The Good News by John 2

<< John 1

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A Miraculous Sign at a Wedding in Cana

1 On the third day, there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples* were invited to the wedding. 3 The wine ran out, so the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no [more] wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Mother, why do you want me to intervene? My time has not come yet!” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do everything he tells you.”

6 There were six stone jars there, each of which could contain a quantity of two or three measures* of water, with which the Jews cleansed themselves according to their custom. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them until they overflowed.

8 Then he said to them, “Take some of it and serve it to the head of the banquet.” So they served it to him. 9 He tasted the water, and it had been turned into wine!* He did not know where it had come from, although the servants, who had ladled out the water, knew. So he called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first; then after the people have drunk a lot, he serves them a lower quality [wine]. As for you, you have held back the good wine till now!”

11 This was the first miraculous sign that Jesus did, and it was in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. 12 After that, he went to Capernaum,* he and his mother, brothers, and disciples, and they stayed there a few days.

He Drives the Traders out of the Temple

13 The Jewish Passover festival* was approaching, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple complex, he found people selling cows, sheep, and doves, and others besides them, sitting there exchanging currencies. 15 So he made a lash from ropes and drove them all from the complex, together with their sheep and cows. He scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He said to the dove traders, “Remove [all] this from here. Do not make my Father's house a marketplace.” 17 His disciples remembered what the Scriptures said: “Jealousy for your house will consume me.”*

18 The leaders of the Jews* said to him, “Do a miraculous sign for us, to confirm by it that you have the right to do all of this.” 19 Jesus responded, “Demolish this Temple of God, and I will raise it in three days.” 20 They said, “This Temple was built in forty-six years,* so how can you raise it in three days?” 21 But what he meant by “Temple” was his own body. 22 When he rose from death, his disciples remembered what he had said, so they believed in the Scriptures and in what Jesus said.

Jesus Knows Human [Nature]

23 While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many people believed in him when they saw the miraculous signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew everyone. 25 He did not need anyone to inform him about people, because he himself knew what was in people's hearts.

<< John 1

Definitions

 *2:2 disciples: people who follow a great teacher and live according to his teachings and his way of life. They are also called followers The first disciples of Jesus are also called his companions.

 *2:6 measures: The word translated as measure meant a quantity of around 40 liters.

 *2:9 wine: The English word wine translates a Greek word that means juice from grapes at any stage of its production. When the juice is fresh, it has no alcohol. (In English this is called “grape juice.”) It soon begins to ferment, which converts some of the sugar to alcohol; this stage is what we call “wine.” However, it was weaker than modern wine, because during the process of fermentation, the alcohol was exposed to the air and was converted into vinegar. This is known as “sour wine” or “wine vinegar.” The wine was mixed with water before it was served. Therefore, it is not known whether the “wine” that our Lord Jesus made from water contained alcohol or not, or whether it was mixed with water or was unmixed.

 *2:12 Capernaum: a town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, 4 kilometers west of the Jordan River. See the map of Galilee.

 *2:13 Passover festival: a festival that the Children of Israel held in Jerusalem every spring to celebrate the time when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. The reference here is to the festival that began the evening of April 26th in AD 28.

 *2:17 Quoted from the Book of Psalms 69:9.

 *2:18 the Jews: The Greek word commonly translated as “the Jews” is used in the Injil with four different meanings: (1) members of the tribe of Judah, namely descendants of Judah son of the prophet Jacob, (2) people living in the region of Judea, (3) leaders of the Jewish religion, and (4) followers of the Jewish religion. In the Good News by John, meaning number 3 is most common.

 *2:20 The first-century historian Josephus recorded the date at which construction of the Temple began (Antiquities 15.380). If we add 46 years to this date, it gives us the date AD 28 for this event.