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Joh_4:7-9. Γυνὴ ἐκ τ . Σαμαρ .] to be taken as one designation, a Samaritan-woman. John gives prominence to the country to which she belonged, to prepare the way for the characteristic features of the following interview. It is not the town two miles distant (Sebaste) that is meant, but the country.
ἀντλῆσαι ὕδωρ ] The modern Nablus lies half an hour distant from the southern well, and has many wells of its own close by; see Robinson, III. 333. It is therefore all the more probable that Sychar, out of which the woman came,[185] was a separate town. As to the forms πεῖν and ΠῖΝ (so Jacobs, Del. epigr. vi. 78), see Herm. Herodian. § 47; Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 58 [E. T. p. 66], who prefers πῖν , though this is regarded by Fritzsche (de conform. Lachm. p. 27) as the mistake of a copyist. As to the phrase δίδωμι πιεῖν , without any object expressed, see Krüger, § 55. 3. 21. It is an arbitrary supposition in itself, to imagine, as Hengstenberg does, that this “Give me to drink” had underlying it “a spiritual sense,” “Give me spiritual refreshment (by thy conversion),” and is opposed to Joh_4:8, which by no means gives a general reason why Jesus entered into conversation with the woman; for He might have done this in the apostles’ presence, though, according to Hengstenberg, He must have sent them away (all excepting John[186]), on purpose to have an undisturbed interview with the woman. All this is mere imagination.
Joh_4:8. ΓΆΡ ] The reason why he asked the services of the woman; the disciples, whose services he would otherwise have claimed, were absent.
ἵνα τροφὰς ἀγορ .] According to later tradition (“Samaritanis panem comedere aut vinum bibere prohibitum est,” Raschi, ad Sota, 515), this would not have been allowed. But the separation could not have been so distinctly marked at that time, especially as to commercial dealings and intercourse with the Galileans, since their road lay through Samaria. Jesus, moreover, was raised above these hostile divisions which existed among the people (Luk_9:52).
Joh_4:9. The woman recognised that Jesus was a Jew by His language, and not by His accent merely.
πῶς ] qui fit ut. The words of the woman indicate the pert feminine caprice of national feeling. There is no ground whatever for supposing (Hengstenberg) that the woman had at this stage any presentiment that He who addressed her was any other than an ordinary Jew.
οὐ γὰρ , κ . τ . λ .] not a parenthesis, but the words of the evangelist.
Jews with Samaritans, without the article.
[185] That, considering the sacred character of the water, she did not hesitate about the distance of the well from Sychem (Hengstenberg), is without any hint in the text.
[186] Who must, according to Godet also, have remained with Him. A gratuitous addition, made for the purpose of securing a guarantee for the accuracy of the narrative.