The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1

Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching

Near Sychar at Jacob's Well

- Chapter 26 -

The Lord and the woman at Jacob's Well. The Lord's words about the living water.

(John 4:7) There came a woman from Samaria (actually from the town of Sychar: She was born in Samaria the capital of this land) to draw water from the well. Jesus said to her: "Woman, give Me a drink!"

(John 4:8) For His disciples had gone away to the town to buy food.

While I am still waiting in vain for a vessel from the little village, a Samaritan woman from Sychar comes with a vessel just at the right moment on this hot day to draw a delicious, refreshing drink from Jacob's well. Only after she has drawn up on a cord the vessel willed with water, without taking any notice of Me, I address her saying, 'Woman, I am very thirsty, let Me have a drink from your water jar.'

(John 4:9) Says the Samaritan woman to Jesus: "What! You who are obviously a Jew ask a drink of water of me, a Samaritan woman? For the (proud) Jews do not associate with us (poor) Samaritans."

The woman, seeing that I am Jew, is quite astonished and says after a while, 'Are you not one of those whim I met as they were entering the town and asking where one could buy food? They were proud Jews. Judging by your apparel, you must be a Jew too, and I am a Samaritan woman. How is it that you ask me for a drink of water? He, you proud Jews, when help is needed, even a Samaritan woman is good enough for you, but otherwise you no longer pay any attention to us. If I were able to drown the whole of Judaea with this vessel of water, I would be only too pleased to let you drink the desired water from this jar,. But otherwise I would rather watch you die of thirst than offer you even a drop of water from it.

(John 4:10) Jesus answered her: "If you only knew the gift of God 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 to drink!"

Say I, 'You speak like that because you are blind in your perception. If you were seeing and recognised the gift of God and who the one is who is speaking to you and has said, "Woman, let Me have a drink", then you would ask Him on your knees for true water, and he would give you a drink of living water. I tell you: Whosoever believes what I say to him, from his body will be flowing streams of the same living water as is written in Isaiah 44:3 and Joel 3:1.'

(John 4:11) Says the woman: "Sir! You have nothing with which to draw the water, and the well is deep! Where else could you get a living water?"

Says the woman, 'You seem to be well versed in the Scripture. But as I recognise from your request for a drink of water from my jar that you have certainly no vessel to draw water from this deep well, where no one could reach the water with his hand, I would like to know how you could manage to procure it from somewhere? Or do you wish to intimate to me in a veiled way that you desire to have an affair with me? I am still young and attractive enough being not yet 30 years of age. But such a proposition on the part of a Jew to a most despised Samaritan woman would be much too surprising since you prefer animals to us Samaritan people. There is not a chance that I could be persuaded to do this.'

(John 4:12) "Are you a greater man than Jacob our ancestor, who gave us this precious well, from which he drank himself, also his children and his cattle?"

Who and what are you that you dare speak to me like this? Are you maybe more than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and drank form it himself, and so did his children and his cattle? What are you pretending to be? - Look, I am a poor woman, for if I were rich I would not come myself in this heat to get a refreshing drink. Do you, as a Jew, want to make me even more miserable than I already am? Look at my clothes, which are hardly sufficient to cover my nakedness, and it will be clear to you that I am very poor. How can you demand of me, a poor, miserable woman, to even ask you, a proud Jew, to be allowed to serve you in lust? Shame on you, if you are thinking of this. But actually you do not look as if you were like that and, therefore, I do not really mean what I just said to you, but since you did start to talk to me, tell me in plain language what you mean by your living water.'

(John 4:13) Jesus said to her: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again."

Say I, 'I already told you that you are blind in your perception, and so it is understandable that you cannot and will not grasp the meaning of My words. Behold, I also told you: Who so ever believes in My words, from his loins streams of living water will be flowing. Behold, I have already been in this world for 30 years and have never yet touched a woman, why should I now suddenly desire you? Oh you blind, foolish woman, And if id start an affair with you, you would surely get thirsty again and need a drink to quench your thirst. If I offered you a living water, it is obvious that with this I wanted to quench your life's thirst forever. For, behold, My Word, My teaching is such a water.

(John 4:14) "Whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never suffer thirst any more. The water that I shall give him will be an inner spring for him welling up into everlasting life!"

For whoever drinks the natural water of this or any other will soon be thirsty again. But the one who drinks (accepts with faith into his heart) the spiritual water (My teaching), which only I can give, will not ever be thirsty again, for the water I give to anyone becomes an inner spring for him welling up into everlasting life.

You take Me to be a proud, arrogant Jew, but behold I am meek with all My soul and full of the deepest humility. Thus, who does not become as humble as I am will not participate in the Kingdom of God which has now descended to the earth.

At the same time the living water offered to you is the sole true cognition of God and eternal life out of God, thus welling from God, the life of all life, into man as eternal life where it becomes an inexhaustible, ever-present life, flowing back into God's life and producing in God one and the same freely active life. Behold, such a water is what is what I am offering you. How could you misunderstand Me so much?'

(John 4:15) Says the woman: "Sir! Give me that water and then I shall not be thirsty, nor have to come all this way to draw water (which I find difficult)!"

Says the woman, 'Then give me that water, so that I may never be thirsty and need no longer go to all the trouble to come here to draw water from this well. For I live at the other end of town and have to walk quite a distance to come here.'

(John 4:16) Jesus says to her: "Go home, call your husband and come back (with him)!"

Say I, 'O woman, you do not understand. There is no point in talking to you since you are quite ignorant of spiritual things. -go back to the town, call your husband and return to Me with him. I will speak to him, he will surely understand Me better than you do. Or is your husband also like you that he would like to quench his natural physical thirst with the spiritual water of humility?'

Footnotes

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