John 4:12

4:12 our ancestor Jacob: The Samaritan woman appealed with reverence to the sacred traditions attached to the well rather than to the presence of God before her.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 4:12. Μείζων, greater) as being one, who demandest, or can make good greater things. Comp. ch. Joh 8:53 “Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? Whom makest Thou Thyself?”—πατρὸς ἡμῶν ιἀκώβ, than our Father Jacob) So the Samaritans had persuaded themselves: but falsely, Mat 10:5, “Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”—Ἰακώβ, Jacob) who was most thoroughly skilled in the things of pastoral life and the procuring of water, and was most successful in the concerns of his household [in managing his property].—ἡμῖν, to us) in the person of Joseph; Joh 4:5, “the parcel of ground, that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.” She speaks thus on that false hypothesis [prevailing among the Samaritans] as to Jacob being their father.—ἔπιε, he drank) The patriarchs used water rather than wine. The woman means this: The patriarch himself was content with this water, nor did he ask for better water.—καὶ τὰ θρέμματα, and his cattle) oxen and sheep. Of course the men-servants and maid-servants, who generally feed the cattle, also drank of it. The well therefore was abundantly supplied and of ancient date.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou greater, &c.--already perceiving in this Stranger a claim to some mysterious greatness.

our father Jacob--for when it went well with the Jews, they claimed kindred with them, as being descended from Joseph; but when misfortunes befell the Jews, they disowned all connection with them [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 9.14,3].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Our father Jacob] The ancient Samaritans were undoubtedly the descendants of Jacob; for they were the ten tribes that revolted in the reign of Rehoboam: but those in our Lord's time were not genuine Israelites, but a corrupted race, sprung from a mixture of different nations, sent thither by Salmanezer, king of the Assyrians. See 2Kg 17:24.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob? She proceeds to charge him with arrogance in exalting himself above the holy patriarch Jacob. “Jacob,” she says, “was satisfied with this well for his own use and that of his whole family: and hast thou a more excellent water?” How faulty this comparison is, appears plainly enough from this consideration, that she compares the servant to the master, and a dead man to the living God; and yet how many in the present day fall into this very error? The more cautious ought we to be not to extol the persons of men so as to obscure the glory of God. We ought, indeed, to acknowledge with reverence the gifts of God, wherever they appear. It is, therefore, proper that we should honor men who are eminent in piety, or endued with other uncommon gifts; but it ought to be in such a manner that God may always remain eminent above all — that Christ, with his Gospel, may shine illustriously, for to him all the splendor of the world must yield.

It ought also to be observed that the Samaritans falsely boasted of being descended from the holy Fathers. In like manner do the Papists, though they are a bastard seed, arrogantly boast of the Fathers, and despise the true children of God. Although the Samaritans had been descended from Jacob according to the flesh, yet, as they were altogether degenerated and estranged from true godliness, this boasting would have been ridiculous. But now that they are Cutheans by descent, (2 Kings 17:24,) or at least collected out of the profane Gentiles, they still do not fail to make false pretensions to the name of the holy Patriarch. But this is of no avail to them; and such must be the case with all who wickedly exult in the light of men, so as to deprive themselves of the light of God, and who have nothing in common with the holy Fathers, whose name they have abused.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) Art thou greater . . .?—Again, the pronoun is the emphatic word, “Thou surely art not greater.” “The well used to satisfy the wants of the patriarch, and his household, and his flocks, and has come down from him to us. It is surely sufficient for all our wants.” This claim of Jacob as their father was through Ephraim and Joseph, and the well was part of “the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his .son Joseph” (Joh_4:5). There was abundance of water near to it, but a patriarchal household could not depend for a necessity of life upon neighbours who may be hostile, and Jacob had dug this well in his own purchased plot. It was sacred, then, as the very spot where their asserted ancestor had digged his well and built his altar. There was an unbroken continuity in the history of the place, and it was prized the more because it was not so in the history of the people.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. Art thou greater] ‘Thou’ is very emphatic; Surely Thou art not greater. Comp. Joh_8:53. The loquacity of the woman as contrasted with the sententiousness of Nicodemus is very natural, while on the other hand she shews a similar perverseness in misunderstanding spiritual metaphors.

our father Jacob] The Samaritans claimed to be descended from Joseph; with how much justice is a question very much debated. Some maintain that they were of purely heathen origin, although they were driven by calamity to unite the worship of Jehovah with their own idolatries: and this view seems to be in strict accordance with 2Ki_17:23-41. Renegade Jews took refuge among them from time to time; but such immigrants would not affect the texture of the nation more than the French refugees among ourselves. Others hold that the Samaritans were from the first a mongrel nation, a mixture of heathen colonists with Jewish inhabitants, left behind by Shalmaneser. But there is nothing to shew that he did leave any behind (2Ki_18:11); Josephus says (Ant. ix. xiv. 1) that ‘he transplanted all the people.’ When the Samaritans asked Alexander the Great to excuse them from tribute in the Sabbatical year, because as true sons of Joseph they did not till their land in the seventh year, he pronounced their claim an imposture, and destroyed Samaria. Our Lord calls a Samaritan a ‘stranger’ (Luk_17:18), literally ‘one of a different race.’

which gave us the well] This has no foundation in Scripture, but no doubt was a Samaritan tradition. She means, the well was good enough for him, and is good enough for us; hast Thou a better?

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou greater than our father Jacob,.... A person of greater worth and character than he, who was content to drink of this water; or wiser and more knowing than he, who could find out no better fountain of water in all these parts? she calls Jacob the father of them, according to the common notion and boasting of these people, when it served their turn; otherwise they were not the descendants of Jacob; for after the ten tribes were carried away captive by the king of Assyria, he placed in their room, in the cities of Samaria, men from Babylon, Cuthah Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, Heathenish and idolatrous people; see Kg2 17:24. And from these, the then Samaritans sprung; only upon Sanballat's building a temple on Mount Gerizzim, for Manasseh his son-in-law, when put away from the priesthood by the Jews, for his marriage of his daughter, several wicked persons of the like sort, came out of Judea, and joined themselves to the Samaritans: and such a mixed medley of people were they at this time, though they boasted of Jacob as their father, as this woman did; and so to this day, they draw their genealogy from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and particularly call Joseph their father, and say, from whence are we, but from the tribe of Joseph the just, from Ephraim (w)? as they formerly did (x);

"R. Meir saw a Samaritan, he said to him, from whence comest thou? (that is, from what family;) he answered, from the (tribe) of Joseph.''

Which gave us the well; Jacob gave it indeed to Joseph and his posterity, along with the parcel of ground in which it was; see Joh 4:5; but not to this mixed company:

and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle; which shows both the goodness and plenty of the water: though our Lord had spoken of living water, this woman understood him of no other water, but spring water; called living water, from its motion, because it is continually springing up, bubbling, and ever running: so carnal persons, when they hear of spiritual things under earthly metaphors, think of nothing but carnal things; as Nicodemus, when Christ talked of being born again; and the Jews at Capernaum, when he discoursed concerning eating his flesh, and drinking his blood; for spiritual things are neither known nor received by the natural man.

(w) Epist. Samar. ad Scaliger. in Antiqu. Eccl. Oriental. p. 123, 124, 126. (x) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 94. fol. 82. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Ver. 12. Our father Jacob] Josephus tells us that these Samaritans, while the Jews prospered, would needs be their dear cousins; but when they were in adversity (as under Antiochus) they would utterly disown and disavow them. They wrote to Antiochus, because he tormented the Jews, to excuse themselves as none such; and they styled Antiochus, the mighty God. Oh, baseness!

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou greater? - Art thou wiser, or better able to find water, than Jacob was? It seems that she supposed that he meant that he could direct her to some living spring, or to some better well in that region, and that this implied more knowledge or skill than Jacob had. To find water and to furnish a good well was doubtless considered a matter of signal skill and success. It was a subject of great importance in that region. This shows how ready sinners are to misunderstand the words of Christ, and to pervert the doctrines of religion. If she had had any proper anxiety about her soul, she would at least have “suspected” that he meant to direct her thoughts to spiritual objects.

Our father Jacob - The Samaritans were composed partly of the remnant of the ten tribes, and partly of people sent from Chaldea; still, they considered themselves descendants of Jacob.

Which gave us - This was doubtless the tradition, though there is no evidence that it was true.

And drank thereof ... - This was added in commendation of the water of the well. A well from which Jacob, and his sons, and cattle had drank must be pure, and wholesome, and honored, and quite as valuable as any that Jesus could furnish. People like to commend that which their ancestors used as superior to anything else. The world over, people love to speak of that which their ancestors have done, and boast of titles and honors that have been handed down from them, even if it is nothing better than existed here - because Jacob’s cattle had drunk of the water.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Samaritan woman says, our father Jacob; because the Samaritans claimed lineage from Abraham, who was himself a Chaldean; and they; therefore, called Jacob their father, because he was Abraham’s grandson. (St. John Chrysostom) --- Or she calls him their father because they lived under the law of Moses, and were in possession of that spot of ground which Jacob had bequeathed to his son Joseph. (Ven. Bede)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

She asks him if he judged himself wiser than Jacob, whom she calleth their father? It is often observed, that the Samaritans would ordinarily claim kindred with the Jews when the Jews were in prosperity; but in their adversity constantly disowned any relation to them. There were some Jews, (Ephraimites especially), mixed with a far greater number of Assyrians, which made up this body of people called the Samaritans. Now, saith the woman, Jacob, who was the father of Joseph, from whom we claim, was a wise man, and he could find no better water here abouts for himself and family than that of this well; art thou wiser than he?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Greater than… Jacob—For Jacob could furnish his water only by digging a well, and no better water could he furnish for self and household.

Our father Jacob—She ostentatiously claims to be in the true line of descent from the great father.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle? We observe here the Samaritaness"s claim to be a descendant of Ephraim, of Joseph, of Jacob himself who dug the well. By rising up behind the family of Ephraim to the father of Judah as well as of Joseph, the woman claims a kind of kinship with Jesus. The "our" in this case is not a monopoly of the honours of Jacob for herself and her people. Her national pride is softening under the glance of the great Son of David, and she has a growing sense of the claims and dignity of the Person she is addressing, though her thought is couched in words that may be ironical. This was the kind of challenge which our Lord never refused to honour. Just as on other occasions he claimed to be "greater than the temple," and "Lord of the sabbath," and "before Abraham," and "greater than Moses, Solomon," or "Jonas," so here he quietly admits that he is indeed greater than "our father Jacob." The lifelike reality of the scene is evidenced in the alertness and feminine loquacity of the final clause (yremmata are "cattle," not "servants," as seen in passages quoted by Meyer from Xenophon, Plato, Josephus, etc.). The nomadic condition of the first fathers of this race is brilliantly touched off by the sentence.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our father Jacob - So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he had carried away captive, 2 Kings xvii, 24. Who gave us the well - In Joseph their supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he had no better water than this.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob? The question indicates still further her dawning conviction of the greatness of the stranger. It was from Joseph, the son of Jacob, that the Samaritans claimed descent. Jesus spoke of giving living water; Jacob, their great ancestor, had given this well.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

12. υὴ σὺ μείζ. Σύ is very emphatic; Surely Thou art not greater: comp. Joh 8:53, Joh 18:33. Her loquacity as contrasted with the sententiousness of Nicodemus is very natural, while she shews a similar perverseness in misunderstanding spiritual metaphors.

τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν. The Samaritans claimed to be descended from Joseph; with how much justice is a question very much debated. Some maintain that they were of purely heathen origin, although they were driven by calamity to unite the worship of Jehovah with their own idolatries: and this view seems to be in strict accordance with 2Ki 17:23-41. Renegade Jews took refuge among them from time to time; but such immigrants would not affect the texture of the nation more than French refugees among ourselves. Others hold that the Samaritans were from the first a mongrel nation, a mixture of heathen colonists with Jewish inhabitants, left behind by Shalmaneser. There is nothing to shew that he did leave any (2Ki 18:11); Josephus says (Ant. IX. xiv. 1) that ‘he transplanted all the people.’ When the Samaritans asked Alexander the Great to excuse them from tribute in the Sabbatical year, because as true sons of Joseph they did not till their land in the seventh year, he pronounced their claim an imposture, and destroyed Samaria. Our Lord calls a Samaritan ‘one of a different race,’ ἀλλογενής (Luk 17:18).

ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν. This has no foundation in Scripture, but no doubt was a Samaritan tradition. She means, ‘the well was good enough for him, his sons, and his cattle, and is good enough for us; hast Thou a better?’ The energetic diffuseness of her statement is very natural. Θρέμματα might mean ‘slaves.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] Though κύριε is not to be pressed as emphatic, it is not without import; it surely betokens a different regard of the stranger than σὺ Ἰουδαῖος ὤν did;—κύριον αὐτὸν προσηγόρευσε, νομίσασα μέγαν εἶναί τινα. The course of her thoughts appears to be:—‘Thou canst not mean living water (ἀναβλύζον καὶ ἁλλόμενον, Euthym.), from this well, because thou hast no vessel to draw with, and it is deep; whence then hast thou (knowest thou of, drawest thou) the living water of which thou speakest? Our father Jacob was contented with this, used it, and bequeathed it to us: if thou hast better water, and canst give it (notice the ἔδωκεν in both verses), thou must be greater than Jacob.’ There is something also of Samaritan nationality speaking here. Claiming Jacob as her father (ὅταν μὲν εὖ πράττοντας βλέπωσι τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, συγγενεῖς ἀποκαλοῦσιν, ὡς ἐξ Ἰωσήπου φύντες, ὅταν δὲ πταίσαντας ἴδωσιν, οὐδαμόθεν αὑτοῖς προσήκειν λέγουσιν, Jos. Antt. ix. 14. 3), she expresses by this question an appropriation of descent from him, such as almost to exclude, or at all events set at a greater distance, the Jews, to one of whom she believed herself to be speaking.

13,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. It could not be from the well, that Jesus would provide living water. Whence then could He get it? Even Jacob got water for himself and his household from this well. Was the Speaker greater than Jacob, who had to draw the water from the well like any one else?

μὴ σὺ μείζων εἶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰακώβ; See 6:31 and cf. the similar question put by the Jews (8:53), “Art thou greater than our father Abraham?”

“Our father Jacob.” The Samaritans claimed descent from Joseph, through Ephraim and Manasseh (Josephus, Antt. xi. 8, 6).

ὃς ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τὸ φρέαρ. Field compares Pausan. iii. 25, 3: ἔστι δὲ ἐν τῇ πυρρίχῳ φρέαρ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ, δοῦναι δέ σφισι τὸν Σιληνὸν νομίζουσι.

θρέμμα is a word occurring nowhere else in the Greek Bible. τὰ θρέμματα means “cattle,” a usage of which Wetstein gives many instances; etymologically, it might include also Jacob’s servants or retainers, all who were fed by him.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou greater [μη συ μειζων] . The interrogative particle indicates that a negative answer is expected : Surely thou art not. The su, thou, first in the sentence, is emphatic, and possibly with a shade of contempt.

Our father Jacob. The Samaritans claimed descent from Joseph, as representing the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

Children [υιοι] . Rev., correctly, sons.

Cattle [θρεμματα] . Only here in the New Testament. From [τρεφω] to nourish. A general term for whatever is fed or nursed. When used of animals - mostly of tame ones - cattle, sheep, etc. It is applied to children, fowls, insects, and fish, also to domestic slaves, which, according to some, is the meaning here; but, as Meyer justly remarks, "there was no need specially to name the servants; the mention of the herds completes the picture of their nomadic progenitor."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.