Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 4:6 - 4:6
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_4:6. Πηγὴ τοῦ Ἰακώβ ] a spring-well (Joh_4:11), the making of which tradition ascribed to Jacob. It is still in existence, and regarded with reverence, though there is no spring-water in it. See Robinson, III. p. 330; Ritter, XVI. 634. The ancient sacredness of the spot made it all the more worthy of being specially noted by John.
οὕτως ] thus, without further ado, just as He was, without any ceremony or preparation, “ut locus se obtulerat,” Grotius; ἁπλῶς ὡς ἔτυχε , Chrysostom. See Ast, Lex. Plat. II. p. 495; Nägelsbach, z. Ilias, p. 63, ed. 3. The rendering “tired as He was” (Erasmus, Beza, Winer, Hengstenberg), so that the preceding participle is repeated in meaning (see Bornemann in Rosenmüller’s Rep. II. p. 246 ff., Ast, l.c.; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Protag. p. 314 C), would require the οὕτως to be placed before, as in Act_27:17; Act_20:11.
ἐπὶ τῇ πηγῇ ] at the well, denoting immediate proximity to it, Joh_4:2; Mar_13:29; Exo_2:15. See Bernhardy, p. 249; Reisig, ad Oed. Col. 281; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. 541.
ὥρα … ἕκτη ] noon, mid-day; δίχιος ὥρη , Nonnus. Here again we have not the Roman reckoning (see on Joh_1:40), though the evening[184] was the more usual time for drawing water. Still we must not suppose that, because the time was unusual, it was intended thereby that Jesus might know, in connection therewith, “that the woman was given Him of the Father” (Luthardt, p. 80). Jesus knew that, independently of the hour. But John could never forget the hour, so important in its issues, of this first preaching to the Samaritan woman, and therefore he names it. Comp. Joh_1:40.
[184] If it had been six o’clock in the evening (as even Isenberg in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1868, p. 454 ff., maintains, for the sake of Joh_19:14), how much too short would the remainder of the day he for all that follows down to ver. 40! We must allow a much longer time, in particular, for vv. 28–30, and yet ver. 35 still presupposes bright daylight.