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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 4:27 - 4:27
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Upon this (epi toutōi). This idiom only here in N.T. At this juncture. Apparently the woman left at once when the disciples came.
They marvelled (ethaumazon). Imperfect active describing the astonishment of the disciples as they watched Jesus talking with a woman.
Was speaking (elalei). As in Joh 2:25, so here the tense is changed in indirect discourse from lalei to elalei, an unusual idiom in Greek. However, hoti here may be “because” and then the imperfect is regular. It is not “with the woman” (meta tēs gunaikos), but simply “with a woman” (meta gunaikos). There was a rabbinical precept: “Let no one talk with a woman in the street, no, not with his own wife” (Lightfoot, Hor, Hebr. iii. 287). The disciples held Jesus to be a rabbi and felt that he was acting in a way beneath his dignity.
Yet no man said (oudeis mentoi eipen). John remembers through the years their amazement and also their reverence for Jesus and unwillingness to reflect upon him.