Article January 10, 1942 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in these columns can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons. The Notes in this issue are related to the Lesson-Sermon designated to be read in Christian Science churches on January 18, 1942.]

"The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9)— When northern Israel was subjugated by the Assyrians in 722 b c., many Israelites were carried into exile, being replaced by Babylonians and other pagans (II Kings 17:24). These immigrants intermarried with the remaining Israelites, and became the ancestors of the Samaritans. They came to be despised by the Jews as men who had a semipagan background and were not of pure Hebrew stock. The Samaritans later hindered the reconstruction of the temple at Jerusalem, and eventually erected a rival sanctuary of their own, to the great chagrin of the Jews.

"Living water" (John 4:10)—The people of Palestine generally used the phrase "living water" to describe fresh spring water, as opposed to that often collected in cisterns (cf. Jer. 2:13), which was apt to become stagnant; and it is clear that this was the sense in which the Samaritan woman understood the Master's words, though he proceeded to explain that he used them in a metaphorical sense with reference to "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (as Dr. Moffatt translates John 4:14). Compare Revelation 21:6.