which were altogether contrary to their opinion and expectation; since they seem at that time to have had little or no understanding of the divine nature of the Messiah, of his death, and of a salvation extending to the whole human race; they supposed, rather, that he would be a most illustrious secular prince, that he would never die, but would reign for ever, conferring happiness on the Jewish nation only, but destroying the other nations."-TITTMANN. NOTE E, p. 10. "Illa quidem Christi cum Deo Patre coniunctio omnino perpetua fuit, semperque continuata est, posteaquam is ex caelo descendit et versari in terra coepit; ut, quamvis in terra habitaret, tamen etiamnunc in caelo esse iure diceretur, tamquam in domicilio proprio et suo. c. viii. 29; x. 38; xiv. 9—11; xvi. 15; xvii. Verumtamen hoc loco in verbis, 'o v év тậ oùpavą, proprietatem participii praesentis temporis morosius urgere nolim. Qui enim cum CAMERARIO, ERASMO, RAPHELIO, BENGELIO, ERNESTIO, multisque aliis, ó v pro osv positum putant, et sic interpretantur: Qui erat in caelo, antequam ad terram descenderet,' i sane nihil faciunt, quod usui loquendi repugnet; (Graeci enim hoc participio saepe sic utuntur, ut vim habeat imperfecti; cf. etiam Io. ix. 25; xix. 38; Luc. xxiv. 44; 2 Cor. viii. 9.) nec leve huic sententiae praesidium parant e verbis ipsius Christi Io. VI. 62; Si videritis homine natum eo adscendentem, ubi ille ERAT antea (őπоν ηv тò прóтероν). Ac de pondere, quod in Christi verbis inest, haec interpretatio nihil detrahit. Idem enim ille, qui iam ad terram descenderat, erat in principio, et erat apud Deum; (Io. i. 1, 2.) eratque gloria praeditus apud Patrem ante mundum conditum, h. e. ab aeterno, c. xvii. 5.”—KNAPPIUS. Dr Pye Smith's Dissertation on this verse, in his Scripture Testimony, book iv., chap. iii. sect. i., is deserving of careful perusal. EXPOSITION II. OUR LORD'S CONVERSATION WITH THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. JOHN iv. 4-42. "I AM found of them who sought me not," is the language of the Messiah in the prophetic word, many ages before he made his appearance among mankind; and the oracle has been frequently verified. His saving blessings are not only always unmerited by those on whom they are conferred, but they are often unsought; and of all who form a part of his peculiar people, it may be as truly said as of his apostles, "It was not they who chose him, it was he who chose them.” When they were going on in their folly and sin-when they were alike ignorant of, and careless about, him and his salvation, HE, to use the apostle's peculiarly appropriate word," apprehended" them, aroused their attention, poured light into their darkened minds, opened their understandings to understand the truth, and their hearts to receive the love of that truth, so as to be saved by it. We have a beautiful illustration of these remarks in that part of our Lord's history, on the consideration of which we are about to enter. 1 John xv. 16. Οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλ ̓ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς. We were lately engaged in illustrating the remarkable conversation which took place between our Lord and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The course of our expositions, calls us now to turn your attention to a not less interesting conversation between the same illustrious person, and a Samaritan woman. There is a striking contrast between the characters and the circumstances of the two individuals with whom our Lord conversed; the one a Jew-a man of rank, a senator, a man of learning, a doctor of the law, and apparently a man of unblemished reputation; the other a Samaritan-a woman of the lower ranks, for she came to draw water-a woman of very limited information, and apparently of loose habits, or, to say the least, of doubtful character. But the Samaritan woman does not seem to be farther from the kingdom of God, than the Jewish senator; and the Saviour's "meekness of wisdom," is equally displayed in his treatment of both. The general interest which the preaching of Jesus had excited in Judea, and especially the circumstance of his baptising great multitudes, through the instrumentality of his disciples, attracted the notice of the Jewish rulers, who are called "the Pharisees" here and in some other places in the gospels, probably because the majority, and the most influential part, of the Sanhedrim, belonged to that sect; and seems to have suggested to them the necessity of taking some steps to prevent the progress of one whose views plainly were very different from theirs, and whose growing influence over the minds of the people might be dangerous to their authority.' Our Lord being aware of this, knowing that his hour was not yet come, and that much was yet to be done, before he closed his work on earth by his expiatory death, instead of waiting till he should be driven out of Judea, left that district of his own accord, and retired into Galilee, 1 John iv. 1, 2. which, being remote from Jerusalem, and under the government of Herod the Tetrarch, was less immediately under the eye, and less directly subject to the power, of the Sanhedrim. In going from Judea into Galilee, our Lord's most direct route lay through Samaria—not the city of that name, which was then known by another name, Sebaste, but the province of which that city was once the capital, and which still retained the name—a district of Palestine, bounded on the south by Judea, and on the north by Galilee, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the east by the river Jordan. It was possible to go from Judea into Galilee, by crossing the Jordan, and passing through Perea; but this was a very circuitous route, though some of the stricter Jews seem to have been in the habit of taking it, to avoid intercourse with the Samaritans. The direct road lay through Samaria.1 3 This region, at the original settlement of the Jews in Canaan, had been allotted to Ephraim, and the half tribe of Manasseh. From the time of the revolt of the ten tribes, its inhabitants had generally ceased to worship at the temple of Jerusalem, and followed first the corrupted form of religion established by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; 3 and then the Gentile idolatries introduced by his successors. After the great body of the ten tribes had been carried captive, and these regions left almost uninhabited, the king of Assyria planted in them a colony of various nations from the eastern part of his empire, who, mingling with the few original inhabitants, formed to themselves a strange medley of a religion, by mixing together the principles and rites of Judaism, and those of oriental idolatries-" fearing Jehovah," as the inspired historian remarks, "and serving their graven images. "4 At the time of the return from the Babylonian captivity, the Samaritans, after having their alliance refused by the Jews, became their bitterest enemies, and the most active opposers of the re-building of their temple and capital.1 At a subsequent period, Manasseh, the son of Jaddua, the high priest, contrary to the law, married the daughter of Sanballat, the chief of the Samaritans, and when the Jews insisted on his repudiating his wife, or renouncing the sacred office, he fled to his father-in-law, who gave him an honourable reception; and, by the permission of Alexander the Great, built a temple to Jehovah, in which Manasseh and his posterity officiated as high priests, in rivalry to the divinely instituted ritual at Jerusalem.2 The Samaritans received as divine, the five books of Moses, and probably, also, some at least of the prophetic oracles; but they did not acknowledge the authority of the historical books, as written by the Jews, whom they regarded as their worst enemies. The natural consequence of all these circumstances was, that the Jews and the Samaritans regarded each other with a much more rancorous dislike, than either of them did the idolatrous nations by which they were surrounded.3 In passing through this region, our Lord and his disciples arrived in the neighbourhood of one of its towns one day about noon, which in that country is intensely hot, and weary with his journey he sat down, "thus;" that is, like a fatigued person as he was, near a celebrated well, which took its name from the Patriarch Jacob-while his disciples went into the town to buy provisions. The proper name of the town seems to have been Shechem, or Sychem, but it was commonly called Sychar by the Jews-which appears to have been a species of reproachful nickname—the word signifying 'idolatrous,' or 'drunken.' The town is still in existence, and is now called Naplouse, a corruption of Neapolis. 5 1 Ezra iv. 2-11; iv. 4-24. Neh. vi. i. 14. 21 Mac. iii. 10. Jos. Antiq. xii. 5, 5. 3 Vide Relandi Dissert. Miscell. Diss. iii. and vii. Ours. Rev. iii. 16; orig. "Sic uti qualiscunque loci opportunitas ferebat, sine pompa, solus, ut qui non præ se ferret expectationem Samaritidis, sed meræ lassitudinis causa quietem vellet capere.-BENGEL. 5 Relandi Palestina, p. 1009. |