John 4:38

4:38 others: Jesus might have meant John the Baptist, or he might have been referring to the work he had just done with the Samaritan woman.

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

Joh 4:38. Ἐγώ, I) The Lord of the whole harvest.—ἀπέστειλα, I sent) I have begun to send (Joh 4:2) you to the Jews, intending hereafter to send you through the whole earth.—ἄλλοι, others) the prophets.—ὑμεῖς) He does not say, we, but you. Christ is the Lord.—κόπον, their labour) the results obtained by their labours: Neh 5:13, “I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour (the fruit of it), that performeth not this promise.”

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

Joh 4:38 . The exemplification in our Lord’s mind is given in Joh 4:38 , where the pronouns ἐγώ and ὑμᾶς are emphatic. “I sent you to reap.” When? Holtzmann thinks the past tenses can only be explained as spoken by the glorified Lord looking back on His call of the twelve as Apostles. That is, the words were not spoken as John relates. But may not the reference be to the baptising of many by the disciples in the preceding months? This would be quite a natural and obvious reference. The work in Judaea which justifies the preterites was now alluded to, because now again the same division of labour is apparent. The Samaritans come not because of anything the disciples had said while making purchases in the town, but because of their Master’s talk with the woman.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I sent you, &c.--The I is emphatic--I, the Lord of the whole harvest: "sent you," points to their past appointment to the apostleship, though it has reference only to their future discharge of it, for they had nothing to do with the present ingathering of the Sycharites.

ye bestowed no labour--meaning that much of their future success would arise from the preparation already made for them. (See on Joh 4:42).

others laboured--Referring to the Old Testament laborers, the Baptist, and by implication Himself, though He studiously keeps this in the background, that the line of distinction between Himself and all His servants might not be lost sight of. "Christ represents Himself as the Husbandman [rather the Lord of the laborers], who has the direction both of the sowing and of the harvest, who commissions all the agents--those of the Old Testament as well as of the New--and therefore does not stand on a level with either the sowers or the reapers" [OLSHAUSEN].

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

(38) I sent you to reap . . .—The pronouns are again emphatic. “I sent you to reap;” and the statement is of wide meaning. He is ever the Sower. All others are more or less fully reapers, though in the degree in which they really reap they will become likened unto Him, and will become sowers too. We all inherit from the past the greatest part of our mental and spiritual knowledge. The child of to-day knows more than the philosopher of early history.

Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.—Or, others have laboured. In the immediate application to the present case, the “others” is to be interpreted of Christ Himself, who had been sowing during their absence, and it may be of the woman who has sown this seed by her testimony to the Samaritans. Or the plural may be chosen as in contrast with the plural ye, and as pointing to the general truth, while the immediate reference is to Christ only.

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

38. I sent you, &c.] The pronouns are again emphatically opposed, as in Joh_4:32.

other men] Christ, the Sower; but put in the plural to balance ‘ye’ in the next clause. In Joh_4:37 both are put in the singular for the sake of harmony; ‘One soweth’ (Christ), ‘another reapeth’ (the disciples). All the verbs in this verse are perfects excepting ‘sent;’ have not laboured, have laboured, have entered.

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.

I sent you to reap,.... To preach the Gospel, and gather in souls by your ministry; referring to the mission of them in Mat 10:6;

that whereon ye bestowed no labour; being sent to the Jews, who had the writings of the prophets, and were versed in them; and had learned from them that the Messiah was to come, and were now in general expectation of him; so that they had nothing more to do, than to declare to those persons who were cultivated by the prophets, and were like to ground tilled and manured, that the Messiah was come, and the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Other men laboured; the prophets, and John the Baptist:

and ye are entered into their labours; to finish the work they had begun, and which was almost done to their hands.

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

38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

Ver. 38. Other men have laboured] Laboured even to lassitude, as the word κεκοπιακασι signifies (κοπιαω, κοπτω). The ministry is not then an easy trade, an idle man’s occupation. Luther was wont to say, Sudor aeconomicus est magnus, Politicus maior, Ecclesiasticus maximus, The householder hath somewhat to do, the magistrate more, but the minister most of all.

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.

I sent you - In the commission given you to preach the gospel. You have not labored or toiled in preparing the way for the great harvest which is now to be gathered in.

Other men laboured -

The prophets, who long labored to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.

(2)The teachers among the Jews, who have read and explained the law and taught the people.

John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way. And, The Saviour himself, who by his personal ministry taught the people, and prepared them for the success which was to attend the preaching of the apostles.

Especially did Jesus lay the foundation for the rapid and extensive spread of the gospel. “He” saw comparatively little fruit of his ministry. He confined his labors to Judea, and even there he was occupied in sowing seed which chiefly sprang up after his death. From this we may learn:

1. That the man who is crowned with eminent success has no cause of “boasting” over others, any more than the man who reaps a field of grain should boast over the man who sowed it. The labor of both is equally necessary, and the labor of both would be useless if God did not give the increase. Compare 1Co 3:6.

2. We should not be discouraged if we do not meet with immediate success. The man that sows is not disheartened because he does not see the harvest “immediately” spring up. We are to sow our seed in the morning, and in the evening we are not to withhold our hand, for we know not whether shall prosper, this or that; and we are to go forth bearing precious seed, though “weeping,” knowing that we shall come again rejoicing, bearing our sheaves with us, Ecc 11:4; Psa 126:6.

3. Every part of the work of the ministry and of teaching men is needful, and we should rejoice that we are permitted to bear any part, however humble, in bringing sinners to the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1Co 12:21-24.

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

By these words our Saviour testifies to his disciples, that the prophets had sown the seed in order to bring men to believe in Christ. This was the end of the law, this the fruit which the prophets looked for to crown their labours. He likewise shews that he himself that sent them, likewise sent the prophets before them; and that the Old and New Testament are of the same origin, and have the same design. (St. John Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas)

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).

I have sent you to reap that which you did not first labour for; the prophets, and John the Baptist, and myself, have sown the seed, and by their doctrine prepared for the Lord a people; you enter upon their labours, gathering them into a gospel church.

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

38. I—The Lord of the harvest, sent you; as he truly had all their predecessors.

Other men laboured… ye… into their labours—As Charles Wesley says, “God buries his workmen but carries on his work.” Moses, the holy priests, the prophets, and the Baptist had preceded, and Christ’s apostles and the ministry of these latter ages are all in the same line of succession. And, no doubt, this passage is a prophetic anticipation of the harvest afterward reaped in Samaria by his apostles. See note on Joh_4:42.

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

If this be the meaning, then, in the following verse, the whole conception of their relation to the past and dependence upon it is singled out for additional comment. I have sent you, and am now sending you, to reap that whereon ye have not toiled to weariness. The idea of sowing (speirein) is now expanded to (kopian) exhausting toil; i.e. to all the laborious preparation of the soil for the seed, clearing of the forest, and ploughing on the rocky places, the cultivation of the jungle and fen. Much has been done by those who have gone before you. Others have toiled thus; their footmarks are red with blood, their tears have watered the earth, and ye have entered (and are now entering) into their toil. There is no limitation here to the cycles of work and suffering, of disappointment and apparent failure which have preceded you. The "others" is surely not a pleonasm for himself, he does verily associate with himself all his forerunners. This kopov is far more than the mere sowing of seed or diffusion of truth, and they who have during many centuries contributed of their life to the creation of the state of mind which makes these people susceptible to the truth, have prepared the way of the disciples. In a fit place, and in the fulness of the times, he came. The disciples of Jesus, moreover, have always had a greater or less degree of pioneer work to do. The efforts of the missionary Church may be represented at all times as toiling as well as sowing. Each generation of labourers in the great field of love to man enters upon work and toil which its precursors have originated. The Tubingen critics here, true to their theory of the origin of the Fourth Gospel in the second century, suppose that, by the "others," Jesus is supposed to mean Philip the evangelist, and, by the "reapers," Peter and John, who entered into his labours, in Act_8:15. Hilgenfeld thinks by the "others" was meant Paul, and by the "reapers" the twelve apostles, who sought to enter upon his work and appropriate its fruit. Thoma has followed vigorously along the same lines, and supposes that the Pauline thought 1Co_3:6-8, and the story of the conversion of the Samaritans and of the heathen world to the Church, are here forth shadowed by the fourth evangelist.

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

I - he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you - He had employed them already in baptizing, ver. 2.

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

38. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour. The verb “sent” is past, and refers to some event before the present incident. The disciples had baptized multitudes, “more disciples than John” (chap. 4:1); so many that John's disciples reported “all men come unto him” (chap. 3:26). They had baptized these (4:2), reaping the fruit of John's labors.

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.

38. κεκοπιάκατε. Ye have laboured. The pronouns, as in Joh 4:32, are emphatic and opposed. This will be the rule throughout; sic vos non vobis.

ἄλλοι. Christ, the Sower; but put in the plural to balance ὑμεῖς. In Joh 4:37 both are in the singular for the sake of harmony; ὁ σπείρων, Christ; ὁ θερίζων, His ministers.

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.

38.] Here, as often, our Lord speaks of the office and its work as accomplished, which is but beginning (see Isa 46:10).

By ἄλλοι here He cannot mean the O.T. Prophets (Grotius, Bengel, Lange), for then His own place would be altogether left out;—and besides, all Scripture analogy is against the idea of the O.T. being the seed of which the N.T. is the fruit:—nor can it be right, as Olshausen maintains, to leave Him out, as being the Lord of the Harvest:—for He is certainly elsewhere, and was by the very nature of the case here, the Sower. The plural is I believe merely inserted as the correspondent word to ὑμεῖς in the explanation, as it was ἄλλος—ἄλλος, in the proverb. (So Lücke, Tholuck, Stier. De Wette denies their interpretation, but gives none of his own.)

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

38. This is to repeat what has already been said, but puts it into plainer language. ἐγώ is emphatic; it was I who sent you to reap in a field which you had not sown.

If we confine the words ἐγὼ ἀπέστειλα ὑμᾶς κτλ. to the incident just narrated, the verse yields a quite intelligible sense. The disciples had not “laboured” in Sychar; the seed was sown there by Jesus Himself, and in some measure by the Samaritan woman. Primarily, Jesus and the woman were the ἄλλοι into whose labours the disciples had entered, not to speak of every prophet and pious teacher of the past who had prepared the way in Samaria for the message of Christ.

The verb ἀποστέλλειν is frequent in Jn. (see on 3:17); but it is only used once again by Jn. of Jesus sending forth His disciples, viz. at 17:18, nor does Jn. use the title ἀπόστολος of them (cf. 13:16). But ἐγὼ ἀπέστειλα ὑμᾶς at once suggests a mission such as those recorded Mar 3:14, Mar 6:7, although Jn. has not described anything of the kind; and it might be thought that these words placed by Jn. in the mouth of Jesus here have reference to a former sending forth of the Twelve, such as the Synoptists report, rather than to any mission confined to the disciples (see on v. 8) who were with Jesus at Sychar. But the missions of the Twelve and of the Seventy were of men who were sent to sow rather than to reap, nor could they be fitly described by the words, “I sent you to reap where you had not laboured.” Nor can we be sure that the missions of Mar 3:14, Mar 6:7 had been initiated before this Samaritan journey took place (see on 6:1).

Pfleiderer1 suggests that the words of this verse, which might fitly be applied to the later work of the apostles (e.g. Act 8:5-7, Act 8:14f.), are carelessly applied here by Jn. to an early incident in Jesus’ ministry. But the fact is that the words “others have laboured and you have entered into their labours” will fit every period of the Church’s life, as they would fit every era of scientific discovery. That, however, does not supply any ground for refusing credence to the statement that they, or words like them (for Jn. writes freely), were addressed by Jesus to His disciples at Sychar, as conveying a lesson which it was good for them to learn.

The Faith of the Samaritan Villagers (Vv. 39-42)

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

I sent [εγω απεστειλα] . The I is emphatic. The aorist tense points back to the mission of the disciples as involved in their original call. Other men. Jesus himself and all who had prepared the way for Him, such as John the Baptist.

Labored [κεκοπιακασι] . The perfect tense. Rev., rightly, have labored, their labor showing its effects in the present case. On the word labor, see on Luk 5:5. Compare Jos 24:13.

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