2nd Sunday after Epiphany, 19th January 2025 Year C

John 2:1-11

The wedding at Cana

2:1On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

2:2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

2:3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

2:4And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.”

2:5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

2:6Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

2:7Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

2:8He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it.

2:9When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom

2:10and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

2:11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

^[1]Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ γάμος ἐγένετο ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἦν ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐκεῖ· 

^[2]ἐκλήθη δὲ καὶ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν γάμον. 

^[3]καὶ ὑστερήσαντος οἴνου λέγει ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ πρὸς αὐτόν· οἶνον οὐκ ἔχουσι.

 ^[4]λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, γύναι; οὔπω ἥκει ἡ ὥρα μου.

 ^[5]λέγει ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ τοῖς διακόνοις· ὅ,τι ἂν λέγῃ ὑμῖν, ποιήσατε. 

^[6]ἦσαν δὲ ἐκεῖ ὑδρίαι λίθιναι ἓξ κείμεναι κατὰ τὸν καθαρισμὸν τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, χωροῦσαι ἀνὰ μετρητὰς δύο ἢ τρεῖς. 

^[7]λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· γεμίσατε τὰς ὑδρίας ὕδατος. καὶ ἐγέμισαν αὐτὰς ἕως ἄνω. 

^[8]καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἀντλήσατε νῦν καὶ φέρετε τῷ ἀρχιτρικλίνῳ. καὶ ἤνεγκαν. 

^[9]ὡς δὲ ἐγεύσατο ὁ ἀρχιτρίκλινος τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον γεγενημένον – καὶ οὐκ ᾔδει πόθεν ἐστίν· οἱ δὲ διάκονοι ᾔδεισαν οἱ ἠντληκότες τὸ ὕδωρ – φωνεῖ τὸν νυμφίον ὁ ἀρχιτρίκλινος

 ^[10]καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· πᾶς ἄνθρωπος πρῶτον τὸν καλὸν οἶνον τίθησι, καὶ ὅταν μεθυσθῶσι, τότε τὸν ἐλάσσω· σὺ τετήρηκας τὸν καλὸν οἶνον ἕως ἄρτι.

 ^[11]Ταύτην ἐποίησε τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν σημείων ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἐφανέρωσε τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.

Comments

Verse 4 requires close examination.

[3] ὑστερήσαντος οἴνου: gen. abs., temporal sense < ὑστερέω, οf things, ‘fail’, ‘be wanting’ (postcl. Gk: LSJ s.v. V); ‘be in shortage’ (Montanari s.v. 1.b). Thus here = ‘when the wine ran out/ gave out’.

[4] τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, γύναι;: ‘What to me and to you, woman?’ Looking at the question from back to front: the voc. γύναι (‘woman’) was used in classical Athens when one addressed an anonymous woman and was neutral, neither respectful nor affectionate, as was normal in a society in which the sexes were segregated  (despite LSJ s.v. γυνή; see Eleanor Dickey, Greek forms of address, From Herodotus to Lucian, Oxford, 1996). R. E. Brown, in his Commentary (Garden City, NY, 1966), p. 99 considers this ‘Jesus’ normal, polite way of addressing women’, and cites unspecified ‘Greek writings’ and specific NT parallels. But all the NT passages save one (Jn 20:13, where the resurrected Jesus addresses Mary Magdalen) concern anonymous women, e.g. the Samaritan woman, the adulteress, etc. Perhaps in Jn 20, too, the address is not affectionate, since Jesus is affecting neutrality before the unsuspecting woman. In Jn 2: 4 ‘Jesus’ mother’ is addressed in a neutral tone, as if she were a generic anonymous woman, i.e. without affection or politeness.

The locution ‘What to me and to you?’ is a Semitic colloquialism, which here means, according to Brown, ibid., ‘That is your business; how am I involved?’ There is no hostility here, but perhaps detachment (?), which would be in tune with the neutral address γύναι.

[7] γεμίσατε τὰς ὑδρίας ὕδατος. καὶ ἐγέμισαν αὐτὰς ἕως ἄνω: γεμίζω, c. acc. & gen., fill fill of, load’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. I). Γεμίζω still has the same meaning in modern Greek.

[9] τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον γεγενημένον: the object of ‘he tasted’; the order of the two nouns and the participle is evocative: ‘the water wine having become’. The sequence suggests the direction of the transformation, water-into-wine.