Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?" Observe how she thrusts herself into the noble stock of the Jews. For what she saith is somewhat of this kind: "Jacob used this water, and had nothing better to give us." And this she said showing that from the first answer (of Christ) she had conceived a great and sublime thought; for by the words, "he drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle," she implies nothing else, than that she had a …
Cyril of Alexandria
The Samaritans then were aliens (for they were colonists of the Babylonians), but they call Jacob their father for two reasons. For as inhabiting a country bordering on, and the neighbour of the Jews' land, they were taking a little impression themselves of their worship, and were accustomed to boast of the Jews' ancestors. Besides, it was really true that the greater number of the inhabitants of Samaria were sprung from the root of Jacob. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
He considers Jacob his father and counts himself among the Jewish nobility. Look, if you will, at the woman's intelligence, how quickly she concludes from the difference of the waters about the difference of the givers. "If," she says, "You give such water, then without a doubt You are greater than Jacob, who gave us this present water." The words "and he himself drank from it" indicate the pleasantness of the water. …
Western Saints
Bede
Or she calls Jacob their father, because she lived under the Mosaic law, and possessed the farm which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Thomas Aquinas
The second point is given at, Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well? As if to say: Have you better water to give us than Jacob? She calls Jacob her father not because the Samaritans were descendants of the Jews, as is clear from what was said before, but because the Samaritans had the Mosaic law, and because they occupied the land promised to the descendants of Jacob. The woman praised this well on three counts. …
Bonaventure
"Are you greater than our father Jacob?" Similar below in the eighth chapter: "Are you greater than our father Abraham?" "Who gave us the well:" therefore he gave it, because he found it. Concerning this well, Genesis 29: "Jacob set out and came to the eastern land and saw there a well, whose mouth was closed with a great stone." Nor did he only give to others, but he also had it for his own use, as though not having anything better. …
Translation