Lost In Translation: John 4:14

Jesus used this verse to answer a Samaritan woman after she asks him why he, a Judean, would ask her for a drink of water. Judeans and Samaritans avoided each other. He first tells her that if she knew who he was, she would ask him for “living water.” She then asks if he is greater than Jacob who dug the well from which she draws her water. Jacob was the forefather of both the Samaritans and Judeans. Previous generations, especially the patriarchs like Jacob, were considered superior to the current one. Jesus answers her question with this verse.

Below is the KJV and my more literal version of John 4:14. This verse is interesting because even a literal translation doesn’t capture all its aspects. We also cannot appreciate it without some familiarity with Judean culture and the Greek language.

KJV: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Listeners Heard: But whoever drinks from this water that I myself will give him, never will thirst as far as this era. Instead, the water that I will give him will become within him a font of water springing up into a life on-going.

The light-hearted feeling of this verse in Greek begins with the word, “drink.” Water was considered valuable in Jesus’s culture. No one took it for granted like we do today. Water was valued so much at the time that the Greek word “to drink” also means “to celebrate.” Droughts from lack of rain were frequent. Some went on for years killing through starvation more broadly than plagues. Drinking was celebrating life whether they were drinking water or wine.

The light-hearted feeling of this verse begins with the word, “drink.” Water was valued so much that the Greek word “to drink” also means “to celebrate.” At the time, droughts from lack of rain went on for years and killed as badly as plagues. Drinking water was celebrating life. Drinking wine was even more cause for celebration. “Not thirsting,” especially, not dying of thirst was what was celebrated.

This brings us to the bold-faced phrase in the literal translation, “as far as this era”. This phrase is missing from the KJV and from all the English translations I examined except Young’s Literal Translation. Some add an “again” or “ever” in its place, but that doesn’t capture its meaning.

Why is it Left Out?

Sometimes the motives for changing Jesus’s words are mysterious, but other times they are transparently self-serving. Recently, I saw a YouTube video about what makes good biblical translation according to Mark Ward, Ph.D. One of his main criteria was that the translation conforms with the majority of mainstream Christian thought. He didn’t think conforming to the actual Greek words was important at all. As a translator of ancient languages, this seems like a crackpot idea to me, as if our “beliefs” and “consensus” comes first, then we fit the meaning we want into the words. How can we learn anything from this approach?

This point of view explains why our Biblical translations all repeat the errors of others and why they are all so bland and boring. Isn’t it more honest to struggle with Jesus words rather than ignoring them and sweeping his meaning under our rug of consensus? As translators, we should not “let go of the commands of God and hold on to human traditions (Mark 7:8).”

“As Far As the Era”

The word I translate as “era” in the missing phrase is a word that biblical translators consistently mistranslate in two different ways: as “eternal” to teach “eternal life” ( (see this article) or as “generation,” to caste aspersions on Jesus’s generation (see this article). The context of this verse makes it difficult to translate in either way without running afoul of mainstream Christian tradition.

The Greek word primarily means an “age,” “era,” or “lifetime.” It also means a “generation” as a measure of lifetime or era. A “generation” is how long it takes for one generation to produce the next generation and have it grow to reproductive maturity, twenty or thirty years. This means that this phrase could also means that only those in the current generation could drink this water and not thirst. We might want to avoid this version just because “generation” is not the most common way this word was understood.

Living Water

Jesus’s meaning may be clarified by the phrase “living water” used only twice by Jesus, once earlier in this scene (John 4:10) and later in John 7:38. How did the people of his time hear these two words? If you look at dissertations on this idea, they will tell you that it means “flowing” water, because such water is not stagnant. Of course, that doesn’t work here because we are talking about well water, not a flowing stream. But what quality makes water living if not its flow?

In the Greek and Roman eras, "water” also ran it a different context. The word “water” was used to describe time running out. This meaning came from the clocks used in courts then, the clepsydra, a water clock. When pleading your case, water literally measured the time you had before a decision was rendered. In English, saying, “it is his time,” could mean that something good is happening to him or something bad, depending on what happens. In Greek, they used the word “water” in the same way. “It is his water” means “his time” to rise up or to drown.

When Jesus says, “a font of water springing up into perpetual life,” he is describing water that keeps producing more water. This water is living in a scientific way. Biological life is what grows and reproduces itself. If water is the time of our lives, instead of time running out, “living water” is continuing our lives. It is not just a life for a generation but a “life on-going.”

Final Questions

This leaves us with a few questions: how does one “drink this water?” Who are the ones drinking? The answer to these questions is outside of this verse. The Samaritan woman asks for this water, but we cannot say if it was given or not. If I were to guess, however, I would guess those drinking are those rediscovering Jesus’s words rather than reading the traditions of consensus Christianity.