John 4:10

the gift of God What He is ready to give thee, what is now held out to thee, thy salvation. For -knewest" read hadst known. Comp. John 11:21; John 11:32; John 14:28, where we have the same construction; and contrast John 5:46 and John 8:19, where the A. V. makes the converse mistake of translating imperfects as if they were aorists.

thou wouldest have asked of him instead of His asking of thee: -thou" is emphatic. -Spiritually our positions are reversed. It is thou who art weary, and foot-sore, and parched, close to the well, yet unable to drink; it is I who can give thee the water from the well, and quench thy thirst for ever." There is a scarcely doubtful reference to this passage in the Ignatian Epistles, RomansVII. See on John 6:33, to which there is a clear reference in this same chapter. The passage with these references to the Fourth Gospel is found in the Syriac as well as in the shorter Greek versions of Ignatius; so that we have almost certain evidence of this Gospel being known as early as a.d. 115. See on John 3:3.