John 2

Chap. II. Ver. i—11. Our Lord attends a marriage feast, and changes water into wine.—In explaining this narrative, it is necessary to glance at the nature of the Jewish marriages, which lasted seven days, persons coming and going, perhaps, all the time. ((Judges 14:17).) From a deficiency of wine it has been inferred that the married couple were poor; but it is equally possible that the report of Jesus being present at the feast, had drawn together an accession of guests, quite unexpected. On these occasions a president, or governor of the feast, was appointed to regulate the festival and preserve de- Many reasons may be assigned for the attendance of Jesus on this occasion. ‘The marriage was probably an alliance formed in his own family; and though circumstances would not permit his sanctioning the sacred ordinance by his example, his presence on this occasion might be designed to express his approbation of a union instituted by God himself, and sanctioned by holy men of every age.

He might wish it to be understood also, that he was no cynical philosopher, but designed to mix in all the innocent enjoyments, as well as duties, of civil life, which were not incompatible with his divine character. He was no ascetic, nor affected the retirement of a desert; but he came eating and drinking, even with reputed sinners, that he might have the better opportunity of introducing his holy doctrines and precepts among all classes of The language of Jesus on this occasion, to his virgin mother, appears mysterious, and cannot perhaps be fully explained. The epithet ‘Woman,” however abrupt it may sound to English ears, in Greek means nothing disrespectful; but was addressed, by men the most accomplished, to females of the highest rank.

And the expression, “‘What have I to do with thee?” (or, rather, ‘‘What hast thou to do with me?’’) though it may imply a gentle reproof, may only be designed to intimate that whatever filial duty Jesus might owe to Mary, as his mosaic many years before, ((Luke 2:49),) and knew when and how to act, without any human direction. His ‘hour’ (as he said on other occasions) was not yet come, and he might have wise reasons for delay, unknown to her as well as to us; and it is evident she did not understand this as a refusal, because she directed the servants to obey his orders. ‘** At the command of Jesus (says Bishop Taylor) the waterpots were filled with water, and the water was, by his divine power, turned into wine, where the different economy.

of God and the world is many observable. Every man sets forth good wine at first, and then the worse; but God not only turns the water into wine, but into such wine that the last draught is most pleasant. The world presents us with fair language, promising hopes, convenient fortunes, pompous honours, and these are the outside of the bowl; but, when it is swallowed, these dissolve in the instant, and there remains bitterness, and the malignity of colliguintida, (i. e. the wild cucumber, bitter and acrid in the extreme.) Every sin smiles in the first advance, and carries light in the face and honey on the lip; but, when we have well drunk, then comes that which is worse,—fears and terrors of conscience, and shame and displeasure, and diffidence [we might add, despair] in the day of death—[But] Jesus keeps the best wine till the last: not only because of the direct reservation of the highest joys till the near approaches of glory, but also because our relishes are higher after a long fruition than at the first essays; such being the nature of grace, that it increases in relish as it does in fruition.”

(Life of Christ.) This is called “the beginning,” or “first,” of Christ’s miracles, as Dr. Campbell renders it; for we pay no regard to the reports of the juvenile miracles which compose the pseudogospels of ‘the apocryphal New Testament: and by this miracle he showed forth not only the glory of his power, but of his beneficence; and all his miracles were of the same benevolent cast. As he turned water into wine, so he turned pain into ease, darkness into light, and death into life: in this case also he kept the best wine till last. Ver. 12—25. Jesus purges the temple, and foretells his own death.—It seems evident, and is so generally understood, cattle-traders and money-changers. This, which was the first instance, must have happened soon after the miracle just related; the latter instance occurred near the close of his ministry, and is related by the three other Evangelists.

((Matthew 21:12). (Mark 11:15). (Luke 19:45).) To avoid repetition, we beg to refer our readers to the observations offered by us on Matthew, so far as the circumstances agree; we add only a remark on the proneness there is in mere professors of religion to make a gain of godliness; and to pursue their own interests, under the pretence of serving God. For it was doubtless the pretence of these men, in bringing their cattle into the courts of the temple, to serve the convenience of those who wanted them for sacrifice; and of the money-changers, to accommodate either buyers or sellers with exchange for money or drafts: but, careless as they were in religion, we cannot believe that the priests would have tolerated these excesses, had they not reaped advantages therefrom, either in the form of rentage for the ground, or fees for the privilege of their standing!

Strong and severe as was the language of our Lord, relative to these guardians of the temple, we doubt not but that it was perfectly just; and we fear that there are few temples, few churches, few chapels, few religious institutions of any kind, in which his eyes, which are ‘‘as a flame of fire,” do not discern some thieves who rob God and oppress his poor! Alas! if the sons of Aaron—if the sons of Eli, practised villany, we need not wonder to find the like in the degenerate days of Herod and Caiaphas. And when the Son of Man again “cometh, shall he find faith in the earth,”— xviii. 8. fidelity of the church—or integrity in its ministers? (See Luke It is not wonderful that the Jews, both priests and laymen, should be alarmed on this occasion.

A Reformer comes among them, under the character of a Prophet, and by the zeal he manifests, they know not how far the reform may spread; and every priest and every ruler, conscious of abuses, trembles lest it should extend to him;—the more so, as reformers are naturally sanctioned by the injured and oppressed. Certain Jews, therefore, probably deputed by the Sanhedrim, demand of him a sign, or miracle, in proof of his divine authority as a Reformer: ‘‘What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?’’ Jesus replied, no doubt, with such an expressive action (pointing to himself) as might have led them to a just interpretation of his meaning: ‘‘Destroy this temple,’’?

meaning the temple of his body; ‘“and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews, however, whether through inattention or perverseness, understood Jesus as speaking of the temple in which they then were; and, therefore, shocked with the impossibility of such a thing, they exclaim, ‘Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it in three days?’ ‘But (says the historian) he spake of the temple of his body.” It is a neat little village, pleasantly situated on the descent of a hill, facing the years” here mentioned, since, by the account of Josephus, it was built within eight or nine. Lardner remarks, however, that this refers to what Herod did at his own expense; but the Jews were continually adding improvements and embellishments, as late as A.

D. 65, within a few years of its final destruction by Titus. Yet they, as well as the Christians, called this the second temple. Not only did the Jews misunderstand our Lord, as to the temple of which he spake, but his disciples appear not to have comprehended his meaning till after his resurrection: ‘‘then remembered they that he had said this.’’ So our Lord had promised, that after his resurrection the Holy Spirit should bring “all things to their remembrance” see he had said to them. ((John 14:26).) In this, and in every instance in which the Jews demanded a miracle, our Lord constantly refused to gratify them, because his miracles were mostly designed to relieve the poor and the distressed: during the time of the Passover, however, Jesus remaining at Jerusalem, wrought many miracles, and those who saw them believed in him; but these people, though they actually witnessed many miracles of this nature, were always inquiring after others—probably wishing to see some splendid exhibition of his power—such as that to which Satan tempted him, ((Matthew 4:6),) to cast himself down from a pinnacle of the temple, before all the congregation. But Jesus, though he never sent away a poor and miserable object in distress, never presumes a miracle merely to exhibit himself, or gratify curious As to those who did, or at least professed to believe in him, he knew too much of human nature to trust in them. ‘He knew man’—his weakness, frailness, and inconstancy; and he knew ‘‘what was in man,” namely, the deceitfulness and depravity which was in his heart. -((Matthew 15:18-19).) He therefore, never trusted himself in the hands of his enemies till his hour was come, to offer himself in sacrifice for our salva-

Notes on the verses

Ver. 46. Nazareth.—This was a town of Lower Galilee, about two leagues East from Mount Tabor. It bore a bad character, even among the Galileans, which is fully justified by the treatment which our Lord hisecthreocien from them, (Luke 4:28-29). This is one instance in which our Saviour ‘‘made himself of no reputation.” Ver. 51. Verily, verily.—Greek, Amen, Amen, which is, in fact, a Hebrew word, signifying “certainly,” or “in truth;” but it is remarkable that John, in adopting this word, always doubles it, while the other Evangelists use it singly; a circumstance we can account for only from the earnestness of his manner.— Angels…. ascending and descending, to wait, &c.—So Dodie But Campbell renders it, ‘‘ascending from….and descending Campbell.

II. Ver. 1. Cana of Galilee.—A small town, four or five miles from Nazareth. may Ver. 4. Woman.—It is evident that there is nothing disrespectful in this address, as it was used by our Lord on the most affecting of all occasions, and when he evinced his exquisite sympathy and tender regard for this very parent, ch. xix. 26. Xenophon puts it into the mouth of a Persian chief, when consoling a captive lady of the highest rank. Augustus is made to use it to Cleopatra, and Antenor to Helen. It may, therefore, be considered as equivalent to Madam. See Orient. Lit. No. 19. What have I to do with thee?—Parkhurst and Campbell, “*What hast thou to do with me?’ The expression, though certainly not disrespectful, implies reproof: ‘‘Why dost thou interfere?’’——Mine hour is not yet come—i.

e. The time for me to act is not yet come. Ver. 6. Two or three firkins.—This is an English measure, unknown to the Greeks or Jews. Doddridge, Campbell, and others, suppose the Hebrew Batha to be intended, which are reckoned to contain from four to seven gallons each; but it were better to leave it indefinite—measures. Ver. 8. The governor of the feast—i. e. the president or chairman, whose duty on such occasions is described by the author of Ecclesiasticus, Chap. Xxxii. 1. The Greek term is architriclinos, who sat at the head of the table, which was shaped like the Greek letter Π, as represented by ancient painters. Compare note on (Matthew 26:20). Ver. 9. When the ruler—Or governor; it is the same word.

$ Ver. 10. When men have well drunk.—Doddridge, ‘drank plentifully;” Campbell, “largely,” or ‘‘freely,” which last term seems best. LXX. use the same word in (Genesis 43:34). Sol. (Song of Solomon 5:1). (Haggai 1:6); in none of which does it imply intoxication. Ver. 11. Cana.—[Cana, a town of Galilee, now called Cane Galil, or Kepher Kenna, is situated, according to the authority of modern travellers, between fifteen and sixteen miles west of Tiberias, about six miles S. E. of Sephoris or Safoury, and between four and five miles N. E. by E of Nazareth. It