11-21.
ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε.”
727
17. ᾽Απεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν, “΄Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα.”
Λέγει αὐτῇ 6 ᾿Ιησοῦς, “Kalas εἶπας, Ὅτι ἄνδρα οκ ἔχω; 18. πέντε
γὰρ ἄνδρας éoxes καὶ νῦν ὃν ἔχεις, οὖκ Eat. σου ἀνήρ: τοῦτο
ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας. προφήτης et σύ.
ς , ο τα > , ο 3 , 20. OL πατερες Ίὖμων εν τουτῳ TW OPEL προσεκύ-
19. Λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνὴ, “Κύριε, 'θεωρῶ ὅτι τ Mt. xii. το;
XVi. 13, etc. 5 1. 49.
νησαν ' καὶ ὑμεῖς λέγετε, ὅτι ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐστὶν 6 τόπος, ὅπου
δεῖ προσκυνεῖν.”
21. Λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, “'Γύναι, πίστευσόν
lg: ” 9 9 5, 3 α 3 , » 2 1 λύ μοι, οτι ερχεται ωρα, οτε ουτε εν Tw ορει τουτῳ ουτε εν εροσο υμοις
1 Τ.Ε. in ACS, but πιστευε por yuvat in $BC*DL.
tinued still.”” Jesus, reading this thought, bids her bring the man for whom she draws water. The gift is for him also, But this meaning is too obscure. Meyer thinks the request was not seriously intended: but this detracts from the simplicity of Christ. The natural in- terpretation is that in response to her request Jesus gives her now the first draught of the living water by causing her to face her guilty life and bring it to Him. He cannot give the water before thirst for it is awakened. The sure method of awaking the thirst is to make her acknowledge herself a sinful woman (cf. Alford).—Ver. 17. The woman shrinks from exposure and replies οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα, “I have no husband’. A literal truth, but scarcely honest in intention. Jesus at once veils her deceit, καλῶς εἶπας, etc., and disposes of her equivocation by emphasising the ἄνδρα. Thou hast well said, I have no husband.—wévte yap .. . εἴρηκας. “'Ἠε whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in this [so far] you said what is true.” In Malachi’s time facility for divorce was producing disastrous consequences, and probably many women, not only in Samaria but among the poorer Jews, had a similar history to relate. The stringency with which our Lord speaks on this subject suggests that matters were fast approach- ing the condition in which they now are in Mohammedan countries. Lane tells us that “there are certainly not many persons in Cairo who have not divorced one wife if they have been long married,” and that there are many who have in the course of ten years married twenty or thirty or more wives (cf. Lecky’s European Morals for the state of matters in the Roman world). Jerome, Ep. ad Ageruch, 123, mentions a Roman woman who had had twenty-two husbands. Serious attention need scarcely be given
to the fancy of “‘the critical school”’ that the woman with her five husbands is intended as an allegorical representa- tion of Samaria with the [seven] gods of the five nations who peopled the country. See 2 Kings xvii. 24-31. Consistently the man with whom the woman now lived would represent Jehovah. Holtzmann, shrinking from this, suggests Simon Magus. Heracleon discovered in the husband that was not a husband the woman’s guardian angel or Pleroma (Bigg’s Neoplatonism, 150).—Ver. το. The woman at once recognises this knowledge of her life as evidence of a supernatural endowment.—Kvpre θεωρῶ ὅτι προφήτης εἶ ov. Cf. ver. 20 and ii. 24. θεωρῶ is used in its post-classical sense. It is not unnatural that the woman finding herself in the presence of a prophet should seek His solution of the standing problem of Samaritan religion. His answer would shed further light on his prophetic endowment, and would also determine whether He had any light and hope to give to a Samaritan. Josephus (Antiq., xiii. 3, 4) narrates that a disputation on this point before Ptolemy Philometor resulted in the death according to contract of the two Samaritan advocates, they not being able to prove their position.—Ver. 20. ot πατέρες . . . Set προσκυνεῖν. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, Gerizim, at whose base we are standing, etc. On Gerizim were proclaimed the blessings recorded Deut. xxviii. Sanballat erected on it a rival temple (but see the Bible Dict. and Josephus) which was rased by John Hyrcanus, B.c. 129. A broad flat surface of rock on the top of Gerizim is still held sacred by the few Samaritans who now represent the old race and customs. Especially consult G. A. Smith’s Hist. Geog., p. 334, who shows that Shechem is the natural centre oi Palestine, and adds: ‘‘ It was