Moff YHN Chapter 4

◄ YHN 4 ► ║ ═ ©

4 Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard of Jesus gaining and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself did not baptize, it was his disciples), 3 he left Judaea and went back to Galilee. 4 He had to pass through Samaria, 5 and in so doing he arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar; it lay near the territory which Jacob had given to his son Joseph, 6 and Jacob's spring was there. Jesus, exhausted by the journey, sat down at the spring, just as he was. It was about noon, 7 and a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink" 8 (his disciples had gone to the town to buy some food). 9 The Samaritan woman said, "What? You are a Jew, and you ask me for a drink — me, a Samaritan!" (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered, "If you knew what is the free gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given you 'living' water." 11 "Sir," said the woman, "you have nothing to draw water with, and it is a deep well; where do you get your 'living' water? 12 Are you a greater man than Jacob, our ancestor? He gave us this well, and he drank from it, with his sons and his cattle." 13 Jesus answered, "Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but anyone who drinks the water I shall give him will never thirst any more; the water I shall give him will turn into a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 "Ah, sir," said the woman, "give me this water, so that I need not thirst or come all this road to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go and call your husband, then come back here." 17 The woman replied, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You were right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 you have had five husbands, and he whom you have now espoused is not your husband. That was a true word." 19 "Sir," said the woman, "I see you are a prophet. 20 Now our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, whereas you Jews declare the proper place for worship is at Jerusalem." 21 "Woman," said Jesus, "believe me, the time is coming when you will be worshipping the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem. 22 You are worshipping something you do not know; we are worshipping what we do know — for salvation comes from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming, it has come already, when the real worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in reality; for these are the worshippers that the Father wants. 24 God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in Spirit and in reality." 25 The woman said to him, "Well, I know messiah (which means Christ) is coming. When he arrives, he will explain it all to us." 26 "I am messiah," said Jesus, "I who am talking to you."

27 At this point his disciples came up; they were surprised that he was talking to a woman, but none of them said, "What is it?" or, "Why are you talking to her?" 28 Then the woman left her water-pot, and going off to the town told the people, 29 "Come here, look at a man who has told me everything I ever did! Can he be the Christ?" 30 They set out from the town on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples pressed him, saying, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food, of which you know nothing." 33 So the disciples asked each other, "Can anyone have brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 35 You have a saying, have you not, 'Four months yet, then harvest'? Look round, I tell you; see, the fields are white for harvesting! 36 The reaper is already getting his wages and harvesting for eternal life, so that the sower shares the reaper's joy. 37 That proverb, 'One sows and another reaps,' holds true here: 38 I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not toil; other men have toiled, and you reap the profit of their toil." 39 Now many Samaritans belonging to that town believed in him on account of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans arrived, they pressed him to stay with them; he did stay there two days, 41 and far more of them believed on account of what he said himself. 42 As they told the woman, "We no longer believe on account of what you said; we have heard for ourselves, we know that he is really the Saviour of the world."

43 When the two days were over, he left for Galilee 44 (for Jesus himself testified that a prophet enjoys no honour in his own country); 45 on reaching Galilee, he was welcomed by the Galileans, who had seen all he did at the festival in Jerusalem — for they too had gone to the festival. 46 Once more he came to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a royal official, whose son was lying ill at Capernaum; 47 when he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judaea, he went to him and begged him to come down and cure his son, who was at the point of death. 48 Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you never will believe." 49 The official said, "Come down, sir, before my boy is dead." 50 Jesus told him, "Go yourself, your son is alive." The man believed what Jesus told him, and started on his journey. 51 And on the road his servants met him with the news that his boy was alive. 52 So he asked them at what hour he had begun to improve; they told him, "Yesterday at one o'clock the fever left him." 53 Then the father realized that it had left him at the very time when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is alive"; and he became a believer with all his household. 54 This was the second Sign which Jesus performed again after leaving Judaea for Galilee.

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