Bible / John
John 4
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation
1 When Jesus therefore understood that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples and baptizeth more than John,
2 (Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples), CCC
3 He left Judea and went again into Galilee. CCC
4 And he was of necessity to pass through Samaria.
5 He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. Fathers
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink.
8 For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. CCC
9 Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew; ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. CCC
10 Jesus answered and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God and who he is that saith to thee: Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. CCC
11 The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou living water? CCC
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof, himself and his children and his cattle? CCC
13 Jesus answered and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever. CCC
14 But the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. CCC · Fathers
15 The woman said to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither. CCC
17 The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well: I have no husband.
18 For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This, thou hast said truly.
19 The woman saith to him: Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers adored on this mountain: and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. CCC
21 Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. CCC
22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know. For salvation is of the Jews. CCC
23 But the hour cometh and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him. CCC
24 God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. CCC
25 The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ): therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things. CCC
26 Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee. CCC
27 And immediately his disciples came. And they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou? Or: Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman therefore left her waterpot and went her way into the city and saith to the men there:
29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?
30 They went therefore out of the city and came unto him.
31 In the mean time, the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat.
32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat which you know not.
33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat?
34 Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work. CCC
35 Do not you say: There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries. For they are white already to harvest. Fathers
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth. Fathers
38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour. Others have laboured: and you have entered into their labours.
39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.
40 So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed in him, because of his own word. Fathers
42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard him and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
43 Now after two days, he departed thence and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
45 And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day: for they also went to the festival day.
46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum.
47 He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him and prayed him to come down and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
48 Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.
49 The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die.
50 Jesus saith to him: Go thy way. Thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way.
51 And as he was going down, his servants met him: and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.
52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
53 The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him: Thy son liveth. And himself believed, and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.
This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church
Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.
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“… would He have hungered, fasting those forty days, like Moses and Elias, unless His body was craving after its own proper nourishment; nor, again, would John His disciple have said, when writing of Him, "But Jesus, being wearied with the journey, was sitting [to rest];”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
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- CCC 457 “The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his…”
- CCC 694 “Water. the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes…”
- CCC 728 “Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by…”
- CCC 1137 “The book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church's liturgy, first reveals to us, "A throne stood in heaven, with…”
- CCC 2560 “If you knew the gift of God!" The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there,…”
- CCC 2561 “You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." Paradoxically our prayer of petition is a response to…”
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 457 “The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his…”
- CCC 694 “Water. the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes…”
- CCC 728 “Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by…”
- CCC 1137 “The book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church's liturgy, first reveals to us, "A throne stood in heaven, with…”
- CCC 1999 “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit…”
- CCC 2652 “The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches…”
“Since the Son of God is always one and the same, He gives to those who believe on Him a well of water”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXXVI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
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- CCC 221 “But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": God's very being is love. By sending his only…”
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- CCC 2840 “Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven…”
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- CCC 586 “Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay…”
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- CCC 586 “Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay…”
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- CCC 728 “Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by…”
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- CCC 439 “Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic "Son of David",…”
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- CCC 439 “Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic "Son of David",…”
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- CCC 606 “The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do (his) own will, but the will of him who sent…”
- CCC 2611 “The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the…”
- CCC 2824 “In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on…”
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“For I have sent you forward to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour; other men have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
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“For although Abraham was one, he did in himself prefigure the two covenants, in which some indeed have sown, while others have reaped; for it is said, "In this is the saying true, that it is one people' who sows, but another who shall reap;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
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“… when the Lord had tarried among them, two days, "believed because of His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we ourselves have heard [Him], and know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter II. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.