John 4:28-29 - Exposition

The woman then ( i.e. in consequence of the arrival of the disciples) left her water pot ( ἀφῆκε ); left it to itself, forgot the object of her visit to the well, so engrossed was she with the new teaching, so amazed with his revelations; or perhaps, with womanly tact, left it that the disciples might, if they would, make use of it for their Master. Most commentators suggest that she left it, intending by the very act to come back again shortly for water. But this is scarcely the idea conveyed by ἀφῆκε . Archdeacon Watkius truly says that this notice "is a mark of the presence of him who has related the incidents." And she went her way to the city —probably beyond her home (see note, John 4:7 ), constituting herself at once the messenger and missionary of the new Teacher and Prophet, who had declared himself to be the Messiah— and saith to the men whom she found in the marketplace or highway, Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did. £ This exaggeration of the self-revelation was due to the deep conviction of her mind that the Prophet had read her whole life—its weakness and its follies, and it may have been its sins and crimes, not unknown, alas! to others as well. Chrysostom says, "She might have said, 'Come and see One that prophesieth;' but when the soul is aflame with holy fire it looks then to nothing earthly, neither to glory nor to shame, but belongs to one thing alone, the flame which occupieth it." There is a touch of naiveté, of loquacity, of impetuous womanhood, about this, that thrills with life. She was not afraid, in the first gush of her new-found joy, to brave the unflattering scorn of the men to whom such a confession was made; and then, in most natural and appropriate fashion, added, He is not however the Christ, is he? The question, by its form, suggests a negative answer; "but," Westcott says, "hope bursts through it (cf. Matthew 12:23 )." She knows that he is the Christ, but she wishes the townspeople to guess it—to come to a like conclusion with herself.