John 4:24a: A Greek Study -- By: John Henry Bennetch
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 107:425 (Jan 1950)
Article: John 4:24a: A Greek Study
Author: John Henry Bennetch
BSac 107:425 (Jan 50) p. 71
John 4:24a: A Greek Study
“It is impossible for the finite mind to define, to explain or understand fully this great utterance ‘God is a spirit.’“1 And naturally so, for this is to discuss the nature of God. “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?” (Isa 40:17–18). But on the other hand it must be added that the Bible unites a simplicity of statement with its profundity. Here in the Gospel narrative (John 4:24a) a woman was being addressed, one with no reputation and no connection with the Chosen People. So the Lord Jesus could use no technical terms of theology in carrying on His exalted conversation with her. “Spirit” itself is a word of everyday life. It merely stands for air, the air that we breathe constantly. John 3:8 had used the same Greek word when a similar conversation was proceeding between Nicodemus and the Lord Jesus Christ.2
“Scholars who come to Christ,” someone has observed keenly, “must expect to find no distinction drawn between their intellectual pretensions and the ignorance of the masses. Our Lord never had any gospel to preach which could not be compared with those blessings—bread, water, light and air—that are the same for all to enjoy. All His
BSac 107:425 (Jan 50) p. 72
words were so simple that all who heard them could not fail, except willfully, to understand what He meant. Not once did He descend to what we call pulpit language. Not one sentence did He utter that could be called stilted or pompous or technical. His sayings were collected into a continuity. But there was never less of a sermon, as we understand that term, than the Sermon on the Mount. Of time and eternity it is, in the language of Luther, the table talk. The common people heard Him gladly.”3
Some of the greatest pronouncements by the Scripture occur in unexpected places like John 4:24. The so-called kenosis passage of Philippians is a good illustration from the Epistles, while Psalm 110 might illustrate the principle from the Old Testament. To begin his treatment of Theology Proper the declaration is truthfully made by Shedd: “The words of our Lord to the Samaritan woman, ‘God is a Spirit,’ John 4:24, although spo...
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