Charles Ellicott Commentary John 2:10

"and saith unto him, Every man setteth on first the good wine; and when [men] have drunk freely, [then] that which is worse: thou hast kept the good wine until now." — John 2:10 (ASV)

When men have well drunk.—The same Greek word is used in the LXX. in Genesis 43:34, and rendered in the Authorized Version were merry; but its general use in the Old Testament, as in classical writers, and its invariable use in the New Testament (Matthew 24:49; Acts 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:21; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:7; Revelation 17:6 are the only passages) is to express the state of drunkenness. Our translators have shrunk from that rendering here, though it was before them in When men be dronke, of Tyndale and Cranmer. The physical meaning of the word is to saturate with moisture, as we say, to be drenched, which is the same word as drunk.

There is clearly no reference to the present feast. It is a coarse jest of the ruler’s, the sort of remark that forms part of the stock-in-trade of a hired manager of banquets.