The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 302

the Source ;i.nd End of whiol1 e.re God. It is Vel'. 13.-Jems answered and said to her intereeting to notice tbe.t Philo, in me.ny -leaving the question of his superiority to ple.oes, dooliues these wuU~ of we.tar (Gen. "onr father Jacob" to be settler! when she uix. 2) to mee.n "true philosophy or wisdom, ahonl<l nn<lerstan<l him better-Every on0 deep and only with difficulty dmwn npon." who drinketh (is in the habit of drinking) "Flowing we.tar is the Logos himself, from this water, or e.ny similar fountain, •cisterns' represent memories of pe.st know- will thirst e.gain. Earthly desires obtain ledge;" but the Old Teste.ment usage quoted tempore.ry satisfaction, e.nd then resume above is e. fe.r more re.tione.l jnstifioe.tion of their sway. Our whole life is made np o\ the le.ngue.ge used by our Lord. intermittent desires and partial satisfaction, Ver. 11.-The e.nswer of the wome.n shows of passion and satiation, of ennui and then of the.t, though ste.rtled e.s Jesus mee.nt her to some new longing. This flow and ebb, ebb be by his self-e.ssertion, she he.d not moved and flow, of desire belong to the very nature out of the limited region of her own of hnman appetite. l\Iore than tbat, human thoughts-her physical thirst, her de.Uy desire is never really satiated. Our souls needs, e.nd common e.ppliances for meeting can never be e.t rest till they find rest in them. There is e. touch of humour for this God. This watel'. even from the well of light-hee.rted cree.ture in the contre.st be- Ja.cob, is no exception to the rule. tween the le.rge offere.nd the e.ppe.rent help- Ver. 14.-But whosoever shall have lessness of the Offerer. God's folly is com- drunk of the water which I will give him pe.red with me.n's wisdom; God's wee.knees (of which I am speaking) shall not (by any is set over e.ga.inst me.n's strength. Sir (my mee.ns, ou µ11) thirst again for ever. How me.ster-a. phrase here of simple courtesy, yet different from the words of the son of showing some e.dve.nce on whe.t he.d gone be- Sire.eh (Ecclus. xxiv. 21), "They who drink fore, "Thou being e. Jew"), neither hast thou of me," says Wisdom, '' shall thirst again" I the vessel to dre.w with, e.nd, moreover, the They will experience neither continuity nor well is deep (see e.bove on ver. 6). The water of completeness of enjoyment, bot periods of this well ce.nnot be lifted without e.n f&v-rl\11~a, incel!,Sant and recurrent desire. Jesus speaks e.nd, when the water is reached, it is still ofe. Divine and complete satisfaction. The open to question whether it be living, :flow- spiritual thirst once slaked, the heavenly ing water or not. Whenoe then he.et thou desire once ree.lized by appropriating the the living water of which thou he.st spoken? gift of God, is fundamentally satisfied. The Ver. 12.-Art thou greater than our father nature itself is che.nged. How closely this J'aoob, who gave us the well, and drank corresponds with the idea of birth into a. thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle 1 new world I e.nd how nearly akin to the We observe here the Se.me.ritaness's claim to promise of living water iu eh. vii. 37, etc. (see be a descendant of Ephraim, of Joseph, of also the language of eh. vi. 35) ! But the Jacob himself who dug the well. By rising water that I shall give him shall beoome in up behind the fe.mily of Ephraim to the him a fountain of water leaping up (welling, fe.tber of Judah as well as of Joseph, the bubbling np and forth) into eternal life. woman claims a kind of kinship with Jesus. This is the explanation of the full satisfac- The "our" in this ce.se is not a monopoly tion of desire. I do not give a simple of the honours of J e.cob for herself e.nd her "drink of water,'' but I cause II spring, a people. Her national pride is softening perennial fountain, 11 river of Divine pleasure under the gle.nce of the great Son of Dl\vid, to issue and :flow from that inwe.rd se.tisfac- and she has e. growing sense of the claims tion which follows e. reception of my gifts; and dignity of the Person she is addressing, a.nd it is so abundant that it is enough for though her thought is couched in words everlasting needs. The water that I give that may be ironical. This we.a the kind becomes a fountain. and tho fountain swells of challenge which our Lord never refused into a river, and the river expands into au,l to honour. Just as on other occe.sions he loses itself in the grea.t ocean of eternity. The claimed to be "greater than the temple," beauty of the image is lost if, with Luthardt and " Lord of the sabbe.tb," and " before and Moulton, we attach the ,is (w¾v aiC:,v,ov Abraham," and " greater than Moses, to ""ly{, rather than a./\J\o~dvov (a.J\/\eCTOa, is Solomon," or "Jonas," so here he quietly not elsewhere applied to water, and this admits that he is indeed greater than " our use of it gives the metaphor all the more father Jacob." The lifelike reality of the force). The imagery is not without its scene is evidenced in the alertness and difficulty. We are tempted to conclude from feminine loquacity of the fincu clause (8plµ.- it thl\t the Divine life, once given, becomes µ.a.Ta are "cattle," , not "servants," as seen consciously a self-dependent force within in passages quotccl by Meyer from Xenophon, the soul; but this would not be justified by Plato, Josephus, etc.). The nomadio con- all the analogy of the Divine 'll'Orking in hu- dition of the first fathers of this mce is manity, which, though e.bunclant, efficacious, brilliantly touohed off by the sentenoe. 11ml satisfying, never repudiates its Divine  1G6 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l.'0 ST. JOHN. [cu. IV, 1-64:.