Church Fathers Commentary John 4:1-6

"When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph: and Jacob`s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour." — John 4:1-6 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: After relating how John checked the envy of his disciples regarding the success of Christ’s teaching, the Evangelist next addresses the envy of the Pharisees and Christ’s retreat from them. When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard...

St. Augustine of Hippo: If the Pharisees' knowledge that our Lord was making and baptizing more disciples than John had truly led them to follow Him wholeheartedly, He would not have left Judea but would have remained for their sake. However, seeing that their knowledge of Him was coupled with envy, making them persecutors instead of followers, He departed from there. He could have, if He had pleased, stayed among them and escaped their hands, but He wished to set an example for future believers, showing that it is no sin for a servant of God to flee from the fury of persecutors. He did this as a good teacher, not out of fear for Himself, but for our instruction.

St. John Chrysostom: He also did it to pacify human envy and perhaps to avoid casting suspicion on the dispensation of the incarnation. For if He had been captured and then escaped, the reality of His flesh would have been doubted.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It may perplex you to be told that Jesus baptized more disciples than John, and then immediately after, Though Jesus Himself baptized not. What? Is there a mistake that is then corrected?

St. John Chrysostom: Christ Himself did not baptize, but those who reported the fact represented it this way to stir up the envy of their hearers, making it seem that Christ Himself baptized. The reason He did not baptize Himself had already been declared by John: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, He had not yet given the Holy Spirit; therefore, it was fitting that He should not baptize. But His disciples baptized as an effective mode of instruction, which was better than gathering believers here and there, as had been done with Simon and his brother. Their baptism, however, had no more power than the baptism of John; both were without the grace of the Spirit, and both had one object: to bring people to Christ.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, both statements are true, for Jesus both baptized and did not baptize. He baptized in that He cleansed; He did not baptize in that He did not perform the immersion. The disciples supplied the ministry of the body, while He supplied the aid of that Majesty of whom it was said, The same is He who baptizes.

Alcuin of York: The question is often asked whether the Holy Spirit was given by the baptism of the disciples, when later it is said, The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). We reply that the Spirit was given, though not in as manifest a way as He was after the Ascension, in the form of fiery tongues. For just as Christ Himself in His human nature always possessed the Spirit, yet at His baptism the Spirit descended visibly upon Him in the form of a dove, so also before the manifest and visible coming of the Holy Spirit, all saints could possess the Spirit secretly.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We must believe that Christ's disciples were already baptized themselves, either with John’s baptism or, as is more probable, with Christ’s. For He who had stooped to the humble service of washing His disciples’ feet would not have failed to administer baptism to His servants, who would thus be enabled to baptize others in their turn.

St. John Chrysostom: Upon withdrawing from Judea, Christ rejoined those He was with before, as we read next: And departed again into Galilee. Just as the Apostles, when they were expelled by the Jews, went to the Gentiles, so Christ goes to the Samaritans. But to deprive the Jews of all excuse, He does not go there to stay, but only passes through on His way, as the Evangelist implies by saying, And he must needs go through Samaria.

Samaria receives its name from Somer, a mountain there, named after a former owner. The inhabitants of the country were formerly not Samaritans, but Israelites. But in time they fell under God’s wrath, and the king of Assyria transplanted them to Babylon and Media, placing Gentiles from various regions in Samaria in their place.

God, however, to show that it was not from a lack of power on His part that He delivered up the Jews, but because of the sins of the people themselves, sent lions to afflict the foreigners. This was reported to the king, and he sent a priest to instruct them in God’s law. But not even then did they wholly cease from their iniquity; they only partially changed. In time, they turned to idols again, and while they still worshiped God, they called themselves Samaritans, after the mountain.

The Venerable Bede: He must needs pass through Samaria, because that country lay between Judea and Galilee. Samaria was the principal city of a province of Palestine and gave its name to the whole district connected with it. The particular place to which our Lord went is given next: Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar.

St. John Chrysostom: It was the place where Simeon and Levi carried out a great slaughter on account of Dinah.

Theophylact of Ohrid: But after the sons of Jacob had desolated the city by slaughtering the Shechemites, Jacob annexed it to the portion of his son Joseph, as we read in Genesis: I have given to you one portion above your brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword, and with my bow. This is referred to in what follows: near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It was a well. Every well is a spring, but not every spring is a well. Any water that rises from the ground and can be drawn for use is a spring. But where it is ready at hand on the surface, it is called only a spring; where it is deep and low down, it is called a well, not a spring.

Theophylact of Ohrid: But why does the Evangelist mention the parcel of ground and the well? First, to explain what the woman says, Our father Jacob gave us this well; secondly, to remind you that what the Patriarchs obtained by their faith in God, the Jews had lost by their impiety. They had been supplanted to make room for Gentiles. Therefore, there is nothing new in what has now taken place, that is, in the Gentiles succeeding to the kingdom of heaven in place of the Jews.

St. John Chrysostom: Christ prefers labor and exercise to ease and luxury, and therefore travels to Samaria not in a carriage but on foot, until at last the exertion of the journey fatigues Him. This is a lesson to us that, far from indulging in superfluities, we should often deprive ourselves even of necessities: Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey...

St. Augustine of Hippo: Jesus, we see, is strong and weak: strong, because in the beginning was the Word; weak, because the Word was made flesh. Jesus, being weak and wearied with His journey, sat thus by the well.

St. John Chrysostom: This is as if to say He sat not on a seat or a couch, but on the first place He saw—upon the ground. He sat down because He was wearied and to wait for the disciples. The coolness of the well would be refreshing in the midday heat: And it was about the sixth hour.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He mentions our Lord’s sitting and resting from His journey so that none might blame Him for going to Samaria Himself after He had forbidden the disciples to go.

Alcuin of York: Mystically, our Lord also left Judea; that is, He left the unbelief of those who condemned Him and, through His Apostles, went into Galilee—that is, into the fickleness of the world. He thus taught His disciples to pass from vices to virtues. I conceive the parcel of ground was left not so much to Joseph as to Christ, of whom Joseph was a type and whom the sun, moon, and all the stars truly adore. To this parcel of ground our Lord came so that the Samaritans, who claimed to be inheritors of the Patriarch Israel, might recognize Him and be converted to Christ, the legal heir of the Patriarch.

St. Augustine of Hippo: His journey is His assumption of the flesh for our sake. For where does He go, who is everywhere present? What can this mean, except that to come to us, it was necessary for Him to take upon Himself a visible form of flesh? So then, what does His being wearied with His journey mean, but that He is wearied in the flesh? And why is it the sixth hour? Because it is the sixth age of the world. If we count the ages as hours, the first is from Adam to Noah; the second from Noah to Abraham; the third from Abraham to David; the fourth from David to the Babylonian captivity; the fifth from there to the baptism of John. On this calculation, the present age is the sixth hour.

At the sixth hour, then, our Lord comes to the well. The dark abyss of the well, I think, represents the lowest parts of this universe—that is, the earth. Jesus came to it at the sixth hour, which is the sixth age of humanity, the old age, as it were, of the "old man" whom we are commanded to put off so that we may put on the new.

For we reckon the different ages of a person's life in the same way: the first age is infancy, the second childhood, the third boyhood, the fourth youth, the fifth adulthood, and the sixth old age. Again, the sixth hour is the middle of the day, the time when the sun begins to descend. This signifies that we who are called by Christ are to check our pleasure in visible things, so that by refreshing the inner man with the love of things invisible, we may be restored to the inward light that never fails. His sitting signifies His humility, or perhaps His role as a teacher, since teachers were accustomed to sit.