John 2

The First Sign: Turning Water into Wine

¹On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there,²³and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well.⁴⁵When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.”⁶

⁷“What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.”⁸

⁹“Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.¹⁰

¹¹Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.¹²

¹³“Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim.¹⁴¹⁵Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did.¹⁶

¹⁷When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from — though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom¹⁸¹⁹and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.”²⁰

²¹Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.²²

²³After this, he went down to Capernaum, together with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.²⁴

Cleansing the Temple

²⁵The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.²⁶²⁷In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there.²⁸²⁹After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables.³⁰³¹He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”³²

³³And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me.³⁴

³⁵So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?”³⁶

³⁷Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.”³⁸

³⁹Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?”⁴⁰

⁴¹But he was speaking about the temple of his body.⁴²⁴³So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.⁴⁴

⁴⁵While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.⁴⁶⁴⁷Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all⁴⁸⁴⁹and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.⁵⁰