Church Fathers Commentary John 2:1-4

"And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and Jesus also was bidden, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." — John 2:1-4 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Since our Lord was known in Galilee, they invited Him to a wedding: And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.

Alcuin of York: Galilee is a province, and Cana is a village in it.

St. John Chrysostom: They invited our Lord to the wedding not as a great person, but merely as an acquaintance, one of many. For this reason the Evangelist says, And the mother of Jesus was there. As they invited the mother, so they invited the Son. Therefore, Jesus was called, and His disciples to the marriage. He came, caring more for our good than for His own dignity. He who did not disdain to take upon Himself the form of a servant did not disdain to come to the wedding of servants.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Let the proud blush to see the humility of God. Behold, among other things, the Son of the Virgin comes to a wedding; He who instituted marriage when He was with the Father.

The Venerable Bede: His condescension in coming to the wedding, and the miracle He performed there, are a strong confirmation of the faith, even when considered only literally. This event also condemns the errors of Tatian, Marcion, and others who detract from the honor of marriage. For if the undefiled marriage bed, celebrated with due chastity, partook of sin at all, our Lord would never have come to a wedding. As it is, conjugal chastity is good, the continence of widows is better, and the perfection of the virgin state is best. To sanction all these states and to distinguish the merit of each, He deigned to be born of the pure womb of the Virgin, was blessed after His birth by the prophetic voice of the widow Anna, and now, invited in His manhood to a wedding celebration, honors that state also by the presence of His goodness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Is it any wonder that He went to that house for a wedding, when He came into this world for a wedding? For here He has His spouse, whom He redeemed with His own blood, to whom He gave the pledge of the Spirit, and whom He united to Himself in the womb of the Virgin. The Word is the Bridegroom and human flesh is the bride, and both together are one Son of God and Son of man. That womb of the Virgin Mary is His chamber, from which He went forth as a bridegroom.

The Venerable Bede: Nor is it without some mysterious allusion that the wedding is related as taking place on the third day. The first age of the world, before the giving of the Law, was enlightened by the example of the Patriarchs; the second, under the Law, by the writings of the Prophets; and the third, under grace, by the preaching of the Evangelists, as if by the light of the third day, for our Lord had now appeared in the flesh. The name of the place where the wedding was held, Cana of Galilee, which means "desire of migrating," also has a typical significance—namely, that those most worthy of Christ are they who burn with devotional desires and have known the passage from vice to virtue, from earthly to eternal things. The wine was allowed to run out to give our Lord the opportunity to make better wine, so that the glory of God in man might be brought out of its hiding place: And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, They have no wine.

St. John Chrysostom: But how did it enter His mother’s mind to expect such a great thing from her Son? For He had not yet performed any miracles, as we read later: This beginning of miracles did Jesus. His true nature, however, was now beginning to be revealed by John and by His own conversations with His disciples. Furthermore, His conception and the circumstances of His birth had given rise to high expectations in her mind from the very beginning, as Luke tells us: His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Why, then, did she never ask Him to perform a miracle before? Because the time had now come for Him to be made known. Previously, He had lived so much like an ordinary person that she had not had the confidence to ask Him. But now that she heard that John had borne witness to Him and that He had disciples, she asked Him with confidence.

Alcuin of York: Here she represents the Synagogue, which challenges Christ to perform a miracle. It was customary for the Jews to ask for miracles.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Some who detract from the Gospel, saying that Jesus was not born of the Virgin Mary, try to draw an argument for their error from this passage. For they ask, how could she be His mother to whom He said, What have I to do with you? Now who is it that gives this account, and on whose authority do we believe it? The Evangelist John. But he himself says, The mother of Jesus was there. Why would he say this, unless both were true? But did He, therefore, come to the wedding to teach people to despise their mothers?

St. John Chrysostom: That He greatly venerated His mother, we know from St. Luke, who tells us that He was subject to His parents. For when parents place no obstacle in the way of God’s commands, it is our duty to be subject to them. But when they demand something at an inopportune time, or cut us off from spiritual things, we should not be deceived into complying.

St. Augustine of Hippo: To mark a distinction between His Godhead and His manhood—that according to His manhood He was inferior and subject, but according to His Godhead supreme—He said, Woman, what have I to do with you?

St. John Chrysostom: He also said this for another reason: namely, to prevent any suspicion from being attached to His miracles. For it was proper that these should be requested by those who needed them, not by His mother. He wished to show them that He would perform everything in its proper time, not all at once, to prevent confusion. For He said, My hour has not yet come. That is, "I am not yet known to the people present; indeed, they do not even know that the wine has run out. Let them find that out first." He who does not perceive his need beforehand will not appreciate it when his need is supplied.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, it was because our Lord as God did not have a mother, though as man He did, and the miracle He was about to perform was an act of His Divinity, not of human infirmity. When His mother, therefore, demanded a miracle, He, as if not acknowledging a human birth when about to perform a divine work, said, Woman, what have I to do with you? It is as if He said, "You did not give birth to that in Me which performs the miracle—My Divinity." (She is called "woman" with reference to the female sex, not to any injury of her virginity.)

But He continued, "Because you gave birth to My infirmity, I will acknowledge you then, when that very infirmity shall hang on the cross." And therefore He adds, My hour has not yet come. This is as if to say, "I will acknowledge you when the infirmity of which you are the mother hangs from the cross." When He was about to die, He commended His mother to the disciple; He would die and rise again before she did.

But note: just as the Manicheans have found an occasion for error and a pretext for their faithlessness in our Lord’s words, What have I to do with you? so also the astrologers find support for their own errors in the words, My hour has not yet come. For they say, "If Christ had not been under the power of fate, He would never have said this." But let them believe what God says later: I have power to lay it [my life] down, and I have power to take it again. Then let them ask why He says, My hour has not yet come. Nor should they, on such grounds, subject the Creator of heaven to fate, seeing that even if there were a fatality in the stars, the Maker of the stars could not be under their dominion.

Not only did Christ have nothing to do with fate, as they call it, but neither do you nor any other person. Why, then, did He say, My hour has not yet come? Because He had the power to die when He pleased but did not yet think it expedient to exert that power. He was first to call the disciples, proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven, perform marvelous works, and prove His divinity by miracles and His humility by partaking of the sufferings of our mortal state. When He had done all this, then the hour had come—not an hour of destiny, but of will; not of obligation, but of power.