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1: And the third day - After he had said this. In Cana of
Galilee - There were two other towns of the same name, one in the
tribe of Ephraim, the other in Caelosyria.
2: Jesus and his disciples were invited to the marriage - Christ
does not take away human society, but sanctifies it. Water might
have quenched thirst; yet our Lord allows wine; especially at
a festival solemnity. Such was his facility in drawing his
disciples at first, who were afterward to go through rougher ways.
3: And wine falling short - How many days the solemnity had lasted,
and on which day our Lord came, or how many disciples might follow
him, does not appear. His mother saith to him, They have not wine
- Either she might mean, supply them by miracle; or, Go away, that
others may go also, before the want appears.
4: Jesus saith to her, Woman - So our Lord speaks also,(Joh 19:26). It is probable this was the constant appellation
which he used to her. He regarded his Father above all, not
knowing even his mother after the flesh. What is it to me and
thee? A mild reproof of her inordinate concern and untimely
interposal. Mine hour is not yet come - The time of my working
this miracle, or of my going away.
May we not learn hence, if his mother was rebuked for attempting
to direct him in the days of his flesh, how absurd it is to
address her as if she had a right to command him, on the throne
of his glory? Likewise how indecent it is for us to direct his
supreme wisdom, as to the time or manner in which he shall appear
for us in any of the exigencies of life!
5: His mother saith to the servants - Gathering from his answer he
was about to do something extraordinary.
6: The purifying of the Jews - Who purified themselves by frequent
washings particularly before eating.
9: The governor of the feast - The bridegroom generally procured
some friend to order all things at the entertainment.
10: And saith - St. John barely relates the words he spoke, which
does not imply his approving them. When they have well drunk - does
not mean any more than toward the close of the entertainment.
11: And his disciples believed - More steadfastly.
14: Oxen, and sheep, and doves - Used for sacrifice: And the
changers of money - Those who changed foreign money for that
which was current at Jerusalem, for the convenience of them
that came from distant countries.
15: Having made a scourge of rushes - (Which were strewed on the
ground,) he drove all out of the temple, (that is, the court of
it,) both the sheep and the oxen - Though it does not appear that
he struck even them; and much less, any of the men. But a terror
from God, it is evident, fell upon them.
17: (Ps 69:9).
18: Then answered the Jews - Either some of those whom he had
just driven out, or their friends: What sign showest thou? - So
they require a miracle, to confirm a miracle!
19: This temple - Doubtless pointing, while he spoke, to his body,
the temple and habitation of the Godhead.
20: Forty and six years - Just so many years before the time of
this conversation, Herod the Great had begun his most magnificent
reparation of the temple, (one part after another,) which he
continued all his life, and which was now going on, and was
continued thirty - six years longer, till within six or seven years
of the destruction of the state, city, and temple by the Romans.
22: They believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had
said - Concerning his resurrection.
23: Many believed - That he was a teacher sent from God.
24: He did not trust himself to them - Let us learn hence not
rashly to put ourselves into the power of others. Let us study
a wise and happy medium between universal suspiciousness and
that easiness which would make us the property of every pretender
to kindness and respect.
25: He - To whom all things are naked, knew what was in man - Namely,
a desperately deceitful heart.
