illustrative word of Christ. Thus the fourth would, both externally and internally, be the
pre-eminently Judæan Gospel, characterised by cyclical order, illustrative conjunction of
work and word, and progressively leading up to the grand climax of Christ's last
discourses, and finally of His Death and Resurrection, with the teaching that flows from
the one and the other.
11. ii. 13-iv. 54.
12. v.-vi. 3.
It was about six o'clock in the evening, 13 when the travel-stained pilgrims reached that
'parcel of ground' which, according to ancient Jewish tradition, Jacob had given to his son
Joseph.14 Here (as already stated) by the 'Well of Jacob' where the three roads - south, to
Shechem, and to Sychar (Askar) - meet and part, Jesus sat down, while the disciples
(probably with the exception of Jo hn) went on to the closely adjoining little town of
Sychar to buy food. Even this latter circumstance marks that it was evening, since noon
was not the time either for the sale of provisions, nor for their purchase by travellers.
Once more it is when the true Humanity of Jesus is set before us, in the weakness of His
hunger and weariness,15 that the glory of His Divine Personality suddenly shines through
it. This time it was a poor, ignorant Samaritan woman, 16 who came, not for any religious
purpose - indeed, to whom religious thought, except within her own very narrow circle,
was almost unintelligible - who became the occasion of it. She had come - like so many
of us, who find the pearl in the field which we occupy in the business of everyday- life -
on humb le, ordinary duty and work. Men call it common; but there is nothing common
and unclean that God has sanctified by making use of it, or which His Presence and
teaching may transform into a vision from heaven.
13. We have already expressed our belief, that in the Fourth Gospel time is reckoned not
according to the Jewish mode, but according to the Roman civil day, from midnight to
midnight. For a full discussion and proof of this, with notice of objections, see
McLellan's New Test. vol. i. pp. 737-743. It must surely be a lapsus when at p. 288 (note
o), the same author seems to assume the contrary. Meyer objects, that, if it had been 6
p.m., there would not have been time for the after-events recorded. But they could easily
find a place in the delicious cool of a summer's evening, and both the coming up of the
Samaritans (most unlikely at noon-time), and their invitation to Jesus 'to tarry' with them
(v. 40), are in favour of our view. Indeed, St. John xix. 14 renders it impossible to adopt
the Jewish mode of reckoning.
14. See a previous note on p. 404.
15. Godet rightly asks what, in view of this, becomes of the supposed Docetism which,
according to the Tubingen school, is one of the characteristics of the Fourth Gospel?
16. By which we are to understand a woman from the country, not the town of Samaria, a
Samaritaness. The suggestion, that she resorted to Jacob's Well on account of its sanctity,
scarcely requires refutation.
There was another well (the 'Ain 'Askar), on the east side of the little town, a nd much
nearer to Sychar than 'Jacob's Well;' and to it probably the women of Sychar generally
resorted. It should also be borne in mind, that in those days such work no longer
devolved, as in early times, on the matrons and maidens of fair degree, but on women in