Cana #57

Cana, or Cana of Galilee, is a village in Galilee mentioned only in John’s Gospel. It is the site of the first sign Jesus performed, when he turned water into wine at a wedding, and of a second healing performed there when an official from Capernaum came to ask for his son. Its precise location is uncertain, and two main sites are proposed.

Biblical Significance

John tells us that on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and that Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were invited (John 2:1-2). When the wine ran out, Mary told Jesus of the problem, and he told the servants to fill six stone water jars with water. When the master of the feast tasted what they drew out, it had become wine, and it was better than what had been served before (John 2:3-10). John calls this the first of Jesus’ signs, in which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him (John 2:11). The miracle is set in the ordinary life of a village celebration, and it has often been read as showing Jesus’ approval of marriage and as a sign of the abundance of the coming kingdom.

Cana appears again when Jesus returned there after his time in Judea and Samaria. A royal official from Capernaum, whose son was near death, begged him to come down and heal the boy. Jesus told him instead that his son would live, the man believed the word and went home, and he found that the fever had left the boy at the very hour Jesus had spoken. John counts this as the second sign that Jesus did in Galilee (John 4:46-54). Cana is also identified as the hometown of Nathanael, one of Jesus’ followers (John 21:2).

Today

Two sites are proposed for ancient Cana. The traditional site, Kafr Kanna, is a town about four miles northeast of Nazareth, with a Franciscan Wedding Church and a Greek Orthodox church that each claim a link to the miracle. Pilgrims have been shown Kafr Kanna since at least the Byzantine and Crusader periods. The other candidate is Khirbet Qana, a ruined Jewish village on a hill about nine miles north of Nazareth, on the north side of the Beit Netofa valley. Its name preserves the ancient form Qana, and archaeologists have found first-century remains there, including cisterns and stone vessels of the kind used for ritual purity. Some scholars also connect it with the Cana named by the historian Josephus. Neither site is certain, and the debate continues, with some archaeologists favoring Khirbet Qana and long-standing pilgrim tradition favoring Kafr Kanna.