Discovery BoxJohn 4:5-7 
Context4:5 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 4:6 Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside 4 the well. It was about noon. 5
4:7 A Samaritan woman 6 came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water 7 to drink.”
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 Grk “on (ἐπί, epi) the well.” There may have been a low stone rim encircling the well, or the reading of Ì66 (“on the ground”) may be correct.
5 tn Grk “the sixth hour.”
sn It was about noon. The suggestion has been made by some that time should be reckoned from midnight rather than sunrise. This would make the time 6 a.m. rather than noon. That would fit in this passage but not in John 19:14 which places the time when Jesus is condemned to be crucified at “the sixth hour.”
6 tn Grk “a woman from Samaria.” According to BDAG 912 s.v. Σαμάρεια, the prepositional phrase is to be translated as a simple attributive: “γυνὴ ἐκ τῆς Σαμαρείας a Samaritan woman J 4:7.”
7 tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).
