John 4

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John. 2(Actually, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; only his disciples did.) 3So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee; 4on his way there he had to go through Samaria.

5 # Gen 33.19; Josh 24.32 In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” 8(His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)

9 # Ezra 4.1–5; Neh 4.1–2 The woman answered, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan — so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)#4.9 Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use; or Jews will have nothing to do with Samaritans.

10Jesus answered, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”

11“Sir,” the woman said, “you haven't got a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water? 12It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his sons and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?”

13Jesus answered, “All those who drink this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life.”

15“Sir,” the woman said, “give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water.”

16 “Go and call your husband,” Jesus told her, “and come back.”

17“I haven't got a husband,” she answered.

Jesus replied, “You are right when you say you haven't got a husband. 18You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth.”

19“I see you are a prophet, sir,” the woman said. 20“My Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God.”

21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes. 23But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. 24God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”

25The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything.”

26Jesus answered, “I am he, I who am talking with you.”

27At that moment Jesus' disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, “What do you want?” or asked him, “Why are you talking with her?”

28Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there, 29“Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” 30So they left the town and went to Jesus.

31In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, “Teacher, have something to eat!”

32But he answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33So the disciples started asking among themselves, “Could somebody have brought him food?”

34 “My food,” Jesus said to them, “is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do. 35You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’ But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested! 36The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so another who sows and the one who reaps will be glad together. 37The saying is true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ 38I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work.”

39Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.

41Many more believed because of his message, 42and they said to the woman, “We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Saviour of the world.”

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

43After spending two days there, Jesus left and went to Galilee. 44#Mt 13.57; Mk 6.4; Lk 4.24For he himself had said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” 45#Jn 2.23When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything that he had done during the festival.

46 # Jn 2.1–11 Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was ill in Capernaum. 47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die. 48Jesus said to him, “None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders.”

49“Sir,” replied the official, “come with me before my child dies.”

50Jesus said to him, “Go, your son will live!”

The man believed Jesus' words and went. 51On his way home his servants met him with the news, “Your boy is going to live!”

52He asked them what time it was when his son got better, and they answered, “It was one o'clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him.” 53Then the father remembered it was at that very hour that Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his family believed.

54This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

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