John Calvin Commentary John 2:6

"Now there were six waterpots of stone set there after the Jews` manner of purifying, containing two or three firkins apiece." — John 2:6 (ASV)

And there were there six water-pots of stone. According to the computation of Budaeus, we infer that these water-pots were very large; for as the metreta (μετρητὴς) contains twenty congii, each contained, at least, a Sextier of this country. Christ, therefore, supplied them with a great abundance of wine, as much as would be sufficient for a banquet for one hundred and fifty men. Besides, both the number and the size of the water-pots serve to prove the truth of the miracle. If there had been only two or three jars, many might have suspected that they had been brought from some other place. If water in only one vessel had been changed into wine, the certainty of the miracle would not have been so obvious or so well ascertained. It is not, therefore, without good reason that the Evangelist mentions the number of the water-pots and states how much they contained.

It arose from superstition that such numerous and large vessels were placed there. They had the ceremony of washing, indeed, prescribed to them by the Law of God; but as the world is prone to excess in outward matters, the Jews, not satisfied with the simplicity God had enjoined, amused themselves with continual washings. And as superstition is ambitious, they undoubtedly served the purpose of display, much as we see today in Popery, where everything that is said to belong to the worship of God is arranged for pure display.

There was, then, a twofold error: that without God's command, they engaged in a superfluous ceremony of their own invention; and next, that under the pretense of religion, ambition reigned amidst that display. Some Popish scoundrels have manifested an amazing degree of wickedness by having the effrontery to claim they had among their relics those water-pots with which Christ performed this miracle in Cana, and exhibited some of them, which, first, are of small size, and, next, are unequal in size.

And today, when the light of the Gospel shines so clearly around us, they are not ashamed to practice those tricks, which are certainly not intended to deceive by enchantments but rather to mock people daringly, as if they were blind; and the world, which does not perceive such gross mockery, is evidently bewitched by Satan.