约翰福音 4
Chinese New Version (Simplified)
生命的活水
4 主知道法利赛人听见他收门徒和施洗比约翰更多（ 2 其实不是耶稣亲自施洗，而是他的门徒施洗）， 3 就离开了犹太，再往加利利去。 4 他必须经过撒玛利亚。 5 于是到了撒玛利亚的一座城，名叫叙加；这城靠近雅各给他儿子约瑟的那块地。 6 在那里有雅各井。耶稣因为旅途疲倦了，就坐在井旁；那时大约正午。
7 有一个撒玛利亚妇人来打水。耶稣对她说：“请给我水喝。” 8 那时，他的门徒都进城买食物去了。 9 撒玛利亚妇人对耶稣说：“你是犹太人，怎么向我，一个撒玛利亚妇人要水喝呢？”（原来犹太人和撒玛利亚人不相往来。） 10 耶稣回答她：“你若知道 神的恩赐，和对你说‘请给我水喝’的是谁，你必早已求他，他也必早把活水赐给你了。” 11 妇人说：“先生，你没有打水的器具，井又深，你从哪里得活水呢？ 12 我们的祖先雅各把这口井留给我们，他自己和子孙以及牲畜都喝这井的水，难道你比他还大吗？” 13 耶稣回答：“凡喝这水的，还要再渴； 14 人若喝我所赐的水，就永远不渴。我所赐的水要在他里面成为涌流的泉源，直涌到永生。” 15 妇人说：“先生，请把这水赐给我，使我不渴，也不用来这里打水。”
必须用心灵按真理敬拜 神
16 耶稣说：“你去，叫你的丈夫，然后回到这里来。” 17 妇人对他说：“我没有丈夫。”耶稣说：“你说‘没有丈夫’是不错的。 18 你以前有五个丈夫，现在有的并不是你的丈夫；你说这话是真的。” 19 妇人说：“先生，我看出你是先知。 20 我们的祖先在这山上敬拜 神，而你们却说，敬拜的地方必须在耶路撒冷。” 21 耶稣说：“妇人，你应当信我，时候将到，那时你们敬拜父，不在这山上，也不在耶路撒冷。 22 你们敬拜你们所不知道的，我们却敬拜我们所知道的，因为救恩是从犹太人出来的。 23 然而时候将到，现在就是了，那用心灵按真理敬拜父的，才是真正敬拜的人；因为父在寻找这样敬拜他的人。 24 神是灵，敬拜他的必须借着灵按真理敬拜他。” 25 妇人说：“我知道那称为基督的弥赛亚要来；他来了，要把一切都告诉我们。” 26 耶稣说：“我这现在跟你说话的就是他。”
27 正在这时候，门徒回来了，见耶稣和一个妇人说话，就很希奇；但是没有人问：“你要甚么？”或说：“你为甚么跟她说话？” 28 那妇人撇下了她的水罐，进到城里去，对众人说： 29 “你们来，看看一个人，他把我所作的一切都说出来，难道这人就是基督吗？” 30 众人就出城，往耶稣那里去。
庄稼已经熟了
31 当时，门徒对耶稣说：“拉比，请吃。” 32 耶稣说：“我有食物吃，是你们所不知道的。” 33 门徒就彼此说：“难道有人拿东西给他吃了吗？” 34 耶稣说：“我的食物就是遵行差我来者的旨意，并且完成他的工作。 35 你们不是说‘还有四个月才到收获的时候’吗？我告诉你们，举目向田观看，庄稼已经熟了，可以收割了。 36 收割的人得到工资，也积储五谷直到永生，使撒种的和收割的一同快乐。 37 ‘这人撒种，那人收割’，这话是真的。 38 我派你们去收割你们所没有劳苦的；别人劳苦，你们却享受他们劳苦的成果。”
39 因着那妇人作见证的话：“他把我所作的一切都说出来了”，那城里就有许多撒玛利亚人信了耶稣。 40 于是他们来到耶稣那里，求他和他们同住，耶稣就在那里住了两天。 41 因着耶稣的话，信他的人就更多了。 42 他们就对那妇人说：“现在我们信，不再是因为你的话，而是因为我们亲自听见了，知道这位真是世人的救主。”
治好大臣的儿子
43 两天之后，耶稣离开那里，往加利利去。 44 耶稣自己说过：“先知在本乡是不受尊敬的。” 45 耶稣到了加利利的时候，加利利人都欢迎他，因为他们曾经上耶路撒冷去过节，见过他所行的一切。
46 耶稣又到了加利利的迦拿，就是他变水为酒的地方。有一个大臣，他的儿子在迦百农患病。 47 他听见耶稣从犹太到了加利利，就来见他，求他下去医治他的儿子，因为他的儿子快要死了。 48 耶稣对他说：“你们若看不见神迹奇事，总是不肯信。” 49 大臣说：“先生，求你趁我的孩子还没有死就下去吧！” 50 耶稣告诉他：“回去吧，你的儿子好了。”那人信耶稣对他说的话，就回去了。 51 正下去的时候，他的仆人迎着他走来，说他的孩子好了。 52 他就向仆人查问孩子是甚么时候好转的。他们告诉他：“昨天下午一点钟，热就退了。” 53 这父亲就知道，那正是耶稣告诉他“你的儿子好了”的时候，他自己和全家就信了。 54 这是耶稣从犹太回到加利利以后所行的第二件神迹。
John 4
New King James Version
A Samaritan Woman Meets Her Messiah
4 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and (A)baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that (B)Jacob (C)gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For (D)Jews have no dealings with (E)Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the (F)gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you (G)living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but (H)whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him (I)will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 (J)The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, (K)I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on (L)this mountain, and you Jews say that in (M)Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming (N)when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship (O)what you do not know; we know what we worship, for (P)salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will (Q)worship the Father in (R)spirit (S)and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 (T)God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah (U)is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, (V)He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, (W)“I who speak to you am He.”
The Whitened Harvest
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man (X)who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, (Y)“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to (Z)finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes (AA)the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, (AB)for they are already white for harvest! 36 (AC)And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that (AD)both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: (AE)‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; (AF)others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
The Savior of the World
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him (AG)because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own (AH)word.
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for (AI)we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed [a]the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Welcome at Galilee
43 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. 44 For (AJ)Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, (AK)having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; (AL)for they also had gone to the feast.
A Nobleman’s Son Healed
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee (AM)where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain [b]nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, (AN)“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”
49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”
52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.
54 This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
John 4
New Catholic Bible
The Savior of the World and the New Worship
Chapter 4
Journeying to Galilee through Samaria.[a] 1 Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had been informed that he had more disciples and was baptizing more people than John 2 (although actually it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who were baptizing), 3 he left Judea and set forth for Galilee.
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman.[b] 4 He had to pass through Samaria.[c] 5 So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar,[d] near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.[e]
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the town to purchase food. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan woman,[f] for some water to drink?” (Jews do not share anything in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied,
“If you recognized the gift of God
and who it is that is asking you for something to drink,
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you do not have a bucket, and the well is deep.[g] Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again.
14 But whoever drinks the water that I will give him
will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give him
will become a spring of water within him
welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I may not be thirsty and have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,[h] but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus told her,
“Believe me, woman,
the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem.
22 You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we do know,
for salvation is from the Jews.
23 “But the hour is coming,
indeed it is already here,
when the true worshipers
will worship the Father
in Spirit and truth.[i]
Indeed it is worshipers like these
that the Father seeks.
24 God is Spirit,
and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will reveal everything to us.”[j] 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he,[k] the one who is speaking to you.”
27 At this point, his disciples returned, and they were astonished to find him speaking with a woman, but no one asked, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you conversing with her?” 28 The woman left behind her water jar and went off to the town, where she said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done. Could this be the Christ?” 30 And so they departed from the town and made their way to see him.
31 The Time of the Harvest.[l] Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he told them,
“I have food to eat
about which you do not know.”
33 Then his disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will
of the one who sent me,
and to accomplish his work.
35 Do you not have a saying,
‘Four months more,
and then comes the harvest’?
“I tell you,
open your eyes and look at the fields;
already they are white for the harvest.
36 The reaper is even now receiving his pay;
already he is gathering the crops for eternal life
so that the sower and the reaper can rejoice together.
37 “Thus, the saying holds true,
‘One sows and another reaps.’
38 I sent you to reap
what you had not worked for.
Others have performed the work,
and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
39 Jesus Is Truly the Savior of the World.[m] Many Samaritans from that town came to believe in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they pleaded with him to stay with them, and he remained there for two days. 41 And many more began to believe in him because of the words he spoke to them. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe simply because of what you said, for we have heard him for ourselves, and we are convinced that this man is truly the Savior of the world.”
43 Return to Galilee.[n] When the two days were over, Jesus departed for Galilee. 44 He himself had declared that a prophet is not treated with honor in his own hometown. 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem during the feast, having been at the feast themselves.
46 Jesus Heals the Official’s Son.[o] He went again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. At Capernaum, there was a royal official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and pleaded that he come and heal his son who was near death.
48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you witness signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 49 The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus replied, “Return home. Your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him, and he departed. 51 While he was still on his way, his servants met him saying that his child was going to live. 52 He asked them at what time the boy had begun to recover, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.”[p] 53 Then the father realized that was the exact hour at which Jesus had assured him, “Your son will live,” and he and his entire household came to believe.
54 This was the second sign that Jesus performed after returning from Judea into Galilee.
Footnotes
- John 4:1 Jesus is forced to leave Judea in order to distance himself from the hostility of the Pharisees who are jealous of his growing popularity. The journey through Samaria affords him an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in a mission land, so to speak, for the Samaritans were tantamount to Gentiles in the eyes of the Jews.
- John 4:4 Jesus converses with a woman, a daughter of Samaria, and therefore belonging to what the Jews considered to be a heretical breed and as accursed as the Gentiles; in addition, she is well known as a sinner. But God’s gift is for everyone. Jesus is the living water, and for peoples dwelling on the edge of the wilderness, living water symbolizes life, hope, renewal, and spiritual riches.
Jesus urges the new worship of God as Father “in Spirit and truth.” This means to pray to the Father in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus who is the truth. Such worship springs up from the heart; it comes from the Spirit. - John 4:4 The inhabitants of Samaria were a mixed race, descended from the intermarriage of Israelites and Assyrian colonists. Although they worshiped the same God as the Jews and believed in the Pentateuch, they disowned the Jerusalem temple and priesthood and erected a rival sanctuary on Mount Gerizim in the 4th century B.C. (see 2 Mac 6:2).
- John 4:5 Sychar was in the neighborhood of ancient Shechem. See Gen 33:18-20; 48:21f.
- John 4:6 Noon: literally, “the sixth hour.” See note on Mk 15:25.
- John 4:9 Samaritan woman: characterized as ritually unclean by the Jews, who were therefore forbidden to drink from any vessel handled by them.
- John 4:11 Well is deep: the depth of the well, which still exists, has not been determined. The estimates given over the centuries range from 240 feet to 150 feet to 75 feet (the most recent).
- John 4:20 This mountain: Gerizim (2,849 feet high, south of Sychar).
- John 4:23 In Spirit and truth: the Spirit is the Holy Spirit and the truth is Jesus. For he is the true Son of God.
- John 4:25 The Samaritan Messiah was called the Ta’eb. He revealed the secrets of God to his people. Jesus reveals to us how much God loves us.
- John 4:26 I am he: this phrase may also be translated as “I AM,” the name Yahweh used for himself in the Old Testament (see note on Mk 6:50). The phrase “I am” is used in the text of this Gospel 23 times (4:26; 6:20, 35, 41, 48, 51; 8:12, 18, 24, 28, 58; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 13:19; 14:6; 15:1, 5; 18:5, 6, 8). In several of these passages, Jesus joins the phrase with seven significant metaphors that express his saving relationship toward the world: “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6:35, 41, 48, 51). “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12). “I am the gate of the sheepfold” (Jn 10:7, 9). “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11, 14). “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25). “I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). “I am the true vine” (Jn 15:1, 5).
- John 4:31 Jesus is not thinking of an ordinary harvest. The arrival of the Samaritans announces the crops of the end time, the harvest in which all will be gathered together by the coming of God. Samaritans wore white robes: they are the harvest.
- John 4:39 The personal and prolonged encounter with Jesus allows believers to measure the magnitude of their mission. This Jewish teacher is not only a prophet who announces salvation. He is the Messiah who brings about salvation for the whole world, for all human beings.
- John 4:43 Jesus’ stay in Galilee and his ministry in his own town will not be crowned by a more satisfactory success than the one in Judea, the heart of Judaism. With this sad reflection, the fourth evangelist confirms a saying of the Lord found in Mt 13:57 and parallels.
- John 4:46 Jesus shows the price of faith (believing in the Word) to his unbelieving companions (v. 44) even though they had already seen him at work. Faith, and it alone, is necessary to be saved. To believe is to welcome in Jesus the salvation that God gives. The miracle is first of all a response to faith. Then it sheds light on the man’s faith and makes it strong. The cure is reported less to bring a demonstration of faith than to call upon us to believe. This account may be a third version of the cure of the centurion’s son (Mt 8:5-13) or servant (Lk 7:1-10).
- John 4:52 One o’clock in the afternoon: literally, “the seventh hour.” See note on Mk 15:25.
Chinese New Version (CNV). Copyright © 1976, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2005 by Worldwide Bible Society.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
