John 2

Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.”

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;

and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

When the wine was all gone, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “^[a]They have no more wine.”

Jesus said, “Is that any of our business, Mother—yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.”

Jesus said to her, “[Dear] woman, ^[b]what is that to you and to Me? My time [to act and to be revealed] has not yet come.”

She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.”

His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim.

Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification (ceremonial washing), containing twenty or thirty gallons each.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

“Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did.

Then He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter [of the banquet].” So they took it to him.

When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!”

And when the headwaiter tasted the water which had turned into wine, not knowing where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew) he called the bridegroom,

and said to him, “Everyone else serves his best wine first, and when people have ^[c]drunk freely, then he serves that which is not so good; but you have kept back the good wine until now.”

This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

This, the first of His signs (attesting miracles), Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory [displaying His deity and His great power openly], and His disciples believed [confidently] in Him [as the Messiah—they adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Him].

After this he went down to Capernaum along with his mother, brothers, and disciples, and stayed several days.

Tear Down This Temple . . .

After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

First Passover—Cleansing the Temple

When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.

Now the Passover of the Jews was approaching, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

And in the temple [enclosure] He found the ^[d]people who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at their tables.

Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”

He made a whip of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;

then to those who sold the doves He said, “Take these things away! Stop making My Father’s house a place of commerce!”

His disciples remembered that it is written [in the Scriptures], “Zeal (love, concern) for Your house [and its honor] will consume Me.”

But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”

Then the Jews retorted, “What sign (attesting miracle) can You show us as [proof of] your authority for doing these things?”

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.

Then the Jews replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and You will raise it up in three days?”

But He was speaking of the temple which was His body.

So when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered what He had said. And they believed and trusted in and relied on the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in His name [identifying themselves with Him] after seeing His signs (attesting miracles) which He was doing.

But Jesus, for His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people [and understood the ^[e]superficiality and fickleness of human nature],

and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man [and human nature], for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts—in the very core of their being].