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Joh_4:11-12. “Thou canst not mean the spring-water here in this well; you could not give this to me, for thou hast no bucket,[187] which is needed on account of the depth of the well; whence hast thou, therefore, the spring-water you speak of?”
κύριε ] The ΤΊς ἘΣΤΙΝ Ὁ ΛΈΓΩΝ ΣΟΙ , etc., Joh_4:10, has given the woman a momentary feeling of respect, not unmixed with irony.
οὔτε followed by ΚΑῚ is rare, 3Jn_1:10; see Winer, p. 460 [E. T. p. 619]; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 222; Klotz, ad Devar. 714.
μὴ σὺ μείζων , κ . τ . λ .] Notice the emphatic ΣΎ coming first: “thou surely art not greater,” etc.; “thou dost not look like that!” Comp. Joh_8:53.
μείζων ] i.e. more able, in a position to give what is better. By him was the well given us, and for him it was good enough for him and his to drink from; yet thou speakest as if thou hadst another and a better spring of water! The woman dwells upon the enigmatical word of Christ at first, just as Nicodemus did, Joh_3:4, but with more cleverness and vivacity, at the same time more pertly, and with feminine loquacity.
τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν ] for the Samaritans traced their descent back to Joseph. Josephus, Antt. vii. 7. 3, viii. 14. 3, xi. 8. 6. They certainly were not of purely heathen origin (Hengstenberg); see Keil on 2Ki_17:24; Petermann in Herzog’s Encykl. XIII. 367.
ὃς ἔδωκεν , κ . τ . λ .] a Samaritan tradition, not derived from the O. T.
ΚΑῚ ΑὐΤῸς , Κ . Τ . Λ .] ΚΑῚ is simply and, neither for καὶ ὅς , nor and indeed. The θρέμματα are the cattle (Plato, Polit. p. 261 A; Xen. Oec. xx. 23; Ages. ix. 6; Herodian. iii. 9. 17; Josephus, Antt. vii. 7. 3), not servants (Majus, Kypke),[188] whom there was no need specially to name; the mention of the herds completes the picture of their nomadic progenitor.
τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ζῶν ] which thou hast to give; Joh_4:10.
[187] ἄντλημα , elsewhere the drawing of water, is used in the sense of haustrum. Nonnus explains it κάδον ἑλκυστῆρα (a bucket to draw water).—The woman had with her a ὑδρία , ver. 28 (comp. Joh_2:6), but she must also have had an ἄντλημα , provided with a long handle or rope to draw the water up, or at least some contrivance for letting down the ὑδρία itself.
[188] The word, the general meaning of which is quicquid enutritur, is found on inscriptions as applied to slaves; it is used of children likewise in the classics (Valck. Diatr. p. 249), as in Soph. Phil. 243; comp; Oed. Rex, 1143. It does not occur in the LXX. or Apocrypha.