John 4:35

Say not ye The pronoun is again emphatic.

There are yet four months, &c. This cannot be a proverb. No such proverb is known; and a proverb on the subject would have to be differently shaped; e.g. -From seedtime to harvest is four months," or something of the kind. So that we may regard this saying as a mark of time. Harvest began in the middle of Nisan or April. Four months from that would place this event in the middle of December: or, if (as some suppose) this was a year in which an extra month was inserted, in the middle of January.

are white already to harvest In the green blades just shewing through the soil the faith of the sower sees the white ears that will soon be there. So also in the flocking of these ignorant Samaritans to Him for instruction Christ sees the abundant harvest of souls that is to follow. -Already" is the last word in the Greek sentence; and from very ancient times there has been a doubt whether it belongs to this sentence or the next. Some of the best MSS. give -already" to the next sentence; -already he that reapeth receiveth wages." But MS. authority in punctuation is not of much weight. The received punctuation is perhaps better; -already" at the end of John 4:35 being in emphatic contrast to -yet" at the beginning of it.