John 4:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Jacob prophesied of Him, saying: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from his loins, until the Reconciler comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the nations" (Gen 49:10).

Moses himself says: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like me. Him you shall hear" (Deut 18:15).

Likewise, the accounts of the serpent, the staff of Moses, Isaac, the lamb, and many others could announce His coming to those willing to understand.

Why then, you ask, did Christ not point out these types to the woman? He pointed out the serpent to Nicodemus and recalled the prophecies to Nathanael, but said nothing of this sort to her.

Why was this, and for what reason? Because they were men and occupied themselves with these matters, while she was a poor woman, unlearned and unversed in the Scriptures.

For this reason He does not converse with her from the Scriptures. Instead, He draws her to Himself by the promise of water and by His clairvoyance.

In this way He brings Christ to her remembrance, and finally reveals Himself. If He had told her this at the beginning, before she had asked Him, it would have seemed to her that He spoke empty and impossible things.

But now, having little by little brought Him to her remembrance, He reveals Himself at the proper time.

Since she could not clearly understand what the Savior was saying, for this surpassed the woman's thought, she says to Him: "I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will teach us all things."

See this soul: before seeing, she already has love. The Jews saw and did not believe. She, not having seen, waits.

The Savior says: "Truly I say to you, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will they worship the Father. For God is Spirit."

That is, He is everywhere. Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Worship of Him must not be confined to a place, but He must be glorified everywhere.

Behold a harlot philosophizing about spiritual things. Behold a harlot with Scripture never departing from her tongue. Though in body she was sunk in the impurity of fornication, her soul had been cleansed by zealous reading of the divine Scriptures.

"I know that Messiah is coming." Messiah, when translated, means the Anointed One. Therefore the Samaritan woman says: I await the Anointed One, whose flesh will be anointed by the Godhead.

"When He comes, He will tell us all things." O spiritual height! O woman, a harlot, and knowing all things! See how she is drawn from earthly things to heavenly ones.

She calls the expected Christ Messiah, the Envoy coming for the salvation of the whole world. Again, a prophet! Again, the Lord! And she no longer calls the Lord a Jew.

She no longer inquires about the gift of water. She no longer says to Him: "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" (Jn 4:9).

But what does she say? "Lord, I perceive that You are a prophet" (Jn 4:19), and immediately she speaks about faith.

"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship" (Jn 4:20).

Notice how she lays hold of the good things of spiritual gifts. Notice how everything in her is founded on Scripture. "I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things."

Him I seek, Him I await, toward Him I hasten.

See what she answered: “The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when He comes, He will declare all things to us” (Jn 4:25).

What does this mean? She says, in effect: just now the Jews disputed about the temple, and we disputed about the mountain. But when He comes, He will reject the mountain and destroy the temple.

He will teach us all things, so that we may know how to worship in spirit and truth.

She knew who could teach her, but she did not yet know that He was already teaching her. Thus she was already worthy for Him to reveal Himself before her.

Messiah means Anointed, Unctus. In Greek, the Anointed One is Christ; in Hebrew, Messiah, Messia. Hence in Punic also, messe is the word for oil, ungue. For these languages are related and close to one another: Hebrew, Punic, and Syriac.

From where could she have known this so firmly and surely, and had such a disposition of soul toward it, if not because she studied the prophetic books with the greatest attention?

For this reason she also had a mind so exalted and filled with divine inspiration.

Thus, as I now look with wonder upon the Samaritan woman's spiritual and very strong love for Christ, I desire again to speak of her in the words of the Song of Songs:

"Who is she who looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun?" (Song 6:9).

For she announces that Christ, the spiritual Sun of Righteousness, will soon appear. In her person she reveals the beginning Church from the Gentiles, rising as from the sacred source of the font beside which she stood, instructed by the Savior.

I see her shining like a beautiful dawn. She is beautiful also as the moon, since she shines while the night of impiety still endures.

She is chosen as the sun, since she was also named Photini, the luminous one, by the Savior. She herself was numbered among the company of those who will shine in the future like the sun, as the Gospel says.

For afterward she sealed her radiant life by a most blessed and martyric death.

But now she has seen Christ, the true God, and has theologized Him perfectly.

Later He said to the disciples concerning the Spirit, co-natural and equal in honor with Him, that when He comes, He will teach all truth.

So she too, anticipating the future, says of Him: "When He comes, He will tell us all things."

“I know”: the Samaritans, accepting the Pentateuch of Moses, believed on the basis of its prophecies that Messiah would come. Around the time of Christ they awaited His coming, as the Jews did also; cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact.

Yet they did not expect Messiah in the same form in which the Jews expected Him. They gave Him the name Assaev, “the returning one,” or “the one who will come again.”

By this they meant that Messiah would be Moses come again, on the basis of a wrongly understood passage, Deut 18:18. Therefore they expected Messiah as a prophet, whereas the Jews expected Messiah as a king in the political sense, who would restore the Hebrew kingdom.

The Samaritan conception of Messiah was incomplete, but it was not as distorted as that of the Jews. If the woman uses, to designate Messiah, not the name used by the Samaritans, but the Jewish name, the explanation is this.

In the One conversing with her, the woman saw a Jew. Her speech may be paraphrased thus: “I know that He will come whom you Jews call Messiah.”

“That is, Christ”: these words were added to the Samaritan woman’s speech by the Evangelist, to explain it to the Greek readers of his Gospel, who naturally did not know the Hebrew word; the same occurs in Jn 1:42.

“He will declare all things”: this expresses the expectation that Messiah will bring full revelation, teach everything, and resolve every question.

The Samaritan woman expresses a more living and firmer conviction that Messiah will come than could be expected from someone acquainted only with the Pentateuch. Moreover, this conviction is expressed by a woman, whose life, by women’s common tendency, is chiefly ordered by popular belief.

It is known, however, that before Christ’s coming, belief in the One who would transform the world was indeed common among the Jews. More than this, it had passed even to the Gentiles.

Therefore, when the Samaritan woman says, “I know that Messiah is coming,” her knowledge is not the fruit of acquaintance with the Pentateuch alone. It is the fruit of the common conviction of the people.

“I who speak to you am He,” the Lord answers. Jesus revealed Himself to the Jews indirectly, in words that were not plain, leaving them, as those acquainted with the full revelation, to search out the truth.

To the Samaritan woman He says directly that He is the Messiah. This is a wondrous distinction. Why was it permitted? Certainly because the woman ardently sought the truth, Christ, and sought Him with sincere simplicity and goodness.

“To her He says plainly that He is the Christ. The woman was better disposed than the Jews. They asked, not in order to learn from Him, but in order continually to mock Him.

“If they had wished to learn, His teaching in His conversations, in Scripture, and in His miracles would have been enough for them. But what the woman said, she said from a sincere heart and with a pure intention. This is clear also from her subsequent actions.” Chrysostom.