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JOHN 4:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 4:8John 4:10
“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) — the woman's surprise frames the major division between Jews and Samaritans: religious (Mount Gerizim versus Jerusalem), ethnic, and historical. The parenthetical explains the scandal of Jewish-Samaritan relations, signaling that what follows is a radical breach of sectarian boundaries.

Church Fathers on John 4:9

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 4:9 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy