Charles Ellicott Commentary John 4:20

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." — John 4:20 (ASV)

Our fathers worshipped.—She gives a sudden turn to the conversation. It is not that the question of worship is the all-engrossing problem of her mind, for which she seeks a solution from this prophet. Such questions hardly entered a Samaritan woman’s thoughts then, and this woman’s life had not been such that she would be an exception to the rule; but the heart, quivering before the eye that reads it as it had never read itself before, shrinks from the light that is let in on it. She will speak of anything rather than of self. There is the mountain overhanging them, the theme of many a discussion between Samaritan and Jew; she will ask the prophet to decide that question.