Gospel of John 2:1–25 Catholic Bible study Lesson 3

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 3 There Was a Marriage in Cana
the Gospel According to John 2:1–25

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary)
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: A Man of the Pharisees, Named Nicodemus

This material coordinates with Lesson 3 on pages 16–20 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 1:19–51
In Lesson 2 And This Is the Testimony of John, priests and Levites sent by the Pharisees in Jerusalem ask John (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels) to explain who he is and what he’s doing baptizing people in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. John responds that he’s neither the Messiah, Elijah, nor the prophet promised by Moses. Instead, he identifies with “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” prophesied by Isaiah. The Fourth Gospel has no record of Jesus being baptized by John, but it does include John’s identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God and Son of God. Later John points two of his disciples toward Jesus—Andrew and an unnamed disciple traditionally thought to be John the Evangelist. Jesus renames Simon, Andrew’s brother, Cephas or Peter, which means Rock. Jesus and his band of followers next go to Galilee, where Philip joins the group. Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus. Although Nathanael initially is skeptical that anything good could come from Nazareth, when he meets Jesus he recognizes Jesus to be the Son of God and King of Israel. Jesus announces that Nathanael will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

map notes—a surprising location for Jesus’ first sign
In the Gospel According to John 2:1–11, Jesus’ first sign takes place in Galilee, an area in the former northern kingdom of Israel. Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown also is located in Galilee. During Jesus’ time, Jews from Jerusalem wouldn’t have expected the Messiah to come from Nazareth. That’s strongly suggested when Philip seeks to introduce Nathanael to Jesus, whom Philip identifies as the Messiah. In the Gospel According to John 1:46, Nathanael responds: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Not only is Nazareth an unexpected place of origin for the Messiah, no one would have expected the Messiah to work signs in Galilee, a region heavily populated by people who’ve mingled pagan practices with the traditional worship practices of their Hebrew ancestors. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 18 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

humanity has a fundamental problem (52:22)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that in the original Greek what Jesus says to his mother in the Gospel According to John 2:4 can be more accurately translated as: “O woman, what is it to you and me?” This places both Jesus and his mother outside of the stated problem, which is that there’s no wine to celebrate the joy of the marriage that’s just taken place. You can watch the video to learn how the Blessed Virgin Mary’s concern can be interpreted as a statement about the fundamental problem regarding humanity’s relationship with God. For more information, read “A Wedding to Remember” on page 19 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 3, “There Was a Marriage in Cana,” on pages 16–20 in the study book.

read the Catechism—a note about Jesus’ brethren
The Gospel According to John 2:12 records that after leaving Cana, Jesus went down to Capernaum “with his mother and his brethren and his disciples.” The word brethren can confuse readers who interpret it to mean brothers born of the same parents. The Evangelist will use the word brethren again in the Gospel According to John 7:3 covered in Lesson 9, “Rivers of Living Water.” The vocabulary box “Brethren” on page 51 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth explains that this Greek word sometimes translated as brother also can refer to other family members. The dogma of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s perpetual virginity prohibits Catholics from interpreting any reference to Jesus’ brethren as an indication that his mother gave birth to other children. You can read related Church teaching in paragraphs 499 and 500 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

499 The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ’s birth “did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.” And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the “Ever-Virgin.”

500 Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph, “brothers of Jesus,” are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls “the other Mary.” They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression.

multiple interpretations
There are any number of ways to interpret Jesus’ first sign at the marriage in Cana. A good place to start is by looking at what a marriage is, and then asking why the Evangelist recounts this event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The role that Jesus’ mother plays in instigating Jesus’ action also appears to be of importance here, so it’s wise to consider from more than one angle the nature of Mary’s relationship to Jesus. When we do this, we remember that Jesus is both human and divine. It’s reasonable to expect that Jesus will relate to his mother in at least two different ways—as her human Son and as the second person of the Most Holy Trinity. It’s also reasonable to expect Jesus’ mother to be the one person on earth who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt the answer to the questions that plague almost everyone who comes into contact with Jesus in the Fourth Gospel: Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Who is his father? (Tami Palladino’s illustration of Jesus and his Mother at the marriage at Cana appears on the map, “Key Events in the Gospel According to John,” on page 146 of the study book.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK is happening between Jesus & his Mother?
The account of the marriage at Cana presents a compelling view of the adult Jesus interacting with his mother.

? How is Jesus’ mother relating to Jesus when she tells him about the shortage of wine at the wedding?
? What does Jesus’ spoken response indicate about how he’s relating to his mother?
? How does his subsequent action in regard to the shortage of wine suggest a different type of relationship?
? What can be learned about the nature of marriage by looking at the way that Jesus and his mother relate to each other?
? What kind of union with Jesus might the Evangelist be trying to call to our attention?
? What’s the purpose of wine at a wedding?
? Consider why Jesus is willing to become involved in guaranteeing that the celebration moves forward.

the popes inspire us—an image of the Church
Pope St. John Paul II interpreted the Gospel According to John 2:11 as evidence that the Church already was beginning to take shape at the wedding feast in Cana—with Jesus as the bridegroom and Mary as an image of his Bride, the Church. You can read the saint’s own words in the meditation “Bride of the New Covenant” on page 18 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

surprise—signs are significant … and so are numbers
The striking thing about Jesus turning water into wine is what this sign represents. The word significant derives from the word sign. As might be expected, there’s a strong connection between the Gospel According to John in the New Testament and the story of Creation in the first chapter in the book ofGenesis in the Old Testament. You can learn more about how the numbers six and seven derive biblical significance by checking out Lesson 1 And God Said, Let There Be Light in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

Hosea’s prophetic marriage relationship
The nuptial theme appears to be extremely important to the Evangelist, since he chooses a marriage as the setting for the first of Jesus’ signs recorded in the Fourth Gospel. It’s not entirely surprising that none of the other Gospel writers mention the event at Cana. The Evangelist John is looking at the details of Jesus’ life with a view toward adding to Christian understanding about who Jesus is and what Jesus came to accomplish. The union between the human and the divine will continue to underlie our study of the Gospel According to John. The most significant Old Testament use of marriage as an image of God’s relationship to his people occurs in the Book of Hosea. If you’re unfamiliar with this prophet’s work, you might find it helpful to read the first several chapters. The prophet Hosea symbolizes God, and Hosea’s wife Gomer symbolizes the people of Israel. The prophet uses his own life to enact the relationship between faithful God and unfaithful Israel, and a happy union between the two is prophesied in the Book of Hosea 2:19–20: “And I will espouse you for ever; I will espouse you in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will espouse you in faithfulness, and you shall know theLORD.” You can learn more about Hosea in the context of the history of God’s people by checking out Lesson 19 Hosea’s Vision of God’s Covenant in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.

zeal—you could look it up in our archives
The biblical text describes Jesus driving the money-changers out of the Temple. (Accounts of this event occur much later in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This disparity implies that the Evangelists had theological motives for how they ordered events their accounts of Jesus’ life.) In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus’ disciples later remember Jesus as being consumed by zeal for God’s house. To learn about the word “zeal,” read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

pray with the Psalms—are you zealous for God’s house?
In the Gospel According to John, the Evangelist writes that sometime after the fact, the disciples link Jesus’ action in driving the money-changers out of the temple with Psalm 69:9: “For zeal for thy house hasconsumed me, and the insults for those who insult thee have fallen on me.” This not only credits Jesus with an attitude expressed in this Psalm, it also indicates that the disciples were familiar with it as well. Prayed as part of Friday Vigils (Week I), Psalm 69 will be included in Lesson 11 Song of the Suffering Servant in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, which is scheduled for publication in 2025.

biblical vocabulary—two words for temple
In the Revised Standard Version Catholic Editions (RSVCE, which is the version we link to online, and RSV2CE, which is the translation reprinted in Turning to God’s Word Bible studies), it’s easy to miss all of what’s happening when the Gospel According to John 2:13–22 describes Jesus driving the money-changers out of the temple in Jerusalem. Knowledge of the original Greek language of the Fourth Gospel provides insight. The first Greek word translated as temple in the Gospel According to John 2:14–15 refers to the entire temple complex, especially the outer area sometimes called the court of the Gentiles. This was intended as a place for Gentile worshipers who weren’t allowed inside the main temple. The word more accurately is translated as “temple area.” The second Greek word translated as temple in the Gospel According to John 2:19 and 2:21 is used specifically to refer to the inner or most holy part of the temple. This area roughly corresponds to what is called the sanctuary in present-day Catholic churches.

Q&A—Jesus’ Mother
A reader has asked about the role of Jesus’ Mother in the second chapter in the Gospel According to John.

Q: What do you think about the suggestion made by some commentators that in the account of the wedding at Cana, Mary represents woman in a generic sense?

A: We’ve heard the idea that in this section in the Fourth Gospel Jesus’ mother refers to woman in a universal sense, and we like that. The Greek word used can mean either woman in the most general or generic sense or woman in the sense of one who is married or more specifically one who is betrothed. There’s no good way to know which sense is being used, but in the biblical context of a wedding, the sense of a married or betrothed woman seems fascinating.

The part of Jesus’ response to his Mother in the Gospel According to John 2:4—”My hour has not yet come”—may be intended to suggest something to the effect of “It’s not my wedding.” It would be a matter of utmost importance to both Jesus and his mother if the wine ran out at Jesus’ wedding. If this is not that wedding, then they aren’t responsible for providing wine. By making the current problem her concern, is Mary perhaps in a sense making this wedding an extension of Jesus’ wedding—whatever that is? The Fourth Gospel views Jesus’ time on earth as a sort of courtship of humanity. Jesus’ ultimate response during this encounter suggests that at the word of his mother he’s decided the lack of wine at this wedding now has become his concern.

One final thought: The second chapter in the Gospel According to John never refers to Mary by name. She’s introduced as “the mother of Jesus.” In the prologue, the Evangelist didn’t introduce Jesus by name either until after having established his identity. Mary is presented as the mother of Jesus—the human person we know to be God. She’s the living representation of a wedding between humanity and divinity just as is Jesus. There’s a suggestion of a twofold wedding of God to humanity represented in its first phase in the person of Mary and in its second phase as union with God available to us all through our Baptism made possible by the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

for additional reflection
That the Evangelist John insists on referring to Jesus’ supernatural actions as signs instead of miracles gives us an intriguing clue about how to think about what’s happening throughout the Fourth Gospel. Jesus’ signs all point to something else and show us the way toward it. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 2:1–25. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 3 on page 16 in TThe Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? If the signs that Jesus is performing are directional, where exactly are they pointing?
? Consider the pros and cons of whether where Jesus is pointing is somewhere most people would want to go.
? How does Jesus’ cousin John prepare the way of the Lord?
? What’s this preparation of John’s have to do with present-day Christians?
? What evidence is there in your own life to indicate that you’ve started moving in the direction of Jesus’ signs?
? What things in your life might others be able to recognize as signs or indicators that you’re a follower of Jesus?

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 2:1–25 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father,
you inspired your Son with zeal for your house of worship.
Teach us to recognize the signs of Jesus’ presence in our lives
and to follow him in whatever direction love leads us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 4 A Man of the Pharisees, Named Nicodemus—the Gospel According to John 3:1–36
Lesson 2 And This Is the Testimony of John—the Gospel According to John 1:19–51

you also may like our study of Scripture & the Rosary (digital only)
Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels, a 26-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, looks at the biblical foundations of the Rosary. The study includes lessons on Pope St. John Paul II’s Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary), the Apostles’ Creed, and the Luminous Mysteries as well as the original 15 Mysteries of the Rosary. Color photographs of stained glass windows depict key scenes in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Free digital lessons rotate throughout the year on our website.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.