John 4
New Testament for Everyone
The woman of Samaria
4 So when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making more disciples than John, and was baptizing them 2 (Jesus himself didn’t baptize people; it was his disciples who were doing it), 3 he left Judaea and went back to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria, 5 and he came to a town in Samaria named Sychar. It was near the place which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down there by the well. It was about midday.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus spoke to her.
“Give me a drink,” he said. 8 (The disciples had gone off into the town to buy food.)
9 “What!” said the Samaritan woman. “You, a Jew, asking for a drink from me, a woman, and a Samaritan at that?” (Jews, you see, don’t have any dealings with Samaritans.)
10 “If only you’d known God’s gift,” replied Jesus, “and who it is that’s saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you’d have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “But sir,” replied the woman, “you haven’t got a bucket! And the well’s deep! So how were you thinking of getting living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, with his sons and his animals?”
13 “Everyone who drinks this water,” Jesus replied, “will get thirsty again. 14 But anyone who drinks the water I’ll give them won’t ever be thirsty again. No: the water I’ll give them will become a spring of water welling up to the life of God’s new age.”
15 “Sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I won’t be thirsty anymore, and I won’t have to come here to draw from the well.”
Jesus and the woman
16 “Well then,” said Jesus to the woman, “go and call your husband and come here.”
17 “I haven’t got a husband,” replied the woman.
“You’re telling me you haven’t got a husband!” replied Jesus. 18 “The fact is, you’ve had five husbands, and the one you’ve got now isn’t your husband. You were speaking the truth!”
19 “Well, sir,” replied the woman, “I can see you’re a prophet . . . 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 “Believe me, woman,” replied Jesus, “the time is coming when you won’t worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you don’t know. We worship what we do know; salvation, you see, is indeed from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed, it’s here already!—when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Yes; that’s the kind of worshipers the father is looking for. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 “I know that Messiah is coming,” said the woman, “the one they call ‘the anointed.’ When he comes, he’ll tell us everything.”
26 “I’m the one—the one speaking to you right now,” said Jesus.
Sower and reaper rejoice together
27 Just then Jesus’ disciples came up. They were astonished that he was talking with a woman; but nobody said “What did you want?” or “Why were you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water-jar, went into the town and spoke to the people.
29 “Come on!” she said. “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! You don’t think he can be the Messiah, do you?”
30 So they left the town and were coming out to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were nagging him.
“Come on, Rabbi!” they were saying. “You must have something to eat!”
32 “I’ve got food to eat that you know nothing about,” he said.
33 “Nobody’s brought him anything to eat, have they?” said the disciples to one another.
34 “My food,” replied Jesus, “is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work! 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘Another four months, then comes harvest’? Well, let me tell you, raise your eyes and see! The fields are white! It’s harvest time already! 36 The reaper earns his pay, and gathers crops for the life of God’s coming age, so that sower and reaper can celebrate together. 37 This is where that saying comes true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t work for. Others did the hard work, and you’ve come into the results.”
39 Several Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said in evidence about him, “He told me everything I did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of what he said.
42 “We believe, too,” they said to the woman, “but it’s no longer because of what you told us. We’ve heard him ourselves! We know that he really is the one! He’s the savior of the world!”
The official’s son
43 After the two days in Samaria, Jesus went off from there to Galilee. 44 Jesus himself gave evidence, after all, that a prophet isn’t honored in his own country. 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the festival, they having been at the festival themselves.
46 So he went once more to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.
There was a royal official in Capernaum whose son was ill. 47 He heard that Jesus had come from Judaea into Galilee, and he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, since he was at the point of death.
48 “Unless you see signs and miracles,” replied Jesus, “you won’t ever believe.”
49 “Sir,” replied the official, “come down before my child dies!”
50 “Off you go!” said Jesus. “Your son will live!”
The man believed the word which Jesus had spoken to him, and he set off. 51 But while he was still on his way down to Capernaum, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well.
52 So he asked them what time he had begun to get better.
“Yesterday afternoon, about one o’clock,” they said. “That’s when the fever left him.”
53 So the father knew that it had happened at the very moment when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live!” He himself believed, and so did all his household.
54 This was now the second sign Jesus did, when he came out of Judaea into Galilee.
John 4
Names of God Bible
A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus at a Well
4 Yeshua knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. 2 (Actually, Yeshua was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) 3 So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
4 Yeshua had to go through Samaria. 5 He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s Well was there. Yeshua sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about six o’clock in the evening.
7 A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” 8 (His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.)
9 The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?” (Jews, of course, don’t associate with Samaritans.)
10 Yeshua replied to her, “If you only knew what God’s gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? 12 You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.”
13 Yeshua answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.”
15 The woman told Yeshua, “Sir, give me this water! Then I won’t get thirsty or have to come here to get water.”
16 Yeshua told her, “Go to your husband, and bring him here.”
17 The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
Yeshua told her, “You’re right when you say that you don’t have a husband. 18 You’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. You’ve told the truth.”
19 The woman said to Yeshua, “I see that you’re a prophet! 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that people must worship in Jerusalem.”
21 Yeshua told her, “Believe me. A time is coming when you Samaritans won’t be worshiping the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We Jews know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. 24 God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything.” (Messiah is the one called Christ.)
26 Yeshua told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.”
27 At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people, 29 “Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” 30 The people left the city and went to meet Yeshua.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.”
32 Yeshua told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him something to eat?”
34 Yeshua told them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me.
35 “Don’t you say, ‘In four more months the harvest will be here’? I’m telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested. 36 The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together. 37 In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person plants, and another person harvests.’ 38 I have sent you to harvest a crop you have not worked for. Other people have done the hard work, and you have followed them in their work.”
39 Many Samaritans in that city believed in Yeshua because of the woman who said, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans went to Yeshua, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed in Samaria for two days. 41 Many more Samaritans believed because of what Yeshua said. 42 They told the woman, “Our faith is no longer based on what you’ve said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the savior of the world.”
A Believing Official(A)
43 After spending two days in Samaria, Yeshua left for Galilee. 44 Yeshua had said that a prophet is not honored in his own country. 45 But when Yeshua arrived in Galilee, the people of Galilee welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done at the festival in Jerusalem, since they, too, had attended the festival.
46 Yeshua returned to the city of Cana in Galilee, where he had changed water into wine. A government official was in Cana. His son was sick in Capernaum. 47 The official heard that Yeshua had returned from Judea to Galilee. So he went to Yeshua and asked him to go to Capernaum with him to heal his son who was about to die.
48 Yeshua told the official, “If people don’t see miracles and amazing things, they won’t believe.”
49 The official said to him, “Sir, come with me before my little boy dies.”
50 Yeshua told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Yeshua told him and left.
51 While the official was on his way to Capernaum, his servants met him and told him that his boy was alive. 52 The official asked them at what time his son got better. His servants told him, “The fever left him yesterday evening at seven o’clock.” 53 Then the boy’s father realized that it was the same time that Yeshua had told him, “Your son will live.” So the official and his entire family became believers.
54 This was the second miracle that Yeshua performed after he had come back from Judea to Galilee.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.