1 When Jesus therefore understood the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples and baptizeth more than John
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VERS. 1.-- *When therefore he knew.* Jesus knew their knowledge and their envy: that they had not learned of him in order to follow him, but to persecute him; and therefore he fled, teaching his own to give way before evils, not because he feared, nor because he was powerless to escape them. *And baptizeth.* Which is truly said, for he himself always cleanses in the spirit invisibly and by gift; but his baptism is wrought also in the body, and it consists in two things, namely in water and the word of life; whence Paul: *Thou cleansest her by the laver of water and by the word of life*.
2 (Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples),
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VERS. 2.-- *But the disciples.* In whose baptism the Spirit was given, though not so manifestly as it was given after the Ascension, in an ineffable and unimaginable manner.
3 He left Judea and went again into Galilee.
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VERS. 3.-- *He left Judaea.* That is, the unbelieving Pharisees, who were planning to persecute him because of his baptism, which was increasing, and because they understood that by his teaching the law was being made void. *And he went away.* After he had received a few of the Jewish people, he left behind the unbelieving who follow the letter of the law, which leads no one to perfection. *And he went away into Galilee,* that is, into the spiritual understanding of that same letter. *Into Galilee.* In Galilee the Lord's transformation is believed to have taken place, by which is signified the transmutation of human nature into its pristine glory. In Galilee he gave the disciples on the mountain the teaching by which believers are to pass over into life.
4 And he was of necessity to pass through Samaria.
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VERS. 4.-- *He was obliged.* Between Judaea and Galilee lies Samaria: that is, between the law of the letter, which [is signified] by Judaea, and the divine laws revolved about God, whose figure is Galilee, the natural law is set in the midst. Because therefore he took the foundations of the Church from the law, it behoved him to pass over to the Gentiles set under the law of nature, that with both he might return into the Galilee of eternal blessedness.
5 He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
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VERS. 5.-- *He cometh therefore.* That the Samaritans might acknowledge him and be converted to him, they who claimed for themselves the inheritance of the patriarch Israel. *Which is called Sichar.* Sichar, that is, an enclosing, or a branch: that is, the Gentile people shut up under sin, which is a branch cut out of the wild olive and grafted into the olive.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.
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VERS. 6.-- *Now there was,* etc. Because natural reason rises from no other source than from the cause of all good things, therefore it is beautifully said to be the fount of Jacob, that is, the infinite reason proceeding from the height of the Father. *Jesus therefore, being wearied,* etc. Allegorically. The journey of Jesus is the assumption of flesh, in which there is weariness, that is, infirmity, relieving the man whom his power created: the sitting is humility. The sixth hour, the sixth age in which he came; the well, the depth of this world. The Samaritan woman is the Church, coming not now just, but to be justified. The water of the well is the will of this world, which is drawn as it were out of the deep by men let down and bent toward it, with covetousness sent before like a water-pot. *He was sitting.* As one relieving weariness, wherein is indicated the master who is to teach those who draw near and to possess them. *Upon.* It is called a fount wherever water flows from the earth; but if at the surface, a fount only; if in the deep, it is also called a well.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink.
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VERS. 7.-- *There cometh.* In the figure of the Church of the Gentiles, which formerly drew water, that is, the pleasure of the deep of the world; whose faith Jesus thirsts for, and asks to be given drink by her. Or the woman, that is, the Synagogue, who came to draw water, etc., *as far as* the primitive Church. *Give me.* Jesus, sitting upon the fount, asks of the primitive Church, which he had chosen out of the Gentiles, the drink of faith by which men believe in him; he asks of nature the drink of reason by which the Creator and Redeemer is searched out. The apostles are sent into the city, that is, into the world, to buy spiritual foods, that is, faith and action and knowledge, with which the teachers of the Church are filled. *Give me.* Although Jesus could thirst after his weariness, yet he does not demand this drink, but he desires that the heart of the Church of the Gentiles should be made a draught for him in acknowledgement of his labour.
8 For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats.
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VERS. 8.-- *For the disciples.* The disciples went away into the city, namely to the Jews, who are fenced by the valley of the law and armed with the darts of prophecy, that they might buy their foods, namely preparing their hearts for God by the preaching of the faith.
9 Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew; ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.
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VERS. 9.-- *She saith therefore.* Not knowing what drink he asks of her, and thinking that it was of the water, she objects that she is of the vessels of strangers, whose company also the Jews do not use; but Jesus, who was asking for faith, desired to give her the Spirit, and admonishes her to ask; and the Spirit is both the gift of God and living water. *For not,* etc. The Jews execrate the Samaritans and call them supplanters, because they deprived them of the inheritance of their father Jacob by abstaining from their foods and their vessels.
10 Jesus answered and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God and who he is that saith to thee: Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
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VERS. 10.-- *Jesus answered.* Step by step and in simple words he instructs her, that at length she may be able to receive the gift of God, that is, the Spirit.
11 The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou living water?
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VERS. 11.-- *The woman said to him.* That is called living water, and no other, save that which is caught where it rises; of which the woman, savouring carnally, said: Since thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, how hast thou living water? But lest perchance he should seem to promise another fount, she adds: Art thou better, that is, canst thou be better than Jacob, who used this one with his own? Against which therefore Christ openly shows that he speaks not carnally but spiritually, saying that he shall not thirst who has drunk his water.
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof, himself and his children and his cattle?
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VERS. 12.-- *Art thou.* Being a stranger, she calls Jacob her father, because she herself had lived under the law of Moses, and possessed the field which Jacob had given to his son. The little vessel is covetousness, the water is pleasure; it is refreshed, not extinguished. *And he himself drank thereof.* Men and cattle drink of the well, and likewise of reason: as though depraved and darkened, it is dug out and worked with great labour. But some drink as men, who use that reason for good, as the saints; some as cattle, who use it for evil, as the philosophers.
13 Jesus answered and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever.
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VERS. 13.-- *But he that.* Whosoever shall lend his heart to my preaching and shall acknowledge the gift of grace, the faith which works through love is born in him, and so at length he shall pass over into life eternal.
14 But the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting.
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VERS. 14.-- *Water.* Bodily water flows downward; spiritual water leaps upward, and carries up with itself into eternal glory those who drink it.
15 The woman said to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
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VERS. 16.-- *Go, call thy husband,* etc. That under his leading thou mayest ascend to the contemplation of spiritual understanding: *go, call thy husband.* Thou who art sensual, call the rational understanding, that thou mayest be governed by it as by a husband; thou who now savourest carnally, him will I, the light and head of the man, enlighten. As if he should say: These things which I say are to be understood not carnally, as thou, being animal, dost, but spiritually, and are to be received under the leading of reason; and therefore do thou prepare thy understanding for me and come, by understanding these spiritual things which I say.
17 The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well: I have no husband.
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VERS. 17.-- *The woman answered.* In truth this woman then had no husband, but was making use of a certain man not lawful, of whom she answers, still savouring carnally, she who had not yet called her husband, that is, her understanding. *Jesus saith to her.* Raising her little by little, he speaks still in mysteries, that little by little he might bring her to know who it was that spoke with her. And he praises not the good work, nor the prudent answer of the woman, but he praises the confession of the truth.
18 For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This, thou hast said truly.
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VERS. 18.-- *For thou hast had five husbands.* The five husbands are the five laws given to human nature. The first, in paradise before sin, in the prohibition of the tree. The second, after the transgression and the expulsion from paradise, concerning the multiplication of the human stock. The third, to Noah before the flood, concerning the building of the ark. The fourth, after the flood, concerning the divisions of the nations. The fifth, to Abraham, concerning circumcision and the immolation of his son. To these five laws, as to five husbands, the human soul was subject from the beginning of the world until Moses: afterward the law of the letter was given, which conferred no salvation; whence it is said: *He whom thou now hast is not thy husband.* Put away the letter; go to the spirit of the letter, to the New Testament, from which thou mayest conceive a spiritual offspring of virtues. The five husbands, that is, the five senses of the body, ruled thee; now, in the time of discretion, a husband, that is, the understanding of wisdom, does not rule thee, but an adulterer, that is, error, corrupts thee, while thou receivest carnally the things I say; and therefore call thy husband, that (as I say) thou mayest understand spiritually. Therefore the five senses in the lesser age are called husbands, because they are lawful. For after the fall of man, and by the decree of God, that age is naturally governed, not toward eternal things, but toward the seeking of these temporal things if they soothe, and the shunning of them if they offend.
19 The woman saith to him: Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
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VERS. 19.-- *That thou art a prophet.* The woman, profiting from what she had heard, had already begun to have understanding in some measure, whence she also calls him a prophet; but not full understanding, because she does not believe that Christ has come.
20 Our fathers adored on this mountain: and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.
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VERS. 20.-- *Our loaves,* etc. Thou art a prophet, and therefore judge concerning this contention which moves me. The Jews set themselves before the Samaritans on account of the temple which Solomon built, in which they worshipped. On the contrary the Samaritans set themselves against the Jews on account of the mountain, on which, and not in the temple, the fathers worshipped who pleased God. And so the patriarchs worshipped on the mountains, the Jews in the temple, prefiguring the manner of praying well.
21 Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father.
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VERS. 21.-- *Woman.* In this place the Lord represses the boasting of the Samaritans, who thought that they had been of no less religion than the Jews. He speaks therefore in the person of the prophets and of all who believe in Christ; whence he says: *You adore the Father whom you know not,* because no one adores the Father unless he adore the Son, through whom one comes to the knowledge of the Father; but we know the Son, and through the Son the Father; whence follows: *For salvation is of the Jews,* etc., that is, because Christ, who is salvation, is of the Jews, not only by the origin of the flesh, but from them also arose the faith and the primitive Church. *Believe me.* Because there is already in thee a husband who can believe, and therefore to believe: *For unless thou shalt have believed, thou shalt not understand*. *When neither on the mountain.* Behold, your mountain and the temple of the Jews shall alike be reprobated; but in this you are unequal, that you Samaritans adore what you know not, but we Jews, not all, but the elect, adore what we know, because to us is the knowledge of God, the testament, the promised prophecy: of us is Christ; and this is, *for salvation is of the Jews,* but although we are thus different, yet I do not prefer the place of the Jews to the place of the Samaritans, and this is.
22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know. For salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.
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VERS. 23.-- *But the hour cometh, and now is, when.* Before I came in the flesh, no one could adore the Father in spirit and in truth, except the patriarchs and the prophets, to whom my incarnation had been revealed; but through my presence in the flesh there shall be true adorers. *In spirit and in truth.* Not in the temple, not on this mountain, but inwardly, in the innermost temple of the heart, and in the truth of knowledge, is the Father to be adored.
24 God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth.
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VERS. 24.-- *God is a spirit.* Since God is a spirit and not a body, he does not seek a bodily place, a mountain or a temple, in which he may be prayed to; but a pure spirit is his temple, in which he is to be prayed to, not concerning visible things which pass away, but concerning the eternal things which are truth.
25 The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ): therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things.
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VERS. 25, 26.-- *I know that the Messias cometh, who is called,* etc. Now advanced further by the words of him who taught her, she knows by whom she ought to be perfectly instructed, that is, by the Messias. *He will tell us all things. Jesus saith to her.* He will show in what manner, the temple and the mountain being despised, we may adore in spirit and in truth, and how, the shadows being cast away, we may be illumined by the truth. *I am he that speak.* Him whom thou awaitest as one to come, know that he has come; and, having brought with thee the husband who is to govern thee, labour to learn the things that are necessary to faith. And because she already knew who could teach her, although she did not recognize him who was already teaching her, she was worthy that he should manifest himself to her; whence he says: *I am the Messias,* which manifestation once received, she has nothing further to seek; whence follows: *She left therefore her water-pot,* etc. But the Evangelist interposes somewhat concerning the disciples.
26 Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee.
27 And immediately his disciples came. And they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou? Or: Why talkest thou with her?
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VERS. 27.-- *And they wondered that.* They did not wonder that he was speaking with a woman, with such as he had been accustomed to speak with, but that it was with a stranger, being ignorant of the mystery of the Church that was to be of the Gentiles. And they suspect no evil, but wonder at his clemency, because he teaches a Gentile woman in error, as *he who came to seek that which had perished.*
28 The woman therefore left her waterpot and went her way into the city and saith to the men there:
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VERS. 28.-- *She left therefore.* Having heard *I am he,* the woman, now holding Christ in her understanding as the head of the man, left the water-pot, that is, covetousness, and ran to preach the gospel. Here let those who are to preach the gospel learn first to lay aside the care and the burden of this world.
29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?
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VERS. 29.-- *Come and see.* Step by step she leads those rude ones to the truth; nor does she at once affirm him to be Christ, lest they should be angered and take offence.
30 They went therefore out of the city and came unto him.
31 In the mean time, the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat.
32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat which you know not.
33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat?
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VERS. 33.-- *Hath any man brought.* They did not dare to question the Lord, fearing lest they should be reproved by him if they questioned incautiously.
34 Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work.
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VERS. 34.-- *My meat is.* They did not understand the food, just as the woman above did not understand the water; whence the master instructs them, not by a circuit as he did her, but now openly, saying: *My meat is to do,* etc. *His will.* The Father's. The will of the Father is that men believe in him, that is, in the Son whom he himself sent. The work of the Father is our salvation. Christ's meat, therefore, is our faith and our salvation. He does the will, then, by teaching men to believe in him; he does the work by bringing the mystery of redemption to maturity.
35 Do not you say: There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries. For they are white already to harvest.
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VERS. 35.-- *Do you not say.* Since he seeks the faith and the salvation of the peoples, he grows fervent for the work and disposes to send labourers. *Lift up your eyes.* Consider with the understanding of the mind that, the winter being past, that is, unbelief, the warmth of faith is at hand and hearts are made ready, that you may gather from them the works of justice; as if he should say: Help toward the fulfilling of the Father's will. And well can you do it, because the harvest is ready, that is, see the Gentiles believing easily.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
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VERS. 36.-- *That both he that soweth.* Both were needed, the sower and the reaper, because in this the word appears probable, that one sows and another reaps; for unless they had been made ready through the prophets, they would not have heard the apostles.
37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth.
38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour. Others have laboured: and you have entered into their labours.
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VERS. 38.-- *I have sent you.* I make you reapers there where others have sown, that is, in Judaea, where the first crop was gathered, whence some going forth have sown in the whole world, whence another harvest rises as it were from the grains, to be gathered at the end of the world by the angels as reapers. *They have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.* For many were the labours of the patriarchs and the prophets, in all of which was the prophecy of Christ, and they suffered many things as it were in the cold of the sowing.
39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.
40 So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days.
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VERS. 40.-- *When they were come.* First they heard the report, afterward they beheld him present; and it is not enough for them, but they make him abide with them, that they may be instructed by his own words, which they prefer to the words of the woman. In all which, on the contrary, the hardness of the Jews is reproved, who do not believe even at miracles. *And he abode there two.* Morally. So daily among those who are without, Christ is announced through the woman, that is, the Church, and they believe through that report. Thence he abides with them for two days without mention of night, that their light may be instructed by the two precepts of charity.
41 And many more believed in him, because of his own word.
42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard him and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
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VERS. 42.-- *And they said to the woman.* After the Lord, by the presence of the flesh, the Jews being spiritually taught, had poured the grace of his own knowledge into the woman, that is, into the law, they said: now not on account of thy speech do we believe.
43 Now after two days, he departed thence and went into Galilee.
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VERS. 43.-- *For we ourselves have heard.* Because at the first, while he tarried among them, he had wrought miracles, and yet not any believed in him save a few; whence, upon the sign that was seen, his disciples believed in him, and no others: and therefore from the Samaritans, who believed easily with no sign seen, he returns to these, that they who did not believe through the former things may now believe. It signifies that from the Gentiles, easily converted, he shall return at the end of the world to the Jews, who are his own country, because among them he had not before had honour.
44 For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
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VERS. 44.-- *That a prophet.* Allegorically. Christ's country is the people of the Jews, where he is without honour, because few of these believe what is said of the Galileans, Christ's fellow-citizens. The Church of the Gentiles, believing easily, is like the Samaritans; and these are many, by the word of preaching alone, those by miracles, and few. Behold why he came, and therefore he returns: because he testified that a prophet has not honour in his own country; otherwise it would seem that he ought not to have returned to these, where he has not honour, but to have remained with those among whom he was well received.
45 And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day: for they also went to the festival day.
46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum.
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VERS. 46.-- *And there was a certain ruler whose son.* This ruler may figure some teacher of the Jewish nation, who at length, after the full conversion of the Church of the Gentiles, to which the Lord, driven out by the Jews, passed over through his disciples, prays for his son, the Jewish people, whom he knows will not receive the faith save at the end of the world, that he may be healed of the long infirmity of his faithlessness.
47 He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, sent to him and prayed him to come down and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
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VERS. 47.-- *And he besought.* Already believing that he could heal his son; but because he does not believe him to be present to the son through the Godhead, which is everywhere, he asks that he would come down and, being present in body, heal him; whence he is convicted of unbelief: *Unless signs and wonders,* etc. On the contrary the centurion is praised, who says: *Say the word, and my servant shall be healed*; whence: *I have not found so great faith in Israel.* Or perhaps he was desiring to try what manner of man Christ was; whence he is reproved: *Unless signs and wonders.* For the salvation of his son he himself believed, and his whole house.
48 Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.
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VERS. 48.-- *Unless signs.* In this he is convicted of unbelief, that he did not believe him to be everywhere; and by this man's hardness is signified the hardness of the Jews, who do not believe even when miracles are seen. Truly, on the contrary, by Samaria is signified the faith of the Gentiles, which believed by the word alone; and this, as far as regards the allegory, shall endure in the faithless Jews from Christ's first coming until after the reign of Antichrist. *And wonders.* *Prodigium* as it were *porro dictum*, spoken far off, as it were that which signifies something. Or, *prodigium* as it were *procul a digito*, far from the finger, because it prefigures something remote and to come.
49 The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die.
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VERS. 49, 50.-- *Come down.* As though he could not heal otherwise unless he were present. Whence the Lord, showing that he is not absent where he is invited, heals by his command alone; whence: *Go, thy son.* He does not go to the ruler's son, lest he should seem to honour riches; he promises to go to the centurion's servant, he who does not despise the nature of man: wherein he destroys the pride which in men weighs not nature, but the things that lie open outwardly. *He himself believed.* Not the other citizens; wherein is signified the fewness of the faith of the Jews, although they had seen signs; whence he infers: *This is again the second sign that Jesus did.* Just as above the multitude of the Gentiles, who were to be converted by the word alone, was signified in the Samaritans.
50 Jesus saith to him: Go thy way. Thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way.
51 And as he was going down, his servants met him: and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.
52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
53 The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him: Thy son liveth. And himself believed, and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea. into Galilee.
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VERS. 54.-- *This is again the second sign that Jesus did when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.* Of all the miracles which Jesus did in the year before John's death, John makes mention of none but these, and of Christ's disputation with the Jews, which is set down above. For the other Evangelists have plainly told the things which he here passes over in silence.