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John 4

1When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John—2though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did—3he left Judea and went back to Galilee. 4He had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land Jacob gave his son Joseph. 6Jacob's spring was there. Jesus, worn out from the journey, sat down just as he was beside the spring. It was about the sixth hour.

7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8For his disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” For Jews do not share things with Samaritans. 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew God's gift and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where, then, do you get this living water? 12You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, with his sons and his livestock.” 13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. 14But whoever drinks the water I will give him will never thirst. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not thirst or keep coming here to draw.”

16He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You spoke well in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming”—the one called Christ. “When he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking to you.”

27Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are you seeking?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28The woman left her water jar, went into the town, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I have done. Could this be the Messiah?” 30They left the town and came toward him.

31Meanwhile the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32But he told them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “No one has brought him something to eat, has he?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more, and the harvest comes’? Look, I tell you, lift your eyes and see the fields: they are white for harvest. Already 36the reaper receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap what you have not labored for. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony: “He told me everything I have done.” 40When the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of his word. 42They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this truly is the Savior of the world.”

43After the two days he left there for Galilee. 44For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen everything he did in Jerusalem at the festival, for they too had gone to the festival.

46He came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. There was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. 47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. 48Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will certainly not believe.” 49The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51While he was going down, his slaves met him, saying that his boy was alive. 52He asked them the hour when he began to improve. They told him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53The father recognized that this was the very hour when Jesus told him, “Your son lives.” He believed, along with his whole household. 54This was the second sign Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Translation notes 6

1:39; 4:6, 52 — Hours. Counting daylight hours from sunrise gives approximately 4 p.m. for the tenth hour, noon for the sixth, and 1 p.m. for the seventh. These are approximate equivalents, not precise modern clock readings. The Greek hour numbers remain in the text.

1:51; 3:7, 11–12; 4:20–22, 48 — You. English does not distinguish singular and plural “you.” At 1:51 Jesus broadens his words beyond Nathanael to a plural audience. In 3:7, “I told you” is singular but “You must be born” is plural; the address in 3:11–12 is plural. In 4:20–22 the woman's “you” and Jesus' answering “you” concern communities. The warning at 4:48 is also plural, not limited grammatically to the official.

2:5, 9; 4:51; 12:26 — Servants and slaves. The Cana attendants are diakonoi, the same noun behind “deacons.” Here it names ordinary service, not a church office. The official's household slaves in 4:51 are douloi. The servant in 12:26 again belongs to the service word group.

4:6, 9–14 — Spring, well, and living water. The narrative uses “spring,” while the woman calls it a “well.” These describe the water source and the place from which it is drawn, not necessarily two different sites. “Living water” can mean fresh, flowing water and carries the conversation's deeper meaning. “Leaping up” retains the motion in verse 14. Verse 9's “share things” can refer particularly to shared utensils; “have dealings” is broader. The context includes disciples buying Samaritan food.

4:17–18, 23–24 — What the text leaves open. The woman has had five husbands, but the passage does not explain how those marriages ended or call her a prostitute. Lowercase “spirit” in worship language leaves the emphasis on spiritual worship visible; reference to God's Spirit is also possible. “God is spirit” is not “God is a spirit” in the sense of one spirit among others.

4:29, 35–36, 54 — Question, harvest, and sign. The woman's question is tentative, not a confident declaration. “Already” can conclude the description of the ripe fields or begin the reaper's work; the draft takes the latter. “Second sign” should be read with the Galilean setting and 2:11; 2:23 has already mentioned other signs.