John 4:8-10
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9 [a]The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”(A) (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) 10 [b]Jesus answered and said to her,(B) “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
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- 4:9 Samaritan women were regarded by Jews as ritually impure, and therefore Jews were forbidden to drink from any vessel they had handled.
- 4:10 Living water: the water of life, i.e., the revelation that Jesus brings; the woman thinks of “flowing water,” so much more desirable than stagnant well water. On John’s device of such misunderstanding, cf. note on Jn 3:3.
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