John iv. 22. Salvation is of the Jews.
THIS is part of the answer of our blessed Lord to the Samaritan woman. He had taken occasion, from an observation of hers, to shew her that he was well acquainted with the most secret history of her past life ; and not from report merely, but from his own omniscient mind, from which nothing could be hid.
He had told her, that " she had had five husbands ;" (all of whom, it is probable, had put her away for her adulteries ;) and that " the person with whom she was now living was not her husband." She, wishing to get rid of so painful a subject, proposed a question relative to a controversy which then existed between the Samaritans and the Jews, as to the place where God was to be worshipped. Our Lord, satisfied with having discovered to her his character as a prophet of the Most High, graciously waved the prosecution of a subject which was so painful to her, and turned his attention to that which she had submitted to him. In reply to her question, he informed her, that the time was coming when all distinctions of places should be lost ; so far, at least, as related to accept- able worship : for that all, of whatever place or coun- try, who should worship God in spirit and in truth, should be accepted of him. At the same time he informed her that the question itself must be deter- mined in favour of the Jews. The Samaritans, indeed, had much to say in their own behalf, and in support of the cause which they maintained. They could say, that on Mount Gerizim, for the sanctity of which they pleaded, Abraham himself had built an altar a, as had Jacob also ; (for Sichem, or Shechem, where he built it, was so close to Mount Gerizim, that a man's voice might be distinctly heard from the one to the otherb:) and that, consequently, that place had a prior claim to Zion, on which no altar had been raised, till many hundred years had elapsed. They could also with truth affirm, that Moses himself, under the special direction of Jehovah, had com- manded, that all the congregations of Israel, as soon as they should gain possession of the Promised Land, should assemble round Mount Gerizim ; and that from thence the blessings of Jehovah should be pronounced, whilst his curses should be declared from Mount Ebal, which was near to itc. They could also appeal to the Jewish Scriptures, that Joshua and all Israel
a Gen. xii. 6, 7. b Gen. xxxiii. 18 — 20. with Judg. ix. 7.
c Deut. xi. 29. and xxvii. 11 — 13.