ehould be laid ou the word " woman." She was not only sur- prised that a J ewish man asked drink of a Samaritan, but also that he asked it of a woman.
[The Jeivs have no dealings.. .Samaritans^] This sentence is generally thought, with much reason, to be the explanatory comment of St. John, and not the words of the Samaritan woman. It certainly seems more natural to take it so. The sentence should then be read as a parenthesis. Calvin thinks it is the woman's words, but his reasons are not convincing.
The enmity between the Jews and Samaritans, here referred to, no doubt originated in the separation of the ten tr.bes under Jeroboam, and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel. It was exceedingly increa-ed after the ten tribes were carried into captivity by the Assyrians, by the fact that the Samaritans became mingled with foreigners, whom the king of Assyria sent to Samaria from Babylon and other places, and so lost their right to be called pure Jews. (2 Kings xvii. 1, &c.) It was further aggravated by the opposition which the inhabitants of Samaria made to the re-building of Jerusalem, after the return from the captivity of Babylon, in the days of Ezra. (Ezra iy. 10, &c.) In the days of our Lord the Jews seem to have gone into the extreme of regarding the Samaritans as entirely foreigners, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. When they told our Lord that He was " a Samaritan and had a devil," they meant the expression to convey the bitterest scorn and reproach. (John viii. 48.) It is clear, however, from the conversation in th's chapter, that the Samaritans, however mistaken on many points, were not ignorant heathens. They regarded themselves as descended from Jacob. They had a kind of Old Testament reli- gion. They expected the coming of Messias.
The bitter and exclusive spirit of the Jews towards all other nations, referred to in this verse, is curiously confirmed by the language used about the Jews by heathen writers at Eome. Exclusiveness was noted as one among their pecuHarities. — The immense difficulty with which even the apostles got over this exclusive feehng, and went forth to preach to the G-entiles, is noticeable both in the Acts and Epistles. (Acts x. 28; xi 2 ; Gal. ii. 12 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16.)
The uttrr absence of real charity and love among men in the days when our Lord was upon earth, ought not to be overlooked. Well would it be if men had never quarrelled about religio.i after He left the world ! Quarrels among the crew of a sinking ship are not more hideous, unseemly, and irrational than the majority of quarrels among professors of religion. An historian night truly apply St. John's words to many a period in Church history, and say, " The Romanists have no dealings with tha