(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food.
for his disciples were gone away to the city, that they may buy victuals;
(for his disciples had gone away into the city that they might buy provisions).
John — The Gospel of sevens and signs. Seven signs, seven 'I AM' sayings, a prologue and an epilogue — written 'that ye might believe' (20:31).
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches10
When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.
Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”
But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.”
When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
So they asked Him, “What sign then will You perform, so that we may see it and believe You? What will You do?
In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
“Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen?
If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength!
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
John 4:5So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
leads to
And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father,…
And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
And to you, as one who is above your brothers, I give the ridge of land that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”
Through
Luke 9:13But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.”
leads to
One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.
When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked Him, “Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii to give all of them bread to eat?”
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
Voices4
Christ had the opportunity to ask this of the woman because his disciples, whom he would have asked for the water, were not there, thus the Evangelist says, His disciples had gone to the town. Here we might notice three things about Christ. First, his …
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on John, 1274patristic
For his disciples were gone away,.... This is related, not so much to give a reason why Christ asked the woman for water, because his disciples were not present, to minister to him; but rather to show, that Christ took the opportunity, in their absence, to converse with her; partly to avoid the scandal and offence they might take, at his conversation with her, being a Samaritan; as it appears to have been astonishing to them, when they found him talking with her, Joh 4:
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)reformed
But with all that is human, how much also of the divine have we here, both blended in one glorious manifestation of the majesty, grace, pity, patience with which "the Lord" imparts light and life to this unlikeliest of strangers, standing midway between Jews and heathens. the sixth hour--noonday, reckoning from six A.M.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
This woman's meeting with Christ at the well may remind us of the stories of Rebekah, Rachel, and Jethro's daughter, who all met with husbands, good husbands, no worse than Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, when they came to the wells for water. Thirdly, How the preventing grace of God sometimes brings people unexpectedly under the means of conversion and salvation.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
