John 4:42Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They said to the woman: "We no longer believe because of your speech, for we ourselves have heard and know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ." The disciples surpassed their teacher.

They could justly have condemned the Jews, both because they believed and because they received Christ. The Jews, for whom He showed every possible care, often threw stones at Him. By contrast, the Samaritans drew Him to themselves, though He was not going to them.

The former remain incorrigible even after miracles. The latter, without miracles, showed great faith in Him. Their honor is precisely this, that they believed without miracles. The Jews, however, did not cease demanding miracles and tempting Him.

But the Jews, who were deemed worthy of countless sayings and miracles from Him, still persecuted Him. Truly, “a man’s enemies are those of his own household” (Mic 7:6; Mt 10:36). See how, in a short time, the people surpassed their teacher. They call Him not a prophet, nor the Savior of Israel, but the Savior of the world, and with the article: He is that Savior who properly and truly saved all. Many came to save: the law, the prophets, and the angels. But He is the true Savior.

Faith arises in the Samaritans as a result of greater works. Now they marvel not because of what they learn from others, but because of what they themselves have heard. “We have clearly learned,” they say, “that this is the Savior of the world,” making this confession a pledge of hope in Him.

This must be mentioned very briefly, for the reading has come to an end. First the woman brought news of Him, and many Samaritans believed the woman's testimony. They asked Him to stay with them, and He remained there for two days.

Many believed, and when they had believed, they said to the woman: "We no longer believe because of your words, for we ourselves have heard and know that He is truly the Savior of the world." First they believed on the basis of report, and then through His presence.

So it happens today with those who are outside the Church and are not yet Christians. Christ is revealed to them through their Christian friends, as through that woman. That is, through the Church that proclaims, they come to Christ and acquire faith through report.

When they saw these miracles and heard of the wondrous and astonishing revelation made to the Samaritan woman, they hastened to forestall any occasion for mockery from the Jews. For the Jews would have said that their faith was founded on the confession of an adulterous woman. Therefore they said to the woman: “We no longer believe in Him because of your words, but because we ourselves have heard His teaching and seen His works. Because He is God, we have learned that He is truly the true ... Christ.” Indeed, the foundation of our faith must be placed in our own knowledge.

Having heard His teaching, the Samaritans learned that He is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ, and that He came to save the perishing universe.

The Samaritans were far more prudent than the Jews. They went out to Jesus Christ, asked Him to stay with them, and believed in Him without seeing any sign.

But the Jews persecuted Him when He often came to them. They were indignant when He wished to remain with them, and though they saw many signs, they did not believe.

How, then, could the Samaritans have been passed by? What justice would there have been in hastening to those who hate, and fleeing from those who love?

From the words "for we ourselves have heard" it is clear that during the two days He was there, the Lord taught all who came to Him. The word of His teaching produced greater fruit than the testimony of the Samaritan woman.

For far more believed after hearing His teaching than the number who believed because of the woman's testimony. Therefore they said to her: we believe in Jesus Christ no longer as before, because of your words and testimony.

Now we ourselves, having heard His teaching, know that this is truly the expected Christ, the Savior of the world.

How did the Samaritans know this? Truly, from the books of Moses, which they read and revered. In them they saw: "A star shall rise out of Jacob" (Num 24:17).

Personal conversation with Christ convinced many of the Samaritans far more deeply than the story of the woman to whom He first revealed Himself. It convinced them that He was indeed the long-awaited Savior of the world, the Christ.

Mercifully condescending to their request that He stay with them, Jesus Christ remained there two days with His disciples. This two-day teaching was certainly the chief cause of many later conversions to Christ among them (Acts 8:5).

For His part, Christ more than once rewarded this faith of the Samaritans, presenting them as more virtuous than the Jews hardened in their narrow legalism. Thus, in the immortal parable about love for one's neighbor, He set forth precisely a Samaritan as its example.

“We ourselves have heard and know”: hearing the Lord’s teaching, they knew, that is, they believed and were convinced for themselves. “Truly the Savior of the world, the Christ”: such was the fruit of the Lord’s two-day stay among them. Probably, just as He revealed Himself directly to the woman as the Messiah, He did not conceal this from them as He concealed it from the Jews. He taught them directly that He was the Messiah, and not such a one as the Jews expected, but the Savior of the whole world. Compare the note on Jn 4:25-26.

39-42. The sincerity and self-denial with which the Samaritan woman spoke to the Shechemites about Jesus drew them to Him. They earnestly asked Jesus to remain with them, and He stayed with them two days. In that short time the number of believers among them greatly increased.

"We ourselves have heard and know that He is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ," they said.

It is astonishing how differently the Shechemites treated Jesus from the Jews. The Savior proclaims the heavenly kingdom to the Jews, and they thrust Him away from themselves. He almost seemed unwilling to go to the Samaritans, yet they themselves begged Him to come to them.

The former had been nourished by the fullness of the ancient revelation. The Samaritans were left only with the Pentateuch.

"The former remain incorrigible even after all the miracles. These, without miracles, showed great faith in Him. Thus in everything a well-disposed soul is needed. If truth touches such a soul, it easily takes possession of it" (Chrysostom).

Verses 39-42 depict those fields, white and ripe for harvest, of which the Lord spoke. At first the crowd of Samaritans who came from the city "because of the woman's word" believed, on the basis of the Samaritan woman's story, that a great prophet had appeared within their borders.

Moved by spiritual thirst, the inhabitants of Sychar asked the Lord to remain with them for a time. They wished to hear words of grace, able to illumine their hearts with joy and reveal to them the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Then, hearing from the lips of the divine Teacher words of love, so sharply different from the narrow and malicious teaching of the Jews, they understood with their simple childlike hearts that these words were truly the words of God.