John 2 - Introduction
CHAPTER 2. _ The marriage at Cana_. _The first manifestation of Christ's glory to His disciples_.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 2. _ The marriage at Cana_. _The first manifestation of Christ's glory to His disciples_.... [ Continue Reading ]
As usual John specifies time and place and circumstance. The time was τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ. The Greeks reckoned σήμερον, αὔριον, τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. So Luke 13:32, ἰάσεις επιτελῶ σήμερον καὶ αὔριον, καὶ τῇ τρίτη τελειοῦμαι. The “third day” was therefore what we call “the day after to-morrow”. From what poi... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκλήθη δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν γάμον. “And both Jesus was invited and His disciples to the marriage.” To translate ἐκλήθη as a pluperfect “had been invited” is grammatically possible, but it is impossible that the disciples should have been previously invited, because their exis... [ Continue Reading ]
Through this unexpected addition to the number of guests the wine began to fail, ὑστερήσαντος οἴνου. ὑστερέω, from ὕστερος, signifies “to be late,” and hence “to come short of,” “to lack,” and also “to be awanting”. _Cf._ Matthew 19:20, τί ἔτι ὑστερῶ; and Mark 10:21, ἕν σοι ὑστερεῖ. Here the meaning... [ Continue Reading ]
His complete reply is, τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, γύναι; οὔπω ἥκει ἡ ὥρα μου. γύναι is a term of respect, not equivalent to our “woman”. See chap. John 19:26; John 20:13; Luke 13:12. In the Greek tragedians it is constantly used in addressing queens and persons of distinction. Augustus addresses Cleopatra as... [ Continue Reading ]
There were there, hard by or in the feast-room, there were ὑδρίαι λίθιναι ἓξ κείμεναι, “six stone water jars standing”. Stone was believed to preserve the purity and coolness of the water. [According to Plutarch, _Tib. Gracchus_, these jars were sometimes used for drawing lots, wooden tablets being... [ Continue Reading ]
The first order Jesus gives to the διακόνοις is one they may unhesitatingly obey. Γεμίσατε τὰς ὑδρίας ὕδατος, “Fill the water jars with water,” the water being specified in view of what was to follow. καὶ ἐγέμισαν αὐτὰς ἕως ἄνω, “and they filled them up to the brim”. The corresponding expression, ἕω... [ Continue Reading ]
The second order might stagger them more, Ἀντλήσατε νῦν, καὶ φέρετε τῷ ἀρχιτρικλίνῳ. The ἀρχιτρίκλινος was originally the person who had charge of the triclinium or triple couch set round a dining table: “praefectus cui instruendi ornandique triclinii cura incumbit”; a butler or head waiter whose du... [ Continue Reading ]
The architriklinos, then, when he had tasted the water which had now become wine, and did not know whence it had been procured, and was therefore impartially judging it merely as wine among wines, φωνεῖ τὸν νυμφίον, “calls the bridegroom,” or simply “addresses the bridegroom,” and says to him πᾶς ἄν... [ Continue Reading ]
No answer of the bridegroom is recorded, nor any detail of the impression made, but John notes the incident as “the beginning of signs”. ταύτην εποίησεν ἀρχήν, deleting the article with Tisch [34] and W.H [35], and rendering “This as a beginning of signs did Jesus,” from which it can scarcely be gat... [ Continue Reading ]
_From Nazareth to Capernaum and thence to Jerusalem_. At John 2:12, as Calvin says, “transit Evangelista ad novam historiam”. This new section runs to the end of the fourth chapter, and gives an account of the first great series of public manifestations on the part of Christ (1) in Jerusalem, (2) in... [ Continue Reading ]
On reaching Jerusalem Jesus as a devout Jew visited the Temple καὶ εὗρεν ἐν τῷ ἰερῷ, that is, in the outer court of the Temple, the court of the Gentiles. τοὺς πωλοῦντας βόας καὶ πρόβατα καὶ περιστεράς, cattle and sheep and doves, the sacrificial animals. It was of course a great convenience to the... [ Continue Reading ]
The Jews naturally saw no reference to His own body or to its resurrection, and replied to the letter of His words, τεσσεράκοντα.… The Temple was begun to be rebuilt in the eighteenth year of Herod's reign that is the autumn of 734 735. Jewish reckoning the beginning of a year was reckoned one year.... [ Continue Reading ]
Time, place, and circumstance are again given. ὡς δὲ ἦν ἐν τοῖς Ἰεροσολύμοις ἐν τῷ πάσχα ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ. The last clause is added with a reference to John 2:13. Then the feast was near, now it had arrived. We are to hear what happened while Jesus resided in Jerusalem _during the feast_. πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσ... [ Continue Reading ]