An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels Turning Water Into Wine

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Having examined the ministry of Jesus, I come now to the supposed 37 miracles (not including his virgin birth or the miracles surrounding the alleged resurrection). The first miracle of Jesus’s adult ministry is only recorded in the Gospel attributed to John. (2:1-11). The others make no reference to it. Jesus, various disciples and the Mother of Jesus are invited to a wedding at Cana, where the wine runs out midway through the wedding feast. Jesus turns water into wine to keep the celebrations going. Mary, the mother of Jesus is not named at all by John. She is just referred to as the Mother of Jesus, or rather scathingly by Jesus as ‘Woman’. (not a very polite way to talk to your own mother and quite disparaging to women in general). It is Mary who first tells Jesus that the wine is running out. Jesus rebukes her sharply, demanding to know what it has to do with him. It isn’t clear if he thinks he is being blamed for the wine shortage or expected to help fix the problem. He adds cryptically that his time has not yet come. This could be seen as a prediction of the use of wine at the Last Supper, on the eve of the arrest of Jesus, or his desire to not yet show the public that he can perform miracles. He seems to change his mind as Mary tells the servants (slaves serving as wine waiters) to follow her son’s instructions. Mary seems to have some authority over the servants. Jesus then tells the servants to fill various containers with water and take them to the chief wine steward for checking. Whether the containers are bottles or barrels is not stated. It is not clear if the miracle is performed just once for all the water-wine available, or for each individual cup served until the end of the wedding party. The Chief steward finds the new wine is better than any so far served, and mentions that it usually the custom to start the feast with the best wines but that the Bridegroom (who must have paid for the feast and wine) had broken tradition by saving the best wine for the end of the party. Only the immediate followers of Jesus know that Jesus has performed a miracle, states John. Most of the wedding guests are left thinking the wine was just bought in for the wedding rather than created out of thin air and water. Surely however, the waiters involved in getting the water must know what has happened too. The miracle, if not totally made up by John, could easily be faked. Virtually any stage conjurer could be seen producing wine from nowhere or turning one substance into another. Jesus could have hidden away or stolen wine that was already available, or smuggled in a supply of wine of his own to substitute later. The idea of serving inferior wine later in a party after guests are too drunk to notice or care seems realistic. Jesus may well have been objecting to the idea of replacing good wine with cheap plonk as the night progressed. We are told nothing about the wedding guests, or bride and groom. Jesus may or may not have played a role in the actual marriage ceremony, but he seems to have been invited merely as a friend of Mary, herself a friend of the family. His miracle seems to have been waged just to keep people happily inebriated rather than to cure any illness or famine. It is rather selfishly motivated. Arthur Chappell