Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When Jesus^[a] learned that the Pharisees^(A) had heard he was making^(B) and baptising more disciples than John^{(C) 2} (though Jesus himself was not baptising, but his disciples were), ³ he left Judea^(D) and went again to Galilee.^{(E) 4} He had to travel through Samaria;^{(F) 5} so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^[b] that Jacob^(G) had given his son Joseph.^{(H) 6} Jacob’s well^(I) was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.^[c]

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^(J)

‘Give me a drink,’ Jesus said to her, ⁸ because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹ ‘How is it that you, a Jew,^(K) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^(L) woman? ’ she asked him. For Jews do not associate with^[d] Samaritans.^[e]

¹⁰ Jesus answered, ‘If you knew the gift of God,^(M) and who is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would ask him, and he would give you living water.’^(N)

¹¹ ‘Sir,’^(O) said the woman, ‘you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this “living water”? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^(P) are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.’

¹³ Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.^(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^[f](R) of water springing up in him for eternal life.’^(S)

¹⁵ ‘Sir,’ the woman said to him, ‘give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.’

¹⁶ ‘Go and call your husband,’ he told her, ‘and come back here.’

¹⁷ ‘I don’t have a husband,’ she answered.

‘You have correctly said, “I don’t have a husband,” ’ Jesus said. ¹⁸ ‘For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’

¹⁹ ‘Sir,’ the woman replied, ‘I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain,^(T) but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.’^(U)

²¹ Jesus told her, ‘Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(V) 23} But an hour is coming, and is now here,^(W) when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.^[g] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(X) and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.’^(Y)

²⁵ The woman said to him, ‘I know that the Messiah^(Z) is coming’ (who is called Christ^(AA)). ‘When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’

²⁶ Jesus told her, ‘I, the one speaking to you, am he.’^(AB)

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷ Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, ‘What do you want? ’ or ‘Why are you talking with her? ’

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ²⁹ ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? ’^{(AC) 30} They left the town and made their way to him.^(AD)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, ‘Rabbi,^(AE) eat something.’

³² But he said, ‘I have food to eat that you don’t know about.’

³³ The disciples said to one another, ‘Could someone have brought him something to eat? ’

³⁴ ‘My food is to do the will of him^(AF) who sent me^(AG) and to finish his work,’^(AH) Jesus told them. ³⁵ ‘Don’t you say, “There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest”? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^[h] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^[i] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(AI) so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: “One sows and another reaps.”^{(AJ) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labour for; others have laboured, and you have benefited from^[j] their labour.’

The Saviour of the World

³⁹ Now many Samaritans^(AK) from that town believed in him because of what the woman said^[k] when she testified,^(AL) ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him,^(AM) they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.^{[l] 42} And they told the woman, ‘We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Saviour^(AN) of the world.’^[m]

A Galilean Welcome

⁴³ After two days he left there for Galilee.^{(AO) 44} (Jesus himself had testified^(AP) that a prophet has no honour in his own country.^(AQ)) ⁴⁵ When^(AR) they entered Galilee, the Galileans^(AS) welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem^(AT) during the festival.^(AU) For they also had gone to the festival.

The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ He went again to Cana^(AV) of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.^{(AW) 47} When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea^(AX) into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

⁴⁸ Jesus told him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,^(AY) you will not believe.’^(AZ)

⁴⁹ ‘Sir,’^(BA) the official said to him, ‘come down before my boy dies.’

⁵⁰ ‘Go,’ Jesus told him, ‘your son will live.’ The man believed what^[n] Jesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹ While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵² He asked them at what time he got better. ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon^[o] the fever left him,’ they answered. ⁵³ The father^(BB) realised this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴ Now this was also the second sign^(BC) Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.^(BD)