Ἰωάννην 4:18

Greek Modern Translation

διοτι πεντε ανδρας ελαβες, και εκεινος, τον οποιον εχεις τωρα, δεν ειναι ανηρ σου· τουτο αληθες ειπας.

Parallel Translations

SBL Greek New Testament (2010)
πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας ἔσχες, καὶ νῦν ὃν ἔχεις οὐκ ἔστιν σου ἀνήρ· τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας.

Tischendorf 8th Edition
πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας ἔσχες, καὶ νῦν ὃν ἔχεις οὐκ ἔστιν σου ἀνήρ· τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας.

Textus Receptus (1550/1894)
πεντε γας ανδρας εσχες και νυν ον εχεις ουκ εστιν σου ανης τουτο αληθες ειρηκας

Westcott/Hort UBS4 (1881)
πεντε γαρ ανδρας εσχες και νυν ον εχεις ουκ εστιν σου ανηρ τουτο αληθες ειρηκας

Byzantine/Majority Text
πεντε γας ανδρας εσχες και νυν ον εχεις ουκ εστιν σου ανης τουτο αληθες ειρηκας

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

is not: Genesis 20:3, Genesis 34:2, Genesis 34:7, Genesis 34:8, Genesis 34:31, Numbers 5:29, Ruth 4:10, Jeremiah 3:20, Ezekiel 16:32, Mark 10:12, Romans 7:3, 1 Corinthians 7:10, 1 Corinthians 7:11, Hebrews 13:4

Reciprocal: Ezekiel 16:35 - O harlot John 4:16 - Go John 4:29 - General Romans 11:20 - Well

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For thou hast had five husbands,.... Which she either had had lawfully, and had buried one after another; and which was no crime, and might be: the Sadducees propose a case to Christ, in which a woman is said to have had seven husbands successively, in a lawful manner, Matthew 22:25. Or rather, she had had so many, and had been divorced from everyone of them, for adultery; for no other cause it should seem did the Samaritans divorce; seeing that they only received the law of Moses, and rejected, at least, many of the traditions of the elders; and since they are particularly said y

"not to be expert in the law of marriages and divorces:''

and the rather this may seem to be the case, as Dr. Lightfoot observes; since these husbands are mentioned, as well as he with whom she lived in an adulterous manner; and which suggests, that she had not lived honestly with them:

and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband; that is, not thy lawful husband, as the Persic version reads, and Nonnus paraphrases; being not married to him at all, though they cohabited as man and wife, when there was no such relation between them:

in that saidst thou truly; or that which is truth: thus Christ the omniscient God, who knew her full well, and the whole of her past infamous conversation, and her present lewd and wicked way of living, exposes all unto her.

y T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol 76. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hast had five husbands - Who have either died; or who, on account of your improper conduct, have divorced you; or whom you have left improperly, without legal divorce. Either of these might have be. en the case.

Is not thy husband - You are not lawfully married to him. Either she might have left a former husband without divorce, and thus her marriage with this man was unlawful, or she was living with him without the form of marriage, in open guilt.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 4:18. Thou hast had five husbands — It is not clear that this woman was a prostitute: she might have been legally married to those five, and might have been divorced through some misbehaviour of her own, not amounting to adultery; for the adulteress was to be put to death, both by the Jewish and Samaritan law, not divorced: or she might have been cast off through some caprice of her husband; for, in the time of our Lord, divorces were very common among the Jews, so that a man put away his wife for any fault. Matthew 5:31. Some are so very fond of exaggerating that nothing can pass through their hands without an increase: hence Heracleon says she had six husbands, and Jerome modestly gives her twenty-two! Viginti duos habuisti maritos, et ille a quo sepelieris non est tuus. "Thou hast had twenty-two husbands and he by whom thou shalt be buried is not thine." Epist. xi.

He whom thou now hast is not thy husband — Νυν ὁν εχεις, ουκ εϚι σου ανηρ. Bishop Pearce would translate this clause in the following manner: There is no husband whom thou now hast-or, less literally, Thou hast no husband now: probably the meaning is, Thou art contracted to another, but not yet brought home: therefore he is not yet thy husband. See Rosenmuller. Bishop Pearce contends that our Lord did not speak these words to her by way of reproof:

1. Because it is not likely that a woman so far advanced in years as to have had five husbands should have now been found living in adultery with a sixth person.

2. Because it is not likely that our Lord would not, in some part of his discourse, have reproved her for her fornication, especially if guilty of it under such gross circumstances.

3. Nor is it likely that a woman of so bad a life should have had so much influence with the people of her city that they should, on her testimony, John 4:39-42, believe Jesus to be the Messiah.

4. Nor is it at all likely that when a discovery of her guilt was made to her, by one whom she acknowledged to be a prophet, John 4:19, the first thing which came into her thoughts should be the important question in religion, about the place appointed by God for his worship, so warmly contested between the Jews and Samaritans.

5. Nor is it at all probable that a person of such a bad life, without any mentioned sign of repentance, should have been the first (perhaps the only private person) to whom Jesus is recorded as declaring himself to be the Christ, as he does to her, John 4:26.