Water to Wine
Life of Jesus · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 22e5bbb113018dbc · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Preparation and early ministry. A guided comparison of Gospel accounts, not a measured calendar or a claim that every parallel follows the same sequence.
At a wedding in Cana, Jesus directs servants to fill water jars and take a sample to the banquet master. The water has become wine; John calls this the first sign, revealing Jesus’s glory.
The servants know what the banquet master does not. The account connects the sign with belief and Jesus’s coming hour; it does not identify the wedding couple or certify a surviving house.
Primary Scripture
2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
2:2 and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
2:3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.”
2:4 “Woman, what is that to you and to Me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
2:5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
2:6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons.
2:7 Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim.
2:8 “Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,
2:9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
2:10 and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”
2:11 Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
Related Scripture
John later explains the purpose of recording selected signs.
Location evidence
John names Cana in Galilee. Multiple sites are proposed, so the candidate marker is explicitly proposed rather than identified.
Event map marker: Proposed site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.33877, 32.74702]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Cana: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.33877, 32.74702]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: competing identifications (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: competing identifications (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
Who understands what has happened, and how do their responses differ?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: theographic (271)
Record source: editorial
Events and places adapted from Theographic Bible Metadata (github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata), CC BY-SA 4.0. This adapted data is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm