The Gospel of St. John. Joseph MacRory
own immediate divine knowledge, as being “in the bosom of the Father” (i. 18), this He testifieth; and yet hardly anyone (“no man” being an hyperbole) receiveth His testimony. Christ is metaphorically spoken of here as seeing and hearing, to indicate His direct and immediate knowledge of things divine. Compare v. 19; vi. 46; viii. 38; xv. 15; xvi. 13.
According to Patrizzi and others, this and the following verses are the words of the Evangelist; but more probably the Baptist continues to the end of the chapter, developing the reason why Christ must increase.
| 33. Qui accepit eius testimonium, signavit quia Deus verax est. | 33. He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true. |
33. He who has believed in Christ has thereby testified solemnly (as though he set his seal to the testimony) that God is truthful. God here refers to the Father; and the meaning is, that by believing what Christ teaches, we believe Him to be truthful, and therefore believe the Father also, from whom He has received His divine nature and knowledge, and His mission as Messias, to be truthful. This is better than to refer God here to the Son (Christ), as Maldonatus does; for in the next verse, which proves this, God plainly refers to the Father.
[pg 073]
| 34. Quem enim misit Deus, verba Dei loquitur: non enim ad mensuram dat Deus spiritum. | 34. For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God: for God doth not give the spirit by measure. |
34. For he whom God (the Father) hath sent (as His Son, verse 35), as the Messias, speaketh the words of God, for God doth not give the spirit by measure. The contrast is between the abundant gift of the Spirit to Christ, as man, and the stinted participation of the same Spirit by those who are merely of the earth (Rom. xii. 3; 1 Cor. xii. 14). The sense, then, is, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were poured out in abundance on Christ as man; that “He unceasingly possessed them all at once to the greatest extent of which human nature is capable” (M'Ev.); and this plenitude of the gifts of the Holy Ghost within Him is the reason why He speaks the words of God.
| 35. Pater diligit Filium: et omnia dedit in manu eius. | 35. The Father loveth the Son: and he hath given all things into his hand. |
35. This plenitude of the Spirit in Christ, this fulness of grace and truth (i. 16, 17), in Christ as man, is the effect of the love of the Father for His Incarnate Son, which love has also caused the Father to grant to Christ, as man, the bestowal (He hath given all things into His hand) of all the gifts of the Spirit required for the salvation of men.
| 36. Qui credit in Filium habet vitam aeternam: qui autem incredulus est Filio, non videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum. | 36. He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. |
36. Since, then, Jesus Christ has been constituted our help unto salvation, he that believes in Him as Son of God (and acts accordingly) hath eternal life begun in him by justification; he that believeth not, &c. See verse 18.
This splendid testimony of the Baptist in favour of Christ was intended to detach his disciples from himself, and win them to Christ, of whom, as we learn from verse 26, they had shown themselves jealous.
[pg 074]
Chapter IV.
1-4. Jesus sets out from Judea to Galilee.
5-26. Arrival in Sichar, and discourse with the Samaritan woman.
27-38. Discourse with the disciples.
39-42. Stay with the people of Sichar.
43-54. Continuation of the journey into Galilee, and healing of the ruler's son.
| 1. Ut ergo cognovit Iesus quia audierunt pharisaei quod Iesus plures discipulos facit, et baptizat, quam Ioannes, | 1. When Jesus therefore understood that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples, and baptizeth more than John, |
1. When Jesus therefore understood, &c. Christ is spoken of as if on this occasion He gained knowledge of which He had been ignorant, because though, as God, He knew all things, every inmost thought of the Pharisees, yet, as man, like other men, He gathered knowledge from His fellow-men. See Mald.
That Jesus. Not that He Himself; because the report which the Pharisees had heard is given verbatim, “that” (ὅτι) merely introducing it.
| 2. (Quamquam Iesus non baptizaret sed discipuli eius,) | 2. (Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples,) |
2. Jesus Himself did not usually baptize; probably because, like St. Paul (1 Cor. i. 14-16), His mission was to preach and teach. It by no means follows from this verse that He never baptized anyone; and many writers are of opinion that He baptized some Himself.
| 3. Reliquit Iudaeam, et abiit iterum in Galilaeam; | 3. He left Judea, and went again into Galilee. |
3. Because His time to suffer had not yet come, and much of the work of His public mission still remained to be accomplished, He left Judea, the headquarters of the Pharisees, [pg 075] whose jealousy He knew would be aroused by the report mentioned in verse 1, and went again (see John i. 43) into Galilee.
| 4. Oportebat autem eum transire per Samariam. | 4. And he was of necessity to pass through Samaria. |
| 5. Venit ergo in civitatem Samariae, quae dicitur Sichar: iuxta praedium quod dedit Iacob Ioseph filio suo. | 5. He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar; near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. |
4, 5. Not choosing to cross to the east of the Jordan, and go up through Peraea, as some of the stricter Jews did, who wished to avoid all possible contact with the Samaritans, He was obliged to pass through Samaria. Of the three provinces of Palestine west of the Jordan, Samaria was in the centre, with Judea to the south, and Galilee to the north. “St. John is thus careful to note that this was no mission to the Samaritans which the Lord undertook. On the contrary, the law which He imposed on His disciples: ‘And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not’ (Matt. x. 5), this, during the days of His flesh, He imposed also on Himself. He was not sent ‘but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt. xv. 24; Acts xiii. 46); and if any grace reached Samaritan or heathen, it was, so to speak, but by accident, a crumb falling from the children's table.”38 Samaria had been the portion of the tribe of Ephraim and of half the tribe of Manasses. The province derived its name from its chief city, Samaria, which, in turn, got its name from Mount Somer (or Semer), on which it was built (3 Kings xvi. 24). See A Lap. The city called Sichar39 (the modern Nabulus) by St. John is the ancient Sichem, where Abram built an altar to the Lord (Gen. xii. 7), under the turpentine tree behind which Jacob buried the idols of his household (Gen. xxxv. 4), and where the bones of the twelve patriarchs were laid to rest (Acts vii. 16).
Near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. See Gen. xxxviii. 18, 19; Josue xxiv. 32.
| 6. Erat autem ibi fons Iacob, Iesus ergo fatigatus ex itinere, sedebat sic supra fontem. Hora erat quasi sexta. | 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. |
6. Jacob's well, which he had dug or bought, was there; and Jesus, weary because of His [pg 076] journey, sat thus (sic., “hoc est, fatigatus ut erat,” Beel.) by the well.
It was about the sixth hour. See on i. 39.
| 7. Venit mulier de Samaria haurire aquam. Dicit ei Iesus: Da mihi bibere. | 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. |
7. There cometh a woman of Samaria, not of