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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 4:35 - 4:35
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Say not ye? (Ouch humeis legete). It is not possible to tell whether Jesus is alluding to a rural proverb of which nothing is known about there being four months from seedtime to harvest (a longer time than four months in fact) or whether he means that it was then actually four months to harvest. In the latter sense, since harvest began about the middle of April, it would be December when Jesus spoke.
There are yet four months (eti tetramēnos estin). The use of eti (yet) and the fact that the space between seedtime and harvest is longer than four months (tetra, Aeolic for tessara, and mēn, month) argue against the proverb idea.
And then cometh the harvest (kai ho therismos erchetai). “And the harvest (therismos, from therizō, rare in Greek writers) comes.” The possible Iambic verse here is purely accidental as in Joh 5:14.
Lift up your eyes (eparate tous ophthalmous humōn). First aorist active imperative of epairō. Deliberate looking as in Joh 6:5 where theaomai also is used as here.
Fields (chōras). Cultivated or ploughed ground as in Luk 21:21.
White (leukai). Ripened grain like grey hair (Mat 5:36).
Already unto harvest (pros therismon ēdē). Probably ēdē (already) goes with Joh 4:36. The Samaritans could already be seen approaching and they were the field “white for harvest.” This is the meaning of Christ’s parable. If it is the spring of the year and Christ can point to the ripened grain, the parable is all the plainer, but it is not dependent on this detail. Recall the parable of the sower in Matt 13.