=21-24. Believe me.= This expression is nowhere else used by our Lord. It answers to his “Verily, verily, I say unto you” (Matt. 5:18, note), and to Paul’s “This is a faithful (_i. e._, trustworthy) saying” (1 Tim. 1:15, 4:9; Tit. 3:8). He employs it here because his declaration is partly in the nature of a prophecy, which must be accepted, if at all, upon simple trust in him.--=The hour cometh.= The word _hour_ is here equivalent to time or season; this use of “hour” is not infrequent in John’s Gospel (ch. 2:4; 5:25, 28, 35, “season;” 8:20, etc.).--=When ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.= A prophecy which was speedily, perhaps in the lifetime of this woman, fulfilled. The ravaging of Palestine by the Roman armies, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, has scattered the worshippers throughout the world. The Samaritan sect is indeed extinct, except the few survivors at Nablus, but the Jews continue their worship in exile in every land (Mal. 1:11).--=Ye worship ye know not what.= Their ignorance concerning the nature of the true God is indicated in their early history (2 Kings 17:24-34). The woman was solicitous concerning the _place_ of worship; Christ directs her thought toward the _person_ to be worshipped.--=We know what we worship.= This is the only instance in which Christ classes himself with the Jews by the pronoun _we_. He accepts, for the time, her estimate of him as a Jewish prophet, and declares that it is in the Jewish Scripture she is to look for a knowledge of the true God. In fact, all correct knowledge of the character, attributes, and dealings of God, possessed by the world to-day, has come through the Jewish people, by means of the Old and New Testaments (see Romans 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5). At the time of this conversation idolatry had entirely disappeared from the Jewish nation; and however inadequate, imperfect, and corrupt their worship, they at least recognized the one only true God. Notwithstanding some efforts to prove the contrary, I think it is historically demonstrable that Judaism is the source of all monotheistic religion. It is reasonably certain that the monotheism of Mohammedanism is due to Mohammed’s early instruction in the principles of Judaism.--=For the salvation is of the Jews.= The definite article in the original, unfortunately omitted in our English version, gives not only emphasis but significance to the language. The Jews know what they worship, because it is from them, as a nation, that there comes forth the divine salvation, typified by the sacrifices at Jerusalem, prophesied by Jewish Scripture, and fulfilled by the Messiah born at Bethlehem in Judea. It is therefore here equivalent not merely to the Saviour, but also includes all the preparations which preceded his personal advent.--=But the hour cometh and now is.= The last clause is added parenthetically as a suggestion that the woman is not to look to