montLs from seed time to harvest. But I tell you that in spiri tiial works the harvest lipens far more quickly. Behold those Samaritans coming out already to hear the word, the very day that seed has been sown among them. The fields are already white for harvest."
Either of the above views make good sense and good divinity. Yet on the whole I prefer the second view, viz. : that our Lord quoted a proverb. To suppose that He really meant that there were literally four months to pass away before harvest, appears to me to involve serious chronological difficulties. It necessitates the assumption that at least thiee quarters of a year had passed away since the passover, when our Lord puritied the temple. (John ii. 23.) No doubt this possibly may have been the case. But it does not appear to me probable. — In addition we must remember that our Lord, on another occasion, referred to a pro- verbial saying about the weather, beginning much as He does hi-re, " Ye say." Matt. xvi. 3. Moreover, in this very passage He quotes a proverb about " one sowing and another reaping," within two verses. The expression therefoie, "say not ye," seems to me to point to a proverbial saying much more than to a fact. The antithesis to it is the " I say," which immediately follows.
Calvin says, "By this expression, do not ye say? Clirist in- tended indirectly to point out how much more attentive the minds of men are to earthly than to heavenly things, for they burn with so intense a desire of harvest that they carefully reckon up months and days, while it is astonishing how drowsy and indolent they are in gathering the heavenly wheat."
Cornelius d Lapide conjectures that the disciples had been talk- ing to one another about the prospects of liarvest, as they came to the well, and that our Lord knowing the conversation, referred to it by the words, "do not ye say ?"
[^Lift up. ..eyes. .look.. .JieJds.. .white.. .harvest] There can be little doubt that this saying must be interpreted figuratively. The sense is, " There is a harvest of souls before you ready to be gathered in." The same figure is used elsewhere. (Matt. ix. 37. Luke X. 32.)
Some think, as Chrysostom, that when our Lord said, " Be hold.. ..lift up your eyes.. .look," He spoke with especial reference to the crowd of Samaritans whom He saw coming from the city to the well. If this be so, it is hard to suppose that He first, began conversation with the woman at six o'clock in the evening.
Others think, thnt our Lord spoke these words Avilh reference to the whole world, and special!}- the Jewish nation, at the time