. Strong proof of the truth of v. 35. These Samaritans outstrip the Jews, and even the Apostles, in their readiness to believe. The Jews rejected the testimony of their own Scriptures, of the Baptist, of Christ's miracles and teaching. The Samaritans accept the testimony of the woman, who had suddenly become an Apostle to her countrymen. The miraculous knowledge displayed by Jesus for a second time (i. 49) produces immediate and complete conviction, and in this case the conviction spreads to others.

40. npwrwv. Kept beseeching (vv. 30, 31, 47). How different from His own people at Nazareth (Matt. xiii. 58; Luke iv. 29) and from the Jews at Jerusalem after many miracles and much teaching (v. 18, &c.). And yet he had uncompromisingly pronounced against Samaritan claims (v. 22). Comp. the thankful Samaritan leper (Luke xvii. 16, 17).

μeival. See on i. 33. They wished him to take up his abode permanently with them, or at least for a time.

42. OÚKÉTL K.T.A. Note the order: No longer is it because of thy speech that we believe (see on i. 7). Aaλá and Móyos should be distinguished in translation. In classical Greek λaλiá has a slightly uncomplimentary turn, 'gossip, chatter.' But this shade of meaning is lost in later Greek, though there is perhaps a tinge of it here, 'not because of thy talk;' but this being doubtful, speech' will be safer. S. John uses λóyos both for her word (v. 39) and Christ's (v. 41). See on viii. 43, where Christ uses λaλd of His own teaching. aúтol y. άk. For we have heard for ourselves.

ἀληθῶς ὁ σ. τ. Κ. See on i. 48 and 10. It is not improbable that such ready hearers should arrive at this great truth so rapidly. They had the Pentateuch (comp. Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4), and not being in the trammels of Jewish exclusiveness would believe that the Messiah was not for the Jew alone. The Samaritan gave up less than the Jew when he accepted Christ. It is therefore unnecessary to suppose that S. John is unconsciously giving his own expression (1 John iv. 14) for theirs.

43-54. THE WORK AMONG GALILEANS.

43. Tás 8. p. The two days mentioned in v. 40. These three verses (43-45) form a sort of introduction to this section, as ii. 13 and iv. 1-4 to the two previous sections.

44. avròs Yap K.T.A. This is a well-known difficulty. As in xx. 17, we have a reason assigned which seems to be the very opposite of what we should expect. This witness of Jesus would account for His not going into Galilee: how does it account for His going thither? It seems best to fall back on the old explanation of Origen, that by 'His own country' is meant Judaea, 'the home of the Prophets, and, we may add, the land of His birth, for centuries connected with Him by prophecy. Moreover, Judaea fits in with the circumstances. He had not only met with little honour in Judaea; He had been forced to retreat from it. No Apostle had been found there. The appeal to Judaea had in the main been a failure. True that the Synoptists record a similar saying (Matt. xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4; Luke iv. 24) not in relation to Judaea, but to Nazareth, 'where He had been brought up.' But as they record the Galilaean, and S. John the Judaean ministry, it is only natural that a saying capable of various shades of meaning, and perhaps uttered on more than one occasion, should be applied in different ways by them and by S. John. Origen's explanation accounts quite satisfactorily not only for the yáp here, but also for the ovv in v. 45, which means When therefore He came into Galilee, the welcome which He received proved the truth of the saying; 'Galilee of the Gentiles' received Him whom oi dio (i. 11), the Jews of Jerusalem and Judaea, had rejected.

45. Ev Tĥ εOPT. The Passover; but there is no need to name it, because it has already been mentioned in connexion with these miracles, ii. 23. Perhaps these Galilaeans who then witnessed the miracles were the chief of the Tool who then believed.

46. λlev oûv. He came therefore, because of the previous invitation and welcome: see Introduction, chap. v. 6, c.

Baoiλikós. Royal official of Herod Antipas, who though only tetrarch was given his father's title of Bariλeús. The word has nothing to do with birth ('nobleman' A.V.), nor can we tell whether a civil or military officer is intended. That he was Chusa (Luke viii. 3) or Manaen (Acts xiii. 1) is pure conjecture. Here and in v. 49 the form βασιλίσκος is strongly supported.

47. άπnλev...npúra. Comp. vv. 27, 30, 40, 50, and see on xi. 29. The leaving his son was a single act (aor.), the beseeching (vv. 31, 40) was continuous (imp.). For va see on i. 8. Some scholars think that in constructions like this va does not mean 'in order that,' but 'that,' and simply defines the scope of the request or command; comp. xi. 57, xvii. 15, 21, xix. 31, 38, xv. 17, 12, xi. 57. Winer, pp. 425, 573.

Kaтaß. Down to the lake (ii. 12); about 20 miles. See on i. 7. nueλλe. Méλλew here simply means 'to be likely' without any further notion either of intention (vi. 6, 15, vii. 35, xiv. 22), or of being fore-ordained (xi. 51, xii. 33, xviii. 32).

48. σημεία κ. τέρατα. Christ's miracles are never mere τέρατα, wonders to excite astonishment; they are 'signs' of heavenly truths as well, and this is their primary characteristic. Where the two words are combined σnueîa always precedes, excepting Acts ii. 22, 43, vi. 8, vii. 36. S. John nowhere else uses répara: his words for miracles are σημεία and ἔργα.

où μǹ tɩotevoηTE. Strongest negation (v. 14). Ye will in no wise believe or interrogatively; Will ye in no wise believe? Comp. où un Tiw; xviii. 11. The words are addressed to him (πpòs avтóv), but as the representative of the many who demanded a sign before believing (see on 1 Cor. i. 22). Faith of this low type is not rejected (x. 38, xiv. 11, xx. 29); it may grow into something better, as here, by being tested and braced (v. 50). But it may also go back into sheer unbelief, as with most of those who were won over by His miracles. The verse tells of the depressing change which Christ experienced in returning from Samaria to the land of Israel.

49. Kúpie. See on v. 11. His words shew both his faith and its weakness. He believes that Christ's presence can heal; he does not believe that He can heal without being present. The words for the child are characteristic: the father uses raidior, the term of endearment; Jesus and the Evangelist use viós, the term of dignity; the servants the more familiar παῖς.

50.

ἐπίστ. τῷ λόγῳ. Not yet ἐπίστ. εἰς αὐτόν: but this is an advance on κατάβηθι πρὶν ἀποθανεῖν.

52. Kоμóтeρov oxev. Literally, got somewhat better; a colloquial expression: Koμws exeus, 'you are getting on nicely,' occurs as a doctor's expression, Arrian, Diss. Epict. III. X. 13. The father expects the cure to be gradual: the fever will depart at Christ's word, but in the ordinary way. He has not yet fully realised Christ's power. The servants' reply shews that the cure was instantaneous.

exoès pav éẞ8. Accusative; during or in the seventh hour. Once more we have to discuss S. John's method of counting the hours. (See on i. 39, iv. 6.) Obviously the father set out as soon after Jesus said 'thy son liveth" as possible; he had 20 or 25 miles to go to reach home, and would not be likely to loiter. 7 A.M. is incredible; he would have been home long before nightfall, and the servants met