The first sign and the cleansed temple: water into wine and the body as sanctuary in John 2

John 2 comes from the fourth Gospel, which does not name its author in the text but speaks of 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' as the source of its testimony (21:20-24). The church from the second century, including Irenaeus, identified this disciple with the apostle John, son of Zebedee, and said the Gospel was written at Ephesus. Many scholars still hold this. Others suggest a different John (the 'elder' known to Papias) or a community of the beloved disciple's followers who shaped his testimony. The date is usually placed in the last decades of the first century, around AD 80 to 100, though some defend an earlier date. The stated purpose is that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name (20:31).

The fourth Gospel is built around signs (semeia), miracles that point beyond themselves to who Jesus is. John selects seven of them, and 2:11 explicitly numbers the first. Scholars disagree about whether John knew the other three Gospels. What is clear is that John stands apart from them in several ways: it has no exorcisms or parables of the kingdom, a ministry centered on Jerusalem and several Passovers, and long discourses that follow the signs. Neither the miracle at Cana nor the dialogue about the temple's destruction is recorded elsewhere, though the temple cleansing and the saying about raising the temple appear in some form in the Synoptics (Mark 11:15-17; 14:58; 15:29).

The chapter is set in the first days of Jesus' public ministry in Galilee and Judea. The wedding is on the third day after the call of Nathanael (1:43-51), which completes a week of days that began in 1:19. The Passover that follows is the first of three Passovers in John (2:13; 6:4; 11:55). The temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship, and Herod the Great had begun its rebuilding around 20 BC. Verse 20 says it had been under construction for forty-six years, a figure that fits a date for this Passover in the late 20s AD. John 2 shows Jesus' glory in Galilee and then his authority over the temple in Jerusalem.

John is a narrative with symbolic depth, and each scene has to be read on two levels. The surface is a real event. At Cana a wedding runs out of wine, and Jesus acts. But John tells these events in a way that points to who Jesus is: he calls the miracle a 'sign', says that it revealed Jesus' glory, and records Jesus' mysterious mention of his 'hour'. The rule is to take the event as history and then to ask what the sign signifies, using the clues that John himself supplies.

Both scenes show Jesus acting with authority, and both are interpreted by later knowledge. The disciples remember Psalm 69:9 at the temple, and they understand the word about the temple only after the resurrection (2:17, 22). John writes from the standpoint of those who know the whole story.

Finally, the reader has to ask how John 2:13-22 relates to the temple cleansing in the other Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke place it in the last week of Jesus' life, as the event that provokes the plot to kill him. John places it at the first Passover. Some scholars think there were two cleansings. Others think there was one, and that John moved it to the start of the Gospel to set the theme of Jesus and the temple. The class does not need to decide: in either case the account is read in its place in John's design.

Verses 1–5

'On the third day' a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee, and Jesus, his mother and his disciples were invited. A village wedding celebration lasted several days, and running out of wine would shame the host. Mary tells Jesus, 'They have no more wine.' He answers, 'Woman, why does this concern us? My hour has not yet come.' 'Woman' was a polite form of address (he uses it from the cross, 19:26), though it is unusual for a son to address his mother this way. The sense is that Jesus acts on his Father's schedule, not on his family's. 'My hour' is a key phrase in John and refers to the time of his death and glory (7:30; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1). Mary is not discouraged; she tells the servants to do whatever he tells them.

Verses 6–10

Six stone water jars stood there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty to thirty gallons, so well over a hundred gallons in all. Stone jars were used because stone, unlike pottery, was thought not to take on ritual impurity. Jesus tells the servants to fill them with water, and they fill them to the brim. He tells them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. He tastes the water turned into wine and does not know where it came from, but the servants do. He calls the bridegroom and says that everyone serves the fine wine first and the cheap wine when the guests have drunk freely, but this one has kept the fine wine until now. The details stress that the miracle is real, witnessed by the servants and abundant.

Verses 11–12

John calls this the first of Jesus' signs, performed at Cana in Galilee. It revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. He then goes down to Capernaum with his mother, brothers and disciples for a few days. The word 'glory' links the sign back to 1:14, where the Word became flesh and the disciples saw his glory.

Verses 13–17

The Jewish Passover is near, and Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, most likely the outer Court of the Gentiles, he finds men selling cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifice, and money changers at their tables. Money changers were there because the temple tax had to be paid in a particular coin, and animals were sold to pilgrims for offerings. These services were useful, but they had been set up in the court meant for prayer. Jesus makes a whip of cords, drives out the sheep and cattle, pours out the coins and overturns the tables. He tells the dove sellers to take their birds out and stop making his Father's house a marketplace. His disciples remember Psalm 69:9, 'Zeal for Your house will consume Me.' Matthew, Mark and Luke have him quote Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 here. Calling the temple his Father's house is a claim to a unique relationship with God.

Verses 18–22

The Jews demand a sign to show his authority for this. Jesus answers, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.' They take him literally, noting that the temple took forty-six years to build. John explains that Jesus spoke of the temple of his body. After the resurrection the disciples remembered the saying and believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said. Two Greek words are used for the temple: hieron for the whole complex (verse 14) and naos for the inner sanctuary where God dwelt (verse 19). Jesus' word is about the sanctuary. The saying was later twisted into an accusation at his trial (Mark 14:58).

Verses 23–25

While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover many saw the signs and believed in his name. But he did not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people and did not need anyone to testify about man, since he knew what was in man. The crowd's belief was real in a sense, but it rested on the wonders. John returns to this theme in 4:48 and 6:26. The verse prepares for Nicodemus in chapter 3, who also came because of the signs.

The chapter teaches that the Messiah's coming brings abundance and a new order. In the Old Testament wine is a sign of the joy of the age to come (Isaiah 25:6; Amos 9:13-14; Joel 3:18), and marriage is a picture of God's relation to his people (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20). The wedding setting, the large amount of wine and the water set aside for ritual washing, all point to the replacement of the old rites by the joy of God's presence. John does not say the purification rites were wrong. He shows that what they pointed to has arrived.

The temple cleansing teaches that worship belongs to God on his terms. The temple was the place where God's presence met his people. When Jesus calls it his Father's house and claims the right to purge it, he shows that he has authority over the center of Israel's religion. The saying about the sanctuary of his body teaches that God's presence is now found in Jesus himself. Paul says that the church is a temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21), and Revelation 21:22 says the new Jerusalem has no temple, because the Lord God and the Lamb are its temple.

The last verses teach the limits of belief based only on wonders. Faith that comes from signs is a start, but it is not trust in Jesus himself. And it teaches that Jesus knows the heart, a claim that, in the Old Testament, belongs to God alone (1 Kings 8:39; Jeremiah 17:9-10).

John 2 shows Jesus as the one who brings the joy of the messianic age, the one with authority over the temple, and the one who will be raised on the third day. The Cana sign reveals his glory, and glory belongs to God. The reference to his hour looks ahead to the cross, where his glory is most fully shown (12:23; 13:1). In the Old Testament God is the bridegroom of his people; in the next chapter John the Baptist will call Jesus the bridegroom (3:29), and the wedding at Cana is the first stage of this picture.

In the temple, the disciples apply Psalm 69:9 to Jesus. This is fulfillment: the zealous sufferer of the psalm is Jesus. Psalm 69 is echoed again in the passion (John 15:25; 19:28-29). And his saying about raising the sanctuary in three days is a prediction of his resurrection, which John says the disciples understood only afterward. The temple, which was the place where earth met heaven, is a type that finds its fulfillment in Jesus, as 1:14 and 1:51 have already suggested. Revelation 21:22 carries the theme to the end of the Bible.

One point should be held loosely. Some Christian writers have read the wine as a picture of the new covenant in Christ's blood, or the six jars as the incompleteness of the law. John does not say this. It is an echo and not an explicit teaching, and the clearest links in the chapter are those John makes himself: glory, hour, and the temple of his body.