Font Size
John 4
New Catholic Bible
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.
约翰福音 4
Revised Chinese Union Version (Simplified Script) Shen Edition
约翰福音 4
Revised Chinese Union Version (Simplified Script) Shen Edition
耶稣和撒玛利亚妇人谈道
4 耶稣[a]知道法利赛人听见他收门徒和施洗比约翰还多，（ 2 其实不是耶稣亲自施洗，而是他的门徒施洗，） 3 他就离开犹太，又回加利利去。 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，靠近雅各给他儿子约瑟的那块地。 6 雅各井就在那里；耶稣因旅途疲乏，坐在井旁。那时约是正午。
7 有一个撒玛利亚妇人来打水。耶稣对她说：“请给我水喝。” 8 因为那时门徒进城买食物去了。 9 撒玛利亚妇人对他说：“你是犹太人，怎么向我一个撒玛利亚女人要水喝呢？”因为犹太人和撒玛利亚人没有来往。 10 耶稣回答她说：“你若知道 神的恩赐，和对你说‘请给我水喝’的是谁，你早就会求他，他也早就会给了你活水。” 11 妇人对耶稣说：“先生，你没有打水的器具，井又深，哪里去取活水呢？ 12 我们的祖宗雅各把这井留给我们，他自己和儿女以及牲畜都喝这井里的水，难道你比他还大吗？” 13 耶稣回答，对她说：“凡喝这水的，还要再渴； 14 谁喝我所赐的水，就永远不渴。我所赐的水要在他里面成为泉源，直涌到永生。” 15 妇人对他说：“先生，请把这水赐给我，使我不渴，也不用到这里来打水。”
16 耶稣对她说：“你去，叫你的丈夫，再到这里来。” 17 妇人回答，对耶稣说：“我没有丈夫。”耶稣说：“你说没有丈夫是对的。 18 你已经有过五个丈夫，你现在有的并不是你的丈夫。你这话是真的。” 19 妇人对他说：“先生，我看你是一位先知。 20 我们的祖宗在这山上敬拜 神，你们倒说，应当敬拜的地方是在耶路撒冷。” 21 耶稣对她说：“妇人，你要信我。时候将到，你们敬拜父，既不在这山上，也不在耶路撒冷。 22 你们所敬拜的，你们不知道；我们所敬拜的，我们知道，因为救恩是从犹太人出来的。 23 时候将到，现在就是了，那真正敬拜父的，要用心灵和诚实敬拜他，因为父要这样的人敬拜他。 24 神是灵，所以敬拜他的必须用心灵和诚实敬拜他。” 25 妇人对他说：“我知道弥赛亚—就是那称为基督的—要来；他来了，会把一切的事都告诉我们。” 26 耶稣对她说：“我就是，正在跟你说话呢！”
27 正在这时，门徒回来了。他们对耶稣正在和一个妇人说话感到惊讶，可是没有人说：“你要什么？”或说：“你为什么和她说话？” 28 那妇人留下水罐，往城里去，对众人说： 29 “你们来看！有一个人把我素来所做的一切事都说了出来，难道这个人就是基督吗？” 30 他们就出城，来到耶稣那里。
31 就在这个时候，门徒求耶稣说：“拉比，请吃吧。” 32 耶稣对他们说：“我有食物吃，是你们不知道的。” 33 门徒就彼此说：“难道有人拿什么给他吃了吗？” 34 耶稣对他们说：“我的食物就是要遵行差我来那位的旨意，完成他的工作。 35 你们不是说‘到收割的时候还有四个月’吗？我告诉你们，举目向田观看，庄稼熟了，可以收割了。 36 收割的人已经得工钱[b]，为永生储存五谷，使撒种的和收割的一同快乐。 37 ‘那人撒种，这人收割’，这话可见是真的。 38 我差你们去收你们所没有辛劳的；别人辛劳，你们享受他们辛劳的成果。”
39 那城里有好些撒玛利亚人信了耶稣，因为那妇人作见证，说：“他把我素来所做的一切事都说了出来。” 40 于是撒玛利亚人来见耶稣，求他在他们那里住下，他就在那里住了两天。 41 因为耶稣的话，信的人就更多了。 42 他们对那妇人说：“现在我们信，不再是因为你的话，而是我们亲自听见了，知道这人真是世界的救主。”
耶稣治好大臣的儿子
43 过了那两天，耶稣离开那地方，往加利利去。 44 因为耶稣自己作过见证说：“先知在自己的家乡是没有人尊敬的。” 45 到了加利利，加利利人都欢迎他，因为他们也上耶路撒冷去过节，曾经看过他在节期间所做的一切事。
46 耶稣又到了加利利的迦拿，就是他从前变水为酒的地方。有一个大臣，他的儿子在迦百农病了。 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，因为他儿子快要死了。 48 耶稣对他说：“若不看见神迹奇事，你们总是不信。” 49 那大臣对他说：“先生，求你趁着我的孩子还没有死就下去吧。” 50 耶稣对他说：“回去吧，你的儿子会活！”那人信耶稣所说的话，就回去了。 51 正下去的时候，他的仆人迎面而来，说他的儿子活了。 52 他就问什么时候见好的。他们对他说：“昨天下午一点钟热就退了。” 53 他就知道这正是耶稣对他说“你的儿子会活”的时候；他自己和全家就都信了。 54 这是耶稣从犹太回到加利利后所行的第二个神迹。
John 4
New International Version
John 4
New International Version
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John(A)— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea(B) and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.(C) 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.(D) 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”(E) 8 (His disciples had gone into the town(F) to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan(G) woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”(H)
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well(I) and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.(J) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water(K) welling up to eternal life.”(L)
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty(M) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.(N) 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,(O) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”(P)
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming(Q) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.(R) 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know;(S) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.(T) 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come(U) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit(V) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit,(W) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ)(X) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”(Y)
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned(Z) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.(AA) Could this be the Messiah?”(AB) 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,(AC) eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat(AD) that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will(AE) of him who sent me and to finish his work.(AF) 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.(AG) 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests(AH) a crop for eternal life,(AI) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’(AJ) is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town(AK) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”(AL) 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”(AM)
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43 After the two days(AN) he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)(AO) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival,(AP) for they also had been there.
46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.(AQ) And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,(AR) he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,”(AS) Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household(AT) believed.
54 This was the second sign(AU) Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Footnotes
- John 4:9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used
Revised Chinese Union Version (Simplified Script) Shen Edition (RCU17SS)
和合本修訂版經文 © 2006, 2010, 2017 香港聖經公會。蒙允許使用。 Scripture Text of Revised Chinese Union Version © 2006, 2010, 2017 Hong Kong Bible Society. www.hkbs.org.hk/en/ Used by permission.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.