Jacob’s well is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Archaeologists place its location at the foot of Mount Gerizim. In this type of context the phrase may best be translated as “the well that belonged to Jacob” or “the well that used to belong to Jacob.” By employing the expression “used to,” the lapse in time between the coming of Jesus to Sychar and the historical background involved is emphasized.

In Greek the verb sat down is followed by an adverb which means “thus” or “so.” It is best to connect this adverb with the adjective phrase tired out by the trip, and so give it the meaning “just as he was”; (Goodspeed “So Jesus, tired with his journey, sat down just as he was”; Moffatt “Jesus exhausted by the journey, sat down at the spring, just as he was”; see also Phillips), though Jerusalem Bible apparently takes it with the verb sat down (“Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well”). Good News Translation and some other modern translations do not render this adverb explicitly, though by implication it is linked with the phrase tired out by the trip.

Although the Greek word translated well sometimes means “spring” (Moffatt, Goodspeed, for example), most scholars agree that in the present context the meaning is well. The Greek word could evidently be used of a deep well with a spring at the bottom—that is, a source of water which flowed in readily—in contrast with the kind of well in which water would seep in slowly. The fact that this spring at Sychar was at the bottom of an extensive excavation from which water had to be drawn by jars or buckets on a rope could justify its being called a well, even though it could also be designated technically as a “spring.”

It was about noon (see New English Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt, and Jerusalem Bible note) is literally “it was about the sixth hour.” It is assumed that John reckons the time of day from about six o’clock in the morning (see 1.39, where Good News Translation translates “the tenth hour” as four o’clock in the afternoon), and so “the sixth hour” was about noon. Normally, water would be drawn from a well either in the morning or in the evening, and for that reason some assume that John must be reckoning time from midnight, rather than from six in the morning. If so, the time indicated would be about 6.00 a.m. Although that method of reckoning time may suit the present verse, it would not apply at all to the “sixth hour” mentioned in 19.14, where the reference is obviously to noon.

Various languages employ many different types of expressions to indicate time, and many relatively idiomatic phrases to speak of noon, for example, “when the sun is falling straight upon us,” “when the sun is above our heads,” “when the sun stops” (implying that the sun is just beginning to start down), or “when the sun crosses over.”

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 .