John 4:39. But many of the Samaritans from that city believed in Him, at first because of the woman, who testified, ‘He told me everything I have done.’
And so it continued until evening, and very many of those who had come to Me from the city now believed in Me, at first because of the testimony of the woman, who knew how to tell the townspeople in ardent words how I had told her everything she had ever done. But then many believed because of what the disciples had said about Me. Those Samaritans who were near enough to Me to hear My own words, however, believed most firmly.
For there were some among them who were well versed in Scripture. They said, ‘This man speaks like David, who says, “The commands of the Lord are right and gladden the heart; the commandments of the Lord are pure and enlighten the eyes! The fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever, and the ordinances of the Lord are true and altogether just. They are more precious than gold and much fine gold; they are sweeter than honey and honey from the comb. I gladly do Your will, Lord, and I have Your law in my heart. I will preach Your righteousness in the great congregation. Look, I will not let my mouth be stopped, Lord! You know this. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your truth and Your salvation. I do not conceal Your goodness and Your faithfulness from the great congregation.” But we know—and this is our testimony, full of truth and power—that He who speaks and acts as David spoke and acted before Him, and indeed in His name, is truly the promised Messiah. Since David, however, no one until this man has spoken and acted like David; therefore this man is without fail Christ, God’s Anointed from eternity! We therefore want to accept Him fully.’
John 4:40. When the Samaritans then came all the way to Him, they asked Him to stay with them. And He then stayed there for two full days.
After these Samaritans had thus borne witness to one another about Me, they came right up to Me with all reverence and asked Me to stay with them. For they said, ‘Lord, You who truly are Christ, as we have now clearly recognized You to be, stay with us! For in Jerusalem You will find little welcome, but all the more unbelief and persecution of every kind. For the wide earth bears nothing worse than a Pharisee, either on land or on water. But here You shall be treated as befits Him whom Moses, David, and the prophets promised us.’
But I said to them, ‘Dear men of Sychar! It gives Me true joy that I have brought in such a good harvest in your field. But it would not be right of Me to remain where I have healed the sick and they are now well, and no longer attend to the many sick elsewhere. Nevertheless, I shall stay with you for two days, and only on the third day continue down to Galilee.’
John 4:41. And many more believed in Him because of His word.
Then many more came forward who had not previously believed very firmly, and professed their now unshakably firm faith. The woman was also there, well dressed, and said to those who now believed, ‘Dear friends, surely you will now receive me into your esteem? For I was the first to show you the way here, when you jokingly asked me where the fire was!’
John 4:42. And they said to the woman, ‘From now on we no longer believe because of what you say; we have heard Him ourselves and recognized that this is truly Christ, the Savior of the world!’
Then the Samaritans said, ‘If the Lord accepted you before us, you are also received among us with honor, as is the custom in Sychar. But from now on we no longer believe because of your words, for we have now heard Him ourselves and recognized that this truly is Christ, the Savior of the world! And you will never make us more believing than we are now! But from now on you shall also be truly honored among us, if you no longer sin from this time forward.’
The woman says, ‘But I have never sinned as much as, sadly, you still suppose! Before I became a man’s lawful wife, my body had never been touched by a man’s body. But when I afterwards became a man’s wife, I lived entirely in accordance with proper order, as befits a wife. That I could not become fruitful, and that each of my five lawful husbands had to die soon after he had done his business with me, was surely not my fault, but at most the fault of those from whom I received such flesh, which was not safe for a man. After five husbands died on me and caused me scarcely bearable heartache, I resolved never again to join myself to a man. But years later, as you know, a physician came to Sychar with herbal oils and ointments and made many people well. Driven by my very palpable distress, I too went to him to see whether he could help me.
‘But he examined me and said, “Woman, I would give a world if I could help you, for my eye has surely never yet seen a woman more beautiful than you! But even if I cannot help you completely, I can still ease your affliction.” He then moved into my poor dwelling, gave me soothing remedies every day, and cared for me, but he has never touched my sick body with an improper intention, as you seem falsely to suppose!
‘And so, before God, I am indeed always a sinner, just as you are; but I believe that in your eyes I am not so great and gross a sinner as you are pleased to consider me. Ask Him who sits here at Jacob’s well, who previously told me everything I have done, and He Himself will tell you to what extent I deserve the name of a public sinner or not.’
Here the Samaritans look at one another in astonishment and say to the woman, ‘Well, well, do not be upset anymore; we really did not mean it so badly! To make up for it, you shall now become an honorary citizen of Sychar. Tell us, are you satisfied with us now?’
The woman says, ‘Oh, do not trouble yourselves about the honor of a poor woman! I have already taken for myself the greatest share of honor!’
The Samaritans say, ‘How did you manage that? We know of no distinction the city has conferred on you. Where, then, did you obtain it?’
With tears of true love and sincere gratitude, the woman points to Me and says, ‘Here He still rests! He alone is now my highest honor—an honor that neither you nor the whole world can give me in this way, and just as little can take from me! For He Himself gave it to me, and I received it from Him. I know very well that in all my being I am not in the least worthy to receive any honor from Him, the Lord of glory. Yet He gave it to me before you, and I received it before you and brought you news of Him when you previously knew nothing of Him. Look, this is what I have ahead of all of you, which you did not give me and, now that I have it, cannot take from me. And this is a distinction of the true kind, valid for eternity; but your distinction is valid only for a time, and only in Sychar, and I can dispense with that when one has the eternal one! I hope you will now see how and from whom I have received my greatest share of true honor?’
The Samaritans say, ‘Is it any advantage that you happened to come out first and met Christ here? We too have now found Him, and now praise and glorify Him in our hearts just as you do, and He also promised us, as He did you, to remain in our city for two days. If that is so, how can you speak of a prior honor that came to you before us?’
The woman says, ‘Dear men of Sychar, if I wanted to dispute with you, we would never come to an end. But I have now told you how it is, in accordance with the full truth, and I shall not tell you a second time! Several of you, however, have studied Roman law and are now judges under that law, and say that it is a wise law. Now in that law, which I too have read, since I understand Latin, it says: Primo occupanti jus! But I was the first here, and therefore you cannot take my rightful claim away from me.’
Here the Samaritans fell silent and did not know what to reply to the woman, for because of the Jews they were great friends of the Romans and highly esteemed the wisdom and order of Roman law. That is why they now fell silent when the woman referred them to the law of the Romans.
But it is not surprising that the woman was well versed in the Roman language, for the Samaritans spoke Latin almost throughout, and to some extent Greek as well, in order to avoid all fellowship with the Jews even through their language.