answered them that He has to “fulfil”333 (cf. 19:28, 30) God’s “work” (cf. 5:36; 17:4) and His “will” (cf. 6:40; 7:17; 9:31). Therefore He was “sent”334 on earth. That is the special relationship between Him and His “Father” (cf. 5:30; 6:38–39; 20:21) in the Christological/eschatological context.
vv. 35–36: He explained this eschatological335 theme with the help of an agricultural comparison/parable of the time of “four months” (in Greek “tetrámenos” in v. 35b) from the sowing – for example, wheat – (seedtime in spring) by the “sower”336 until the “harvest”337 by the farmer in the summer in verses 35–36 like in Mark 4:26–29. After the “harvest”, both – the sower and the reaper – are “rejoiced/glad”338 together (cf. Isaiah 9:2).
v. 37: Then He puts the “proverb” (in Greek “ho lógos” – literal: word) of a sower at the beginning and a reaper at the end:
“One is who sows” (vv. 36c, 37c) “and
another /is/ who reaps/harvests” (vv. 36a, 38b).
v. 38: Jesus concretizes who are the sowers and the reapers:
So the sowers are Jesus (cf. v. 38a), the Jewish fathers and prophets as well as John the Baptist (cf. v. 38c) who worked hard/“laboured”339 (vv. 6b, 38b, c – cf. v. 38d).
However, the reapers are His disciples340 (“you”) – then (and now341) (cf. Matthew 9:37) – who “Jesus sent”342 (cf., for example, John 17:18) to “reap” (vv. 36a, 37e) the “labour” of others on their behalf.
+ The Indirect Conversion of the Samaritans by Jesus (vv. 39–42)
v. 39: After the conversation between Jesus and His disciples (cf. vv. 31–38), the Samaritan people of Sychar who “believed” (vv. 21b, 39a, 41, 42b – cf. vv. 48c, 50c, 53e–f) in the Samaritan woman’s “words” (vv. 39a, 41) respectively her “testimony” (in Greek “marturéo” [verb] in vv. 39b, 44a)
v. 40: “came to Him” and “asked/requested”/invited Him “to stay with them” (v. 40b, c). The Evangelist relates that He “stayed” in Sychar “two days” (vv. 40c, 43 – cf. John 11:6) and
v. 41: plenty of them “believed” (vv. 39a, 42b) in Him because of “(His) words ( )” (cf. v. 39a).
v. 42: In this way, the Samaritans acknowledge and decide for themselves for Jesus as the “Saviour343 of the world” (cf. 1 John 4:14) – note the allusion to the Roman Caesars344 – because of their sharing of “His words” (v. 41) and not only from hearsay of her “word” (v. 39a – cf. v. 29). In other words: “The Samaritans believe first on the basis of the indirect word by the Samaritan “woman who testified about Jesus and then on the basis of their own experience of Jesus’ words”345 (cf. vv. 39a, 41).
The Samaritan woman/housewife (cf. vv. 28–30) confessed the citizen of “Sychar” as His female “disciples”346 that Jesus is the “Christ” (vv. 25c, 29e – note also the titles347 in her mouth: the “Jew” [v. 9b], the “Lord” [vv. 11b, 15b, 19b], a “prophet” [v. 19c]) like Martha (cf. John 11:27) and Mary of Magdalene (cf. 20:18) – note the Galilean women in John 19:25; Mark 15:40–41; 16:1; Matthew 27:55–56, 61; Luke 8:2–3; 10:38–42; 23:49; 24:1, 10. At the end, the Samarian citizen of “Sychar” believed in Him (cf. vv. 39–42) as the “Saviour of the world” (v. 42d and Judges 3:9, 15; Esther 8:12; Wisdom of Solomon 16:7). This messianic title is like a “final chord”348 of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritans – note “the contrast between the more open faith of the Samaritans and the less adequate belief of those at Jerusalem (cf. John 2:23–25) and Nicodemus”349 (cf. 3:1–21).
2.2.9 First Setting as a Journey Note350 (vv. 43–45351)
As in verses 1–6, we have a double setting (cf. vv. 43–45, 46a–c) here again.
v. 43: The Fourth Evangelist continues with a journey note of Jesus’ renewed coming to “Galilee” (cf. v. 3) with the same words “the two days” (in Greek “dúo heméras” in vv. 40c, 43) to bridge the scenic-dialogical scene in verses 4–42 with the story of His distant healing of the royal official’s son from Capernaum in Galilee in verses 46–53/54. The name of the northern district “Galilee” (vv. 43, 45a, 46a, 47b, 54b) is the keyword of the journey note in verses 43–45 and of His healing in verses 46–54.
v. 44: A parenthesis of the Evangelist emphasizes that “Jesus” “Himself” pointed “that /a/ prophet” (v. 19c) “{has no} [honour] in the own hometown/country [ ] { }” (cf. Mark 6:4; Matthew 13:57; Luke 4:24).
v. 45: The Evangelist relates that “the Galileans welcomed/received” Jesus, “(having seen) all ( ) that He had done in Jerusalem” during their visit of the Passover “feast(ival)” (vv. 45d, e – cf. John 2.13).
2.2.10 Jesus’ Distant Healing of the Royal Official’s Son from Capernaum in Cana (vv. 46–54352)
- The Setting (v. 46a–c)
Who: Jesus, the royal official (from Capernaum), his son (in Capernaum)
Where: “from Judea to Galilee” (vv. 43, 45, 47b, 54b), Cana (v. 46a) – Capernaum (v. 46d)
When: during Jesus’ public mission in Galilee – “yesterday at the 7th hour” (v. 52d)
A cross-reference with the first sign at “Cana” in John 2:1–11 and verse 54353 “where” Jesus “had made water wine” (in Greek “tò húdor oῖnon”in v. 46b and 2:9) introduces a new scenic-dialogical story of the “royal official354’s son” (v. 46c, d1) from “Capernaum”355 (v. 46d2 and 2:12; 6:17, 24, 59). Because of his Galilean settlement in Capernaum he was probably a royal official of the King Herod Antipas356 (4 B.C.–39 A.D.) (cf. Luke 8:3), the tetrarch of the district Galilee and Perea.
- The Diagnosis (vv. 46d, 47e)
The royal official came from “Capernaum” (v. 46d) to Jesus at “Cana” (v. 46a) because of his “( ) sick357 (son)” (v. 46d). The distance of both settlements is 26 kilometres358 – a one-day trip359 (cf. v. 52d).
- The Double Request by the Royal Official (vv. 47–49)
v. 47: The “father” (v. 53a) of the sick “boy/child” (vv. 49c, 51d) “heard” from hearsay that “Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee” (cf. vv. 3, 47b, 54b). Therefore he “came to Him” – note again the verbum compositum “ap-érchomaɩ”
