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JOHN 4:12 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 4:11John 4:13
“Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?”
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks? — the woman appeals to Jacob as the patriarch of Samaritan religion and tradition. Her question contains ironic truth: Jesus is indeed greater than Jacob, though she asks it skeptically. The focus on Jacob's drinking from the well emphasizes the continuity of natural provision; Jesus offers something utterly different.

Church Fathers on John 4:12

That this conversation might not appear a violation of His own injunctions against talking to the Samaritans, the Evangelist explains how it arose; viz. for He did not come with the intention beforehand of talking with the woman, but only would not send the woman away, when she had come. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Observe, she comes quite by chance.

Chrysostom · 4th century

The woman here is the type of the Church, not yet justified, but just about to be. And it is a part of the resemblance, that she comes from a foreign people. The Samaritans were foreigners, though they were neighbors and in like manner the Church was to come from the Gentiles, and to be alien from the Jewish race.

Augustine · 4th century

Jesus says to her, Give me to drink. As man. the labor and heat He had undergone had made Him thirsty.

Theophylact · 11th century · The argument with the woman arises naturally from the occasion
Read all 20 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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John 4:12 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy