Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 4:40

"So when the Samaritans came unto him, they besought him to abide with them: and he abode there two days." — John 4:40 (ASV)

These few verses indicate two necessary and interrelated bases for belief: (1) the testimony of others and (2) personal contact with Jesus. This woman’s witness opened the way to him for the villagers. If he could penetrate the shell of her materialism and present a message that would transform her, the Samaritans also could believe that he might be the Messiah. That stage of belief was only introductory, however. The second stage was hearing him for themselves, and it brought them to the settled conviction expressed in “we know” (v.42). They had progressed from a faith built on the witness of another to a faith built on their own experience.

43—44 The progress to Galilee is closely connected with the episode at Samaria. For the parenthesis of v.44, see Mt 13:57; Mark 6:4. Did Jesus intend to apply the principle stated in this verse to Judea or to Galilee? In the light of his comment to the nobleman in v.48, it seems likely that John was simply stating that Jesus had already been rebuffed in Galilee (cf. Lk 4:24-29) and that he was questioning the motives of the nobleman in the light of past experience. At this time the Galileans were somewhat more receptive because of the miracles they had witnessed at the Passover in Jerusalem. John says little in this gospel about Jesus’ Galilean activities, though he shows knowledge of them (2:1–11; 4:43– 54; 6:1–7:13).