The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 307

henBive ninson iB given for the previous woman. "A propliet" might tell her and nB!lertion. hnsed on the essentil\l Dl\tuni of her people u•kere men 011ght to worship, God himself in the fulness of bis eternRl The Prophet she discovered answered a Being. God is Spirit (nv,uµa 6 e,~r; C'f. eh. dl'sire for the "wl1ero '' by revl'aling the i. I. 0.b, ~v 6 /1.6-yo,,-the Rrticle indi0nt,,s "how" they ere to worship. Dut thr.ro are the suhj<'<'t, aud the prcdioote is here ~cnerio, many other lessons they need, and sho gives and not 11n indefinire: therefore we do not expression to nn idea of the llfessie.h, and render it, "God is a Spirit"). The most of his coming, which startles us by its bold co1nprel1ensive and far-re&ehing met11phor ncss. The woman saith unto him, I kno,v or method bv which Jesus endeavoured to ( oi6a, I know as a mn.tter of current opinion portray the "nrndamcntal essnnce of the and with intuitive certainty) that Messias Dh-ine Being is" Spirit," not body, not f/;\'I), cometh (whioh is oalled Christ). [This not r<ocrµor, but t.hnt deep inner verity pre- parenthetical clause by the evan~eliet is eented in relf-conscious ego; the wbsfantia the explanatory trnnsla.tion into Greek of of which mind may be prediooted, and all its the Ammaic word. Thie must be so, unless states and facnlties. The Father is Spirit, the we could be certain, with Hug, Diodo.ti, Son is Spirit. a.nd Spirit is the nnity of the and Roberts, that Jesus and the woman Father and the Son. St. John has recorded were speaking Greek to ea.eh other.] ,'fhe elsewhere that "God is Light," and "God womo.n turns from a theme which she has is Lnvc." Tliese three Divine utterauees pnrtinlly understood. How should o. woman are the sublimest ever formed to express the have been able nt a moment to discharge metnpl,ysical, intellectual, and monil essence uud dispense with the traditions of a. life, and of the Deity. They are unfathomably deep, the prejudices honry with o.gc? We know and quite inel.hauetible in their suggestions, tho.t the Samaritans anticipated One who and yet they are not too profound for even should be a "convl.'rter," or "restorer" a little child or a poor Samarita.ness to (Gesenius, '.Anccdota. Samarito.na,' p. 65, j!;?Usp for practical purposes. If God be translates the So.ma1ita.n word :::S!:lt?;:t by coo• Spirit, then they who worship him, the cer,or (so Ewa.Id); Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Spirit, m11Bt by the nature of the ca.se, must Meyer, by restitutor), o.nd cherished o. hope by the force of a Dh-ine arrangement, worship of hie appearance, upon the faith of the great him, if they worahip him at all, in spirit and promise (Dent. xviii. 15) that One would in truth. The truth which our Lord uttered arise who would make known to them the was nnt un1.,iown in the Old Testament. Divine will. It is remarkable, but not un- From Genesis to lllalachi, in the Psalms, in reasonable, that she should have adopted the the historical books, in Judges, Samuel, and Hebrew word in common use o.mong all the Kings, the Spirit and the spirituality of God Jewish people. In ver. 29 it is given in are presupposed; but the Lord has general- Greek without a.ny reference to the original ired these teachings, cited them from darkness speech. Samaritans and Jews alike antici. and neglect, combined them in one eternal pated a. Christ an Anointed One, a. Pleni- oracle of Divine truth. The Galilman potentiary, a Guide. The more spiritual Peasnnt has thns uttered the profoundest apprehension which follows becomes some trnth of ethic and religion---0ne which no explanation of the fa.et that our blessed sage in East or West ha.d ever surpassed, Lord should have admitted to her what and towards which the highest minds in all he afterwards, in Galilee, kept reticently in the ages of Cbrist.endom have been slowly reserve. The Go.lilreans 'l'l'OUld ho.ve come, making approach. Forms, postures, cere- on his slightest encouragement, and ago.inst monial, sacraments, liturgies, holy days, nnd his will have made him a king. This would plncee are not condemned, bnt they all are have forced on him o. position a.nd dignity inefficacious if this prime condition be not which, from their standpoint, wonld have present, and they ca.n a.ll be dispensed with wrecked his spiiitual mission a.nd frustrated if it be. Only the spirit of man can really his design. 'l'his woman, here Rnd later on, touch or commune wi1h the Svirit of spirits, made it obvious that her notion of the and the history of the new diFpensation is "Rcstitutor " or "llfeeeiah" was One who the hisi,:,ry of a. progress from forms to when he is come, will deolare to us all things; realities, from the sensuous to the spiritual, in ver. 29 One who can read the secrets of the from the outward to the inward, from the heart, and knows her and others altogether: earthly to the heavenly. whilo from ver. 42 we leo.rn that she a.nd her Vere. 25, 26.--{e) The Christ (1,8 concei-oed friends were anticipating there and then" the by Samaria. Saviour of the world." Luthardt here points Ver. 25.-We probably do not possess here back to Gen. v. 29 as part of the· origin of the whule of the conversation. It is clear, the Sema.ritan idea. • however, that strange presentiments of some- Ver. 26.-J'esus saith uto her, I that e.Di thing more precious than any sanctuary, or talking with thee am he, Jesus docs utter ;my ritual, dawned upon the So.merit.an to the Samaritan woman the truth about oR. 1v. 1-64.] 'HIE GOSPEL ACCORDJ.NG TO ST. JOHN. 171