John 4:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As soon as she learned who He was, she was immediately ready to obey and listen to Him. This cannot be said of the Jews.

Even after they knew Him, they asked Him nothing and had no desire to learn anything useful from Him. On the contrary, they reviled Him and drove Him away.

But when the woman heard His words, see with what meekness she answers Him: "Lord, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then do You have living water?"

It is immediately clear that Christ had already turned her away from a low opinion of Him, from the thought that He was one of ordinary men.

Here she does not simply call Him Lord, but does so as a sign of special respect for Him. That she spoke this out of respect is clear from the conversation that follows.

The woman says to Him, "Lord." Do you see how quickly she abandoned a low opinion of Him and paid Him greater honor, calling Him Lord? Yet she did not grasp the depth of Christ's words. He speaks of water in one sense, and she understands it in another.

By "living water" He means the life-giving gift of the Spirit. Through it alone humanity, though dried up like tree trunks on the mountains and deprived of every virtue by the devil's malice, can ascend again to the original beauty of its nature.

Being watered by life-giving grace, it can flourish with many forms of good and, growing in the virtuous life, put forth well-nurtured branches of love for God.

God says something similar to us through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah: "The beasts of the field shall bless Me, the sirens and the daughters of ostriches, because I gave water in the wilderness and rivers in the dry land."

"I gave drink to My chosen people, My people whom I preserved to declare My virtues" (Is 43:20-21).

This spring is spiritual grace, a river flowing from the living spring. Therefore the spring of life is the Holy Spirit. Good water, then, is spiritual grace. Who will open this spring in my breast? The Giver of eternal life breaks into me and flows within me. This spring abounds in us and does not diminish. How shall I hold this water, so that it does not diminish or flow away?

Unable to understand the words of Jesus Christ, the Samaritan woman supposed that by living water He meant the water of this same well, as flowing and springing up. She thought that Jesus Christ meant He could draw more quickly because of greater strength and skill. Nevertheless she called Him Lord, considering Him a great man. She had heard His words, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you." She at once honored Him with this name, and from then on continued the conversation with complete submission. By "water jar" she means a vessel.

Before the Lord's coming, the well was deep, and without a bucket no one could draw water for himself. The Lord came, the living spring, to wash the hearts of all, to quench thirst, and to nourish souls. He does not seek a bucket. On the contrary, He penetrates the mind of each person.

But the Samaritan woman, not yet perceiving the greatness of the living water, first wonders how the One speaking with her would obtain the water He promises, since He has no vessel and the well is deep.

Moses called water living when it flowed from the earth or came from a spring. Concerning Hagar, he said, "And she saw a well of living water" (Gen 21:19).

And concerning Isaac's servants: "And they found there a well of living water" (Gen 26:19). From these words, and from the Samaritan woman's words, it is clear that by living water she means well water.

She called Jacob father either because the ancient inhabitants of Samaria were children of Jacob, or because the Assyrians themselves, later resettled in Samaria, continued by likeness of faith to call themselves children of Jacob.

She also set forth the excellence of the water in Jacob's well, saying that Patriarch Jacob and his sons drank from it.

"Lord." The extraordinary character of the Lord's speech, which the woman felt but did not yet understand, made a strong impression on her. Compare Chrysostom and Theophylact.

Instead of the indifferent, or perhaps contemptuous, "You are a Jew" (Jn 4:9), she now addresses Him with the respectful title "Lord" (Jn 5:7; Jn 6:34, and elsewhere).

Yet she does not ask, according to His hint, who He is. She again expresses her astonishment at His words.

"You have nothing to draw with." The well was not close to the city, and it is unlikely that there were no other wells nearer than this one.

Verses 11-12. "Lord," the woman says to her interlocutor. This is a respectful title. See Mt 8:2; Gen 24:18; Ruth 2:13.

The Savior's word had already inspired respect in her toward the one speaking with her. But she was occupied only with earthly things and had not previously become acquainted with spiritual life.

She does not understand what the Savior is speaking about. Continuing to think that He is speaking of simple water, she points to the depth of the well and to the fact that He has nothing with which to draw.

Jacob, who left the well, comes to her mind. But she thinks that he too dug the well and barely found water at a depth of fifteen sazhen.

Can her interlocutor really be greater than Jacob and, without even digging, obtain living water?

The Samaritans loved to call Jacob their father. Yet at another time, the historian Josephus writes, when they had to suffer misfortunes for Judaism, they renounced this privilege and claimed kinship with pagans.