Отец любит Сына и все дал в руку Его. Верующий в Сына имеет жизнь вечную; а не верующий в Сына не увидит жизни, но гнев Божий пребывает на нем. 

Сказавши высокое о Христе, теперь опять возвещает смиренное, чтобы сделать слово удобоприемлемым для слушателей. Посему говорит: Отец любит Сына, как бы беседуя о каком-нибудь необычайном человеке, и все дал в руки Сына, - по человечеству. Если и по божеству, то что же? Отец все дал Сыну, по естеству, а не по благодати. Так как Он имеет бытие от Отца, то естественно говорится, что Он и все имеет от Отца. Итак, Сын имеет все, что на небе и что на земле. Ибо господствует над всеми, хотя и не все желают. Впоследствии, когда во второе пришествие поклонится пред Ним всякое колено, Он получит полное господство над всеми, когда злоба не будет уже иметь силы, но, оставаясь бездейственною, покажет, что природа добра от начала, присуща всем и содержит все. "Верующий в Сына имеет жизнь вечную" в себе, то есть Самого Христа, который есть поистине жизнь (Ин. 14, 6); ибо Им мы живем и движемся (Деян. 17, 28). "А не верующий не увидит жизни". Ибо кто произвольно отступился от жизни, тот как будет иметь ее, когда жизнь есть Христос? Ибо и апостол Павел говорит: когда явится Христос, жизнь ваша, тогда и вы, став мертвыми для зла и неподвижными, явитесь во славе (Кол. 3, 4). "Но гнев Божий пребывает на нем". Не сказал: оставит его, но: останется на нем, показывая, что никогда не отступит от него. Дабы ты, услышав о смерти, не принял ее за временную, говорит, что пребудет на нем, на том, кто не уверовал, и наказание будет вечное. Всеми сими словами Креститель приводит и побуждает всех слушателей к вере во Христа. Ибо не без цели говорит это, но и своих учеников и всех прочих вразумляет уже не завидовать Христу, но внимать как Богу.

Глава четвертая

Когда же узнал Иисус о дошедшем до фарисеев слухе, что Он более приобретает учеников и крестит, нежели Иоанн (хотя Сам Иисус не крестил, а ученики Его), то оставил Иудею и пошел опять в Галилею. Надлежало же Ему проходить чрез Самарию. 

The lover of mankind, once incarnated for us, does everything for our benefit. So now, when he learns that the Pharisees have heard of His glory, and knowing that they will envy Him and rebel against Him, He withdraws to Galilee, teaching us two things: first, to spare our enemies, and to try in every way not to give them cause for temptation or envy; secondly, it is unwise and useless not to be tempted, but to withdraw for a time until the wrath is subdued. Although He is able to stop His envious people, even if they were to rush at Him, He nevertheless evades Him, so that the work of the Incarnation does not seem illusory. For if He were constantly withdrawing from their midst, what would not the phantasiodocetes, that is, Manes, Valentinus, the accursed Eutyches, and their disciples, say? - The Evangelist, alluding to the slander of the envious, says that although Jesus did not baptize, nevertheless the envious people, wishing to incite the Pharisees against Christ, slandered that He had baptized. - "It behooved Him to pass through Samaria." He comes to the Samaritans as if in passing. Vide. He did not say, "It was necessary to go to Samaria," but, "To pass through Samaria." He wanted to take away from the Jews any pretext for accusation, so that they could not say that He, having left them, went over to the unclean - the Gentiles. For when they expelled Him, then He went over to the Gentiles, and then not deliberately, but casually.

     So He came to the city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the piece of land given by Jacob to his son Joseph. There was the well of Jacob. 

It is worth saying where the Samaritans came from and from what they received such a name. Somoron was called a mountain in the name of its owner, as Isaiah says: the head of Ephraim is Somoron (7:9). Those who dwelt under the mountain were originally called not Samaritans, but Israelites. But for insults to God they were delivered up to the Assyrians at different times. At last, when they were about to fall away, the Assyrian took them captive and, fearing a new apostasy, did not allow them to remain any longer in their country, but settled them between the Babylonians and the Medes, and from there brought the nations from various places and settled them in Samaria. After this, God, wishing to show the barbarians that He had betrayed the Jews to them not because of His powerlessness, but because of their sin, unleashed lions on the barbarians who had migrated to Samaria, which destroyed them all. When this was brought to the attention of the king, he summoned to him some of the Jewish elders who had been in captivity, and asked what should be done so that the lions would no longer destroy the barbarians living in Samaria. They explain to him that the God of Israel looks down on that place and does not tolerate that those who do not know His laws should live there. Therefore, if he cares for the barbarians there, then it is necessary to send Jewish priests who would teach the barbarians the laws of God; and thus God will be propitiated. The king listens to them and sends a priest to teach the Samarian barbarians the law of God (2 Kings 17:24-28). But they did not accept all the divine books, but only the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They did not completely abandon impiety, but at times they lagged behind idols and worshipped God. Wherefore the Jews, upon their return from captivity, always regarded them with hatred, as Assyrians by birth, and in the name of the mountain called them Samaritans. And they called themselves descendants of Abraham and Jacob, because Abraham was a Chaldean, and they considered Jacob their own because of the spring that was there. The Jews considered them (the Samaritans) unclean with all the Gentiles, which is why they said in reproach to the Lord: "Thou art a Samaritan" (John 8:48). And He Himself said to His disciples: "Enter not into the city of the Samaritans" (Matt. 10:5). - Why does the Evangelist speak in detail about the place and the well of Jacob? First, so that you may not be amazed when you hear a woman say, "Our father Jacob has given us this well." For this place was Shikimah (Shechem), where the sons of Jacob Simeon and Levi committed a cruel murder because their sister Dinah had been subjected to violence by the prince of the Sikimites. Then, from what the Evangelist tells us about the place and the well, we learn that the rejection of the Jews was long ago because of their sins, and when they offended God, then the pagans took possession of their places, and that by their wickedness they destroyed what the patriarchs had acquired by faith in Christ. Therefore, it is not at all new if even now the Gentiles have been brought into the Kingdom of Heaven instead of the Jews. The place given by Jacob to Joseph was called Sykima. The sons of Jacob, having destroyed the Sikimites, devastated the city, and when it was desolate, it was given by their father as an inheritance to Joseph.

     Jesus, having labored from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about six o'clock. A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink" (for His disciples had gone into the city to buy food).