6. ἦν δὲ ἐκεῖ Σ κεκοπιακὼς ἐκ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας
7. Ἔρχεται
ἀντλῆσαι ὕδωρ. λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς,
k Gen. xxiv. a0. Exod. ii. 16.
used. Whether in this verse 6 ἐπὶ τῇ mnyq is to be rendered ‘‘at,” keeping πηγη in its strict sense, or ‘‘on”’ as if for φρέατι is doubted; but the former is certainly the more natural rendering; cf. Aristoph., Frogs, 191, where ἐπί with accus. gives rise to misunderstanding of sitting ‘‘on”’ an oar instead of ‘“‘at”? it. Jacob’s well lies ten minutes south of the present village ‘Askar, and a good spring exists in ‘Askar. This has given rise to the difficulty: Why should a woman have come so far, passing good sources of water supply? Most probably the reason is that this well was Jacob’s, and special virtue was supposed to attach to it; or because in the heat of summer other wells and streams were dry. The real difficulty is: Why was there a weil there at all, in the neighbourhood of streams? Possibly Jacob may have dug it that he might have no quarrelling with his neighbours about water-rights. As a stranger with a precarious tenure he might find this necessary. Travellers agree in accepting as Jacob’s well here mentioned the Ain-Jakub, or Bir-et- Jakub, some twenty minutes east of Nablis.—é οὖν ΄Ιησοῦς . . . ἕκτη. It was “about,” ὡς (Theophylact calls atten- tion to this as a mark of accuracy), the sixth hour, that is, midday (the Jews dined on Sabbath at the sixth hour, see Josephus,. Vita) (see on c. i. 40); and they had probably been walking for several hours, and accordingly Jesus was tired, κεκοπιακὼς (κόπος, excessive toil), fatigued (Wetstein quotes οὐ γὰρ ἐξ ὁδοιπορίας τὰς φλέβας κοπιᾷ ἀλλὰ τὰ veupa), and was sitting thus, tired as He was (οὕτως, in the condition in which He was, that is, tired as He was. Elsner thinks it only indicates consequence {nihil aliud quam consequentiam signi- ficat] and should be omitted in trans- lating. So Kypke, who cites instructive instances, concludes: ‘‘solemne est Graecis, praecedente participio, voculam οὕτως pleonastice Ῥοπετε”. But in all his instances οὕτως precedes the verb), at the well (cf. Josephus, Ant., v. 1: στρατοπεδευσαµένους ἐπὶ τινι πηγῇ). As to the hour, two circumstances con
firm the opinion that it was midday