For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.
Parallel translations
- WEB For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
- KJV (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
- BSB (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
- NKJV For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
- NLT He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The disciples had gone into town to buy food, leaving Jesus alone with the woman. This explains the private setting of the conversation.
Overview
The detail accounts for why Jesus and the woman could speak one-on-one. It also heightens the later surprise of the disciples returning to find him talking with her. The narrative aside keeps the focus on the unfolding dialogue about living water.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Luke 9:13But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we should go and buy food for all these people.”
- John 6:5–7Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”
- John 4:5So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
- John 4:39From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I did.”
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 4:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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