Charles Ellicott Commentary John 4:12

"Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" — John 4:12 (ASV)

Are you greater . . .?—Again, the pronoun is the emphatic word: “You surely are not greater.” Their implied argument continued: “The well used to satisfy the needs of the patriarch, his household, and his flocks, and has come down from him to us. It is surely sufficient for all our needs.”

This claim of Jacob as their father was through Ephraim and Joseph, and the well was part of the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (John 4:5).

There was an abundance of water near it, but a patriarchal household could not depend for a necessity of life upon neighbors who might be hostile, and Jacob had dug this well in his own purchased plot.

It was sacred, then, as the very spot where their asserted ancestor had dug his well and built his altar. There was an unbroken continuity in the history of the place, and it was prized all the more because that was not the case in the history of the people.