CANA. 
The View is full of traditionary holiness. In the small Greek Church, at the foot of the 
hill, is shown by the priest, as an invaluable relic (on the authority of tradition), “ one of 
the water-pots ” in which the water was changed into wine. For preservation, it is built 
into the wall. The Church itself is pronounced to have been raised on the spot where the 
marriage-feast was celebrated. The ruins of an adjacent house are regarded, on the same 
authority, to be those of the dwelling of our Lord: the disciple Nathanael was a native of 
Cana . 1 
The nature of the Miracle may allow of some elucidation here, narrow as are the limits 
to which it must be confined. It seems to be implied in the narrative, that our Lord had 
previously intended to give some evidence of his divine power on the occasion of the 
marriage; and even that he had declared his intention. For his mother, on the first emer¬ 
gency of the feast, the failure of wine, evidently suggests it to him, as the object of his 
interposition; and by what other means than miracle could he have supplied it at the 
moment? Yet she could never have seen him work a miracle before. His answer confirms 
the idea of a previous declaration; for it is equivalent to the words, “ In giving my evidence 
of divine power, I must not be interfered with by human suggestion. The time on which 
I have determined for it has not yet come.” It is not unnatural to conceive, that He 
then suffered some period to elapse; perhaps, until it was known among all the guests 
that the wine had been wholly consumed, and thus the deficiency distinctly felt and 
openly acknowledged. 
The extreme succinctness of the Gospel narratives in general renders them mere 
outlines, which, in all humility, we are entitled to fill up with the natural features of the 
transaction. His mother then alludes no further to the deficiency of the wine, or rather, 
abandons the suggestion altogether; yet is still so fully convinced of his intention to give 
some proof of his divine power, that she bids the servants, “ Whatsoever he saith unto you, 
do it.” 
Of course, the supreme Lord of Miracle might have wrought a wonder of a wholly 
different order, more stupendous in its effects, and, from its grandeur, more likely to spread 
his name through all ranks of his nation. But the change of the water into wine hears the 
peculiar characteristic by which his union of the divine and human natures was distin¬ 
guished. It was a work of kindness as well as of power. It relieved the master of the 
feast from an immediate and perplexing w r ant, and it met that want with a sudden 
munificence , 2 which marked the act as divine. Kindness to his mother, too, may have 
mingled in his choice of the miracle. He had vindicated the majesty of that great 
instrument of Heaven, by declaring that its use was not to he dependent on any personal 
and human influence; and having thus done, he soothes and honours her in the presence of 
the guests and attendants, by adopting her wish before them all. 
Some reasons for the selection of a Marriage-feast as the scene of the primary miracle 
1 John ii. 
2 The “measure” in the original was either the Hebrew (7J gallons), or more probably the Attic 
Metretes (9 gallons). The vessels to contain water for the continual ablutions of the Jews must have 
been large. Dr. E. Clarke found them from 18 to 27 gallons, which would be about the “ two or three 
measures a-piece.” 
