John 4
John 4:1
Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Yeshua was making and immersing more disciples than Yochanan
John 4:2
(although Yeshua himself didn’t immerse, but his disciples),
It is interesting that the Gospels point out this small fact in passing: Yeshua himself didn’t immerse others, but only his disciples. Why is this? The reason is, Yeshua doesn’t immerse with water below, but with fire above. This point is made earlier in the Gospels,
“I immerse you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will immerse you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Luke 3:16
The Talmud records a discussion between R’ Abbahu and a heretic, who claimed that if HaShem is a priest, He Himself must immerse in water, yet all the waters of the universe would fit in the palm of the hand of HaShem. R’ Abbahu replies,
“He immersed in fire (בנורא טביל), as it is written: “For, behold, the L-rd will come in fire” (Isaiah 66:15). The heretic said to him: But is immersion in fire effective? Rabbi Abbahu said to him: On the contrary, the main form of immersion is in fire, as it is written with regard to the removal of non-kosher substances absorbed in a vessel: “And all that abides not the fire you shall make to go through the water” (Numbers 31:23), indicating that fire purifies more than water does.”
Sanhedrin 39a, The William Davidson Edition, Sefaria.org
John 4:3
he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.
According to the Zohar, Messiah first reveals himself in the land of Galilee. Sa’adia Gaon makes the same observation in relation to Mashiach ben Yosef.
John 4:4
He needed to pass through Samaria.
“The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.”
2 Kings 17:24
John 4:5
So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
“Sychar” is Shechem.
“And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.”
Genesis 33:18
John 4:6
Jacob’s well was there. Yeshua therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
“Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.”
Exodus 2:15
John 4:7
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink.”
John 4:8
For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
John 4:9
The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
John 4:10
Yeshua answered her, If you 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.
John 4:11
The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water?
John 4:12
Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?
John 4:13
Yeshua answered her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,
John 4:14
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.
John 4:15
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.’
John 4:16
Yeshua said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’
John 4:17
The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Yeshua said to her, You said well, ‘I have no husband,
John 4:18
for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.’
John 4:19
The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
John 4:20
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
She immediately changes the subject, from the personal to the more theoretical.
John 4:21
Yeshua said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
John 4:22
You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
John 4:23
But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:25
The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah comes, (he who is called Anointed One). When he has come, he will declare to us all things.’
John 4:26
Yeshua said to her, ‘I, the one who speaks to you, am he.’
John 4:27
At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, What are you looking for? or, Why do you speak with her?
John 4:28
So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
John 4:29
‘Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Messiah?’
John 4:30
They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
John 4:31
In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’
John 4:32
But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you don’t know about.’
John 4:33
The disciples therefore said one to another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’
John 4:34
Yeshua said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.’
John 4:35
Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest? Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.’
It is possible that the “fields” he is referring to are Samaritans who are approaching them in mass from the city.
John 4:36
He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
John 4:37
For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’
John 4:38
I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
John 4:39
From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, He told me everything that I did.
John 4:40
So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.
Psalms says,
“For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.”
Psalms 90:4
The Prophet Hosea speaks of the revival of Israel,
“After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.”
Hosea 6:2
Peter comments,
“But do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
2 Peter 3:8
The Ben Ish Hai, R’ Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad says,
“The Psalmist is teaching us that although almost two thousand years have passed and we have not yet been redeemed, we should not give up hope. For if to us it seems like an eternity, to God two thousand years are like two days…The appointed time is at the end of the six millennia from the creation of the world, which means some time after the year 5500. No one, however, can know the date exactly…Thus God said, “The vision is yet for an appointed time, it declares the end and does not lie; if it tarries, wait for it, for perhaps Israel will do the mitzvot that bring about the redemption. The verse continues: “because it will surely come [בא יבא, also: בא will come]The extra word בא can be split into ’ב’ א, “two thousand.” The verse can then be understood: At the end of two thousand (the fifth and sixth millennia), the appointed time will come; it will not delay, for nothing can stop it.”
Ben Ish Hai, Od Yosef Hai, Derushim Bo, Bamidbar cited in Days of Peace, Ben Ish Hai Anthology, Yeshivat Ahavat Shalom Publications, pg. 5
Thus the Book of Revelation says,
הַמֵּעִיד הָעֵדוּת הַזֹּאת אֹמֵר אָמְנָם כֵּן אֲנִי בָא מַהֵר אָמֵן בֹּאָה־נָּא הָאָדוֹן יֵשׁוּעַ׃
“He who testifies these things says, Yes, I come [בא] quickly. Amen! Yes, come, Lord Yeshua.”
Revelation 22:20
