John 4:25 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

The woman by this reply, though a woman of Samaria, showeth herself to be a Jew, for she was one of them who lived in an expectation of one whom the Jews called the Messiah, prophesied of by Daniel under this notion, Daniel 9:25,26, and by the psalmist, Psalms 2:2; which term Messiah signifieth Christ (that is, anointed) in the Greek. She had a further notion, that this Messiah should be a great Prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15; yea, she appears to have had a further notion of the Messiah, viz. that when he came he should reveal to them the whole will of God as to the salvation of man, and the worship of God: this lets us know, that she was none of the Assyrian part of the inhabitants of Samaria. If any ask, how she, being a Samaritan, should know any thing of the Messiah, the Samaritans receiving only the five books of Moses? It is easily answered, That even the five books of Moses make mention of the Messiah, under the notion of the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15, the seed of Abraham, Genesis 12:3, Shiloh, Genesis 49:10, the Prophet like to Moses, Deuteronomy 18:15. And for the name Messiah, she might easily learn it from other Jews, that the Person called Shiloh, and the Prophet, was called by Daniel the Messiah.

John 4:25

25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.