right to refuse, even referring to the untimeliness of His Divine intervention. She no longer speaks to Him, but to the attendants: do as He tells you. Well, he won’t send them to the store for wine, will he? And they don’t have much money to get the whole feast drunk.
And Jesus humbles himself before his mother’s will.
“6 There were six stone waterpots here, standing according to the Jewish custom of cleansing, containing two or three measures” – what kind of Jewish customs can be obeyed in pagan Galilee?
In general, a separate comment should be made on this topic, since the absurd insertions about Jewish customs and similar points will continue to appear often. Therefore, you need to understand what Galilee was in the time of Jesus. In order not to delve into a major historical study, let’s take a brief reference from Wikipedia:
“Galilee is a historical area in the north of Israel. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. Galilee was settled by the Canaanites. In the 2nd millennium BC. e. here the Hurrians, Hittites and Egyptians appear. Then the country comes to the attention of the Israeli tribes and is included in the kingdom of Israel. In 722 BC. e. Galilee is part of the Assyrian state, the local population is evicted and replaced by Assyrian colonists. In 539 BC. e. Galilee comes under the rule of Persia. In 333 BC. e. from the Persians, Galileo was captured by the troops of Alexander the Great, and the colonization of the lands by Greek and Macedonian colonists began. After this period, Galilee changed hands several times between the Hellenistic dynasties of the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Syrian Seleucids, until the conquest of Galilee by Rome in 63 BC. e.
From the reign of the Hasmoneans and the Maccabean Wars to the conquest by Roman troops in 63 BC. e. Galilee was repeatedly subjected to predatory raids by the Kingdom of Judah. In the 1st century A.D. e. Judas Galilean[42]together with several Jewish priests, started riots in the city of Sepphoris, which provoked the arrival of Roman troops in Galilee, as a result of which it was devastated, most of the local population was killed, and the rest were sold into slavery by the Romans. From the period of the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in the 70s A.D. e. begins the mass migration of Jews to the devastated Galilee, the development of the territories of Galilee and Samaria, the development and construction of synagogues. In 636, Galilee was annexed to the Jordanian province of the Caliphate.”
This publication builds on a fundamental study of the history of Galilee[43], from which and others like it it is composed.
Is everything clear, it seems? There were no Jews in Galilee in the time of Jesus and could not have been. They were there only with robber raids, like bandits – and, of course, the Galilean population treated them like enemies. And the Galileans themselves were a mix of languages, which is why the Jews also called ths land “Galilee pagan.” In Galilee, apparently, representatives of many nations lived alongside, with their gods, faiths and religions, among which only one was missing – the Jewish with the Law of their evil and vengeful god-Yahweh. They dreamed of the genocide of those who lived in the territory which used to be theirs, as memory had it.
So, no Jewish customs were observed at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, and none of those present at it was a Jew – including Jesus, His Mother, and His disciples – they were not Jews, and they could not be. And from this point of view, the entire Gospel story begins to look completely different from what it is presented like in the canon of the New Testament and in church teaching. And the absurdity of Judaizing inserts and patches like the above one about “Jewish customs” becomes obvious.
Now further on the water carriers. In general, even in the most remote village, you go in and see a row of buckets of water on the bench – their presence in the house does not require following “Jewish customs”. Simply put, there were several buckets for water in the wedding hall: in case someone should wash or drink, or for household needs – they did not have a plumbing in those days. So Jesus says to the servants:
“7 Jesus says to them: Fill the vessels with water. And they filled them to the top. 8 And he saith unto them, Draw now, and take it to the chief of the feast. And they carried it. 9 When the steward had tasted the water that had become wine – and he did not know where the wine came from, only the servants who drew the water knew – then the steward calls the bridegroom10 and says to him: every man serves good wine first, and when guests get drunk, then the worse; and you have kept good wine until now.”
And here’s what is interesting: the servants, who scooped up wine from the waterpots, did not notice the miraculous transformation – why? I realized this at the market in Cana of Galilee, buying homemade wine from the locals – it was white! White wine when poured in the stone vessel looks no different than water!
“11 So Jesus started miracles in Cana of Galilee and showed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him”– and this is the end,, the point is set – it would seem. But no, the narration continues, and this sequel reminds me of the overture from the puppet show “Unusual Concert”, if anyone has seen it. There, this overture ends with a pretentious ending – and then starts to continue again – and so it does ten times over, it just won’t end. So it happens here as well – and this immediately suggests that the second chapter, already completed by the witnessing of a miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee by John, the future author of the Gospel, and thus completed; but someone really wanted to continue.
We read on.
“12 After this He came to Capernaum, Himself and His mother, and His brothers, and His disciples; and stayed there for a few days”– so, wait a minute,, why – in Capernaum? From Cana to Capernaum, passing by their house in Nazareth, there is still a good forty or fifty miles – and why would you suddenly want to cover such a formiddable distance, for what need? They celebrated at the wedding and would return home to Nazareth, to rest – how else? Especially with brothers? But the brothers did not go to the wedding – why drag the minors along, when only Maria was invited and the eldest son to accompany the woman? There was no talk of any brothers, the brothers were at home. And Mary had nothing to do in Capernaum, especially since no relatives from Capernaum are mentioned anywhere, and a woman staying there for a few days seems unlikely – where, with whom? Let us also notice how suddenly the harmonious timeline set by the evangelist, who specifically points out at the beginning of the chapter: “On the third day…”, is suddenly broken for no reason at all, that is, it was important to show how quickly events began to develop. And suddenly – they hang out in Capernaum for several days, there is a pause. That is, from this point begins a very rough and ridiculous insertion – for what purpose? This becomes clear literally from the next verse.
“13 The Passover of the Jews was approaching, and Jesus came to Jerusalem” – and so he suddenly found himself in Jerusalem, hurried to the Jewish Passover, apparently abandoning his mother with the brothers in Capernaum, and, possibly, his disciples – not a word is mentioned about them further. That is, immediately after the miracle in Cana, where “he manifested his glory and disciples believed in Him,” he head to immediately stress His belonging to Jewry, Judaism, Jewish God, temple, holidays and customs: as soon as he performed the first miracle, he immediately rushed to Jerusalem to prove to the Jews that He is the expected Jewish Messiah – and who else? That is, he abandoned his native Galilee, did not begin to convert his people to his faith, did not preach the gospel to his fellow countrymen, but rushed to preach the Heavenly Father to strangers and aliens, the Jews, that were hostile to any faith other than their own and considered even a mere mention of other gods except for Jehovah a blasphemy
