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Joh 4:10. Εἰ ἤδεις, if thou hadst known) Ignorance is a hindrance; but the disclosure of her ignorance shows the compassion of the Lord, and kindled a longing desire in the woman’s heart.-τὴν δωρεάν, the gift) The gift is the living water.-τίς ἐστιν, who it is) He speaks in the third person, modestly. It is the prerogative of Him, who saith this, to give the living water. Subsequently He discloses, who it is; Joh 4:26.-σὺ ἂν ἤτησας-καὶ ἔδωκεν ἄν) thou wouldest ask-and He would give: or rather, thou wouldest have asked, and He would have given, i.e., not only would you not wonder at my asking, but even you of your own accord would have asked of Me. The pronoun σὺ, thou, employed in this place in particular, rather than with the verb ᾐδεις, hadst known, forms an emphatic opposition to that αἰτεῖς, dost thou ask? [Joh 4:9]. John is wont to put the imperfect tense with the particle ἄν, where the sentence requires that very time: ἐπιστεύετε ἄν, ἠγαπᾶτε ἄν, οὐκ ἂν εἴχετε, ἐφίλει ἄν, ἠγωνίζοντο ἄν, ch. Joh 5:46, Joh 8:42, Joh 9:41, Joh 15:19, Joh 18:36. But the Aorist has the same force as the Pluperfect, οὐκ ἂν ἐτεθνήκει, οὐκ ἂν ἀπέθανε, ch. Joh 11:21; Joh 11:32; though in Eph. 1Ch 2:19, he employs the Pluperfect itself, μεμενήκεισαν ἄν. The passages therefore may possibly seem doubtful in meaning ch. Joh 14:2; Joh 14:28, and here, ch. Joh 4:10 : εἶπον ἄν: εἶπον ἄν, I would say, or I would have said; ἐχάρητε ἄν, ye would rejoice, or ye would have rejoiced; ᾔτησας ἄν, ἔδωκεν ἄν, thou wouldest seek, and He would give; or, thou wouldest have sought, and He would have given. But, however, since he might have written, and yet he does not write ἔλεγον, ἐχαίρετε, ᾔτεις, ἐδίδου; we understand the Aorist as a Pluperfect, as also at ch, Joh 18:30, [εἰ μὴ ἦν οὗτος κακοποιὸς, οὐκ ἄν σοι παρεδώκαμεν αὐτόν], we would not have delivered Him up: Gal 4:15; ἐδώκατε ἄν, ye would have given. The Lord then saith, Thou wouldest have asked from Me, before that I said to thee, Give Me to drink. And, He had said, Give Me to drink, that, conversely, the woman might learn to ask from Himself the living water.-ἔδωκεν ἄν) This ἄν depends on the former particle ἄν being previously brought into action.-ὓδωρ, water) In a similar way Jesus takes an allegory from bread, ch. Joh 6:27, etc. [Having fed 5000 with a few loaves, and being therefore followed by the crowd, He proceeds, “Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat, which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you,”] etc.: and from light, ch. Joh 8:12 “I am the light of the world:” [an image suggested perhaps by the sun then rising: comp. Joh 4:2], “early in the morning”: which things are in nature the first, the most elementary, necessary, common to all and salutary.-ζῶν) which is living, and thence life-imparting; Joh 4:14; “The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life:” ch. Joh 7:38; “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of water.” The expression living water, is here used in a more exalted sense, than at Lev 14:5, מים חיים, ὓδωρ ζῶν, [the priest commanding the bird to be killed “over running water”].