Gospel of John in Greek (Chapter 4)

In English

Chapter 4 of the Gospel According to John

Early Christian Cross with Alpha and Omega

Lexical Help

1 εγνω < γινωσκω

3 απηλθεν < απερχομαι

7 δος < διδωμι

7 πειν < πινω

8 απεληλυθησαν < απερχομαι

9 ουσης < ειμί

14 δωσω < διδωμι

18 εσχες < εχω

27 ηλθαν < ερχομαι

31 φαγε < εσθίω

33 ηνεγκεν < φερω

35 επαρατε < επαιρω

38 εισεληλυθατε < εισερχομαι

53 εγνω < γινωσκω

Notes

4 Σαμαρείας. Samaria was the northernmost region of Judea, lying just below Galilee. The Samaritans were a religious community with roots in Judaism, having split off from the mainstream shortly after the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) were put into writing. Their bible was limited to those five books, and they built a temple on Mt. Gerizim, 40 miles north of Jerusalem, in accordance with their version of the Pentateuch, which commanded that a temple be built on that spot. Their temple was destroyed in 128 BCE by the Jewish Maccabean ruler John Hyrcanus, in an attempt to eradicate their sect; but when the Romans assumed control of Palestine in 63 BCE, the Samaritans were allowed to resume worshiping there (although the temple was not rebuilt). They saw themselves as guardians of the "true" Law of Moses, zealously preserving the original writings without any deliberate alterations. As a result, the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch is demonstrably closer to the original than is the Hebrew Torah. The Samaritans survive as a very small community living in Palestine and Israel at the present day.

5 Συχάρ. The town of Sychar would have been near Mt. Gerizim. It is probably the same town as modern-day Askar, located within a mile of Jacob's well.

6 ὡρα ην ὡς ἑκτη. This mention of the specific time of day may point to John's eyewitness status (although he would have been among the disciples who were off buying food, because Jesus and the Samaritan woman were alone by the well). Additionally, there may be a symbolic aspect: at high noon, the sun would momentarily illuminate the very bottom of the well, which usually lay deep in shadow-- just as Jesus now looks into the soul of the Samaritan woman.

37 αλλος ... αλλος. In English, we would say "One person ... a different person."

46 Καφαρναούμ. Cana was in the mountainous western region of Galilee, while Capernaum was about 15 miles to the east, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Hence Jesus is asked to "come down" in the following verse (by a royal official who is certain to have been a gentile rather than a Jew).

49 αποθανεῖν το παιδίον. Literally, "to die the child." This is the "accusative and infinitive" construction, where the subject of the verb is in the object case, and the verb itself is an infinitive rather than a finite (conjugated) form. While there is no point cluttering one's mind with grammatical terms, this particular construction should be memorized and recognized. We use the same construction in English when we say, "The royal official wants him to come."

51 αυτοῦ καταβαινοντος. This is the other important verb construction to learn: the "genitive absolute," where the subject (noun or pronoun) and a verb participle are both put into the genitive case, because they have no direct grammatical relationship with the other sentence elements. Such phrases are best translated with "after," "while" or "when."