March 7th, 2026

The season of Lent continues on, with this Sunday having the title of the Third Sunday in Lent. And this week’s Gospel Reading continues with the Gospel according to John. In contrast to last week’s reading of chapter three and Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, this week’s reading in chapter four Jesus has a conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria, one who was married five times. Such an interesting—and huge—spectrum of people! And the Gospel Reading is John 4:5-26, with the option of also having verses 27 through 30, and then also 39 through 42.

With the writings of this website, most recently we have been going through the Gospel according to John. We have been translating them a little bit at a time, in the order in which they were originally laid out, not skipping any parts. And we are currently going through what is usually called the seventh chapter of that account.

It was mentioned in last week’s writing that the chapter divisions were added centuries after the texts were written and that many of the chapter beginnings have a definite point of division, a time where the reader and/or listener can take a break (if desired). In this Gospel account, the Jewish holidays and festivals are mentioned, and they supply a progression through the entire account. The account basically starts at Passover, and it also ends at another Passover. Passover time is in the Spring, extremely near to the festival of Easter.

The first part of the seventh chapter mentioned that Jesus, in the middle of the Feast, went up into the temple (see John 7:14). In the translated section below, the start of the text relates that Jesus is going to do something special on the last and final day of the Feast. Having something important in the middle and at the end is significant. (And you may note that Nicodemus comes up in the text below as well!)

To relate all the times that something important happens in the middle and at the end would take a long time to relate. Two points may be made at this point in time. First of all, it may be said that having an important point at the middle and at the end is a good structure. People usually know very easily that they are at the beginning of something new. And it may be helpful for them to know when they are at a halfway point. And, as things often go this way in movies, TV shows, and many other things, the endings are important as well. A second thing that could be said is that the divisions of chapter and verse tend to focus the reader on the very beginning of the text, whereas a halfway point in a Gospel account may be in chapter fifteen, nine, eleven, or ten, or a good ending point may be in chapter twenty-eight, sixteen, twenty-four, or twenty-one, but all of those points may not always be automatically obvious, and the ENTIRE text may be considered to be VERY important.

If you are familiar with the translations of this writing, you may skip this and the following paragraph. The translation below may be described as EXTREMELY literal, and because of that, it may be EXTREMELY helpful to have another translation of the text nearby or perhaps a study bible.

The first thing to mention regarding the description of being EXTREMELY literal is that the verse numbers will not be included within the text itself. Hopefully that will not be a problem. It should also be noted that the words with hyphens occur when more than one English word is used to describe a single word of the ancient Greek. And the particular words chosen below are meant to point out the close connection that often occurs between the English and Greek languages. Also important to mention is that the order of the words below is also the same order that is in the ancient Greek. This may help to show the important words, especially when another word besides the verb is first in the sentence. The exception to this translation order is that there are just a small number of words that are usually second (but sometimes fourth!) in a sentence that are meant to be first when translated. One more thing to mention is that the verbs in capital letters are called HISTORICAL PRESENTS, where a verb in a past tense is expected, but a verb in the present tense is given. These have been explained elsewhere, and it may be helpful to read some of the other writings of this website.

What follows is what was promised, an EXTREMELY literal translation of John 7:37-52:
Now  in  the  eschaton  day,  the  mega  of-the  Feast,  he-stood,  the  Jesus,  and  he-cried-out,  saying,  “If  a-certain-one  is-thirsty,  let-him-come  toward  me  and  let-him-drink.  The-one  believing  into  me,  just-as  it-said,  the  Graph,  ‘Rivers  out-of  the  belly  of-him,  they-will-flow,  hydro  of-living.’”  Now  this  he-said  concerning  the  Spirit,  of-whom  they-were-about  to-receive,  the-ones  having-believed  into  him;  for  not-yet  he-was,  the-Spirit,  because  Jesus  not-yet  he-was-glorified.

Therefore,  out-of  the  crowd,  having-heard  the  words,  these,  they-were-saying,  “This-man  is  truly  the  Prophet.”  Others  were-saying,  “This-man  is  the  Christ;”  Now  the-ones  were-saying,  “For  not  out-of  the  Galilee,  the  Christ  comes?  Not  the  Graph  did-say  that  out-of  the  sperm  of-David,  and  from  Bethlehem,  the  village  where  he-was,  David;  he-comes,  the  Christ?”  Therefore  a-schism  happened  in  the  crowd  because-of  him;  now  some,  they-were-wanting,  out-of  them,  to-arrest  him,  but-on-the-contrary,  no-one  threw-upon,  upon  him,  the  hands.

Therefore  they-came,  the  assistants  toward  the  chief-priests  and  Pharisees,  and  they-said  to-them,  those:  “On-account-of  why,  not  did-you-bring  him?”

The  assistants  answered,  “Never  he-spoke  thus,  an-anthropoid.”

Therefore  they-answered  them,  the  Pharisees,  “Not  also  you,  you-have-been-deceived?  Not  anyone  out-of  the  rulers  did-believe  into  him,  or  out-of  the  Pharisees?  But-on-the-contrary,  the  crowd,  this,  the-one  not  knowing  the  Law,  cursed  they-are.”

HE-SAYS,  Nicodemus,  toward  them,  the-one  having-come  toward  him,  the  proteron,  one  being  out-of  them,  “Does-not  the  Law  of-us,  it-judges  the  anthropoid  if  not  it-hears  proton  from  him,  and  it-knows  what  he-does?”
​
They-answered,  and  they-said  to-him,  “Not  also  you,  out-of  the  Galilee,  you-are?  Search  and  see  that  out-of  the  Galilee,  a-prophet  not  he-arises.”