The first evangelist
1 Now since Jesus knew that the Pharisees heard he was confirming and immersing more disciples than John 2 (though it wasn’t actually Jesus doing the immersing, but his disciples), 3 he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4 But this required him to pass through Samaria, 5 and he came into one of their cities called Sychar, near the parcel of land Jacob gave his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 A woman came out of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone into the city to buy food.)
9 So she said to him, “What’s with a Judean like you asking a Samaritan woman like me for a drink?” (Judeans don’t associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered, “If you only knew of the gift of God and who it is that is asking you for a drink! Then you would ask him and he would give you living water.”
11 She replied, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well, and from which he, his children, and his livestock were nourished.”
13 Jesus responded, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. 14 But whoever may drink of the water I will give them will absolutely never thirst again; the water I give will be like a perpetual well filled with eternal life.”
15 The woman then asked him directly, “Sir, give me this kind of water so I won’t thirst again and will no longer have to come through here to draw water.”
16 “Go get your husband and come back here,” said Jesus.
17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
So Jesus said, “You have well said that you have no husband. 18 You’ve had five men, and the one you have now isn’t your husband. Your statement is quite true.”
19 So the woman said, “Sir, I can tell you’re a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped in this mountain, but you Judeans say that only Jerusalem is the place to worship.”
21 “Trust me, dear woman,” replied Jesus. “The time is coming when none of you will worship the Father in this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 Your people worship in ignorance, but we worship in understanding, because salvation comes from the Judeans. 23 Yet the time is coming— in fact, it’s already upon us— when real worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, since they are the kind the Father searches for. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must do so in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman responded, “I understand that the Messiah is coming (the one called Christ). And when he does, he will explain everything completely.”25
26 Then Jesus said, “He’s the one talking to you!”
27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were surprised he was talking with a woman. But no one asked what he wanted or why he was talking with her. 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went into the city to tell the people, 29 “Come and see someone who told me everything I ever did! Could this be Christ?” 30 So they left the city and went out to him.
31 In the meantime his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he replied, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The disciples said to each other, “You didn’t bring him anything to eat, did you?”
34 So Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and finish the job. 35 Don’t people say that it is still four months till the harvest comes? But look! Open your eyes and examine the countryside; the fields are ready for harvest. 36 The harvester is already being paid and gathering the produce of eternal life, so that both the planter and the harvester may celebrate together. 37 As the saying goes, ’One plants and another harvests‘. 38 I commissioned you to harvest that which none of you worked for, so that you share in the labor of others.”
39 Now many of the Samaritans of that city put their trust in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 When the Samaritans came to him they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed for two days. 41 And many more believed because of what he said. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe only because of what you told us, but also because of what we ourselves have heard him say. We can see that this really is the Savior of the world!”
Jesus heals the royal official’s son
43 After those two days he left there and went back into Galilee. 44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet gets no respect in their hometown. 45 Yet when he got there the Galileans accepted him, having seen all he did in Jerusalem during the festival, where they had also come.
46 Jesus returned to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water into wine. There was a certain royal official in Capernaum, whose son was sick. 47 Upon hearing that Jesus arrived from Judea into Galilee, the official went to him and asked that he would go down to heal his son, who was near death.
48 Jesus said to him, “You people have no faith unless you see amazing miracles.”
49 But the official pleaded, “Sir, please come before my little one dies!”
50 So Jesus said, “On you way! Your son lives.”
The person believed what Jesus told him and went. 51 On the way his slaves met up with him and said, “Your child is alive!” 52 He asked them what hour it was when he got better, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday a little past noon.” 53 Then the father realized that this was when Jesus said “Your son lives.” And so he and his entire household believed. 54 This was the second miracle Jesus did when he came out of Judea into Galilee.
- 25 By the time the New Testament was being written, the names Messiah and Christ had come to be proper names, rather than just titles meaning "an anointed one". Messiah is only used here in the New Testament.