John 4:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then saith the woman, How is it that thou, being a Jew As it appears by thy habit and dialect thou art; askest drink of me, &c., for the Jews have no dealings Or rather, no friendly intercourse; with the Samaritans They would receive no kind of favour from them. That the expression, no dealings, as Dr. Campbell justly observes, “implies too much to suit the sense of this passage, is manifest from the preceding verse, where we are told, that the disciples were gone into the Samaritan city Sychar to buy food. The verb συγχραομαι, is one of those called απαξ λεγομενα, once used: it does not occur in any other place of the New Testament, or in the Septuagint. The Pharisees were in their traditions nice distinguishers. Buying and selling with the Samaritans were permitted, because that was considered as an intercourse merely of interest or convenience; borrowing and lending, much more asking or accepting any favour, was prohibited; because that was regarded as an intercourse of friendship, which they thought it impious to maintain with those whom they looked upon as the enemies of God.”