John
Chapter 2
Overview
John 2 begins at a village wedding in Cana, where running out of wine would bring a family real embarrassment. Jesus responds with a quiet but startling sign, and his followers begin to see who he is. The scene then shifts sharply to Jerusalem during Passover, the Jewish festival recalling Israel’s rescue from slavery. There Jesus confronts commerce in the temple grounds and speaks of a temple that will rise in three days. Celebration turns to conflict; water becomes wine, while public excitement proves less solid than it first appears.
1On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there.
2Jesus and his followers were also invited to the wedding.
3When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no wine.”
4Jesus replied, “Why are you bringing this to me, ma’am? My time has not yet come.”
5His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6Six stone water jars were standing there for use in Jewish purification rituals. Each jar held roughly eighty to one hundred twenty liters.
7Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the top.
8Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” They did so.
9The banquet manager tasted the water, which had become wine. He did not know where it came from, although the servants who had drawn the water knew. So the banquet manager called the groom
10and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first, then the cheaper wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now!”
11Jesus did this in Cana in Galilee as the first of his signs. In this way he revealed his glory—his true greatness—and his followers put their trust in him.
12After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his followers. They stayed there for only a few days.
13The Jewish Passover festival was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14In the temple grounds, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, while money changers sat at their tables.
15Jesus made a whip from cords and drove them all out of the temple grounds, including the sheep and cattle. He poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned their tables.
16He told those selling doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace.”
17His followers remembered that Scripture says, “Passion for your house will consume me.”
18The Jewish authorities responded, “What sign can you show us to prove that you have the right to do these things?”
19Jesus answered them, “Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20The authorities replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?”
21But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his own body.
22So after he was raised from the dead, his followers remembered that he had said this. They believed what Scripture said and the words Jesus had spoken.
23While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, many people put their trust in him because they saw the signs he was performing.
24But Jesus did not entrust himself to them, because he knew everyone.
25He did not need anyone to tell him what people were like, because he knew what was inside each person.