Charles Ellicott Commentary John 4:35

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and [then] cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest." — John 4:35 (ASV)

Say not ye, There are yet four months. (John 4:35).—The emphasis in this verse should be placed on “ye.” It follows immediately from the contrast between the natural and spiritual food. Every outward fact is the sign of an inner truth. They here, like the woman in John 4:11, the teacher of Israel (John 3:4), and the Jews (John 2:20), speak only in the language of outward facts. He speaks of the spiritual realities.

Looking at the fields of growing grain, they would say that in four months there would be harvest. He sees signs of life springing up from seed sown in receptive hearts. Eyes lifted up and directed to the wide fields of the world’s nations would see that the fullness of time had come, and that the fields were even now white to harvest. The Samaritans coming to Him are like the firstfruits, the earnest of the abundant sheaves that will follow.

Four months.—This probably gives us a note on time. There is no evidence that it was a proverbial saying, and the form of the sentence is against that supposition. The legal beginning of harvest was fixed (Leviticus 23:10; Deuteronomy 16:9) for the 16th of Nisan (April). This would place the conversation, in that year—which was a Jewish leap year with an added month (Wieseler’s Synopsis, English Translation, p. 187)—sometime around the middle of the month Tebeth (January). (Compare to John 5:1.) For the idea of the harvest, compare Matthew 9:36-38, and the parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:3 and following.