1   On the third day there was a wedding at Cana-in-Galilee. 2   The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples were guests also. 3   The wine gave out, so Jesus's mother said to him, ‘They have no wine left.’ 4   He answered, ‘Your concern, mother, is not mine. 5   My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6   There were six stone water-jars standing near, of the kind used for Jewish rites of purification; each

Christ the giver of life held from twenty to thirty gallons. 7   Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’, and they filled them to the brim. 8   ‘Now draw some off’, he ordered, ‘and take it to the steward of the feast’; and they did so. 9   The steward tasted the water now turned into wine, not knowing its source; though the servants who had drawn the water knew. 10   He hailed the bridegroom and said, ‘Everyone serves the best wine first, and waits until the guests have drunk freely before serving the poorer sort; but you have kept the best wine till now.’

11   This deed at Cana-in-Galilee is the first of the signs by which Jesus revealed his glory and led his disciples to believe in him.

12   After this he went down to Capernaum in company with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, but they did not stay there long. 13   As it was near the time of the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14   There he found in the temple the dealers in cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15   Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them out of the temple, sheep, cattle, and all. He upset the tables of the money-changers, scattering their coins. 16   Then he turned on the dealers in pigeons: ‘Take them out,’ he said; ‘you must not turn my Father's house into a market.’ 17   His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, ‘Zeal for thy house will destroy me.’ 18   The Jews challenged Jesus: ‘What sign’, they asked, ‘can you show as authority for your action?’ 19   ‘Destroy this temple,’ Jesus replied, ‘and in three days I will raise it again.’ 20   They said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple. Are you going to raise it again in three days?’ 21   But the temple he was speaking of was his body. 22   After his resurrection his disciples recalled what he had said, and they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

23   While he was in Jerusalem for Passover many gave their allegiance to him when they saw the signs that he performed. 24   But Jesus for his part would not trust himself to them. He knew men so well, all of them, 25   that he needed no evidence from others about a man, for he himself could tell what was in a man.

Previous section

Next section