OET interlinear YHN (JHN) 4:3

Section 4:1–42: Jesus spoke with a woman from Samaria

In this section Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman who had come to get water from a well. Jesus asked her for a drink of water. The woman was surprised that he spoke to her. Jesus was a Jew, and most Jewish people hated the Samaritans. But Jesus stayed and talked with the woman.

Jesus told the woman that he could give her living water, and he told her that he was the Messiah. The women went back to her town and brought many of the other Samaritan people to Jesus.

It is good to translate the section before giving it a title. Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Jesus brought good news to the hated Samaritan people

The conversation at the well

Paragraph 4:1–3

These verses tell the background to the story of Jesus’ conversation with a woman at a well. The Pharisees knew that Jesus’ disciples were baptizing more people than John, and they were jealous because he was popular. So Jesus decided to leave Judea and travel north through Samaria back to Galilee.

See the General Comment at the end of verse 3 for other ways to order these verses.

He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

• Then Jesus left the area called Judea and went back to the area called Galilee.

• So Jesus with his disciples left the province of Judea to return to the province of Galilee.

General Comment on 4:1–3

The first three verses are one sentence in Greek. In many languages it may be natural to have more than one sentence and put the clauses in a different order. You should order this information in the way that is most natural in your language. Several English translations reorder the ideas in these verses. For example:

News now reached the Pharisees that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John; although, in fact, it was his disciples who were baptizing, not Jesus himself. When Jesus heard this, he left Judaea and set out once more for Galilee. (REB)

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize people, but his followers did. Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him, so he left Judea and went back to Galilee. (NCV)

Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. (Actually, Jesus was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee (GW)