(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

JOHN 4:8KJV
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John 4:8 (KJV)

What does John 4:8 mean?

John 4:8 explains why Jesus is at the well without his disciples, the people who followed and learned from him. They have gone into the city to buy food, leaving him there when a Samaritan woman comes to draw water.

The sentence is the narrator’s explanation, set in parentheses in the KJV. It follows Jesus’ request for a drink and helps the reader picture the scene: his companions are occupied elsewhere while he speaks with the woman.

The Greek behind John 4:8

  • “meat” — τροφή (trophē): The Greek word carries the sense of food or nourishment. In the KJV’s older English, “meat” can mean food generally, not just animal flesh.

Why John 4:8 matters

  • The disciples’ absence helps explain their surprise when they return. John 4:27 says they wondered that Jesus was talking with the woman.
  • The trip into the city also sets up the later conversation about food. After the disciples urge Jesus to eat, he speaks of food they do not know about, and they wonder whether someone has brought him something to eat (John 4:31–33).

Where else these words appear

“meat” Greek G5160 · used in 16 verses

  • Matthew 3:4 And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
  • Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
  • Acts 27:36 Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.

“buy” Greek G59 · used in 31 verses

  • Matthew 13:44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
  • Mark 15:46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

“away” Greek G565 · used in 118 verses

  • Matthew 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:
  • Mark 5:17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
  • Luke 23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.