Greek Key Terms:
Context: Jesus' dialogue with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4:1-42) turns from living water (vv. 7-15) to husband-history (vv. 16-18) to the question of worship-location (vv. 19-24). She asks the Samaritan-Jewish controversy question: "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain (Gerizim), but you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship" (v. 20). Jesus' answer in vv. 21-24 dissolves the question: "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." He then makes a positive redemptive-historical claim — "salvation is from the Jews" (v. 22, affirming the priority of Jerusalem worship in its historical function) — and announces the eschatological turning-point: "But the hour is coming, and is now here (ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν), when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The "already-not-yet" tension is built into the grammar: ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν — a coming hour that has also already arrived. The calendar-and-place bound worship of the old covenant is being inaugurated into Spirit-and-truth worship, not because worship is becoming less liturgical, but because Christ Himself has come as the true temple (John 2:19-22) and the true mediator.
Connections:
Christological Connection: John 4:21-24 is the decisive NT dominical word on the Christological reconfiguration of the covenant calendar and place. Jesus does not abolish the OT worship-system; He reveals Himself as the place and time toward which the whole system was moving. For the New Moons trajectory, three points are decisive. First, Jesus locates true worship in Himself, not in the calendar. Worship "in spirit and truth" is not generalized spirituality — it is worship in the Holy Spirit (whom Jesus sends, John 7:39; John 14:26) and in the truth that is Christ Himself ("I am the way, and the truth, and the life," John 14:6). The new moon was a calendar-marker that scheduled covenant access; Christ is the covenant access, always open. Second, the phrase ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν ("the hour is coming, and is now here") captures the inaugurated eschatology that shapes the whole trajectory. The calendar's dissolution is already-not-yet: the institutions remain in the first century (the early church keeps gathering on calendar-rhythms — the Lord's Day, Pentecost), but their typological function is fulfilled, so that no one may impose them (Col 2:16) or revert to them as grounds of standing (Gal 4:10). Third, the Father seeks such worshipers (v. 23, ζητεῖ) — the divine initiative is toward heart-worship, not calendar-keeping. This fulfills Isaiah 66:23's "all flesh shall come to worship before me": the universalized worship Isaiah foresaw finds its inauguration in this moment, with a Samaritan woman becoming the first evangelist in John's Gospel (vv. 28-30, 39-42). The new-moon institution could never have produced Samaritan worship of YHWH — it was too calendar-bound, too Jerusalem-bound, too shadow-bound. Christ's inauguration of Spirit-and-truth worship reaches what the new moons could only gesture toward: universal, perpetual, heart-deep worship of the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Paul's application is direct: "We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3) — the calendar-and-flesh markers are replaced not by no markers but by the true marker, Christ Himself. The trajectory's final resolution in Revelation 21:22 — "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" — is John 4:21's consummation: worship perfectly unbound from every earthly location or time, perfectly bound to the triune God.
Connection Method(s): Typology (Forward-Looking) — Jesus' announcement that "the hour is coming, and is now here" inaugurates the shadow-substance transition that Colossians 2:16-17 will articulate explicitly, with calendar-and-place-bound worship yielding to Spirit-and-truth worship in Christ. Also Promise-Fulfillment — Isaiah 66:23's "all flesh" worship promise begins fulfillment in the Samaritan woman's conversion (John 4:28-30, 39-42) and the universalized Spirit-and-truth worship Jesus inaugurates. Also Contrast — calendar-and-place-bound access (Deut 12:5; 2 Kgs 4:23; new moons) contrasts with Christ's perpetual access through the Spirit.
Trajectory Table: 110 - New Moons (Renewal and Rest)
Related Trajectory Tables: TT 134 — Sabbath