12. Cf. Keener 2005: 1.409.
13. Cf. Bultmann 1971: 63–64.
14. Barrett 1978: 514.
15. Bratcher 1991: 23.
16. Pamment 1983: 14–15.
17. Kanagaraj 1998a: 214–47.
18. Dodd 1958: 305 n. 1; Barrett 1978: 166.
19. “Fullness” (plērōma) means “the totality of divine powers and attributes” revealed in Jesus; see Lightfoot 1997: 48, 78.
20. Cf. Edwards 1988: 8–9.
21. Lindars 1957: 27; Kanagaraj 2005: 61.
22. Sandmel 1979: 95; Kanagaraj 1998a: 72.
23. Possibly the “Bethany beyond Jordan” was on the eastern side of Jordan up in the northern end of Peraea, closer to Aenon (near Salim), a place of springs in the western bank of Jordan.
24. For various shades of meaning of the term “the Jews” in John see Griffith 2008: 185; Brown 2010: 157–75. The term also refers to the Jews who genuinely believed in Jesus after seeing Jesus’ sign (11:45).
25. Cf. Dunn 2003: 265–70.
26. John 6:14; 7:40; 9:17 do not prove that the Johannine community had developed a prophet Christology.
27. This reflects the current belief that the Messiah is concealed in the presence of God’s power from the beginning (1 En. 62:7; 4 Ezra 13:2–4, 52; Dan 7:13–14).
28. Barclay 1957: 1.62.
29. For other arguments against the background of Revelation see Ridderbos 1997: 72; Keener 2005: 1.452.
30. Cf. Michaels 2010: 113.
31. The word “to remain” (menein), which is used about forty times in the Gospel, indicates the intimate union that exists between Jesus and the Father and also between Jesus and his followers.
32. Neyrey 2007: 53.
33. Kanagaraj 2005: 84–85.
34. Cf. Carson 1991: 154–55.
35. Barrett 1978: 204.
36. Brown 1978: 1.98.
37. The reference to the precise time or day occurs often in John (e.g., 3:2; 4:6; 18:28; 19:39, 42; 20:1, 19), showing that the narrated events happened in history at a particular point of time.
38. For the sake of Greek readers the narrator translates the Hebrew “Messiah” into Greek “Christ” (cf. 1:38, 41).
39. Barrett 1978: 183.
40. Keener 2005: 1.484; Barrett 1978: 184.
41. Brown 1978: 1.83; Neyrey 2007: 58.
42. Cf. Barclay 1957: 1.77–78.
43. In the OT the term “son of man” means a mere mortal human being (e.g., Ps 8:4; Ezek 2:1; 3:1; 4:1; etc.), but Dan 7:13–14 shows “the son of man” as a heavenly being who comes with the clouds of heaven. In view of John’s constant emphasis that Jesus came from heaven (e.g., 3:13; 6:38, 41–42, 50–51; 8:23), we should understand the title “Son of Man” against the background of Dan 7.
John 2
The Beginning of Jesus’ Public Ministry
Jesus’ Public Ministry (2:1—12:50)
Some scholars treat John 2 as the beginning of the unit that ends at 4:54, often given the title “From Cana to Cana.”1 This section pictures how the first sign took place in Cana of Galilee (2:1–12) and the second sign, which completes the first sphere of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, also took place in Cana (4:46–54). God’s new community was expanded by including both the Jews and the Gentiles.
First sign of Jesus in John (2:1–12)
In 2:1–12 a vision of Jesus’ glory, promised in 1:51, becomes possible first in a wedding at Cana, the native place of Nathanael, situated in Galilee eight miles north of Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up. The time reference “on the third day” implies not only that Jesus’ revelation of his glory took place after three days of his promise (1:50b-51) but also that by this time the circle of twelve disciples was complete. If we count the number of days from the time the Baptist witnessed about Jesus (1:19–2:1), the wedding at Cana falls on the seventh day. Brown sees here an implicit reference to God’s creation of the world in seven days (Gen 1:1–2:3) and argues that John is seeing the start of Jesus’ ministry as the start of new creation.2 This symbolic interpretation looks forward to the creation of a new humanity by Jesus who was raised on the third day (20:22).
Galilee had both Jews and Gentiles in it, and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and his first sign performed there may symbolically mean that he loves both Jews and Gentiles and that they have an equal place in the new community he came to create. “The mother of Jesus was there” implies that the wedding could have been that of one of her relatives or of a close family friend. That is why Jesus and his disciples also had been invited. Jesus’ mother is mentioned throughout John’s Gospel without
