Arise, take up thy bed, and walk : St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

Contents

• St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

...and the water was moved.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

1 After these things was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  

2 Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.  

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water.  

4 And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.  

5 And there was a certain man there, that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity.

6 Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole?  

7 The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me.  

8 Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.  

9 And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day.

1 Μετὰ ταῦτα ⸀ἦν ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ ⸀ἀνέβη Ἰησοῦς εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα.

1 Post haec erat dies festus Judaeorum, et ascendit Jesus Jerosolymam.  

2 ἔστιν δὲ ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ κολυμβήθρα ἡ ἐπιλεγομένη Ἑβραϊστὶ ⸀Βηθεσδά, πέντε στοὰς ἔχουσα·

2 Est autem Jerosolymis probatica piscina, quae cognominatur hebraice Bethsaida, quinque porticus habens.  

3 ἐν ταύταις κατέκειτο ⸀πλῆθος τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τυφλῶν, χωλῶν, ⸀ξηρῶν.

3 In his jacebat multitudo magna languentium, caecorum, claudorum, aridorum, exspectantium aquae motum.  

4 ἄγγελος γὰρ κατὰ καιρὸν κατέβαινεν ἐν τῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ, καὶ ἐτάρασσεν τὸ ὕδωρ ὁ οὖν πρῶτος ἐμβὰς μετὰ τὴν ταραχὴν τοῦ ὕδατος, ὑγιὴς ἐγίνετο, ᾧ δήποτε κατειχετο νοσήματι

4 Angelus autem Domini descendebat secundum tempus in piscinam, et movebatur aqua. Et qui prior descendisset in piscinam post motionem aquae, sanus fiebat a quacumque detinebatur infirmitate.  

5 ἦν δέ τις ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖ ⸀τριάκοντα ὀκτὼ ἔτη ἔχων ἐν τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ⸀αὐτοῦ·

5 Erat autem quidam homo ibi triginta et octo annos habens in infirmitate sua.  

6 τοῦτον ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς κατακείμενον, καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον ἔχει, λέγει αὐτῷ· Θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι;

6 Hunc autem cum vidisset Jesus jacentem, et cognovisset quia jam multum tempus haberet, dicit ei : Vis sanus fieri?  

7 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ ὁ ἀσθενῶν· Κύριε, ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω ἵνα ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ βάλῃ με εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν· ἐν ᾧ δὲ ἔρχομαι ἐγὼ ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ καταβαίνει.

7 Respondit ei languidus : Domine, hominem non habeo, ut, cum turbata fuerit aqua, mittat me in piscinam : dum venio enim ego, alius ante me descendit.  

8 λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ⸀Ἔγειρε ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει.

8 Dicit ei Jesus : Surge, tolle grabatum tuum et ambula.  

9 καὶ εὐθέως ἐγένετο ὑγιὴς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἦρε τὸν κράβαττον αὐτοῦ καὶ περιεπάτει. Ἦν δὲ σάββατον ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ.

9 Et statim sanus factus est homo ille : et sustulit grabatum suum, et ambulabat. Erat autem sabbatum in die illo.

Annotations

    1. After these things was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Observe, John here omits many things which Christ did in Galilee, but which Matthew records from the 4th to the 12th chapter of his Gospel. For what Matthew relates in his 12th chapter concerning the disciples plucking the ears of corn took place after the following feast, as will appear presently.

    a festival day. SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others think that this was the Feast of Pentecost. With more probability, S. Irenæus (lib. 2, c. 39), Ruperti, and others, think it was the Passover. They show this (1.) Because in chap. 4 ver. 35, Jesus said there were still four months unto harvest. That therefore must have been before the Passover: thus the Passover must have been the first great subsequent feast.

    2. Because the Passover was the feast of feasts. When therefore it is said absolutely, there was a feast, the Passover, which was the feast par excellence, is to be understood.

    3. Because Christ after His baptism preached for three years and a half, according to the common consent of divines. It follows from this that there ought to be notices in the Gospels of four Passovers, which is the case. The first is mentioned by John in ii.13; the second in this place; the third in vi.4; the fourth, just before His death, xix.14. But if the feast mentioned in this 5th chapter were not the Passover, we could only gather the mention of three by S. John.

    Here then comes to a close the account of the first year and three months of Christ’s ministry, that is to say, from January 6, when He was baptized, until this second Passover, which was kept in Nisan, or March.

    2. Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.

Probatica. The pool took its name both because it was nigh the gate adjacent to the Temple, through which the flocks of sheep for the sacrifices were driven, and also because the sheep, which were offered to God every morning and evening in the Temple, were there gathered together and washed.

    a pond: i.e., a place which contained fishes, or at least might have held them. The Greek is κολυμβήθρα, a place to swim in, because fishes, or even men, might swim in it. The Vulgate has piscina. This pool was constructed by Solomon for the service of the Temple; hence it is called by Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 6) Solomon’s Pool. In it the Nethinims washed the victims which they handed over to the priests to be offered in the Temple.

    Some Greek codices instead of pool read πύλη, a porch, or gate, but S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Cyril, Euthymius, S. Jerome, and others passim, read κολυμβήθρα, i.e., a pool. The Syriac has a baptistery, or font.

    Bethsaida: so read the Vulgate, and among the Greeks SS. Chrysostom and Cyril. And appositely, for Bethsaida means in Hebrew a house, i.e., a place of hunting, or fishing. And this is the signification of the Greek κολυμβήθρα, a place for fish to swim in. The Greek MSS., however, read Βηθεσδὰ: so also S. Jerome (loc. Hebrœis). Bethesda means in Hebrew a place of pouring forth, because the rain from the roofs of the houses, and streams of water from aqueducts, flowed into it. The Syriac has Bethchesda, or house of mercy, from the Hebrew חֶסֶד, chesed, mercy, because there God showed His mercy to the miserable sick whom He healed; or else because righteous men relieved with their alms the sick poor who lay there.

    having five porches, or porticoes: these porches or porticoes were places covered above, but open below, either for walking, or taking rest in, that sick persons might rest in them secure from rain, or the heat of the sun, and immediately step out of them into the pool when its angel moved the water.

    3. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water. e (Vulg.); Greek, ἀσθενόντων; Eng. Ver. sick folk; withered (Vulg.) aridorum, dry, i.e., whose arm. or hand, or foot, or some other limb, was lifeless.

    4. And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. 

    an angel of the Lord: either Raphael, or some other, Raphael, who presides over bodily healing, is so called from the Hebrew, which signifies the medicine, or physician of God. Whence he cured Tobit of his blindness.

    at certain times, i.e., at a certain time determined by God, or the angel, but unknown to men. Wherefore what Tertullian and Cyril say does not seem to be correct, that it was only once in the year, namely, at Pentecost, that the angel went down into the pool. For if so, the sick folk would not have lain beside it (for so long a time), but would have waited at home until Pentecost was close at hand. As Euthymius says, “By speaking of a stated time, he showed that the miracle was not continually taking place, but at certain times, unknown indeed to men, though often, as I think, in the course of the year.”

    the water was moved.  Greek, ἐταράσσετο ὑδῶρ, i.e., he disturbed or troubled the water. “The sound of moving signified that angels were present to sanctify the water,” says S. Cyril. “The water was moved in order to show that the angel had descended,” says S. Ambrose.

    And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole.  In order to show the value of labour and diligence, and that we ought to be swift and active to take God’s benefits. Thus it was necessary for him who would gather the manna to rise at dawn, for when the sun was risen it melted, “that it might be made known unto all that it was needful to prevent the rising of the sun for Thy blessing, and to worship Thee at the dawning of the day” (Wisd. xvi. 28). For God gives His gifts to the watchful and earnest, not to the slow and sleepy. Thus in the race only he who excels the rest receives the prize (Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. 1 Cor. ix. 24).

    You will ask why, after the troubling of the water, as it is in the Greek, only he who first stepped in after the troubling was healed? I answer, that the literal reason was to show that this power of healing did not proceed from any natural virtue of the water, but from the moving of the angel, and the command of God. This moving of the angel did not impress any physical power or quality upon the water to heal any disease, but it was a sign of the Divine power and working, which were about to heal that sick person who had previously, by his own diligence, stirred up himself, and had gone down into the water that he might there receive the miraculous blessing of God. This moving, therefore, was an invitation to the sick to receive healing in the troubled water.

    Appositely indeed did the angel make use of this sign of motion, because, whilst it was being moved, the virtue of the water became lively and efficacious. For life consists in motion, death in quietude and torpor.

    Tropologically, the reason was to signify that the sinner, when he is converted and healed by God, is wont to be troubled and agitated in his conscience by various emotions of fear, shame, and hope. For by these God moves a man to repentance and contrition, that he may thereby be healed, as the Council of Trent teaches.

    of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. From hence it is plain that the healing virtue of this pool did not proceed from the victims which were washed in it, nor from wood lying at the bottom, of which the cross of Christ was afterwards made, as some have supposed, but was supernatural and miraculous. For God wished to bestow this benefit upon believing people about the time of Christ’s coming (for there is no mention of it in the Old Testament), in order that Christ thus healing a sick man might show that He was God, who had given this property to the pool, and therefore that He without it could heal the sick. Wherefore it would seem that this gift was taken away from the ungrateful Jews when they killed Christ, for we find no subsequent mention of it. As Tertullian says (cont. Jud., c. 13), “The pool of Bethsaida, which, to the coming of Christ, healed the sicknesses of Israel, afterwards ceased from bestowing its benefits through their persevering fury.”

    Allegorically, God willed that this pool should be a token of His Passion and His Baptism. For as the angel descended into the water, so Christ went down to His Passion and torments; and in them, as in water, He was immersed and buried. And as the pool was red with the blood of the victims which were washed in it, so was Christ ruddy, and stained with His own blood (Isa. lxiii. 2), that by the merit of His blood He might cause baptism (wherefore the Syriac here translates baptistery), in whose water believers are washed, to heal all spiritual infirmities. So Tertullian (de Baptismo, c. 5), S. Ambrose (de Spir. Sc., lib. I, c. 7), and S. Chrysostom. The latter says, “For when God wished to instruct us in the belief of baptism now nigh at hand, He drove away not only pollutions, but diseases by means of water: for the nearer the images and figures were to the truth, they were more illustrious than the ancient figures.” And S. Austin says, “To descend into the troubled water is humbly to believe in the Lord’s Passion. There one was healed to signify unity. Whosoever came afterwards was not healed, because whoso is outside of unity cannot be healed.”

    5. And there was a certain man there, that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity. Greek and Vulgate. S. Chrysostom and others say that this sick man was a paralytic.

    Tropologically, this infirm man represents one who has grown old in a course of sin: who lies without strength in habits of vice, and is without any power to do good. For as palsy dissolves the bonds which knit the limbs together, so does a habit of sin enervate and dissolve the strength of the soul, so that men cannot arise out of it, and resist it, unless they are raised and strengthened by the mighty grace of God. Hence it is plain that such a palsy as this was naturally incurable; and we see that for thirty-eight years it could not be healed by any skill. Christ therefore took upon Himself to heal this palsy rather than the diseases of the other sick who were there, in order to show forth both His Almighty power and His infinite mercy. This was why Christ determined to heal Paul, who was labouring even beyond the rest of the incredulous and impious Jews under the worst spiritual disease of unbelief, as he himself shows us in the beginning of his 1st Epistle to Timothy. As S. Austin says, “The great Physician descended from heaven because one who was sick unto death lay on the earth.” On the symbolical meaning of the thirty-eight years see S. Augustine in loc., where he says, amongst other things, that it was the symbol of weakness, as forty is the symbol of healing and perfection. “If therefore,” he says, “the number forty has the perfection of the Law, and the Law is not fulfilled except by the twofold precept of charity, what wonder that he was sick, who lacked two of the forty?” The twofold love, viz., of God and his neighbour, was lacking.

    6. Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole? Christ knew well that he had a desire to be healed, but He asked the question—1. To afford the sick man an opportunity for conversation, and from thence of being healed. As S. Cyril says, “Herein was a great proof of the compassion of Christ, that He did not (always) wait for the entreaties of those who were sick, but prevented them by His mercy.”

    2. That He might sharpen the man’s attention to the instantaneous character of the miracle, and so to the words and deeds of Christ. From all these He might know with certainty that he was healed, not by the pool, nor by medicine, but by Christ alone, who was superior to all the virtue of the pool, or of medicine, and so might believe in Him as a prophet, and the Messiah, and might in penitence ask and obtain of Him remission of his sins. Wherefore He healed him beside the healing pool, but without touching it, that He might show that it was He who had given its virtue to the pool, and that He therefore, without the aid of the pool, could heal him by His word alone.

    7. The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. The sick man does not answer Christ’s question directly. He takes for granted that every one knew that he desired to be healed. Therefore he makes mention of the way of obtaining healing by means of the pool. As though he had said, “I am prevented by palsy from going into the pool, for I have none to carry me. I am a poor man. If therefore Thou canst help me in this matter, do so.” For he thought that when Christ asked the question, Dost thou wish to be healed? He meant, “Dost thou wish that I should carry thee into the pool, when the angel moves the water, that thou mayest in it be healed?” As yet he did not know the power of Jesus, for he had never seen Him.

    The Syriac translates a little differently: Even so, Lord (I do wish to be healed), but I have not a man. Beautifully does S. Augustine say, “In very deed was that man (Jesus) necessary for his salvation, but it was that man who is also God.”

    8. Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. These words of Christ were practical and efficacious. In saying Arise, He caused him to arise, and healed him. As S. Augustine says, “It was not a command of work, but an operation of healing.” And S. Cyril, “Such power and virtue were not of man; it is a property of God alone to command like this.” Christ bade him take up his bed, that it might be evident to all that He had healed him, yea, that he had been made instantly stout and strong, so as to be able to carry his bed. Wherefore Euthymius in this passage observes that Christ was accustomed, after the miracles which He wrought, to add something by which their truth and greatness might be perceived. Thus in this instance He bade the paralytic take up his bed, which he could not have done unless he was healed; yea, stout and strong. So after the multiplication of the loaves, He ordered more fragments to be taken up than were originally in the bread. So He said to the leper whom He healed, “Go show thyself to the priest.” So He ordered something to be given to eat to the girl whom He raised from the dead (Mark v. 43).

    Tropologically, S. Gregory (Hom. 12 in Ezech.) applies these words to sinners who have been justified by penance, who, by the just judgment of God, suffer temptations from their former sins. He says, “The sick man restored to health is bidden to carry the bed in which he had been carried. For it is necessary that every one who is healed should bear the contumely of the flesh, in which he had before lain in his sickness. What then is it to say, Take up thy bed, and go unto thine house, but, “Bear the temptations of the flesh; in which thou hast hitherto lain?”

    Thus S. Mary of Egypt for seventeen years after her conversion suffered dreadful temptations of the flesh, because she had previously lived for that number of years immodestly. Sins therefore are their own executioners, and their own righteous avengers. What before pleased afterwards torments: what willingly thou hast done, the same thou shalt hereafter unwillingly suffer.

    Symbolically, S. Augustine says (Tract. 17), “Arise; that is, love God, who is above. Take up thy bed; i.e., love thy neighbour, bear his infirmities, according to the words, ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’ When thou wast weak thy neighbour carried thee: thou art made whole, carry now thy neighbour. Carry him with whom thou walkest, that thou mayest come to Him with whom thou desirest to abide.”

    9. And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day. Christ designedly healed upon the Sabbath, both because the Sabbath was the highest festival of the Jews, which therefore it was right to sanctify above other days by good works, such as healing a sick man like this paralytic: and also because He hereby wished to show the Jews that He was the Lord of the Sabbath. For in bidding him take up his bed, which was a thing forbidden by the old Law, He showed that He was Messiah and God. Moreover, because the Sabbath was a day dedicated to rest and the praise of God, Christ gave rest from his pains to this sick man, and so afforded a notable occasion for praising God on this day.

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Go thy way, thy son liveth : St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

Contents

• St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

44 For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.   

45 And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day.

46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum.  

47 He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.  

48 Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.  

49 The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die.  

50 Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.

51 And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.  

52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.  

53 The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house.  

54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.

44 αὐτὸς ⸀γὰρ Ἰησοῦς ἐμαρτύρησεν ὅτι προφήτης ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ πατρίδι τιμὴν οὐκ ἔχει.

44 Ipse enim Jesus testimonium perhibuit, quia propheta in sua patria honorem non habet.  

45 ὅτε οὖν ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, ἐδέξαντο αὐτὸν οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι, πάντα ἑωρακότες ⸀ὅσα ἐποίησεν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, καὶ αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἦλθον εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν.

45 Cum ergo venisset in Galilaeam, exceperunt eum Galilaei, cum omnia vidissent quae fecerat Jerosolymis in die festo : et ipsi enim venerant ad diem festum. 

46 Ἦλθεν οὖν ⸀πάλιν εἰς τὴν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ὅπου ἐποίησεν τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον. καὶ ἦν τις βασιλικὸς οὗ ὁ υἱὸς ἠσθένει ἐν Καφαρναούμ.

46 Venit ergo iterum in Cana Galilaeae, ubi fecit aquam vinum. Et erat quidam regulus, cujus filius infirmabatur Capharnaum.  

47 οὗτος ἀκούσας ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἥκει ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν ἀπῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ⸀ἠρώτα ἵνα καταβῇ καὶ ἰάσηται αὐτοῦ τὸν υἱόν, ἤμελλεν γὰρ ἀποθνῄσκειν.

47 Hic cum audisset quia Jesus adveniret a Judaea in Galilaeam, abiit ad eum, et rogabat eum ut descenderet, et sanaret filium ejus : incipiebat enim mori.  

48 εἶπεν οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐὰν μὴ σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ἴδητε, οὐ μὴ πιστεύσητε.

48 Dixit ergo Jesus ad eum : Nisi signa et prodigia videritis, non creditis.  

49 λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ βασιλικός· Κύριε, κατάβηθι πρὶν ἀποθανεῖν τὸ παιδίον μου.

49 Dicit ad eum regulus : Domine, descende priusquam moriatur filius meus.  

50 λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πορεύου· ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ. ⸀ἐπίστευσεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῷ λόγῳ ⸀ὃν εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἐπορεύετο.

50 Dicit ei Jesus : Vade, filius tuus vivit. Credidit homo sermoni quem dixit ei Jesus, et ibat. 

51 ἤδη δὲ αὐτοῦ καταβαίνοντος οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ ⸀ὑπήντησαν ⸀αὐτῷ λέγοντες ὅτι ὁ παῖς ⸀αὐτοῦ ζῇ.

51 Jam autem eo descendente, servi occurrerunt ei, et nuntiaverunt dicentes, quia filius ejus viveret.  

52 ἐπύθετο οὖν ⸂τὴν ὥραν παρ’ αὐτῶν⸃ ἐν ᾗ κομψότερον ἔσχεν· ⸂εἶπαν οὖν⸃ αὐτῷ ὅτι ⸀Ἐχθὲς ὥραν ἑβδόμην ἀφῆκεν αὐτὸν ὁ πυρετός.

52 Interrogabat ergo horam ab eis in qua melius habuerit. Et dixerunt ei : Quia heri hora septima reliquit eum febris.  

53 ἔγνω οὖν ὁ πατὴρ ⸀ὅτι ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐν ᾗ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ ⸀Ἰησοῦς· Ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ, καὶ ἐπίστευσεν αὐτὸς καὶ ἡ οἰκία αὐτοῦ ὅλη.

53 Cognovit ergo pater, quia illa hora erat in qua dixit ei Jesus : Filius tuus vivit; et credidit ipse et domus ejus tota.  

54 τοῦτο ⸀δὲ πάλιν δεύτερον σημεῖον ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐλθὼν ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν.

Scripture quotations marked SBLGNT 

54 Hoc iterum secundum signum fecit Jesus, cum venisset a Judaea in Galilaeam.

Annotations

    44. For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. The word for expresses the reason why Jesus left Nazareth, His own city, and went into the other parts of Galilee, because the Nazarenes despised Him as their fellow-citizen, and the son of an artisan.

    45. And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day. All the miracles, especially that He alone had cast out all the buyers and sellers from the Temple, as well as the many other signs that He had shown.

    Observe: The Jews, after the many miracles of Christ which they saw, did not believe in His preaching, nor even receive Him. The Galileans, who also saw many miracles, received Him kindly but did not believe in Him. But the Samaritans, although they saw no miracles, received Him, and believed Him to be the Messiah, sent by God for the salvation of the whole world. So those who are without, often receive what those of the household disdain and despise.

    46. He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. 

    a certain ruler. The Latin translator seems to have had in his Greek copies βασιλισκος, i.e., regulus, a little king. The present reading is βασιλικος, i.e., royal, understand counsellor, or public minister, of Herod Antipas; a prefect, or intimate friend of his. The Syriac has, a royal servant: S. Chrysostom says, “because he was of the royal race, or discharged some princely function.” Nonnus says, “he was a courtier, who was over the army.” Origen says, “he was perhaps of the family of Tiberius Cæsar, employed by him in some office of Judea.”

    Capharnaum: it is probable that this nobleman’s son lay ill at Capharnaum, because it was his father’s usual place of abode. And his father, hearing that Jesus, who healed so many sick, was come out of Judea into Cana of Galilee, went thither, to ask of Jesus the healing of his son; as is plain from what follows. The nobleman seems to have been a Jew, not a Gentile, as both S. Jerome and Origen think. We may think so, because he had little faith, and for that reason was reproved by Christ; whereas the Gentiles were prompt to believe, and so were praised by Him, as was the case with the centurion, and the woman of Canaan.

    Some, as Irenæus, think that this nobleman was the same person as the centurion mentioned in Matthew viii. But they were different persons. For the centurion, when Christ was willing to go to him, asked him to remain where he was. But this nobleman asks Christ to come to his sick son. The former came to Christ as He was descending from the mountain to Capharnaum. The nobleman comes to Jesus as He is going into Cana. The boy of the former was sick with palsy; this one’s child was ill with a fever. Christ was all but present when He healed the former this He healed being absent. The one was a servant, the other a son. So S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others.

    47. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. The nobleman having heard the fame of Christ, that He healed all sick persons whatsoever, proceeded from Capharnaum to Cana, to ask Jesus, who was staying there, to come back with him to Capharnaum, to heal his son. This was a journey of fourteen hours, or leagues, and therefore long and difficult. Wherefore he had little faith in Jesus, says S. Gregory, since he did not think He could save unless He were corporeally present.

    48. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. Signs and prodigies mean nearly the same thing. Signs, however, are properly what take place in natural things, and by nature, slowly operating, but which Christ wrought in a moment, and therefore miraculously. Such are the healing of the sick. But prodigies are things which surpass the whole power of nature, as the raising of the dead.

    Christ reproved the small faith of the nobleman, in order that He might sharpen and augment it. As though He said, “Thou and thine hast heard of certain signs and prodigies which I have wrought; still thou believest not that I am the Messiah, unless I do very many more, and that thou thyself mayest behold them with thine eyes.” “He teaches,” says S. Chrysostom, “that it is not His miracles that we are to attend to, but His doctrine. He shows that signs are especially made gracious to the soul; and in this case He heals the father who was labouring under a disease of the mind, no less than the (bodily) disease of the son.” Indeed, He first cures the unbelief, or the imperfection of faith, in the father, and then the fever of the son.

    49. The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die. 

    my son, Greek, παιδιον μου, i.e., my little son, meaning, my most beloved, my only delight. “The ruler,” says S. Chrysostom, “being distressed by his son’s affliction, did not pay much attention then to the words of Jesus, but was wholly taken up with the cure. See how he grovels on the earth—Come down, ere my child die—as if Jesus could not raise the dead, or knew not that he had a son.”

    50. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way. “This one word,” saith Rupert, “was a true declaration concerning things present, and a command of life.” For this word of Christ was not only declaratory, but effectual: for it produced that which it declared, namely, the life and healing of the sick. So in the Eucharist, the words, This is My Body, enunciate in such manner that the Body of Christ is there, that they cause It to be there present.

    Moreover, Christ went to the servant of the centurion: He was not willing to go to the son of the ruler, because there was in the centurion confirmed faith, but in the ruler faith was imperfect.

    The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, “The Saviour cured two persons,” says Cyril, “by the same words. He brought the mind of the ruler to believe, and He delivered the youth from bodily disease.”

   51. And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.  “His servants met him,” says Cyril, “telling of the swiftness and power of the words of Christ, the Lord so ordering that by the sequence of events the faith of the ruler might be confirmed.”

   52. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.  “He studies to be informed concerning the hour,” says Cyril, “to see if it coincides with the time when the Saviour’s favour was bestowed upon him.”

    Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.: this was an hour after noon, when, the child being healed, the servants had immediately set out to tell the glad news to the father. But they could not reach him on the same day. They travelled therefore the rest of that day, and all through the night, and came to him the next morning, for, as we have said, Capharnaum was fourteen leagues or hours distant from Cana.

   53. The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house. “From hence we may understand,” says Bede (in Catena), “that there are degrees of faith, as well as of other virtues. There is the beginning, the increase, and the perfection of faith. This man’s faith had its beginning when he asked for his son’s safety: its increase when he believed the word of the Lord saying, Thy son liveth: it was perfected by the announcement of his servants.”

    Moreover, because this nobleman dwelt at Capharnaum, as well as the centurion, we need not doubt that they were friends; and that the centurion through this miracle, which was prior in point of time, conceived so great faith in Christ that he said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Matt. viii. 8).

    Tropologically, listen to Theophylact, 

“The little king (regulus) is every man, not only because, according to the soul, he is nigh to the King of all, but because he has assumed dominion over all things. The son is a mind fevered with depraved pleasures and desires. The going down of Christ is His merciful condescension. Christ saith, Go thy way, i.e., show continual progress in good things: then thy son shall live. Otherwise he will die, if thou ceasest to walk (aright).”

    Finally, he was healed at the seventh hour, 1. because, as Origen says, seven is the symbol of the Sabbath, and of rest, in which is health. 2. Because the same number is the symbol of the sevenfold Holy Spirit, in Whom is all salvation.

   54. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee. The word again must be joined with when He was come. Meaning, this was the second miracle which Christ wrought in Cana of Galilee, when again—that is, a second time—He was come thither out of Judea. For the first miracle was the conversion of water into wine, which Christ did, when He came the first time out of Judea into Galilee. He came, therefore, twice out of Judea into Galilee, and illustrated each of His comings by a new miracle. “It is called the second,” says Euthymius, “not because after the first He had done no other miracle in the whole of Palestine (for He had already done many in Judea), but because, after the first, this was (only) the second which He had done in Cana.” John says this, indicating that an abundance of miracles were performed subsequently by Christ in Galilee, which Matthew relates (iv. 23, &c.), and which after this are related by S. John.

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

One man soweth and another reapeth : St John Chapter iv : Verses 31-43

St John Chapter iv : Verses 31-43

Contents

• St John Chapter iv : Verses 31-43. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter iv : Verses 31-43

He told me all things whatsoever I have done.
Salisbury Cathedral. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED

31 In the mean time the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat.  

32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat, which you know not.  

33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat?  

34 Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work.  

35 Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries; for they are white already to harvest.

36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together.  

37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth.  

38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.  

39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.  

40 So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days.

41 And many more believed in him because of his own word.  

42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.  

43 Now after two days, he departed thence, and went into Galilee.

31 ⸀Ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ ἠρώτων αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταὶ λέγοντες· Ῥαββί, φάγε.

31 Interea rogabant eum discipuli, dicentes : Rabbi, manduca.  

32 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ἐγὼ βρῶσιν ἔχω φαγεῖν ἣν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε.

32 Ille autem dicit eis : Ego cibum habeo manducare, quem vos nescitis.  

33 ἔλεγον οὖν οἱ μαθηταὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους· Μή τις ἤνεγκεν αὐτῷ φαγεῖν;

33 Dicebant ergo discipuli ad invicem : Numquid aliquis attulit ei manducare? 

34 λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ⸀ποιήσω τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με καὶ τελειώσω αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔργον.

34 Dicit eis Jesus : Meus cibus est ut faciam voluntatem ejus qui misit me, ut perficiam opus ejus.  

35 οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι Ἔτι τετράμηνός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται; ἰδοὺ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐπάρατε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ θεάσασθε τὰς χώρας ὅτι λευκαί εἰσιν πρὸς θερισμόν· ἤδη

35 Nonne vos dicitis quod adhuc quatuor menses sunt, et messis venit? Ecce dico vobis : levate oculos vestros, et videte regiones, quia albae sunt jam ad messem.  

36 ⸀ὁ θερίζων μισθὸν λαμβάνει καὶ συνάγει καρπὸν εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, ⸀ἵνα ὁ σπείρων ὁμοῦ χαίρῃ καὶ ὁ θερίζων.

36 Et qui metit, mercedem accipit, et congregat fructum in vitam æternam : ut et qui seminat, simul gaudeat, et qui metit.  

37 ἐν γὰρ τούτῳ ὁ λόγος ⸀ἐστὶν ἀληθινὸς ὅτι Ἄλλος ἐστὶν ὁ σπείρων καὶ ἄλλος ὁ θερίζων·

37 In hoc enim est verbum verum : quia alius est qui seminat, et alius est qui metit.  

38 ἐγὼ ἀπέστειλα ὑμᾶς θερίζειν ὃ οὐχ ὑμεῖς κεκοπιάκατε· ἄλλοι κεκοπιάκασιν, καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰς τὸν κόπον αὐτῶν εἰσεληλύθατε.

38 Ego misi vos metere quod vos non laborastis : alii laboraverunt, et vos in labores eorum introistis.  

39 Ἐκ δὲ τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν τῶν Σαμαριτῶν διὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς γυναικὸς μαρτυρούσης ὅτι Εἶπέν μοι πάντα ⸀ἃ ἐποίησα.

39 Ex civitate autem illa multi crediderunt in eum Samaritanorum, propter verbum mulieris testimonium perhibentis : Quia dixit mihi omnia quæcumque feci.  

40 ὡς οὖν ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ Σαμαρῖται, ἠρώτων αὐτὸν μεῖναι παρ’ αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ δύο ἡμέρας.

40 Cum venissent ergo ad illum Samaritani, rogaverunt eum ut ibi maneret. Et mansit ibi duos dies.  

41 καὶ πολλῷ πλείους ἐπίστευσαν διὰ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ,

41 Et multo plures crediderunt in eum propter sermonem ejus.  

42 τῇ τε γυναικὶ ἔλεγον ὅτι Οὐκέτι διὰ τὴν σὴν λαλιὰν πιστεύομεν· αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἀκηκόαμεν, καὶ οἴδαμεν ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ἀληθῶς ὁ σωτὴρ τοῦ ⸀κόσμου.

42 Et mulieri dicebant : Quia jam non propter tuam loquelam credimus : ipsi enim audivimus, et scimus quia hic est vere Salvator mundi.  

43 Μετὰ δὲ τὰς δύο ἡμέρας ἐξῆλθεν ⸀ἐκεῖθεν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν·

43 Post duos autem dies exiit inde, et abiit in Galilæam.

Annotations

 

   31. In the mean time the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat. “This,” says S. Chrysostom, “they did out of love and zeal for their Master, seeing Him wearied with the heat and the journey.” At the same time they were thinking about themselves. Hungry and tired as they were, they wished to eat, but did not venture to do so until Christ should commence, and bless the meal, as was His wont. “Jesus was accustomed,” says Theophylact, “to accept the gift of food when offered, though He giveth food to all flesh. This He did, that they who presented it might gain merit, and that no one might be ashamed to be poor, nor think it hard to be fed by others.” For it is fitting that Teachers should have other persons to provide food for them, that they themselves having no other cares may be careful only about the ministry of the word.

    32. But he said to them: I have meat to eat, which you know not. “I am hungering for the conversion of the Samaritans, which I am procuring through the woman. So that spiritual hunger diminishes and keeps down, if it does not take away, all hunger for bodily food: meanwhile you who are tired and famished, eat as much as you please.” “More obscurely He intimates,” says S. Cyril, “that if the disciples knew of the conversion of the Samaritans, which was then going on, they would be thinking of that food, rather than be taking thought for corporal food. For since they were to be the future Teachers of the world, He teaches them by His own example that they ought to have far more care for the salvation of men than for their own bodies.”

    33. The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat? The Apostles did not understand that Christ was speaking of spiritual food. Wherefore S. Augustine says, “What wonder was it if the woman did not understand about the water? behold, the disciples do not understand the food.”

    34. Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work. Christ here calls the work of preaching, and man’s redemption, His [meat], that is, His own special and sweetest food, because by it, as by the greatest dainties, He was fed and delighted. So Euthymius says, “The will of the Father, who had sent Him, and His work enjoined upon Christ, is the salvation of men, according to the words, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”

    Tropologically, let Christians, and specially preachers, learn from Christ that their spiritual food ought to be obedience and zeal for souls. 1. Because both sustain the life of the soul. 2. Because both, like food, cause the powers of the mind to become strong. 3. Because as food causes a child to grow up to be a perfect man, so do these two virtues make us to grow to a virile state of spiritual strength.

    35. Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries; for they are white already to harvest. From the metaphor of food He passes to the allegorical harvest, from which are food and bread.

    Do you not say? That is, ye are wont often to say. From this it would appear that the Apostles, as they passed through the cornfields of the Sichemites, talked among themselves about the coming harvest, as men are wont to do. From hence Christ took occasion to speak about the spiritual harvest, i.e., the conversion of the Samaritans. As though He had said, “The care of the natural harvest interests you: but the care of the spiritual harvest ought to concern you far more, that you should help Me in converting the Samaritans.”

    There are yet four months. Maldonatus thinks this was a proverb, meaning that there was time enough for thinking about any matter—as the natural harvest, for instance: but that it could not be used of the spiritual harvest; for that indeed was already ripe for being reaped by Christ and the Apostles. For Maldonatus thinks this was spoken by Christ about the end of March, when the harvest is not far off.

    S. Augustine and others take the words as they stand, literally. Wherefore these words would seem to have been spoken by Christ in the month of January, after the eight months in which He had preached in Judea. For in four months from January, or in May, the crops are ripe, and the harvest comes. Wherefore at Pentecost, which fell in May, they offered to God the loaves of the first fruits of the new harvest. “Ye,” says S. Augustine, “are counting four months unto harvest. I show you another harvest, white and prepared already.” So He says, Lift up your eyes, and look unto the fields that they are white already unto the harvest. The white fields He calls the city of Sichem, and the places round about, which, stirred up by the woman, bring hearers in troops to Christ. As though He had said, “Ye see these fields, filled not with wheat, but with a multitude of people flocking to Me, who are prepared to receive My doctrine, and to be admitted into My Church. Labour then strenuously with Me, O My Apostles, to reap the harvest. The wheat harvest may be four months distant yet: but the harvest of souls is nigh, yea ready, amongst these Samaritans. It is fitting then that you and I should reap them, and gather them into the garner of God.” Theophylact says, “Lift up both your bodily and your spiritual eyes, and see the multitude of the Samaritans. See their minds eager to believe, which, like fields that are ripe for salvation, have need of reapers.”

    36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together.. Christ invites the Apostles to labour with Him in gathering in this harvest, by the hope of an eternal reward. As though He said, “He that reaps wheat receives wages, but only brief and temporal: but he that reaps with Me this spiritual harvest of souls gathers it unto life eternal. For this harvest the reaper gains both for himself and for his crop, that is, for the souls whom he converts, for he leads them to heaven as it were in triumph.” “The fruit of this terrestrial harvest,” says S. Chrysostom, “does not arrive at eternal life, but that spiritual harvest always accompanies us.” 

    Christ calls Moses and the Prophets sowers, who with great labour delivered the seeds of faith to the Jews. i.e., such first principles as that God is One, and that the Messiah would come for the salvation of the world. The reapers are Christ and His Apostles, who, by the teaching of the Gospel, perfected these first principles of the Prophets, and by the faith and grace of Christ sanctified both Jews and Samaitans, and brought them to eternal life. Wherefore this conversion of the Samaritans brought joy, not only to Christ and the Apostles, but to Moses and the Prophets, because their seed had not proved unfruitful, but had been brought by Christ to an abundant harvest. As S. Augustine says, “If the Prophets had not been sowers, whence had it come to that woman to say, I know that Messiah cometh? That woman was already ripe fruit.” And again, “They had different labours in time, but they shall have an equal fruition of joy, when they together receive the wages of everlasting life.” It is often very different in the natural harvest, where the reaper rejoices, but the sower sorrows.

   37. For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth. A word, i.e., a proverb, which is “current in the mouths of many,” says S. Chrysostom. This proverb, one man that soweth, &c., which is spoken of the natural harvest, is still more true with regard to the spiritual sowers and reapers. “The sowers were the Prophets, the reapers are you, O ye Apostles, who by My doctrine will bring to perfection the seeds of faith which were sown by the Prophets, and will gather them, when ripe, into the storehouse of the Church.” Wherefore He subjoins an explanation.

   38. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours. I have sent, i.e., I have desired and determined to send. An inchoate and destined, not a completed, action is signified. The Prophets, and teachers of the Law, and such as they, with great toil taught the uninstructed minds of the Jews the rudiments of the knowledge of God, and prepared them for the Christian harvest of righteousness and holiness. You, O ye Apostles, have entered into their labours, because ye shall convert the minds of the Jews prepared to receive Me.

    Moreover Christ said this, that by the example of the Prophets, who sowed so laboriously, He might animate the Apostles to preach the gospel, which was more easy, and involved less toil. “Lest,” as S. Chrysostom says, “they should be troubled as about to undergo the greatest burden, when they were sent to preach. They must think that the Prophets had had yet harder labour, even as sowing the seed is harder labour, and needs greater anxiety than reaping. As the Gloss says, “Unless the Jews had been prepared by the Prophets, they would not have listened to the Apostles.”

   39. Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.. They were moved because she confessed before her fellow-citizens that she had lived in fornication with a man not her husband, as Christ had told her, that by means of her own shame she might make known the honour and glory of Christ, the true Prophet and Messiah.

   40. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days: not longer, lest, if He abode longer among Samaritans, the Jews should calumniate Him, as not being the Messiah, who was promised to the Jews, rather than to the Samaritans.

   42. And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world. 

    Saviour of the world, understand Messiah, as the Syriac Version adds, who was sent by God for the salvation not of Israel only, as the Jews pretended, but of all the nations of the whole world. 

    of the world I say, lost by sin. Deservedly does S. Chrysostom in this place admire the, as it were, sudden faith of the Samaritans, when the Jews were so dilatory and hard to believe in Christ.

   43. Now after two days, he departed thence, and went into Galilee.. That is, He went into other cities and villages of Galilee, leaving out Nazareth, His own city, as S. Matthew says (iv. 13).

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Is not he the Christ? - St John Chapter iv. verses 20-30

St John Chapter iv : Verses 20-30

Contents

• St John Chapter iv : Verses 20-30. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter iv : Verses 20-30

I am he, who am speaking with thee.  
Henryk Siemiradzki. 1890. Lviv Art Gallery

20 Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.

21 Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father.  

22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews.  

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.  

24 God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.  

25 The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ). Therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee.  

27 And immediately his disciples came; and they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou? or, why talkest thou with her?  

28 The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there:  

29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?  

30 They went therefore out of the city, and came unto him.

20 οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ προσεκύνησαν· καὶ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐστὶν ὁ τόπος ὅπου ⸂προσκυνεῖν δεῖ⸃.

20 Patres nostri in monte hoc adoraverunt, et vos dicitis, quia Jerosolymis est locus ubi adorare oportet.

21 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ⸂Πίστευέ μοι, γύναι⸃, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ὅτε οὔτε ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ οὔτε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις προσκυνήσετε τῷ πατρί.

21 Dicit ei Jesus : Mulier, crede mihi, quia venit hora, quando neque in monte hoc, neque in Jerosolymis adorabitis Patrem.  

22 ὑμεῖς προσκυνεῖτε ὃ οὐκ οἴδατε, ἡμεῖς προσκυνοῦμεν ὃ οἴδαμεν, ὅτι ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐστίν·

22 Vos adoratis quod nescitis : nos adoramus quod scimus, quia salus ex Judæis est.  

23 ἀλλὰ ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν, ὅτε οἱ ἀληθινοὶ προσκυνηταὶ προσκυνήσουσιν τῷ πατρὶ ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ τοιούτους ζητεῖ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτόν·

23 Sed venit hora, et nunc est, quando veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et veritate. Nam et Pater tales quærit, qui adorent eum.

  

24 πνεῦμα ὁ θεός, καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δεῖ προσκυνεῖν.

24 Spiritus est Deus : et eos qui adorant eum, in spiritu et veritate oportet adorare.  

25 λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνή· Οἶδα ὅτι Μεσσίας ἔρχεται, ὁ λεγόμενος χριστός· ὅταν ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν ⸀ἅπαντα.

25 Dicit ei mulier : Scio quia Messias venit ( qui dicitur Christus) : cum ergo venerit ille, nobis annuntiabit omnia.

  

26 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ λαλῶν σοι.

26 Dicit ei Jesus : Ego sum, qui loquor te.  

27 Καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἦλθαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ⸀ἐθαύμαζον ὅτι μετὰ γυναικὸς ἐλάλει· οὐδεὶς μέντοι εἶπεν· Τί ζητεῖς; ἢ τί λαλεῖς μετ’ αὐτῆς;

27 Et continuo venerunt discipuli ejus, et mirabantur quia cum muliere loquebatur. Nemo tamen dixit : Quid quæris? aut, Quid loqueris cum ea?  

28 ἀφῆκεν οὖν τὴν ὑδρίαν αὐτῆς ἡ γυνὴ καὶ ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ λέγει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις·

28 Reliquit ergo hydriam suam mulier, et abiit in civitatem, et dicit illis hominibus :  

29 Δεῦτε ἴδετε ἄνθρωπον ὃς εἶπέ μοι πάντα ⸀ὅσα ἐποίησα· μήτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ χριστός;

29 Venite, et videte hominem qui dixit mihi omnia quæcumque feci : numquid ipse est Christus?  

30 ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτόν.

30 Exierunt ergo de civitate et veniebant ad eum.

Annotations

    20. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. The woman, acknowledging Jesus to be a prophet, now proposes a question concerning religion, which was at that time a great source of controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans. This she did that she might know which side she ought to take, so that she might provide for her salvation. For she was more agitated by this question than by thirst for the living water which Christ promised her, which she did not understand.

    adored: observe that by worship here and elsewhere is signified the whole public ritual of worshipping God, especially by means of sacrifices, and the other ceremonies instituted by Moses at God’s mouth. This public worship could only be offered in the Tabernacle erected by Moses, and afterwards in the Temple built by Solomon. This is plain from God’s law in Deut. xiv. 24. For otherwise, by natural and Divine right, it ever has been, and is lawful to worship and call upon God privately always and in every place. Thus in Gen. xxii. 5, Abraham said to his servants, “Stay you here with the ass: I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you..”

    on this mountain: Garizim, which overhangs the city of Sichem. From this mountain Jotham, the son of Gideon, cursed the Sichemites, (Judges ix. 7).

    There was a famous and unending controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews concerning worshipping and sacrificing in this mountain. In the time of Alexander the Great, Manasses, the brother of Jaddi, the High Priest who met Alexander, and appeased him, when he was incensed against the Jews, married a foreign wife, the daughter of Sanballat, whom Darius, the last king of Persia, had set over Samaria. Manasses, being excluded by his brother from the performance of sacerdotal functions, fled to his father-in-law, Sanballat. Sanballat built a noble temple on Mount Garizim, and appointed Manasses to be its priest. Thither fled many Jewish refugees, especially those who, like Manasses, had married strange wives, contrary to the Law. As an excuse they made use of the argument that Sichem was celebrated for the worship and sacrifices of the Patriarchs, as of Jacob (Gen. xxxiii. 20; Josh. xxiv. 1), of the Tribes (Deut. xxvii. 12), where Moses by God’s command bids Joshua to build an altar on Mount Garizim, and there offer burnt-offerings, and engrave the Decalogue on stones, and promulge the Law of God to the Twelve Tribes, with blessings to those who kept it, the people answering “Amen.”

    This temple stood upon Mount Garizim for 200 years, until it was destroyed by Hyrcanus, son of Simon, the brother of Judas Maccabeus (Jos., Ant., l. 3, c. 17). Josephus also relates that the Jews and Samaritans referred their controversy for settlement to Ptolemy Philometor, King of Egypt, who decided it in favour of the Jews, on the ground that the latter had built their temple at the instance of Moses. But the Samaritans were not contented with this decision, and still persisted in their schism.

    21. Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. 

    you, i.e., whosoever rightly, according to God’s ordinance, wish to worship God the Father. The meaning is, the hour cometh, the time of the Evangelical Law and doctrine, about to be instituted by Me, by which, immediately after My death, which is shortly to come to pass, the Law of Moses shall be abolished, and all its rites for worshipping God in the Temple at Jerusalem, as well as in this your rival temple on Garizim. For throughout the whole world Christian churches shall be built, in which God shall be worshipped in spirit and in truth. This is what Malachi predicted under the reign of Christ: 11 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.  (i.10, 11).

    The Hebrew for the pure or clean oblation is mincha, sc., the Eucharist, or the oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ, which alone has succeeded to all the ancient sacrifices of animals.

    22. You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. Here Christ gives a direct answer to the woman, and decides the Jews to be in the right in the controversy concerning the worship of God, condemning the Samaritans as schismatics. He says, You, O ye Samaritans, worship ye know not what, because ye worship God together with your Assyrian idols; and associating God as it were with idols, ye worship a false or fictitious God. Again the Samaritans had their own heresies and errors, which S. Epiphanius recapitulates. In the same manner the Turks and Jews worship a God whom they know not, because they deny Him to be in a Trinity of Persons. So also Calvin with his followers, in denying the omnipotence of God, and making Him cruel in condemning some men to hell without any demerit on their part, worship not a true, but a false God. For the true God is Almighty, and most kind.

    2. and better. You adore, i.e., ye have a method of worship and sacrifice which ye do not know to have proceeded from God. For ye have framed it out of your own imagination, contrary to the will and law of God. But we Jews know what we worship, because we follow the way of worshipping God which was prescribed by Moses.

    for salvation is of the Jews. Both because I, Christ, who am the Author of salvation, am not born of the Samaritans, but of the Jews, as well as because the true knowledge and worship of God, which leads men to salvation, formerly emanated from the Jews to the Gentiles, and now in the New Law will emanate from Me, a Jew, to all nations.

    23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.  Now is the time of the New Law of My Gospel, in which the true worshippers, namely, Christians, whether Jews, or Samaritans, or of other nations, being converted unto Me, shall worship God, not in this mountain, nor Jerusalem only, by the carnal sacrifices of beasts, as the Jews and Samaritans do, but in all places throughout the world in spirit and in truth.

    in spirit and in truth. Observe, the Samaritans ignorantly and falsely worshipped God. But the Jews worshipped the true God indeed, but chiefly by corporeal victims, and other bodily symbols, and in one stated place, Jerusalem: all which things were shadows and types of the spiritual worship which was to be inaugurated by Christ. To both these Christ opposes His faithful Christians, who instead of the body, worship God in spirit; and in truth instead of in falsity, shadows and ignorance. For God is an incorporeal Spirit, most true, and most pure. Spirit therefore here signifies the spiritual worship of faith, hope, and charity, devotion, contrition, and other virtues, by which God is most rightly worshipped by Christians, and not through shadows and figures, but in truth. In truth therefore is in the true, sincere, and worthy worship of God, in which God is well pleased, according to the words (Ps. L.18-19), “with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”  Also (Ps. XLIX. 23). “The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will shew him the salvation of God.”  And (Ps. iv. 6), “Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord:”

    As Theophylact says, “Because many seem to worship in soul, but have not right knowledge, such as heretics, therefore He added, and in truth. For it behoves us both to worship God with the mind, and also to have a sound faith with regard to Him. Such a worshipper was Paul, as Origen says, when he declares, ‘God is my witness, whom I serve’ (Greek, ᾧ λατρεύω, i.e., worship with latria) in my spirit (Rom. i. 9).” And the Gloss says, not in the Temple, not in the mountain, but in the innermost temple of the heart, and with a true knowledge must God be worshipped. The Samaritan therefore worshipped God in a mountain, or locally, the Jew in a shadow, or figuratively, the Christian in spirit and in truth, truly and spiritually. For, as S. Chrysostom says, “The former things were figures, now all is truth.”

    Others explain thus, we must worship God in spirit, i.e., by the Spirit, or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

    “Mystically, by the spirit is intended,” says Theophylact, “action: by truth, contemplation.” For all Christians serve God either by an active, or a contemplative life.

    Heretics object, since God should be worshipped by Christians in spirit and in truth, therefore all corporal rites and ceremonies ought to be rejected in baptism.

    I answer by denying the consequence. For these are not shadows and figures of the Old Law, but ornaments, incentives, and effects of the Spirit, and therefore pertain to the Spirit. For without sacraments and sacrifices the Church cannot exist, because without them she would cease to be visible, and could not be united and gathered together. In form these ceremonies are practised by Christians, and flow from the inward spirit of faith, hope, and charity. Therefore they belong to the Spirit, as results depend upon a cause, and external upon interior actions. It was otherwise with the ignorant and carnal Jews, who placed all their worship in external sacrifices and rites. So SS. Cyril and Ambrose, (De Sp. Sc. l. 3. c. 12).

    Even the heathen saw that God, to be worshipped acceptably, must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

“If God be Mind, as ancient verses tell,

Who worship Him in spirit, worship well.”

    24. God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.  This is the reason a priori: God is a most pure and true Spirit, therefore He is pleased only with worship in spirit and in truth. “If God were a body,” says S. Augustine, “it would be fitting to worship Him in a mountain, because a mountain is material. Hence it is plain against the Anthropomorphites, and against Tertullian and Lactantius, that God has not a body, even the least material conceivable, but that He is a most immaterial Spirit.” That axiom therefore of Tertullian is false, “that what is incorporeal is non-existent.” However, Tertullian and Lactantius seem to use the words body and corporeal in an improper sense, merely to denote an actual substance.

    Listen to S. Augustine expounding these words of Christ (lib. De Spec. c. 1). 

👉“God is a Spirit incomprehensible, incorporeal, immutable, that cannot be bounded by space, everywhere whole, no where divided: everywhere present, ineffably penetrating all things, containing all things, knowing all things, beholding all things; Almighty, governing all things: wholly in heaven, wholly in earth, wholly everywhere. Always working, always resting, gathering, but needing not, carrying all things without being burdened, filling all things, but not included in them, creating and protecting, nourishing and perfecting all things. Thou seekest, but Thou never wantest anything. Loving, but not inflamed. Thou art jealous, but untroubled. Thou repentest without grieving. Thou art angry, and tranquil all the while. Thou changest Thy works, but Thy counsel knows no alteration. Thou holdest all things, fillest all things, embracest all things, art above all things, sustainest all things. Nor dost Thou in one part sustain, and in another super-exceed: nor in one part dost Thou fill, and in another include. In sustaining Thou super-exceedest, and in super-exceeding Thou sustainest. Thou teachest the hearts of the faithful without the service of words, ‘reaching from one end to another mightily, and sweetly disposing all things.’ ”

    What is God? Listen to Arnobius invoking Him (lib. I, Cont. Gent.). 

👉“O greatest and highest Creator of things invisible: Thou art invisible, and art never comprehended by any other natures. Worthy, indeed worthy art Thou, if only Thou mayest be called worthy by mortal lips, after whom all intelligent nature aspires, and to whom it never ceases to give thanks: to whom every living thing ought continually to bend the knee, and supplicate with unceasing prayers. For Thou art the First Cause: the locality and space of things: the foundation of whatsoever is infinite, unborn, immortal, eternal, the Only One, whom no corporeal form outlines, no circumscription bounds, without quality or size, without situation, motion, or hold: concerning whom nothing can be said or expressed by mortal words: and that Thou mayest be understood, we must be silent; and that as in a shadow a fallible look may seek after Thee, nothing whatsoever must be muttered.”

    25. The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ). Therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things. 

cometh, Greek, ἔξχεται, present tense, is come, who will presently solve all things that are doubtful to us in religion, and will teach us where, when, and how God is to be worshipped. The woman knew this by common speech and report. For already the sceptre had been transferred from Judah to Herod, and Daniel’s seventy weeks were fulfilled, so that all men knew that the time for the Advent of Messiah was close at hand. The Jews thought that John the Baptist was Messiah: but he himself attested that Jesus was Messiah. Wherefore through this assertion of the Baptist the report was widely diffused that Messiah had come.

who is called Christ. These are not the words of the woman, who spake only in the Hebrew or Syrian language, but of the Evangelist interpreting the Hebrew word Messiah, by Christ, the Anointed One.

    26. Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee. “I am the Messias, or the Christ. Have faith in Me: receive My doctrine and my law, that thou mayest be saved and blessed.” Christ both spoke this with the outward voice, but still more with an inward voice, illuminating the woman’s mind, and kindling her will, to love and reverence Him. Whereon the woman believed straightway, and moved her whole city to believe in Him.

    27. And immediately his disciples came; and they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou? or, why talkest thou with her? Origen, S. Cyril, and others, think it is meant that the disciples marvelled at the humility of Christ that He should condescend to talk with a poor and foreign woman. But if so, the Evangelist would have written, that He should talk with such a woman. Wherefore S. Cyprian (Tract. de Sing. Clericorum) and others better explain thus;—that Christ was not accustomed to talk with women alone, and with this end in view, that He might give an example of chastity and prudence to all the faithful, but especially to clerics, priests, preachers, and religious. For rightly says the wise man, “ Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women. For from garments cometh a moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man. ” (Ecclus. xlii. 12-13) Hence Eliseus and all the saints most carefully avoided converse with women. It was their common opinion that women can be approached with but little profit, and with great peril, either to the woman or the man—peril of chastity, or at the least, of reputation.

    You will say—Are then women to be neglected? I answer, By no means: but let them be taught in public preaching, or catechising. If they are sick, or there be any other reason why the priest should come to them, let it be in an open place, acting as Christ here did: and let a witness be present, as S. Charles Borromeo took care should always be in his own case.

    28. The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there: “Having heard Him say,” saith S. Augustine, “ ‘I am He that talketh with thee,’ and having received the Lord Christ into her heart, what could she do but leave her pitcher, and run to preach the Gospel?” For she knew that Jesus must be a Prophet because He had revealed to her the secrets of her heart. When therefore He declared that He was Messias, she believed in Him, knowing that He was a man worthy of credit, who could neither deceive, nor be deceived. Wherefore she ran into the city without delay, fearing lest Jesus might go away if she tarried. As S. Chrysostom says, “She had come to draw water, but as soon as she found the true Fountain she despised the other; and by the grace which came down upon her from above, she discharges the office of an Apostle.”

    For this is the Spirit of Christ, to infuse into those whom He converts zeal for converting others, that they may make others partakers of that great benefit which they feel in themselves. Elegantly and piously does S. Ambrose write of this (Serm. 30): 

“By a new kind of marvel, the woman, who came to the well of Samaria a harlot, went away chaste from the fountain of Christ. And she who came to fetch water carried back modesty. For as soon as the Lord showed her her sins, she knew and confessed them: she announced Christ to be the Saviour. And leaving her water-pot at the well, she does not carry a pitcher back to the city, but she brings grace. She seems to return without a load, but she goes back full of sanctity. She returned full. I say, because she came a sinner, she returns a preacher. And she who had left her water-pot carried back the fulness of Christ. She brought back no harm to her city, for though, it is true, she carried no water to it, she brought them the whole well of salvation.”

    29. Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done.  Saith Cyril, “Giving an account of the miracle, she prepared her hearers to believe:” because although, as S. Chrysostom says, she had not heard the whole history of her life from Christ, from what she did hear she believed (He knew) the rest.

    Is not he the Christ?   “She speaks as though hesitating, that they might give their opinion,” said Euthymius. For she herself had no doubt, but firmly believed Jesus to be the Messiah. As S. Chrysostom says, “Observe the immense wisdom of this woman: she neither affirms nor denies that He is the Christ. She did not wish that she should be the author of their believing in Him. She wished them to be persuaded by hearing Him for themselves, which persuasion would be far more likely to happen in that way. For without doubt she understood that if they once tasted of that Fountain, they would have the same opinion about it that she had.” This Samaritan woman then, by the conversation and grace of Christ, from a sinner became a penitent and a saint, yea a preacher of Christ like Mary Magdalen.

    Her proper name was Photina, who is reckoned among the Saints in the Roman Martyrology on the 20th of March, in the words following: “On the same day Saint Photina, the Samaritan woman, her sons, Joseph and Victor: also Sebastian, a general, Anatolius, Photius, &c., brothers, who all confessed Christ and obtained martyrdom.” On which Baronius says, “The Greek Menology assigns this day for her commemoration.” Her head is religiously preserved at Rome, in the basilica of S. Paul, where I have seen it amongst other relics of the saints.

    30. They went therefore out of the city, and came unto him. And from what they saw of the wisdom and holiness of His words and manners, they believed in Him as the Messiah, as is plain from verse 42. “The hardness of the Jews,” says Cyril, “is reproved by the readiness to believe of the Samaritans.” For the Samaritans were converted by one conversation of Christ, but the Jews after three years of His preaching, and after all the many miracles which He had wrought, would not believe.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.