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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Perhaps some one may ask how it was that Jesus asked drink of her, when the law did not permit it. If it be answered that it was because He knew beforehand that she would not give it, then for this very reason He ought not to have asked. What then can we say? That the rejecting such observances as these was now a matter of indifference to Him; for He who induced others to do them away, would much more Himself pass them by. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
By appearance and, perhaps, by clothing, and by other bodily bearing, and by the conversation itself, the Samaritan woman took the Lord for a Jew, which is why she says to Him: "How is it that you, being a Jew," and so on. See how perceptive the woman was. If anyone needed to be on guard, it would have been the Lord, not her. …
Methodius of Olympus
And all this was, not of works of righteousness which we have done, nor because we loved Thee,-for our first earthly forefather, who was honourably entertained, in the delightful abode of Paradise, despised Thy divine and saving commandment, and was judged unworthy of that life-giving place, and mingling his seed with the bastard off-shoots of sin, he rendered it very weak;-but Thou, O Lord, of Thine own self, and of Thine ineffable love toward the creature of Thine hands, hast confirmed Thy mercy toward us, and, pitying our …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
The Jews would not even use their vessels. So it would astonish the woman to hear a Jew ask to drink out of her vessel; a thing so contrary to Jewish rule.
Thomas Aquinas
Our Lord prepared the woman to receive his spiritual teaching by giving her an occasion to question him. First, her question is given. Secondly, her reason for asking it (v 9). Here we should point out that our Lord, when asking the woman for a drink, had in mind more a spiritual drink than a merely physical one. But the woman, not yet understanding about such a spiritual drink, thought only of a physical drink. So she responds: How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a woman of Samaria, for a drink? …
Bonaventure
"The woman therefore says to Him." Here secondly He arouses her by promising or offering a benefit: because the woman, considering Him to be a Jew, did not wish to render service, but rather raises a question. Therefore he says: "That Samaritan woman therefore says to Him," from whom namely He had asked a drink: "How do You, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman?" "She recognized Him to be a Jew from His garb," as the Gloss says. …
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