John Chapter 2
The beginning of the Book of Signs
BACKGROUND
• Wedding festivities usually lasted a week, and may have depended in part
in the donations from guests for wine.1
• The expression Jesus responds with to his Mother in v. 4 literally means,
“what to me and to you”. It is found in various places in the OT (e.g. Hos
14:8) and was not necessarily rude, meaning in cases like this “that is your
business; how am I involved?” Neither was it rude in Jesus’ day to address
one’s mother as “woman.”
• According to Josephus, the prices for sacrificial animals in the Temple
were inflated to 3-4 times normal prices.
• Fun fact: Since the improvements to the Temple are said to have taken 46
years to build (v. 20), and is known to have been begun by Herod in 19
B.C., the cleansing of the Temple must have taken place in 28 A.D.2
WARM-UP QUESTIONS
1. When does the wedding at Cana occur (see v. 1)? “The opening events of
the gospel therefore are contained within one week almost every day of
which is noticed; it culminates in the manifestation of Christ’s glory.”2
2. What time does Jesus refer to in v. 4? See 12:23, 27.
3. What effect did the miracle at Cana have on Jesus’ disciples? What did
they think about Jesus before? (See 1:41.)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
4. According to Helyer3,
John’s Gospel, in narrating Jesus’ miracle of changing water to wine,
mentions that the water was stored in six large jars, each holding
some twenty to thirty gallons of water. These stone water jars – stone
was less likely to convey impurity than clay – were probably employed
for the ritual washing of the guests’ hands and perhaps for various
vessels used in the preparation of food (Jn 2:6).
a) Read Mk 7:1-11. What was Jesus’ perspective on ritual washing? Was
Jesus’ view a new one? (Note that the size of the Law grew
dramatically from Isaiah’s time to Jesus’.)
b) John describes eight major “signs” of Jesus that were more than
simple demonstrations of power and were meant to point the way, or
1 Raymond Brown, The Anchor Bible Commentary on John.
2 Jerusalem Bible footnote.
3 Larry R. Helyer, Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period (IVP:Downer’s Grove) 2002,
p. 473.
