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Matt. iv. 16.

17.

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and Judea. to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light

is

sprung up.

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Julian Pe

SECTION II.

Christ's Conversation with the Woman of Samaria".

JOHN iv. 1-42.

1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees Samaria. riod, 4740. had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples Vulgar Era, than John,

27.

merce there will be an increase of knowledge. The mixed
population of Galilee was partly stationed there, to communi-
cate, by means of commerce, with their more distant country-
men, and it cannot be supposed that they would remain uni-
formly silent respecting the divine stranger who now began to
appear among them. The Jews who lived in Galilee went up to
the celebration of the festivals at Jerusalem; they would commu-
nicate to their countrymen, and to the chief priests, that "God
had visited his people." The Arabians would disperse the intel-
ligence to the east of Palestine-the Ægyptians would send the
glad tidings to the southern world-the Phoenicians would carry
the intelligence to the settlements of the west; and in this manner
the dayspring from on high would gently dawn on the illumined
earth. During this gradual progress of knowledge, which at-
tracted the attention of many nations, there was but little col-
lision with the high priests and authorities at Jerusalem, whose
jealousy would therefore be but little excited; till the time
came when the sacrifice was to be offered on the cross. When
these things are considered-when it is remembered too that
the traditions of the Jews referred to Galilee as the place where
the Messiah should be revealed-and that the prophecy of
Isaiah was thus fulfilled-it seemed impossible to point out a
spot on the whole world, in which the ministry of the Messiah
could commence with so much propriety as in Galilee of the
Gentiles. This country was the first that had offended, and the
first taken captive; and, through the mercy of God, it was the
first to whom the words of pardon and reconciliation were
offered. In the most minute circumstances, the beautiful har-
mony of the divine dispensations is every where most evident.

4 There is a remarkable coincidence here in the three most
memorable events which had occurred at Samaria. At this
place the first proselytes were admitted into the Church of Israel,
Gen. xxxiv. 29. and xxxv. 2. It was here that Christ first an-
nounced himself to be the Messiah, John iv. 26. and it was
here also that the Gospel was first preached out of Jerusalem,
after the ascension of Christ. Lightfoot also (a) is of opinion,
that in this address to the woman of Samaria, the prophecy of
Hosea ii. 15. was accomplished-I will give the valley of Achor
for a door of hope. He endeavours to prove that the valley of
Achor ran along by the city of Sichem, or Samaria. And thus,
when our Saviour first begins to preach to strangers, and to
convert them, it is in this very valley, and so he makes it a door
of hope, or of conversion, to the Gentiles.

Julian Period, 4740.

2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disci- Samaria.

Valgar Era, ples)

27.

3 He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee.

4 And he must needs go through Samaria.

5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph ".

Our Lord might have had another object in view in thus addressing himself to the woman of Samaria. By his own example he taught his followers the propriety, or necessity, of breaking down the distinctions then existing between the Jews and the Samaritans; and by so doing he bestows on them an evident proof of his superiority over the Jewish teachers, who encouraged the reciprocal enmity of the two nations. It may be observed here, that Samaria was the first city addressed after the Jews, when the persecution of the Church at Jerusalem had scattered the early converts. The extinction of national hatred and prejudice, was a convincing proof to the collective nation of Israel that a new æra had commenced. Philip the deacon converted the Samaritans, and Peter and John were sent down from Jerusalem to confirm their faith. It is not improbable that St. John recalled to their remembrance this first interview of our Lord, at the commencement of his ministry.

The silence of the three first Evangelists on this remarkable
circumstance may be accounted for, from a consideration of
the peculiar circumstances of the Church and of Palestine at
the time when their Gospels were written. Each Gospel was
written for one specific purpose, and addressed to one descrip-
tion of people. If St. Matthew had inserted it, the prejudices
of the Jews, to whom he addressed his Gospel, would have
been more highly excited against the new religion.

The Gospel of St. Mark, which with equal justice may be
called the Gospel of St. Peter, was written for the use of the
converted proselytes, particularly those of Rome; who were
but little interested in these national transactions; or, as is
more probable, St. Mark omitted it because St. Peter was not
present, as he did not become the constant follower of Christ
till a period subsequent to this conversation: and it is supposed
that St. Mark has related those events only to which St. Peter
was an eye-witness. St. Luke omitted it, for he wrote to the
Gentiles of Achaia, who were likewise indifferent to the con-
troversies which prevailed between the Jews and Samaritans.
St. John had been sent down from Jerusalem by the Church, in
company with St. Peter, and, as his own historian, could not
fail to mention this circumstance in all its minuteness (b).
(a) Works, vol. i. p. 596. (b) Dr. Townson's Discourses, vol. i.
P. 9.

5 Christ did not himself baptize, because,

1. It does not seem fit that he should have baptized in his own

name.

2. The baptism of the Holy Ghost was more peculiarly his.
3. It was a more important office to preach, than to baptize.
4. The early Christians valued themselves according to the
eminence of the apostle or teacher who baptized them-his bap
tizing therefore might have eventually originated schisms in the
Church.-Beausobre's Annotations ap Bishop Gleig's Stack-
house, vol. iii. p. 29.

• Jacob had bought a piece of land of the children of Hamor,

Julian Pe- 6 Now Jacob's well was there: Jesus therefore, being Samaria. riod, 4740. wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well; and it

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was about the sixth hour.

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again :

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband;

18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship'.

for a hundred lambs, Gen. xlviii. 22. and xxxiii. 19. But, after
the slaughter of the Schechemites, he was forced to retire to
Bethel, Bethlehem, and Hebron; at which time the Amorites
forcibly obtained possession of his land, which he was com-
pelled to recover at an after period by war-with his sword and
bow.-Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 537.

7 The Jews had more favourable thoughts of the temple built
by Onias in Egypt, than of that built on Mount Gerizim. Their

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21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour Samaria. riod, 4740. cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Valgar Era, Jerusalem, worship the Father,

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22 Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,

25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

respective claims are about equal. The one was built by a
fugitive priest, under the pretence that that mount was the
mount on which the blessings had been pronounced; the other
also (that of Onias) by a fugitive priest, under pretence of a
divine prophecy, Isaiah xix. 19. "In that day shall be an altar
to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt."

The Samaritans well knew that Jerusalem was the place ap-
pointed by God for his worship: but they may have defended
their preference of Mount Gerizim, not only from its anti-
quity as the place of worship among their fathers, but because
the divine presence over the ark, the ark itself, the cherubim,
the Urim and Thummim, and the spirit of prophecy, had all
departed from the second temple at Jerusalem.-See Lightfoot,
vol. ii. p. 541.

In Bishop Horsley's beautiful illustration of this passage, in his twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth sermons, he has not taken into consideration the circumstance related at some length by Lightfoot, and proved with his usual learning, that although the Samaritans received only as canonical books the Pentateuch of Moses, they held in great estimation the prophetical writings. Bishop Horsley's argument, therefore, that the Samaritan woman necessarily expected a Messiah from studying the books of Moses only, is not well founded. Archdeacon Blomfield, in his excellent dissertation on the traditional knowledge of a Redeemer (notes, p. 172, 3.) has likewise made the same observation.

The Samaritan woman, he observes, uses the word Messias, which does not occur in Moses. But as Moses had clearly predicted Him, whom the prophets called Messiah, the Samaritans did not hesitate to use the prophetical designation of that person whom Moses had foretold. From the words of the woman, õida öri Meorías čoxerai, Dr. Blomfield concludes that her countrymen were expecting the speedy advent of the Messiah. Christ was first called Messiah, in the Song of Hannah.-Vide Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 511; and Archdeacon Blomfield's, Dissertation, note, p. 172-3.

Julian Pe

29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever Samaria. riod, 4740. I did: is not this the Christ?

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30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

33 Therefore saith the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?

34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

35 Say ye not, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest'? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already

to harvest.

36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

9 This passage has much divided the commentators. It is one of those texts upon which much depends with respect to the chronology of the life of Christ. Some suppose that the words imply, that in four months time would be the harvest, which took place at the Passover. On which supposition many harmonists have added another Passover to our Lord's ministry. Lightfoot (vol. i. p. 603.) is of this opinion. Whitby supposes the phrase to be proverbial. We cannot certainly conclude, from these words, whether our Lord alluded to the appearance of the people who might be then in numbers approaching him, or to the actual time of the year. The extreme weariness of our Saviour seems to favour more the supposition that the conversation with the woman of Samaria was held after the Passover, immediately before the corn was reaped, during the summer season, rather than in the depth of winter. Nor is it likely that the desolation of the scenery in winter would have recalled, by natural association, the beautics and the riches of the fields, when ripe and ready for the harvest. Our Lord, as Bishop Law has proved, in his tract of the Life of Christ, and as Archbishop Newcome, Jortin, and many others have shewn, drew his comparisons and illustrations very frequently and generally from surrounding objects.-Vide Benson's Chronology, &c. p. 247-9. Archbishop Newcome on our Lord's Conduct. Jortin's Six Discourses. Law's Life of Christ, &c.

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