John 4:40

Joh 4:40. Μεῖναι, to abide [to tarry]) always, or at least a long time.—ἔμεινεν, He abode) We do not read that the Samaritans were then baptized. Nor was then the time as yet for the Church being regularly and permanently established outside of Judea. It is probable that many of them were subsequently baptized; Act 8:16, [under Philip’s preaching] “They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus”.—δύο ἡμέρας, two days) He once therefore passed the night there. They were supplied with one draught of the living water unto everlasting life; Joh 4:14, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.” The same was the case with the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8.

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

Joh 4:40 . Their faith showed itself in an invitation to Him to remain with them; in compliance with which invitation, impressive as coming from Samaritans, He remained two days.

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

abode two days--Two precious days, surely, to the Redeemer Himself! Unsought, He had come to His own, yet His own received Him not: now those who were not His own had come to Him, been won by Him, and invited Him to their town that others might share with them in the benefit of His wonderful ministry. Here, then, would He solace His already wounded spirit and have in this outfield village triumph of His grace, a sublime foretaste of the inbringing of the whole Gentile world into the Church.

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 40. He abode there two days.] We are not told that he wrought any miracles among them; this does not appear to have been necessary: they were a simple-hearted, teachable people, and they credited him on the evidence of his own eternal truth. Why are not miracles wrought now? Miracles were only for the establishment of the doctrines of Christianity, where they were first preached; we profess to believe these doctrines; therefore, to us, miracles would be useless. Where the doctrine is credited, no miracle is necessary: the Samaritans believed, and no miracle was wrought among them; for the simple reason, it was not necessary.

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

(40) When the Samaritans were come.—The next step in their faith is to go to Him and ask Him to remain with them, that they too may learn from Him; and He, a Jew, accepts the hospitality of Samaria, and abides with them for two days.

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

40. besought him] Or, kept beseeching Him. How different from His own people at Nazareth; Mat_13:58; Luk_4:29. Comp. the thankful Samaritan leper, Luk_17:16-17.

tarry with them] Better, abide with them. See on Joh_1:33. They perhaps mean, take up His abode permanently with them, or at any rate for some time.

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.

So when the Samaritans were come unto him,.... The Ethiopic version reads, all the Samaritans; they came to him at Jacob's well, upon the woman's solicitations, and the account she gave of this extraordinary person: and after they had conversed with him, and heard him themselves, they were taken with his divine discourses, and being thoroughly persuaded that he was the Messiah,

they besought him that he would tarry with them; they were not like the Gergesenes, who besought him to depart out of their coasts as soon he was in them: but these men were delighted with his company; and notwithstanding his being a Jew, desired a conversation with him, and entreated that he would go along with them to their city, and stay with them:

and he abode there two days; he went with them to Sychar. He would not deny their request, lest they should be discouraged; and yet would not make any long stay with them, that he might give no umbrage to the Jews; though it is very likely from this short stay in Samaria, they afterwards reproached him as a Samaritan, Joh 8:48. Our Lord's direction to his disciples not to enter into any of the cities of the Samaritans, was not a rule to himself, or binding upon him, and was only a rule to them "pro tempore".

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

40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

Ver. 40. Were come unto him] We no sooner believe, but we would fain see, and be brought a spe ad speciem, from hope to sight.

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.

The Sichemites being come to Christ, had some discourse with him, as appeareth from Joh 4:41,42. What the subject matter of their discourse was we are not told; we may know that it was spiritual, and something proper to excite faith in them, for believing was the effect of it. They desire that he would abide with them: thus their faith wrought by love. Our Saviour, that he might not discourage the beginning of their faith, did stay with them two days: for although, when he sent out his disciples, he commanded them not to go into the way of the Samaritans, yet himself was not obliged by that law, and did sometimes, by preaching to heathens, and converting of them, give an earnest of the calling of the Gentiles, whose fuller calling was reserved to after times; yet, probably, the reason why he would not stay longer with them than two days, was because the time was not yet come for the fuller calling of the Gentiles, and he was not willing by a longer abode with them to give offence to the Jews, between whom and the Samaritans was a rooted hatred upon the account of their differing religion.

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

40. Samaritans were come unto him—How must the faces of Jesus and of these simple and ready Samaritans have mutually shone upon each other!

Of the divine converse he vouchsafed unto them, the Evangelist gives us no report. But the result was, they came to Jesus with the prayer that Jesus would come to them.

Two days—In which he seems to have wrought no miracles, but to have been accepted as the true Messiah for the divinity of the truth he taught. Did he expand the declarations of Joh_4:21-24, proclaiming the approaching hour when Judaism and Samaritanism would be fused into one great dispensation of the Spirit?

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

They were already convinced; but they did more they came to him. So when the Samaritans came to him; they continued asking him they persistently prayed that he would abide with them. How unlike the treatment of Jews and Gadarenes, of scribes and Pharisees! There were some who besought him to depart from them, others who stoned him, Herodians and Pharisees who plotted to destroy him. But these hated Samaritans yearned for more of his fellowship, more of his words and searching glance, more of the Word of life. So called heresy and heterodoxy may sometimes show itself more susceptible to the mind and Spirit of Christ than a bigoted and self-satisfied orthodoxy. The Lord responded to the request, and he abode there two days. Why should a biographer of the second century have limited this visit to "two days," when it is obvious that he passes over months in silence? It would have been as easy to say "two months" as to say "two days," and, to ordinary human judgment, more natural. These "two days" left an ineffaceable memory on the heart of one at least of these disciples, and the mention of it has upon the face of it the mark of historicity.

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

40. So when the Samaritans were come. They insisted that he should tarry with them. A strange invitation for a Samaritan village to give to a Jew. It was also a strange thing for a Jewish teacher to accept the invitation.

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.

40. ἠρώτων. Kept beseeching (Joh 4:30-31; Joh 4:47). How different from His own people at Nazareth (Mat 13:58; Luk 4:29) and from the Jews at Jerusalem after many miracles and much teaching (Joh 5:18, &c.). And yet he had uncompromisingly pronounced against Samaritan claims (Joh 4:22). Comp. the thankful Samaritan leper (Luk 17:16-17).

μεῖναι. See on Joh 1:33. They wished him to take up his abode permanently with them, or at least for a time.

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.

40. ὡς οὖν ἦλθον κτλ. For Jn.’s frequent use of οὖν, see on 1:22. He likes the introductory ὡς οὖν (cf. 11:6, 18:6, 20:11, 21:9), which is not found in the Synoptists.

The Samaritans who had been impressed by the woman’s story desired to listen themselves to the teaching of Jesus, and at their request he lodged in Sychar two days. For Jn.’s habit of recording dates, or intervals of time, see Introd., p. cii. He repeats in v. 43 that the stay of Jesus in this village was for two days only, τὰς δύο ἡμέρας (cf. 11:6).

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

To tarry [μειναι] . Better, as Rev., to abide.

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