4, 5. Not choosing to cross to the east of the Jordan, and go up through Peraea, as some of the stricter Jews did, who wished to avoid all possible contact with the Samaritans, He was obliged to pass through Samaria. Of the three provinces of Palestine west of the Jordan, Samaria was in the centre, with Judea to the south, and Galilee to the north. “St. John is thus careful to note that this was no mission to the Samaritans which the Lord undertook. On the contrary, the law which He imposed on His disciples: ‘And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not’ (Matt. x. 5), this, during the days of His flesh, He imposed also on Himself. He was not sent ‘but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt. xv. 24; Acts xiii. 46); and if any grace reached Samaritan or heathen, it was, so to speak, but by accident, a crumb falling from the children's table.”[38] Samaria had been the portion of the tribe of Ephraim and of half the tribe of Manasses. The province derived its name from its chief city, Samaria, which, in turn, got its name from Mount Somer (or Semer), on which it was built (3 Kings xvi. 24). See A Lap. The city called Sichar[39] (the modern Nabulus) by St. John is the ancient Sichem, where Abram built an altar to the Lord (Gen. xii. 7), under the turpentine tree behind which Jacob buried the idols of his household (Gen. xxxv. 4), and where the bones of the twelve patriarchs were laid to rest (Acts vii. 16).
Near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. See Gen. xxxviii. 18, 19; Josue xxiv. 32.
| 6. Erat autem ibi fons Iacob, Iesus ergo fatigatus ex itinere, sedebat sic supra fontem. Hora erat quasi sexta. | 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. |
6. Jacob's well, which he had dug or bought, was there; and Jesus, weary because of His [pg 076] journey, sat thus (sic., “hoc est, fatigatus ut erat,” Beel.) by the well.
It was about the sixth hour. See on [i. 39].
| 7. Venit mulier de Samaria haurire aquam. Dicit ei Iesus: Da mihi bibere. | 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. |
7. There cometh a woman of Samaria, not of the city of Samaria, for that was six miles distant, but of the country of Samaria, a Samaritan woman, to draw water.[40]
| 8. (Discipuli enim eius abierant in civitatem ut cibos emerent.) | 8. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. |
8. Because He had no one else to give Him to drink, He asks her to do so, and thus leads up naturally to the following discourse.
| 9. Dicit ergo ei mulier illa Samaritana: Quomodo tu Iudaeus cum sis, bibere a me poscis, quae sum mulier Samaritana? non enim coutuntur Iudaei Samaritanis. | 9. Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. |