John 4:5

4:5 Now he came to a Samaritan town ¹  called Sychar, ²  near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ³ 

John 4:9

4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ⁴  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ⁵  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ⁶  with Samaritans.) ⁷ 

John 4:20

4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, ⁸  and you people ⁹  say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ¹⁰ 

John 4:22-24

4:22 You people ¹¹  worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. ¹²  4:23 But a time ¹³  is coming – and now is here ¹⁴  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ¹⁵  such people to be ¹⁶  his worshipers. ¹⁷  4:24 God is spirit, ¹⁸  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

---

¹ tn Grk “town of Samaria.” The noun Σαμαρείας (Samareias) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

² sn Sychar was somewhere in the vicinity of Shechem, possibly the village of Askar, 1.5 km northeast of Jacob’s well.

³ sn Perhaps referred to in Gen 48:22.

⁴ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

⁵ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

⁶ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

sn The background to the statement use nothing in common is the general assumption among Jews that the Samaritans were ritually impure or unclean. Thus a Jew who used a drinking vessel after a Samaritan had touched it would become ceremonially unclean.

⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

⁸ sn This mountain refers to Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritan shrine was located.

⁹ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “say” is second person plural and thus refers to more than Jesus alone.

¹⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹¹ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “worship” is second person plural and thus refers to more than the woman alone.

¹² tn Or “from the Judeans.” See the note on “Jew” in v. 9.

¹³ tn Grk “an hour.”

¹⁴ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

¹⁵ sn See also John 4:27.

¹⁶ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

¹⁷ tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

sn The Father wants such people as his worshipers. Note how the woman has been concerned about where people ought to worship, while Jesus is concerned about who people ought to worship.

¹⁸ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.