What Does John 4:7 Mean?
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.THE KEY
The giver of living water begins by asking to receive, making need the doorway through which gift is revealed.
THE MEANING
Need does not leave you with nothing to offer: Jesus receives from the woman before he speaks of what he can give. The moment holds both directions at once, her ordinary water and his living water.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your need leaves you with nothing to give: Jesus begins by receiving from the woman before he offers what she lacks.
THE ROOT
δός
dos
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω-
Give; the Greek δο-/δω- (do-/dō-) stem appears in δίδωμι (didōmi, “to give”).
The word δός is the imperative “give,” and its giving family includes δῶρον (dōron, “gift”) and δωρεά (dōreā, “gift, bounty”), the word used moments later for “the gift of God.” English separates the request from the gift, while Greek lets their shared giving stem echo between them.
ALSO GROWS
dōron: gift
δῶρον
This related form makes the request to give water resonate with the gift Jesus reveals in the next part of the conversation.
dōreā: gift, bounty
δωρεά
This word from the same giving family appears in John 4:10 as “the gift of God,” turning the exchange toward living water.
THE PATTERN
A request for water becomes an opening through which a greater gift is revealed.
And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me drink, I pray you, a little of the waters from your jar.Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.And the Breath and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who thirsts come. Let whoever wills take the waters of life as a gift.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.The word translated “gift” is δωρεά (dōreā), from the same δο-/δω- giving family as δός (“give”) in this verse. The conversation moves from her giving water to the disclosure of God’s gift: the same giving root opens both sides of the exchange.
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