The First Sign: Turning Water into Wine
1 On the third day a wedding took place in Cana a of Galilee. b Jesus’s mother c was there, and 2 Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well. 3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.”
4 “What does that have to do with you and me,,d woman?”e Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.
6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. f Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.
7 “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did.
9 When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom 10 and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.”
11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana g of Galilee. h He revealed i his glory, j and his disciples believed in him.
12 After this, he went down to Capernaum, k together with his mother, his brothers, l and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.
Cleansing the Temple
13 The Jewish Passover m was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. n 14 In the temple o he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. 15 After making a whip out of cords, p he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep q and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16 He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s r house s into a marketplace! ”,t
17 And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal u for your house will consume v me. ,w
18 So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things? ”
19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple,,x and I will raise it up in three days.”y
20 Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days? ” z
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. a 22 So when he was raised from the dead, b his disciples remembered that he had said this, c and they believed the Scripture d and the statement Jesus had made.
23 While he was in Jerusalem e during the Passover Festival, f many believed in his name g when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man. h
2:1–5. We know that Jesus is already in the region of Galilee (1:43), and the best identification for Cana is Khirbet Qana, near Nazareth. John indicates that Jesus arrives here on “the third day” (2:1a). This may refer to traveling time to Cana or fit the day sequence in chapter 1. In the latter case, some believe that John is chronicling the momentous first week of Jesus (a new week of creation?). Cana is a climax of sorts: here the disciples believe in him for the first time because Jesus manifests his glory (2:11).
2:6–11. The miraculous solution is described in some detail (2:6–9), and as in Synoptic miracle stories, there is a climaxing testimony, in this case on the lips of the steward (2:10). Six stone jars each holding twenty or thirty gallons are filled with water, and this in turn supplies the wedding with an enormous quantity of wine (about 175 gallons).
2:12. From here Jesus travels with his family (cf. Mk 6:3) to Capernaum, a village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. According to the Synoptics, this was an important center of activity for Jesus in Galilee.
2:13–15. Pilgrimage played an important role in the life of every Jewish family. Passover was one such pilgrimage festival in which Jewish families traveled to Jerusalem for worship. Hence Jesus travels from Galilee to Judea (2:13). The story of the temple cleansing (2:13–25) provides us with one of the closest Synoptic/Johannine parallels (cf. Mt 21:12–13; Mk 11:15–17; Lk 19:45–46). Aside from its chronological placement (the Synoptics have it at the end of Jesus’s ministry), the stories are strikingly alike. Some would argue that they narrate the same event.
2:16–22. Again we find here the themes of messianic announcement and replacement. In the OT, the prophets link the ultimate renewal of the temple with the eschatological day of the Lord (Is 56:7; Mal 3:1). Jesus’s rebuke in 2:16 reflects this and stems from Zch 14:21. This is why in 2:18 those who witness this demand a sign—some justification. They recognize the messianic importance of the act. But Jesus’s response picks up another line of OT thought: in the day of the Lord a new temple would be built (Ezk 40–46); this temple would be Jesus’s body (2:21). This reiterates what we have already seen (cf. 1:14, 51): this sacred Jewish institution would find a dramatic new replacement (cf. 4:21–24).
2:23–25. It is interesting to compare these first two signs of Jesus in Cana and Jerusalem. In Galilee Jesus finds faith (2:11), but in Jerusalem, while some believe (2:23), the Jews there generally lack comprehension. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus will find faith in Galilee and conflict in Judea. Indeed, it will be in Jerusalem that he will be killed. Verses 23–25 describe the unsatisfactory nature of the Jerusalem reception and go on to generalize about the shortcomings of humanity (2:25). They also serve as a transitional section for the next chapter. Nicodemus will be one such man: he has witnessed the signs and come forward (3:2), but he fails to apprehend who Jesus is and to believe.