John 4:35,36

“ Say ye not that there are yet four months, and the harvest cometh. Behold I say unto you: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white for the harvest. 36. Already even he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. ”

The following verses (John 4:35-38) have presented such difficulties to interpreters, that some have supposed that they should be transposed by placing John 4:37-38 before John 4:36 (B. Crusius). Weiss has supposed that John 4:35 originally belonged to another context.

It must be admitted that the interpretations proposed by Lucke, de Wette, Meyer, and Tholuck are not adapted to remove the difficulties. Some see in them a prophecy of the conversion of the Samaritan people, related in Acts 8; others apply them even to the conversion of the entire Gentile world, and especially to the apostolate of St. Paul. In that case, it is not surprising that their authenticity should be suspected! If the words of John 4:36 ff., have no direct connection with the actual circumstances, how can we connect them with those of John 4:35, which, according to Lucke and Meyer themselves, can only refer to the arrival of the inhabitants of Sychar in the presence of Jesus? From a word stamped with the most perfect appropriateness, Jesus would suddenly pass to general considerations respecting the propagation of the Gospel. So de Wette, perceiving the impossibility of such a mode of speaking on Jesus' part, has, contrary to the evidence, resolutely denied the reference of John 4:35 to the arrival of the inhabitants of Sychar. This general embarrassment seems to us to proceed from the fact that the application of Jesus' words to the actual case has not been sufficiently apprehended and kept in mind. They have thus been despoiled of their appropriateness. A friendly and familiar conversation has been converted into a solemn sermon.

Vv. 35 is joined with John 4:30 precisely as John 4:31 is with John 4:27. Jesus gives His disciples to understand, as already appeared from His answer (John 4:34), that a scene is occurring at this moment of which they have not the least idea: while they are thinking only of the preparation of a meal to be taken, behold a harvest already fully ripe, the seeds of which have been sown in their absence, is prepared for them. Jesus Himself is, as it were, the point of union between the two scenes, altogether foreign to each other, which are passing around His person: that in which the disciples and that in which the Samaritans are, with Himself, the actors. Lightfoot, Tholuck, Lucke, de Wette find a general maxim, a proverb, in the first words of John 4:35: When a man has once sowed, he must still wait four months for the time when he can reap that is to say, the fruits of any work whatever are not gathered except after long waiting (2 Timothy 2:6).

But in Palestine not four, but six months separate the sowing (end of October) from the reaping (middle of April). Besides, the adverb ἕτι (there are yet) would not suit a proverb; the words: since the sowing, would have been necessary. Finally, why put this proverb especially into the mouth of the Apostles (you), rather than in that of men in general? There is then here a reflection which Jesus ascribes to His disciples themselves.

Between Jacob's well, at the foot of Gerizim, and the village of Aschar, at the foot of Ebal, far on into the plain of Mukhna, there stretch out vast fields of wheat. As they beheld the springing verdure on this freshly sown soil, they no doubt said to one another: we must wait yet four months till this wheat shall be ripe! From this little detail we must conclude that this occurred four months before the middle of April, thus about the middle of December, and that Jesus had consequently remained in Judea from the feast of the Passover until the close of the year, that is, eight full months. The words: You say, contrast the domain of nature to which this reflection of the disciples applies, to the sphere of the Spirit in which Jesus' thought is moving. In that sphere, indeed, the seed is not necessarily subject to such slow development. It can sometimes germinate and ripen as if in an instant. The proof of this is before their eyes at this very moment: ἰδού (behold)! This word directs the attention of the disciples to a spectacle which was wholly unexpected and even incomprehensible to their minds, that of the Samaritans who are hastening across the valley towards Jacob's well. I say unto you: I who have the secret of what is taking place. The act of raising the eyes and looking, to which He invites them, is, according to de Wette, purely spiritual; Jesus would induce them to picture to themselves beforehand through faith, the future conversion of this people (comp. Acts 8). But the imperative, θεάσασθε (look), must refer to an object visible at that very moment. And what meaning is to be given to the figure of four months?

The fact to which these words refer, therefore, can only be the arrival of the people of Sychar. We understand, then, the use of the imperfect they were coming (John 4:30), which formed a picture and left the action incomplete. These eager souls who hasten towards Him disposed to believe this is the spectacle which Jesus invites His disciples to behold. He presents these souls to them under the figure of a ripening harvest, which it only remains to gather in. And, as He thinks of the brief time needed by Him to prepare such a harvest in this place, until now a stranger to the kingdom of God, He is Himself struck by the contrast between the very long time (five to six months), which is demanded by the law of natural vegetation, and the rapid development which the divine seed can have in a moment, in the spiritual world; and, as an encouragement for His disciples in their future vocation, He points out to them this difference. The ἤδη (already), might be regarded as ending John 4:35. “They are white for the harvest already. ” This word would thus form the counterpart of ἔτι (yet), at the beginning of the verse; comp. 1 John 4:3, where ἤδη is placed, in the same way, at the end of the sentence. This word, however, becomes still more significant, if it is placed, as we have placed it in the translation, at the opening of the following verse: ἤδη καί (already even). This is acknowledged by Keil, who rightly observes that in this way also already forms a contrast to yet.

There is, indeed, between John 4:35 and John 4:36, a climactic relation which betrays an increasing exaltation. “It is true,” says Jesus, “that already the harvest is ripe, that at this very hour the reaper has only to take his sickle and reap, in order that both the sower and the reaper may in this case, at least, celebrate together the harvest-feast.” If such is the meaning, the authenticity of καί, and (after ἤδη), is manifest, and Origen, with the Alexandrian authorities in his train, is found, once more, to have been an unfortunate corrector. After having connected ἤδη (already), with the preceding sentence, he rejected the καί (and or even), in order to make of John 4:36, instead of an expression full of appropriateness and charm, a general maxim. The reaper, according to John 4:38, must denote the apostles. The expression, μισθὸν λαμβάνειν (to receive wages), describes the joy with which they are to be filled when gathering all these souls and introducing them into the kingdom of heaven. This expression (receive wages) is explained by συνάγειν καρπόν (to gather fruit). Perhaps there is a reference to the act of baptism (John 4:2), by which these new brethren, the believing Samaritans, are about to be received by the disciples into the Messianic community. And why must the reaper set himself at work without delay? Because there is something exceptional to happen on this day, ἵνα (in order that). God has intended in this circumstance to bring to pass a remarkable thing, namely: that both the sower and the reaper may once rejoice together.

Those who apply the figure of the harvest to the future conversion of the Samaritans by the apostles, or to that of the Gentile world by St. Paul, are obliged to refer the common joy of the sower (Jesus), and the reaper (the apostles), to the heavenly triumph in which the Lord and His servants will rejoice together in the fruit of their labor. But, first, this interpretation breaks all logical connection between John 4:35 and John 4:36. How pass directly from this spectacle of the Samaritans who hasten to Him to the idea of the future establishment of the Gospel in their country or in the world? Then, the present χαίρῃ (may rejoice), refers naturally to a present joy, contrary to Meyer. Luthardt seeks to escape the difficulty by giving to ὁμοῦ (together), the sense, not of a simultaneous joy, but of a common joy, which is, of course, impossible. This sense of the adverb would, moreover, suppress the idea which constitutes the beauty of this expression, the simultaneousness of the joy of the two laborers. Jesus recognizes in what takes place at this moment, a feast which the Father has prepared for Him, and which He, the sower, is about to enjoy at the same time with His disciples, the reapers. In Israel Jesus has sowed, but He never has had the joy of being Himself present at a harvest. The ingathering will one day take place, no doubt, but when He will be no longer there. Here, on the contrary, through His providential meeting with this woman, through her docility and the eagerness of this population which hastens to Him, He sees the seed spring up and ripen in a moment, so that the harvest can be gathered, and He, the sower, may, at least once in His life, participate in the harvest-feast. This simultaneousness of joy, altogether exceptional, is strongly brought out by the ὁμοῦ (together), but also by the double καί (“ both the sower and the reaper”), and by the ἤδη (already), at the beginning of the clause. To understand fully the meaning of this gracious expression, we must remember that the Old Testament established a contrast between the function of the sower (united with that of the laborer), and the office of the reaper. The first was regarded as a painful labor; Psalms 126:5-6: “Those who sow with tears...He who puts the seed in the ground shall go weeping...” The reaper's task, on the contrary, was regarded as a joyous thing. “They shall reap with a song of triumph...He shall return with rejoicing, when he shall bring back his sheaves.” On this day, by reason of the rapidity with which the seed has germinated and ripened, the labor of the seed sowing meets the joyous shouts of the harvest. Herein is the explanation of the construction by which the verb χαίρῃ is much more closely connected, in the Greek sentence, with the first subject ὁ σπείρων, the sower, than with the second ὁ θερίζων, the reaper: “that the sower may rejoice at the same time with the reaper.”

Weiss refers the in order that to the intention of the reaper, who, being in the service of the same landholder as the sower, wishes that the latter also may rejoice with him. The idea, if we thoroughly understand him, is that the disciples were to reap in their future ministry, and this in order that Jesus may rejoice in heaven, at the same time that they rejoice on earth. But where has Jesus ever given to His disciples such a motive as this? And in what connection would this expression stand with the present case?