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"And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the
woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did . . . . . And many more believed
because of His own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy
saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the
Saviour of the world" (John 4: 39-42).
We have already drawn attention to the fact that, where Matthew will refer to the
fulfillment of a prophecy, John adduces the evidence of individual testimony. We have
seen this in the case of Nathaniel, who was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and
the King of Israel by the omniscient knowledge which the Lord manifested. It was by
similar evidence that the Woman of Samaria and her fellow-townsfolk were convinced.
The man born blind and Thomas himself are further examples. Evidently the appeal is
not to the Jew and his sacred Scriptures, but to the world at large. The introduction of
such a controversial matter as the disputed place of worship, "Jerusalem or this
mountain", may have been the natural attempt of the woman to turn the conversation into
less personal and intimate channels. On the other hand every Jew and every Samaritan
must have felt that the matter was one of the first importance. The woman, realizing by
the Lord's intimate knowledge of her life that he must be a prophet (John 4: 19) seemed
to feel that this was an opportunity too good to be missed, and said:
"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship" (John 4: 20).
In selecting his incidents as a means of teaching the special line of doctrine inculcated
in his Gospel, John seems to have been guided by two features,
(1)
Evidence, upon which faith can rest (as in the cases of Nathaniel, the woman of
Samaria, or Thomas), that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
(2)
Special aspects of truth (such as the New Birth), which the recounted incidents
bring to light.
Here, in the story of the Samaritan woman, while supplying the evidence, "A man
which told me all things that ever I did", and most pointedly, evidence as to "eternal life"
being "the gift of God", he also brings into prominence the question of the true nature of
worship.
Speaking after the manner of men, it is in the Lord's dealings with Nicodemus, the
teacher in Israel, that one would have expected a discourse on the nature of worship, and
a lesson on the need of new birth to the poor sinful Samaritan woman; but it is not so.
This question of spiritual worship is too important to be dealt with at the close of an
article and we must therefore devote our next study to the testimony of John 4: 20-24.
We close the present article with the following observation:--
When the apostle spoke to the Jews, he quoted the law and the prophets. It was
sufficient evidence of truth to show that such and such an event fulfilled the prophets.
This is the line of argument adopted by Matthew, although some of his "proofs" need
careful examination if those unaccustomed to Hebrew methods of handling the Scriptures