Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain - that is, mount Gerizim (Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:12; Joshua 8:33; Judges 9:7). In the Samaritan Pentateuch, instead of "Ebal" (Deuteronomy 27:4) - on which Moses commanded the altar to be erected, with the Ten Commandments written upon the stones of it (see Deuteronomy 27:1-8) - the word "Gerizim" stands; and the Samaritans are tenacious of this reading as their warrant for holding Gerizim to be the divinely-ordained place of public worship, on which they have acted from age to age, and do even to this day. 'There is,' says Stanley, 'probably no other locality in which the same worship has been sustained with so little change or interruption for so great a series of years as that of this mountain, from Abraham to the present day. In their humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain, the Samaritans still worship-the oldest and the smallest sect in the world.' Robinson found their whole number scarcely to exceed a hundred and fifty souls. 'Mounts Gerizim and Ebal,' says this last distinguished traveler, 'rise in steep rocky precipices from the valley on each side, apparently some eight hundred feet in height. The sides of both these mountains, as here seen, were to our eyes equally naked and sterile.'
And ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Was this question asked-as Stier, Alford, and others think-merely for information on an important religious question? In that case it seems a strange way of meeting our Lord's home-thrust. But if we view it as the question of one who had been stunned by so unexpected a revelation of her sinful life, made to her by one whom she had begun to regard in no common light-all seems clear enough. Though she saw herself all disclosed, she is not yet prepared to break down and ask what hopes there might be for one so guilty. Her convictions have come upon her too suddenly for that. She shifts the question, therefore, from a personal to a public one, though the sequel shows how this revelation of her past life had told upon her. So her reply is not, 'Alas, what a wicked life have I been leading!' but, 'Lo, what a wonderful prophet have I gotten into conversation with! He will be able to settle that interminable dispute between us and the Jews.
Sir, our fathers hold to this mountain,' pointing to Gerizim, 'as the divinely consecrated place of worship, but ye Jews say that Jerusalem is the proper place: say, which of us is right, thou to whom all such things are doubtless known.' How slowly does the human heart submit to thorough humiliation! Compare the prodigal (see the note at Luke 15:15). Doubtless our Lord saw through her, and perceived the more immediate object of her question. But how does He meet it? Does He say 'That is not the point just now; but how stands it with thy heart and life? Until that is disposed of theological controversies must be let alone?' The Prince of preachers takes another method: He humours the poor woman, letting her take her own way, allowing her to lead while He follows-but thus only the more effectively gaining His purpose. He answers her question, pours light into her mind on the spirituality of all true worship, even as of its glorious Object, and so brings her insensibly to the point at which He could disclose to her wondering mind whom she was all the while speaking to.