37. The reference to the precise time or day occurs often in John (e.g., 3:2; 4:6; 18:28; 19:39, 42; 20:1, 19), showing that the narrated events happened in history at a particular point of time.
38. For the sake of Greek readers the narrator translates the Hebrew “Messiah” into Greek “Christ” (cf. 1:38, 41).
39. Barrett 1978: 183.
40. Keener 2005: 1.484; Barrett 1978: 184.
41. Brown 1978: 1.83; Neyrey 2007: 58.
42. Cf. Barclay 1957: 1.77–78.
43. In the OT the term “son of man” means a mere mortal human being (e.g., Ps 8:4; Ezek 2:1; 3:1; 4:1; etc.), but Dan 7:13–14 shows “the son of man” as a heavenly being who comes with the clouds of heaven. In view of John’s constant emphasis that Jesus came from heaven (e.g., 3:13; 6:38, 41–42, 50–51; 8:23), we should understand the title “Son of Man” against the background of Dan 7.
John 2
The Beginning of Jesus’ Public Ministry
Jesus’ Public Ministry (2:1—12:50)
Some scholars treat John 2 as the beginning of the unit that ends at 4:54, often given the title “From Cana to Cana.”1 This section pictures how the first sign took place in Cana of Galilee (2:1–12) and the second sign, which completes the first sphere of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, also took place in Cana (4:46–54). God’s new community was expanded by including both the Jews and the Gentiles.
First sign of Jesus in John (2:1–12)
In 2:1–12 a vision of Jesus’ glory, promised in 1:51, becomes possible first in a wedding at Cana, the native place of Nathanael, situated in Galilee eight miles north of Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up. The time reference “on the third day” implies not only that Jesus’ revelation of his glory took place after three days of his promise (1:50b-51) but also that by this time the circle of twelve disciples was complete. If we count the number of days from the time the Baptist witnessed about Jesus (1:19–2:1), the wedding at Cana falls on the seventh day. Brown sees here an implicit reference to God’s creation of the world in seven days (Gen 1:1–2:3) and argues that John is seeing the start of Jesus’ ministry as the start of new creation.2 This symbolic interpretation looks forward to the creation of a new humanity by Jesus who was raised on the third day (20:22).
Galilee had both Jews and Gentiles in it, and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and his first sign performed there may symbolically mean that he loves both Jews and Gentiles and that they have an equal place in the new community he came to create. “The mother of Jesus was there” implies that the wedding could have been that of one of her relatives or of a close family friend. That is why Jesus and his disciples also had been invited. Jesus’ mother is mentioned throughout John’s Gospel without her name. Brown thinks that the absence of the name may be to symbolize her as a new Eve or new Israel, the church.3 However, most probably the avoidance of her name is just to highlight her earthly relationship to Jesus. Being the mother of Jesus, she too had a place in Jesus’ new community (cf. 2:12).
The reference to the invitation of Jesus along with his disciples (2:2) shows how closely the community of Jesus’ disciples had been linked with him within a short time. The mother of Jesus, as a woman, plays a key role in the first sign that Jesus does. Wine, as per Jewish custom, was used in festive occasions such as weddings.4 The wine used in this wedding ran out. Jesus’ mother may well have had some responsibility in catering for the guests,5 therefore she immediately brought the urgent matter to the attention of Jesus by telling him, “They do not have wine” (2:3). Perhaps she believed that Jesus, being the Son of God, was able to provide for the need on any occasion. However, Jesus did not do any miracle as his mother expected. He questioned her, “What is for me and you, O woman?” (2:4a). The word “O woman” is not a word of disrespect (cf. 19:26). Jesus’ words “My hour has not yet come” (2:4b) show that Jesus would act to supply wine in accordance with the will and timing of God rather than his physical parent. For him, to do the will of the Father was his food (4:34) and so he did not allow human relationships to direct his steps in his mission. While this meaning is well taken, the term “hour,” which occurs twenty-six times in John, has a deeper meaning.
Although Jesus says that his hour has not yet come, later he uses both present and future tenses to say, “The hour is coming, and now is” (4:23; 5:25; 16:32). Eventually he says, “The hour has come” (12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1). The Johannine terms “the hour,” “my hour,” and “his hour” indicate the time when Jesus will return to the Father through his death and resurrection. The term “an hour” (the Greek word hōra without the definite article) refers to the effects that Jesus’ hour would bring in the lives of the believers, and those effects include the manner of worshipping God, persecution, a new understanding of Jesus’ words, and the final resurrection of all humans to face judgment (cf. 4:21; 5:25, 28–29; 16:2, 25).6 Thus, at the deeper level “my hour” in 2:4 means that the Father’s time to reveal Jesus’ glory through his death and resurrection has not yet come.
Gaining confidence from Jesus’ response, his mother instructed the servants, “You do what he would tell you” (2:5). She acted with an exemplary faith and with determination to supply wine through Jesus. However, his disciples were so passive that they were unable to recognize the need of the time.
Jesus started acting in his own time as per God’s will. He wished to supply better quality of wine by using the water kept in six stone jars, as per the Jewish rite of purification, each jar containing 80–120 liters (2:6 TNIV).7 The use of “stone jars” for purification is mentioned not in Lev 11:32–38, but in the Mishnah, a Rabbinic text of the second century that reflects the life situation of the late first century (m. Kelim 5:11; m. Besah 2:3). He asked the servants to fill the jars with water up to the brim and they did it (2:7). In obedience to Jesus’ instruction, they drew some water out and took it to the master of the feast (2:7–8).8
The text does not mention when the water drawn out of jars was turned into wine. We are only told that the master of the feast tasted the “water which had become wine” without knowing where it was from (2:9). The Greek perfect-tense gegenēmenon shows the quality of the water, which perhaps had already become wine before it came to the hands of the master. The water became wine probably when the servants were drawing it from the jars or when they were carrying it. They knew by whom the miracle happened, but not how it happened (2:9). There is a secrecy motif in this first sign of Jesus (2:11a), conveying the truth that the miraculous deeds of Jesus are beyond human comprehension. The focus of the sign, then, is not on how or when the turning of water into wine happened but on why it happened.
This sign also contains non-understanding, a literary feature of John. The master of