disciples baptized. It is still in Judæa, and yet sufficiently removed from Jerusalem; and
the Wady is so full of springs that one spot near it actually bears the name of 'Ainûn,
'springs,' like the ancient Ænon. But, from the spot which we have indicated, it is about
twenty miles, across a somewhat difficult country to Jacob's Well. It would be a long and
toilsome day's journe y thither on a summer day, and we can understand how, at its end,
Jesus would rest weary on the low parapet which enclosed the Well, while His disciples
went to buy the necessary provisions in the neighbouring Sychar.
And it was, as we judge, the evening of a day in early summer,4 when Jesus,
accompanied by the small band which formed His disciples,5 emerged into the rich Plain
of Samaria. Far as the eye could sweep, 'the fields' were 'already white unto the harvest.'
They had reached 'the Well of Jacob.' There Jesus waited, while the others went to Sychar
on their work of ministry. Probably John remained with the Master. They would scarcely
have left Him alone, especially in that place; and the whole narrative reads like that of
one who had been present at what passed.6 More than any other, perhaps, in the Fourth
Gospel, it bears the mark, not only of Judæan, but of contemporary authorship. It seems
utterly incompatible with the modern theory of its Ephesian origin at the end of the
second century. The location of the scene, not in Sebaste or Shechem, but at Sychar,7
which in the fourth century at least had so entirely ceased to be Samaritan, that it had
become the home of some celebrated Rabbis;8 the intimate knowledge of Samaritan and
Jewish relations, which at the time of Christ allowed the purchase of food, but would
certainly not have conceded it two centuries later; even the introduction of such a
statement as 'Salvation is of the Jews,' wholly inconsistent with the supposed scope of an
Ephesian Gospel - these are only some of the facts which will occur to the student of that
period, as bearing unsolicited testimony to the date and nationality of the writer.
4. For 'the location of Sychar,' and the vindication of the view that the event took place at
the beginning of the wheat harvest, or about the middle of May, see Appendix XV. The
question is of considerable importance.
5. From the silence of the Synoptists, and the general designation of the disciples without
naming them, Caspari concludes that only John, and perhaps Nathanael, but none of the
other apostles, had accompanied Jesus on this journey (Chronol. Geogr. Einl. p. 104).
6. Caspari (u. s. p. 103) thinks that John only related that of which he himself was an
eyewitness, except, perhaps, in ch. xviii. 33, &c.
7. It is very characteristic when Schenkel, in ignorance of the fact that Sychar is
mentioned by the Rabbis, argues that the use of the name Sychar for Shechem affords
evidence that the Fourth Gospel is of Gentile -Christian origin.
8. See Appendix XV.
Indeed, there is such minuteness of detail about the narrative, and with it such charm of
simplicity, affectionateness, reverence, and depth of spiritual insight, as to carry not only
the conviction of its truthfulness, but almost instinctively to suggest to us 'the beloved
disciple' as its witness. Already he had taken the place nearest to Jesus and saw and spake
as none other of the disciples. Jesus weary, and resting while the disciples go to but food,