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Joh_4:13-14. Not an explanation, but (comp. Joh_3:5) a carrying out of the metaphor, to lead the woman nearer to its higher import.
τούτου ] referring to the well.
οὐ μὴ διψ . εἰς τ . αἰῶνα ] “will certainly not thirst for ever,” antithesis to fleeting bodily refreshment, Joh_4:13. Comp. Joh_6:34. That heavenly grace and truth which Christ communicates, when received by faith into the inner life, for ever supplies what we need in order to salvation, so that the lack of this satisfaction is never felt, because the supply is always there. Bengel admirably remarks: “Sane aqua illa, quantum in se est, perennem habet virtutem; et ubi sitis recurrit, hominis non aquae defectus est.” The expression in Sir_24:20 : οἱ πίνοντές με (Wisdom) ἔτι διψήσουσι , rests upon a different view of the continuity of enjoyment, namely, that of the individual moments passing in the continual alternation of desire and satisfaction, and not of the unity which they make up, and of their condition as a whole.
γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ , κ . τ . λ .] the positive effect following the negative (and hence τὸ ὕδωρ ὃ δώσω αὐτῷ is emphatically repeated): divine grace and truth appropriated by faith will so energetically develope their life in him in inexhaustible fulness, that its full impelling power endures unto eternal Messianic life. Upon his entrance into the Messiah’s kingdom (comp. Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5), the man takes along with him this inner living power of divine χάρις καὶ ἀλήθεια , Joh_6:27.
ἅλλεσθαι εἰς , to spring up into, often also in the classics (Hom. Il. a. 537; Xen. Mem. i. 3. 9), but with reference to water here only. A Greek would say προρεῖν εἰς ; still the word in the text is stronger and more vivid. The ζωὴ αἰων . is conceived of locally, in keeping with the comparison of a widespreading spring; to render εἰς “reaching to everlasting life” (B. Crusius, Luthardt, Brückner, Ewald), arbitrarily lets go the concrete comparison, one of the main features in which is endless power of springing up. This description of the well springing up into everlasting life is the finishing touch of the picture. On εἰς ζ . αἰ ., see Joh_4:36.