Jesus’ disciples is literally “his disciples,” another pronominal reference which Good News Translation makes explicit.

At that moment may be rendered “just then” or “just as he said that.” In some languages, the connection between sentences may be indicated by repeating a brief part of the preceding sentence, or briefly referring to its contents.

In some cases the return of the disciples should be made more explicit, for example, “returned to where they had left Jesus” or “returned from where they had been in town.”

Greatly surprised (New English Bible “astonished”; Anchor Bible “shocked”; Phillips “very surprised”) translates a verb tense in Greek which, in this context, stresses the intensity of the disciples’ amazement. The surprise of the disciples may have been merely that Jesus was talking with a Samaritan woman, unusual for a Jew. Or their shock may have reflected the rabbinic tradition which specified that no rabbi should speak with a woman. However, since Jesus displayed no such stand-offish attitude toward women in general, their attitude was evidently occasioned by the fact that the woman was a Samaritan.

The Greek text of this verse does not make explicit whether the first question of the disciples was addressed to Jesus or to the woman. Good News Translation and New American Bible (“What do you want of him?”) make this a question directed to the woman, but most translations imply that the question was directed to Jesus. In the Greek text the second question is explicitly directed to Jesus, and on the basis of this observation it may seem natural to have both questions directed to him (Jerusalem Bible “What do you want from her?”). However, it is not possible to be positive on this point.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .