19 The woman saith to him, `Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet;
And the Pharisee who did call him, having seen, spake within himself, saying, `This one, if he were a prophet, would have known who and of what kind `is' the woman who doth touch him, that she is a sinner.'
and fear took hold of all, and they were glorifying God, saying -- `A great prophet hath risen among us,' and -- `God did look upon His people.'
They said to the blind man again, `Thou -- what dost thou say of him -- that he opened thine eyes?'
And the multitudes said, `This is Jesus the prophet, who `is' from Nazareth of Galilee.'
Many, therefore out of the multitude, having heard the word, said, `This is truly the Prophet;'
And he saith unto him, `My heart went not when the man turned from off his chariot to meet thee; is it a time to take silver, and to take garments, and olives, and vines, and flock, and herd, and men-servants, and maid-servants?
Nathanael saith to him, `Whence me dost thou know?' Jesus answered and said to him, `Before Philip's calling thee -- thou being under the fig-tree -- I saw thee.' Nathanael answered and saith to him, `Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel.'
`Come, see a man, who told me all things -- as many as I did; is this the Christ?'
and if all may prophecy, and any one may come in, an unbeliever or unlearned, he is convicted by all, he is discerned by all, and so the secrets of his heart become manifest, and so having fallen upon `his' face, he will bow before God, declaring that God really is among you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 4
Commentary on John 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
It was, more than any thing else, the glory of the land of Israel, that it was Emmanuel's land (Isa. 8:8), not only the place of his birth, but the scene of his preaching and miracles. This land in our Saviour's time was divided into three parts: Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, and Samaria lying between them. Now, in this chapter, we have Christ in each of these three parts of that land.
Jhn 4:1-3
We read of Christ's coming into Judea (ch. 3:22), after he had kept the feast at Jerusalem; and now he left Judea four months before harvest, as is said here (v. 35); so that it is computed that he staid in Judea about six months, to build upon the foundation John had laid there. We have no particular account of his sermons and miracles there, only in general, v. 1.
Jhn 4:4-26
We have here an account of the good Christ did in Samaria, when he passed through that country in his way to Galilee. The Samaritans, both in blood and religion, were mongrel Jews, the posterity of those colonies which the king of Assyria planted there after the captivity of the ten tribes, with whom the poor of the land that were left behind, and many other Jews afterwards, incorporated themselves. They worshipped the God of Israel only, to whom they erected a temple on mount Gerizim, in competition with that at Jerusalem. There was great enmity between them and the Jews; the Samaritans would not admit Christ, when they saw he was going to Jerusalem (Lu. 9:53); the Jews thought they could not give him a worse name than to say, He is a Samaritan. When the Jews were in prosperity, the Samaritans claimed kindred to them (Ezra 4:2), but, when the Jews were in distress, they were Medes and Persians; see Joseph. Antiq. 11.340-341; 12.257. Now observe,
Observe,
Jhn 4:27-42
We have here the remainder of the story of what happened when Christ was in Samaria, after the long conference he had with the woman.
Jhn 4:43-54
In these verses we have,
Observe,