What Does John 4:6 Mean in the King James?

Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

John 4:6 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The giver of living water begins the encounter as a tired traveler seated at a well.

THE MEANING

Weariness does not interrupt the encounter: Jesus is tired, sits at the source, and the meeting begins there. This scene holds bodily limits and the possibility of life-giving encounter in the same frame.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that an encounter with God can happen only after you have moved beyond your bodily limits.

THE ROOT

πηγή

pēgē

GROWS FROM

πηγ-

pēg-

Spring or source.

The Greek word translated “well” also means a spring or source. The same word appears in Jesus’ later image of water becoming a source within a person, connecting the well beside him with the life he offers.

ALSO GROWS

pēgazō: To spring or gush forth.

πηγάζω

This verb makes the source dynamic: it is not only a place to draw water from, but something water can flow out of.

pēgaios: Of or from a spring; spring-fed.

πηγαῖος

This adjective keeps the word family connected to water at its source, deepening the well as more than a hole in the ground.

κεκοπιακώς

kekopiakōs

GROWS FROM

κοπ-

kop-

Toil or exertion.

The Greek word for “wearied” belongs to the word family of toil and labor. Jesus’ tiredness is the bodily cost of the road he has traveled, and the encounter begins with that limit fully present.

ALSO GROWS

kopos: Toil, labor, or trouble.

κόπος

This noun makes visible the exertion behind the weariness in the verse.

kopiaō: To labor, work hard, or grow weary.

κοπιάω

This verb shares the word family of the verse’s “wearied,” tying fatigue to the work and effort that precede it.

THE PATTERN

A well gathers ordinary need into a meeting place where the next movement of the story opens.

And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth.

Genesis 29:2 · KJVThe well is the scene’s point of arrival and the place where Jacob’s meeting with Rachel begins.

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

Exodus 2:15 · KJVMoses arrives at the well after fleeing, and the encounter that follows opens his next chapter of life.

Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

John 4:6 · KJVJesus’ weariness brings him to Jacob’s well, where a meeting begins in the middle of an ordinary need for water.

THE THREAD

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:14 · KJV

The Greek noun ⁨πηγή⁩ (pēgē, source or spring) names both Jacob’s well here and the inner “well” in Jesus’ promise. The tired traveler seated at the source becomes the one who offers a source of life within.

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