Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Jesus, invited to the wedding at Cana, turns water into wine. Second, at verse 13, He drives the sellers from the temple. Third, at verse 18, when the Jews ask for a sign by which He might show that He was sent by God, He assigns this one: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Vulgate Text: John 2:1-25
1. And on the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there. 2. And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the wedding. 3. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him: They have no wine. 4. And Jesus said to her: What is that to Me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come. 5. His mother said to the servants: Whatever He tells you, do it. 6. Now there were six stone water jars set there according to the purification rite of the Jews, each holding two or three measures. 7. Jesus said to them: Fill the jars with water. And they filled them to the brim. 8. And Jesus said to them: Now draw some out, and bring it to the master of the feast. And they brought it. 9. And when the master of the feast tasted the water that had been made wine, and did not know where it came from — but the servants who had drawn the water knew — the master of the feast called the bridegroom, 10. and said to him: Every man first sets out the good wine, and when they have drunk freely, then that which is inferior; but you have kept the good wine until now. 11. This beginning of signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. 12. After this He went down to Capernaum — He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they stayed there not many days. 13. And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem: 14. and He found in the temple those selling oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the money-changers sitting there. 15. And when He had made a sort of whip from cords, He drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned the tables. 16. And to those selling doves He said: Take these things away from here, and do not make My Father's house a house of commerce. 17. And His disciples remembered that it is written: "The zeal of Your house has consumed me." 18. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: What sign do you show us, since you do these things? 19. Jesus answered and said to them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20. The Jews therefore said: This temple was built over forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? 21. But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22. When therefore He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 23. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in His name, seeing the signs that He was performing. 24. But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25. and because He had no need for anyone to bear witness about man; for He Himself knew what was in man.
Verse 1: On the Third Day a Wedding Took Place at Cana of Galilee
AND ON THE THIRD DAY A WEDDING TOOK PLACE IN CANA OF GALILEE; AND THE MOTHER OF JESUS WAS THERE. — "On the third day" from Christ's departure into Galilee and from the calling of Philip, chapter 1, verse 43. For this is the last time mentioned by John. So Origen, Jansenius, Toletus, and Franciscus Lucas. Or rather "on the third day" from the visit and conversion of Andrew and Peter, chapter 1, verse 35. For on that day Jesus began to gather disciples and to reveal Himself to them; from that point, therefore, John here counts the third day, on which He fully revealed Himself to the same men and showed Himself to be the Messiah, by the conversion of water into wine.
This, then, is the chronological order of these days of Christ. Christ was baptized by John in the 31st year of Christ's life, on January 6, as the tradition of the Church and the Fathers holds. On the same day after lunch He withdrew into the desert, and there fasted for 40 days. The fast therefore began on January 7 and ended on February 15; from there He returned to Nazareth and remained there for 45 days; then on the 56th day from the baptism, says St. Epiphanius, Heresy 51 — namely on March 1 — the Jews sent envoys to John the Baptist to ask whether he himself was the Christ. John declined and said that Jesus was the Christ, as we heard, chapter 1, verse 19. Then the next day, namely March 2, Jesus came to John, and John, pointing to Him with his finger, said: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world," chapter 1, verse 29. The following day, namely March 3, John repeated the same testimony before two disciples, and they visited Jesus, and one of them, Andrew, brought his brother Peter to Christ, chapter 1, verse 35. On the next morning, namely March 4, Jesus went into Galilee and there called Philip, verse 43: this was the second day from the arrival of Andrew and Peter to Christ; then on the third day, namely March 5, this wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Hence St. Epiphanius, at the place cited, says these nuptials took place on the 60th day from the baptism of Christ.
Furthermore, the same St. Epiphanius, contrary to the rest of the Fathers and the common understanding of the Church, holds that Christ was baptized by John on November 8, and therefore on the sixtieth day from then — namely on January 6 — these nuptials were celebrated at Cana, and there Jesus turned water into wine, namely on the feast of Epiphany, on which day 30 years earlier the Magi, led by a star, had come to Christ in Bethlehem and there adored Him. He adds that in memory of this great miracle, even now on the same day — the 11th of the month Tybi (which for us is January 6) — certain fountains are converted into wine. Hear him: "Wherefore also in many places to this day, there occurs what was then the divine sign, as a testimony to unbelievers, as fountains and rivers converted into wine testify in many places: at Cibyra indeed, a spring of the city of Caria, at the hour when the servants drew water and He said: Give it to the chief steward. And in Gerasa of Arabia a spring testifies similarly. We ourselves drank from the spring at Cibyra; and our brothers from the one in Gerasa, in the Martyrs' temple; but many in Egypt also testify the same thing about the Nile: therefore on the eleventh of Tybi, among the Egyptians all draw water and store it, both in Egypt itself and in many regions." Hence some think that in the following year, which was Christ's 32nd, when the same day January 6 recurred, these nuptials were celebrated at Cana.
But that they took place in the same year in which Christ was baptized — namely two months after the baptism of Christ — is clear from the history of Christ's deeds, which day by day (as I showed shortly before) John here traces out. So Baronius and others. Baronius adds from Nicephorus that this site of the wedding at Cana of Galilee was adorned and ennobled by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, with a distinguished church built there. Simon, therefore, seeing this miracle of Christ at his own wedding, bidding farewell to his bride and the world, followed Christ and was enrolled by Him in the number of the 12 Apostles; and for this reason Christ attended his wedding — and by attending, He honored the wedding indeed, but by calling Simon away from it to Himself, He declared that celibacy and the apostolate are superior to marriage.
Tropologically: how a holy soul, through faith, hope, chastity, charity, and religion, weds Christ as a bride, I showed at length at 2 Corinthians 11:2, on the words: "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." She, then, is the bride of Christ, who, abandoning all the allurements of the world, transfers all her love to Christ, and veils and covers her head — that is, her mind and all her senses — to Him, so that she may continually dwell with Him above the clouds in heaven, and dedicates and consecrates herself entirely to Him. Therefore the etymologies of "nuptials" that Festus assigns fit her perfectly, when he says: Some think the word "nuptials" is derived from the Greek, for the Greeks call the new bride nympha; Cornificius says it is because new unions are sought; Curiatius, because a new arrangement is made; Aelius and Cincius, because the head of the bride is wrapped in a flammeum (wedding veil), which the ancients called obnubere (to veil), on account of which the Parental Law commands that the head of one who killed a parent be veiled — which means to cover. Following this last etymology, Varro, book IV of On the Latin Language, says: Neptune is so called because the sea veils the earth, as clouds veil the sky — from nuptus, that is, covering, as the ancients had it: from which come nuptiae and nuptus. So St. Isidore, book IX of the Etymologies, chapter 8: Nupta (bride), he says, is so called because they veil their faces — the name being borrowed from clouds (nubes), by which the sky is covered. Whence also "nuptials" are so called, because there the heads of those marrying are first veiled; for obnubere is to cover, the opposite of which is innuba, that is, unmarried — she who does not yet veil her face. So far Isidore.
Such a bride of Christ was St. Dympna, a virgin and martyr, who because of her beauty was desired as a wife by her father, the king of Ireland, and fleeing to Brabant, in the town of Geel, not far from Antwerp, was beheaded by her father's hand and died a noble martyrdom for chastity. Hence she merited that those possessed by demons who visit her sacred relics are freed from demons. I once visited her shrine and reverently honored the virgin. Her Life is found in Surius under May 15.
One may object: Why then did God renew the same miracle of conversion into wine every year on January 6? I answer: The reason is that the Church celebrates this miracle on that day, even though it did not actually occur on that day; for the Church wished to recall and celebrate on the same day of Epiphany — that is, of the Manifestation of Christ — three miracles by which Christ first revealed Himself to the world: namely, first, the coming and adoration of the Magi led by a star; second, the baptism of Christ, at which the voice of the Father thundered: "This is My beloved Son;" third, the conversion of water into wine at Cana. Of these three, the first two occurred on the same day, namely January 6, but the third happened two months later, on March 6, as I said. Therefore when the Church sings on that day: "Today wine was made from water at the wedding," it means the same as if she were saying: Today the memory of this event is recalled among the faithful and publicly celebrated every year in the Church. So Baronius, and indeed St. Augustine, Sermon 127 On the Seasons; St. Maximus, Sermon on Epiphany, and others.
In a similar manner, formerly in most places of the West, at the paschal season when solemn baptism was customarily performed in the Church, abundant waters for the use of baptism used to overflow from a dry and arid stone fountain — not indeed to indicate the very day on which Christ was baptized, but because at that time solemn baptism was customarily performed in the Church.
NUPTIAE. — The Syriac has "banquet," namely a wedding banquet. One may ask whose wedding this was and who the bridegroom was. Bede, Rupert, Lyranus, the Carthusian here, and St. Thomas, II-II, Question 186, article 4, and Dominic Soto, on IV, distinction 27, Question I, ad 4, and others think the bridegroom was St. John the Evangelist, moved by the authority of St. Augustine, who here, in the Preface to John, says: "The Lord called John from the storm-tossed waves of marriage."
But I say the bridegroom here was not St. John; for St. John was always a virgin, and therefore never took a wife — for this reason he was dearest to Christ and was that disciple whom Jesus loved, as a virgin loves a virgin, who had never broken his resolve of virginity through marriage, and indeed had never intended to break it, but was determined to persevere constantly in it throughout his whole life. So teach St. Ignatius, Jerome, Augustine, Epiphanius, and others, whom Baronius cites and follows, at the year of Christ 31. Therefore when St. Augustine says: "The Lord called John from the storm-tossed waves of marriage," understand "marriage" not as already entered into, but as about to be entered — that is, which he could have entered and by the custom of his nation ought to have entered. In other words, Christ called the young John to Himself, lest he think of entering into marriage.
More probably, therefore, the same Baronius, following Nicephorus, book VIII of the History, chapter 30, considers that the bridegroom at this wedding was the Apostle Simon, who from this Cana was surnamed the Canaanite.
IN CANA OF GALILEE. — He adds "of Galilee" to distinguish it from another Cana, or Chana, which was situated in the tribe of Asher, near Sidon — whence it was also called "of the Sidonians" — although it too was in Galilee, namely in Upper Galilee, which was called "of the Gentiles," about which see Joshua 19:28, and its inhabitant was the Canaanite woman whose daughter Christ freed from a demon, Matthew 15:22. But this Cana of the wedding was situated in the tribe of Zebulun, in the middle of Galilee — namely in Lower Galilee — above the valley of Carmel, about four hours' distance from Ptolemais and three from Nazareth. So St. Jerome, in On Hebrew Places; Adrichomius, Franciscus Lucas, Maldonatus, and others.
AND THE MOTHER OF JESUS WAS THERE. — "Invited as a family friend by those celebrating the wedding," says Euthymius; for Simon the Canaanite, who was the bridegroom here, was the son of Cleophas, who was the brother of Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin, as I said at Luke 3:23. No mention of Joseph is made here or henceforth, because he had already died, as St. Epiphanius concludes from this passage, Heresy 8; Franciscus Lucas, Baronius, and others. Although on the other hand, St. Cyprian (or whoever is the author), in the treatise On the Passion of the Lord, and St. Ambrose, on chapter 23 of St. Luke, hold that Joseph was still alive at the passion of Christ and bore with equanimity that St. John was preferred to himself by Christ in the care of the Blessed Virgin.
Verse 2: Jesus Also Was Invited, and His Disciples
AND JESUS ALSO WAS INVITED, AND HIS DISCIPLES, TO THE WEDDING. — As a cousin of the bridegroom, namely Simon the Canaanite. Furthermore, Jesus, "being invited, attended the wedding, in which He did not consult His own dignity but our benefit," says St. Chrysostom. Namely: first, to pay this honor to His relatives and to grace their wedding with His presence; second, to give an example of humility by attending the wedding of poor people — whence St. Chrysostom says: "He who did not disdain to take the form of a servant, did not disdain to come to the wedding of servants;" St. Augustine, Sermon 41 On the Words of the Lord: "Let man blush to be proud, since God became humble: behold, He comes to a wedding, who when He was with the Father, instituted marriage;" third, to attend to the poverty and reputation of the bride and groom by converting water into wine; fourth, to reveal Himself to His disciples through this miracle and to show them that He was the Messiah — so Cyril; fifth, to approve marriage and sanctify it by His presence, and thus to refute the Encratites and Tatianists who were soon to come, who condemned marriage as a sordid invention of the devil. So St. Augustine, Sermon 41 On the Seasons; Cyril, Euthymius, Ammonius in the Catena, and Bede, homily on the Second Sunday after Epiphany, whom hear: "If any fault lay in marriage celebrated with due chastity, the Lord would not have come to it: good is conjugal chastity, better is the continence of widowhood, best is virginal perfection. And so Christ is born of a Virgin, is blessed by the prophetic voice of the widow Anna, and comes when invited to a wedding."
AND HIS DISCIPLES. — One may ask where these disciples of Jesus came from and who they were, for Jesus had not yet gathered the Apostles — He did not gather them until after the imprisonment of St. John the Baptist, as is clear from Matthew 4:12, but these events occurred before John's imprisonment, as will be evident from chapter 3, verse 24. I answer: It is probable that these disciples were Nathanael and Philip, and perhaps also Peter and Andrew, who, chapter 1:40, had visited Jesus on the third day before this and had attached themselves to Him as to a teacher for a time; for afterward they returned to their fishing and boats, until, called by Christ to the apostolate, they firmly adhered to Him, Matthew 4.
Verse 3: They Have No Wine
3. AND WHEN THE WINE RAN OUT (the Greek has ὑστερήσαντος, that is, when it had failed, because the poor bridegroom had provided too little wine), THE MOTHER OF JESUS SAID TO HIM: THEY HAVE NO WINE — our relatives the bride and groom. As if to say: Attend then, O Son, to their embarrassment, lest they be put to shame before the guests; for I know that You can do this, since You are the Son of God, and that it befits Your charity and providence to show Yourself to be the Messiah to Your disciples and to all the guests by performing a miracle here. So St. Cyril, Chrysostom, and others. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon on the First Sunday after the Octave of Epiphany: "For she had compassion on their embarrassment, as one who is merciful, as one most kind. What could proceed from the fountain of piety but piety? What wonder, I say, if the bowels of piety exhibit piety? Does not he who has held an apple in his hand for half a day retain the scent of the apple for the rest of the day? How much, then, did the power of piety affect those bowels in which He rested for nine months? For He filled her mind before her womb, and when He came forth from the womb, He did not depart from her soul."
Note the modesty of the Virgin; for she does not demand by commanding or by requesting: Son, procure wine for them; but she merely indicates their need and says: "They have no wine," not doubting that Jesus in His providence and charity would come to their aid. So likewise Martha and Magdalene, when Lazarus was sick, sent messengers to Jesus that He might heal him, yet they do not expressly ask for this, but simply say: "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." For to one who loves, it suffices to indicate the infirmity of the beloved: "For You do not love and then abandon," says St. Augustine. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 2 On the Blessed Virgin: "And indeed this speech was a most certain sign of her innate gentleness and virginal modesty. For, considering the embarrassment of others as her own, she could not endure it, she could not conceal the lack of wine. When indeed she was rebuked by her Son (as one meek and humble of heart), she neither answered Him nor yet despaired, but instructed the servants to do whatever He told them."
Furthermore, with certain confidence of obtaining what she sought, the mother here tacitly asks her Son to produce wine, because over the 30 years during which she had lived intimately with Him, she had understood from Him that He had been sent by the Father to convert men to Himself and to God through heavenly teaching and miracles; indeed, it cannot be doubted that Christ, when bidding farewell to His mother to go to the baptism of John and thence to begin His preaching ministry, had expressly signified this very thing to His mother. Therefore she, judging this to be the opportune time for Jesus to gain authority and credibility for Himself as He was now beginning to preach — through a miracle — boldly requests this from her Son, not doubting that Christ would do it, both to satisfy His mother and relatives, and to advance His own dignity and office.
Tropologically: St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on the First Sunday after the Octave of Epiphany, speaking of the mystical nuptials of the soul with God: "Here," he says, "the wine sometimes fails — namely, the grace of devotion and the fervor of charity. How often it is necessary for me, brothers, after your tearful complaints, to beseech the Mother of Mercy to suggest to her most kind Son that you have no wine? And she, I tell you, dearest ones, if she is piously entreated by us, will not fail our need, because she is merciful and the Mother of Mercy."
Verse 4: What Is That to Me and to You, Woman?
4. AND JESUS SAID TO HER: WHAT IS THAT TO ME AND TO YOU, WOMAN (as if to say: What business do I have with you in this matter)? MY HOUR HAS NOT YET COME. — Note that the Blessed Virgin did not ask for this miracle to be performed out of ostentation, or at an inopportune time, or presumptuously, or indiscreetly, as St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and Euthymius suppose; but from necessary charity and piety — so St. Cyril, Bernard, and others. Therefore there was no fault in her; therefore Christ's rebuke was not a real one. He seems, however, to rebuke her, not to teach her but to teach us that in theandric works — that is, in divine matters and miracles — just as parents have no right or authority, so these works are not to be given and performed according to their feelings and desires, but only according to God and charity. See what I said at Luke 2:49 and 51. The sense, then, is this: You, O mother, in this matter are not my mother but as an outside woman, because from you I received humanity, not divinity, from which I perform this miracle — not according to your desires and those of relatives, but according to the will of God My Father. According to that will, therefore, I shall perform it when the time and hour decreed by God has come. Hear St. Augustine here, Tract 10: "She was called 'woman' according to the feminine sex, not according to any corruption of her integrity." "He did not say 'Mother,' but 'Woman,' as God," says Euthymius. "He signifies," says Bede, "that He did not receive His divinity, by which the miracle was to be performed, temporally from His mother, but always possessed it eternally from the Father." That is, says the Gloss: What does my deity have in common with you, a mother according to the flesh? You did not beget my divinity, which performs the miracle, says St. Augustine. St. Chrysostom adds: He speaks thus lest the miracle be suspected of being fictitious and staged by arrangement; for those who were in need ought to have asked, not His mother.
MY HOUR HAS NOT YET COME — namely, the hour at which I would opportunely perform this miracle; for I wish to wait a little longer until the wine has completely run out and all the guests notice it and see it, so that the miracle may appear more clearly and more wonderfully, and so that all may perceive that I have performed this miracle and thus believe in Me; for he who did not sense the need will not greatly appreciate the benefit. So St. Chrysostom. Alternatively, the same St. Chrysostom and Theophylactus explain it thus: My hour has not yet come, because I had determined to perform My first miracle in Jerusalem, the capital of Judea; but at your prayers, O mother, I shall change My plan and perform it here in Cana of Galilee.
St. Augustine explains it differently again, as if to say: The hour of My passion has not yet come, at which I shall show what is between You and Me, O mother — namely, that I assumed a true human nature from You and am Your son. In other words, says St. Augustine: When My weakness hangs on the cross — of which You are the mother — then I will acknowledge You; for He commended His mother to His disciple. But there is no reason for astrologers to take occasion for error from this, as though Christ were subject to fate; for the creator of the stars is not subject to the necessity of the stars. He had it in His power when He would die, but it was not yet opportune to use that power: first, disciples had to be called, the kingdom of heaven had to be announced, mighty works had to be done, His divinity had to be commended through miracles and His humility through the passion of mortality. But when He had done as much as He judged sufficient, the hour came — not of necessity, but of will; not of condition, but of power. So St. Augustine at length, and therefore I have condensed his many words into few. But these are symbolic and mystical interpretations, not literal.
Verse 5: Whatever He Says to You, Do
5. HIS MOTHER SAID TO THE SERVANTS: WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU, DO IT. — The mother is modestly silent and rightly yields to her Son, as the Son of God. Otherwise, says St. Bernard, to Him who said, "What is that to Me and to you, woman?" she could truly have answered: "What is that between mother and son?" For, as the Interlinear Gloss and others say, although the Son seems to refuse, the mother knows His goodness, and therefore confidently commands the servants. And St. Gaudentius of Brescia on these words: "The mother would not have commanded, 'Whatever He tells you, do it,' unless, filled with the Holy Spirit after giving birth, she had foreseen the entire order of Christ's making wine from water." So also Eucherius and Bede. Hence St. Bernard, Homily 2 on these words: "Plainly," he says, "I now see that He was not indignant, nor wished to confuse the tender modesty of His Virgin mother, when He said: 'What is it to Me and to you?' but for our sakes, so that those converted to the Lord might no longer be troubled by the concern of carnal parents." For Christ, soon obeying His mother, in order to honour her, performed the miracle. Hear St. Chrysostom: "And although He answered thus, nevertheless He complied with His mother's prayers, etc., so that He might show honour to His mother, and not appear disobedient to her, nor put His mother to shame in the presence of so many people." And Cyril: "He shows that the fourth honour is owed to parents, since He immediately proceeded to action on account of His mother." And Euthymius: "For that He honoured her most greatly is evident both from many other things and from the fact that He fulfilled her exhortation."
Furthermore, in these words of the Virgin Mother, there shines forth her wonderful meekness, piety, charity, prudence, confidence, constancy, and greatness of soul.
Verse 6: Six Stone Water Jars for the Purification of the Jews
6. AND THERE WERE SET THERE SIX STONE WATER JARS, ACCORDING TO THE PURIFICATION OF THE JEWS, EACH HOLDING TWO OR THREE MEASURES. — "Water jars," Varro, in book IV of On the Latin Language, interprets as water vessels (for hydor is water), that is, containers for holding water. Christ therefore used water jars here, so that it might be more clearly established that there had been no wine in them, and consequently the conversion of water into wine, soon to be performed by Him in the water jars or water vessels, might be all the more evident. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and others.
ACCORDING TO THE PURIFICATION OF THE JEWS — by which the Pharisees, according to their traditions, often washed their hands during meals for religious reasons; so that if they had touched anything unclean at table, they might purify and cleanse themselves with water taken from the jars. See the comments on Mark 7:3.
Tropologically: St. Bernard, Sermon 1 on the First Sunday after the Octave of Epiphany, says: The six purification jars are six virtues that purify the soul. Hear him enumerating them: "The first jar and the first purgation is in compunction, of which we read: 'In whatever hour the sinner shall groan, I will remember none of his iniquities.' The second is confession. For all things are washed in confession. The third is the giving of alms. For hence you have in the Gospel: 'Give alms, and behold, all things are clean for you.' The fourth is the forgiveness of injuries, according to what we say when praying: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' The fifth is bodily mortification, whence we also pray that, purified through abstinence, we may sing glory to God. The sixth is obedience to the commandments, as the disciples heard — would that we too might deserve to hear: 'You are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.' Clearly because they were not like those to whom it is said: 'My word does not take hold in you'; but in the hearing of the word they had obeyed Him." The rest he then explains and applies thus: "They are filled with water, so that they may be guarded in the fear of God, since the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life; water, I say, is the fear of the Lord, although less flavourful, yet it cools most excellently a soul burning with harmful desires." And with a few words interjected: "But by divine power the waters are changed into wine, when perfect charity casts out fear; and the water jars are called stone, not so much on account of hardness as of stability; each holding two or three measures. The two measures are a twofold fear: lest one be thrust into hell, lest one happen to be excluded from eternal life."
EACH HOLDING TWO OR THREE MEASURES. — Metreta in Greek is the same as "measure," so called apo tou metresai, that is, from measuring. A metreta is equal to the Hebrew ephah or bath, containing ten congii, says Dioscorus, book V; or, as St. Epiphanius says in his book On Weights and Measures, twelve: a congius, moreover, contains six sextarii, or eight foliettas.
Briefly, Jansenius, following Robert Cenalis, who wrote more carefully about measures after Budaeus: A metreta, he says, contains 72 Attic sextarii, that is, 108 pounds by measure, that is, slightly more than 12 Parisian quarts, that is, twelve Belgian cups (commonly called potten).
But note that the sextarius was of three kinds: namely, the Roman, which contained 20 ounces of water or wine; the Attic, which contained 15; and the Hebrew, which contained only 13 ounces, and was the same as the Hebrew log. Here, however, the Hebrew is to be understood. Therefore a metreta containing 72 sextarii of 13 ounces each, contained 72 pounds and as many ounces (for I take the common pound of 12 ounces), which ounces make six pounds, so that altogether there are 78 pounds. Therefore a metreta contained 13 Italian boccali and two foliettas. For one boccale contains 4 pounds and 4 ounces, that is, 64 ounces. A folietta, however, is a quarter of a boccale, containing 16 ounces. Therefore the water jars that are commonly displayed as relics of the wedding at Cana of Galilee appear to be spurious; for they are smaller than the measures just described, and easily portable. See what I noted about measures at the end of the Pentateuch. A jar holding two measures, therefore, contained 27 boccali. Six jars therefore contained 162 boccali: so much wine, then, did Christ produce here from water. But if the jars held three measures, each jar contained 40 boccali and two foliettas: therefore six jars contained 240 boccali with 12 foliettas, that is, nearly an entire cask of wine; for a Roman botta contains 256 boccali. Thus Christ produced here in an instant nearly a cask of wine.
Finally, Francisco Lucas says: A metreta was for the Greeks the same as the Hebrew bath or batus. Now a bath contains six hin, a hin twelve log, a log six common hen's eggs: therefore a bath, or metreta, holds 432 eggs.
Verse 7: Fill the Jars with Water
7. JESUS SAID TO THEM: FILL THE WATER JARS WITH WATER, AND THEY FILLED THEM UP TO THE BRIM. — St. Chrysostom asks: "But why did He Himself (Christ) not fill the water jars with water and then turn it into wine, but commanded the servants to fill them?" He rightly answers: so that He might have as witnesses of the miracle those very ones who had drawn the water, lest any fraud or trickery be suspected.
UP TO THE BRIM — lest, if any empty space had remained, Christ might be thought to have poured potent wine over the water, which would communicate the flavour of wine to the water beneath, and consequently He would not have changed water into wine.
Verse 8: Draw Out Now and Bring to the Steward
8. AND JESUS SAID TO THEM: DRAW OUT NOW, AND CARRY TO THE CHIEF STEWARD. AND THEY CARRIED IT. — "Draw out," that is: Draw from the great jars, and pour out into smaller cups, which are portable, and carry them to the chief steward, so that he may judge what sort of drink this is, what kind, I say, and how excellent the wine is. For as Christ said these things, He suddenly, by His omnipotent power, converted all the water in the six jars into wine. Hear Nonnus: "Suddenly the miracle was done, and the changing water exchanged its snowy colour for the reddening flow of dark wine's liquor." "For what," says Cyril, "is difficult for almighty God, or how shall He who calls all things from nothing into being not much more easily change one thing into another and transform it?" "But why," asks Chrysostom, "did He not perform the miracle out of nothing before they were filled, which would have been far more admirable?" He answers: "This indeed would have been more wonderful, but not so credible, nor something that could so easily have been persuaded upon the multitude: for this reason He deliberately diminished the magnitude of His miracles at times, so that they might more easily be believed."
From this conversion of water into wine, the Fathers prove the conversion of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, and they add that it seems a greater miracle that Christ changed water into wine than that He changed wine into blood; for wine is closer to blood than water is to wine. So St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 4; St. Cyprian, in his Letter Against the Aquarians; St. Irenaeus, book III, chapter 11; and Isidore of Pelusium, book I, letter 393. The latter, asking why Christ willed this miracle to be His first, answers mystically: so that He might supply what the law lacked: "For since," he says, "the law baptized only in water, He Himself perfected the sacred initiation with His own blood, mingling both in Himself and joining the law with grace." For water was the symbol of the old law, which purified all things through water, but only with a bodily purification. Wine, however, is the symbol of the Blood of Christ, which, shed on the Cross, expiates souls; for Christ converts wine into His own Blood in the Eucharist. Christ, therefore, at the beginning of His preaching, changing water into wine, signified that He would convert the Mosaic law, tasteless and cold like water, into the Gospel of grace, which, like wine, is generous, flavourful, ardent, and efficacious.
ARCHITRICLINO. — St. Gaudentius (and from him Baronius, who asserts this is the tradition) says: When weddings took place among the Jews, one of the priests was assigned who would govern the observance of legitimate custom, take care of conjugal modesty, and at the same time manage the preparation of the banquet, the servants, and the order of proceedings: hence he was called the Architriclinus, that is, the prefect of the triclinium, or of the tables and the banquet, who among the Gentiles was called the Modimperator, about whom I said much at Sirach, chapter 32, verse 1.
Hence it is not surprising that Christ and the Blessed Virgin attended this honourable, and therefore respectable, wedding banquet. Christ therefore commands that the water converted by Him into wine be carried to the chief steward, because he, by reason of his office and attentiveness, was more sober, and equally more skilled in flavours and wines, and therefore could best judge this wine and its goodness and excellence, and proclaim this miracle of Christ before all. So St. Chrysostom and Theophylactus.
AND THEY CARRIED IT — the liquid drawn from the jars in a cup, which they already suspected had been converted into wine from its smell and colour. For it is likely that Christ converted the water into red wine, both because in Palestine only red wine was used; and because Nonnus, Francisco Lucas, and others assert this; and so that it might more clearly appear that the water had truly been converted into wine. "They carried it," therefore, rejoicing that they had been present at and had cooperated in so great a miracle of Christ; for their ready service and obedience in drawing the water contributed not a little to this miracle.
Verse 9: The Steward Tasted the Water Made Wine
9. AND WHEN THE CHIEF STEWARD HAD TASTED THE WATER MADE WINE (that is, the wine into which the water had been converted), AND DID NOT KNOW WHERE IT WAS FROM, BUT THE SERVANTS KNEW, WHO HAD DRAWN THE WATER, THE CHIEF STEWARD CALLED THE BRIDEGROOM, 10. AND SAID TO HIM: EVERY MAN FIRST SETS FORTH THE GOOD WINE; AND WHEN THEY HAVE DRUNK FREELY, THEN THAT WHICH IS INFERIOR: BUT YOU HAVE KEPT THE GOOD WINE UNTIL NOW. — "He tasted:" he did not trust entirely to the smell and the red colour that it was wine; but he also tasted it, and discovered that this wine was of the finest and most excellent quality; for taste judges more certainly about wine than sight or smell.
Verse 10: You Have Kept the Good Wine Until Now
AND WHEN THEY HAVE DRUNK FREELY (that is, have been made merry). — For drunkenness in Scripture often means a more generous drink that gladdens the mind but does not deprive it of the use of reason: for if these guests had truly been drunk, Jesus would certainly not have changed the water into wine for them; for He would have fostered and increased their drunkenness; but rather He would have put an end to their drinking, and would have sent them home. The Blessed Virgin would have done the same.
THEN THAT WHICH IS INFERIOR. — The reason is that the stomach, filled with wine, judges less correctly about wine, but considers any wine, even if it is inferior, to be good and similar to the former, because it tastes and belches the same; for it is full of it. This is a type of the deceitful world, which at first presents showy things to the eyes, then introduces inferior and cheap things beneath them, and so deceives and mocks its lovers.
BUT YOU HAVE KEPT THE GOOD WINE UNTIL NOW. — From this it is clear that this wine was excellent, being the work of Christ and divine; for the works of God are perfect. So the loaves multiplied by Christ to feed four thousand men were most flavourful, like manna. "For such are the miracles of Christ," says Chrysostom, "that things which are already perfect by nature are rendered far more beautiful and better; so also in other cases, the distorted limb that He healed, He made stronger."
All these things were aptly done and arranged by Christ, so that the miracle might be more attested and more celebrated. For the chief steward called the bridegroom, asking where this wine came from. He replied that he knew nothing about it: wherefore the servants, learning the sequence of events, went to the water jars and found them all full of the same excellent wine. Breaking forth therefore into praises of Jesus, their author and benefactor, they gave Him great thanks, and narrated and celebrated the miracle to all the guests. Jesus, fleeing vain glory, withdrew, first admonishing them to use this wine moderately, for the praise of God and the giving of thanks. Francisco Lucas adds: Each guest, full of wonder and joy, strove to carry home with them in small vessels some of that wine made from water, either to give others also to taste, or to preserve for a long remembrance.
Verse 11: This Beginning of Signs Did Jesus
11. THIS BEGINNING OF SIGNS JESUS PERFORMED IN CANA OF GALILEE; AND HE MANIFESTED HIS GLORY (His omnipotence and divinity), AND HIS DISCIPLES BELIEVED IN HIM (that is, they continued to believe, they were confirmed in faith in Him) — the five named above, namely Andrew with his companion, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael.
THE BEGINNING. — Hence the Fathers and interpreters everywhere teach that this miracle was absolutely the first that Christ performed publicly, to establish credibility for His preaching. Hence, therefore, the book On the Infancy of the Saviour is refuted, which Pope Gelasius condemned as fabricated by heretics, in which it is narrated that Christ, while He was a boy, publicly performed miracles. Nevertheless, nothing prevents us, says Maldonatus, from granting that He sometimes performed private ones, and from acknowledging that He sometimes by miracle relieved the poverty of His parents: whence His mother appears to have been encouraged by these to ask for a similar miracle to be performed here by Christ, and to confidently expect the same from Him. However, Christ could have relieved His mother's need by some particular providence, without a miracle.
Hence conclude that this miracle occurred soon after Christ's baptism: for immediately after His baptism He began to preach and to confirm His doctrine with miracles, as I showed above.
You ask, why did Christ will this to be His first miracle? I answer: Because it was most fitting to the place, time, and persons. For through this miracle He immediately became known to all His relatives, fellow citizens, and Galileans. For wine is the noblest drink, which gladdens God and men, Judges 9:13. Hence Noah, immediately after the flood, discovered wine and was a type of Christ here forming wine, Genesis 9. See what I said about the benefits of wine at Sirach 31:33 and following. Again, by this miracle Christ showed Himself to be He who, as St. Augustine says, "does this every year in the vines," when He converts their watery sap into wine. "By this miracle, therefore," says St. Chrysostom, "He clearly showed Himself to be the one who transforms water in the vines, and who turns rain through the root of the vine into wine, since what is accomplished in the plant over a longer period of time, He performed suddenly at the wedding." For what else is wine, if not water in the vine, cooked by the rays of the sun?
The symbolic reason is that wine is a most fitting symbol of grace, charity, devotion, fervour, and fortitude, which Christ inspires in His own. Hence St. Bernard, in his Sentences: "Threefold," he says, "is the wine in the cup of God: red, in the long-suffering of the Saints, which gladdens Isaac in his affliction; white, in the reward of the just, with which Noah is inebriated; black and sour, in the damnation of the wicked, which Jesus tastes but does not wish to drink."
The allegorical reason was that this wedding represented the marriage of Christ with human nature, accomplished in the incarnation of Christ: hence this also was done on the third day, that is, in the third state of the world; for the first state was under the law of nature, the second under the law of Moses, the third under the law of Christ. Likewise it was done in the Galilee of the Gentiles, because Christ calls all nations to it. Likewise in Cana of Galilee, that is, in the transmigration of possession, that is, in the Christian people, who are the possession of Christ, purchased by His blood, and therefore transmigrate from earth to heaven. Here Christ gives wine, that is, the Gospel teaching and grace, which gladdens and inebriates the mind of the faithful; likewise wine converted into the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, of which Zechariah, chapter 9, last verse says: "What is His goodness and what is His beauty, if not the grain of the elect and the wine that makes virgins flourish?" Where I said much about this wine.
The tropological reason was that through this wedding and wine He might signify the union and, as it were, marriage of our soul, through grace and charity, with Christ and God. For this takes place in Cana of Galilee, that is, in the possession of this world, from which we continually transmigrate to heaven. Present is the mother of Jesus, that is, virginal chastity, and the simplicity and faith of Christ's disciples in Jesus, who, when we have humbly acknowledged that the wine of devotion and fervour is failing us, and have begged it from Him, will Himself convert the water that is in the six jars, that is, all the dissolution and softness of our soul's powers, into the flavourful wine of heavenly grace, with which we may refresh and inebriate not only ourselves but also others, and cause them to grow warm with the love of God.
Anagogically, the wedding of the Lamb will be consummated in heaven, where Christ will give us new wine and divine nectar. For then we shall be inebriated from the abundance of the house of God, and He will give us to drink from the torrent of His delight. See the comments on Revelation 1:19 and following.
Verse 12: He Went Down to Capernaum with His Mother and Brethren
12. AFTER THIS HE WENT DOWN TO CAPERNAUM, HE AND HIS MOTHER AND HIS BRETHREN AND HIS DISCIPLES, AND THEY REMAINED THERE NOT MANY DAYS. — When the wedding at Cana was over, Jesus returned home with His mother and His people, namely to Nazareth, which, because it was situated on higher ground, Jesus is said to have gone down from to Capernaum, which was a city on lower ground beside the Sea of Galilee. The reason for the descent was that Jesus did not wish to establish the seat of His preaching and teaching in Nazareth, which was an insignificant and small town where He was despised by His fellow citizens as a carpenter and a carpenter's son, but for this purpose He intended Capernaum, as a city famous for its sea and trade, and populous, so that the fruits of His preaching might spread to more people, as is clear from Matthew 4:13.
Now this descent and this journey of Christ occurred before the imprisonment of John the Baptist, as is clearly gathered from chapter 3:24 and chapter 4:1. This was therefore a different descent of Christ from the one discussed in Matthew 4:13. For that one occurred after the imprisonment of John, when Christ actually transferred His residence to Capernaum and there opened the public school of His teaching and preaching. Here, however, He only began to prepare and, as it were, to initiate the same, so that He might become known to more people and gather more disciples. He was here therefore in passing, and as if in transit, namely so that from there He might proceed to Jerusalem to celebrate the approaching Passover. So Jansenius.
AND HIS BRETHREN — that is, the relatives and cousins of Christ, namely James the Less, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, Matthew 13:55. Likewise John and James the Greater: for these, eagerly hearing His heavenly words, He chose shortly after as disciples, and finally as Apostles.
Verse 13: He Went Up to Jerusalem
13. AND THE PASSOVER OF THE JEWS WAS AT HAND, AND JESUS WENT UP TO JERUSALEM. — This was the first Passover, in the third month of Nisan, or March, after Christ's baptism, which occurred on January 6.
Verse 14: Those Who Sold Oxen and Sheep and Doves
14. AND HE FOUND IN THE TEMPLE THOSE SELLING OXEN AND SHEEP AND DOVES, AND THE MONEY-CHANGERS SITTING.
Verse 15: He Cast Them All Out of the Temple
15. AND WHEN HE HAD MADE A SORT OF WHIP FROM CORDS, HE DROVE THEM ALL OUT OF THE TEMPLE, AND THE SHEEP AND OXEN, AND HE POURED OUT THE COINS OF THE MONEY-CHANGERS AND OVERTURNED THEIR TABLES.
Verse 16: Make Not My Father's House a House of Trade
16. AND TO THOSE WHO SOLD DOVES HE SAID: TAKE THESE THINGS AWAY FROM HERE, AND DO NOT MAKE THE HOUSE OF MY FATHER A HOUSE OF TRADE. — All these things I explained at Matthew 21:12. Only note that this driving out of the sellers from the temple is different from the one discussed in Matthew 21: for that one occurred shortly before the Passion of Christ, but this one at the beginning of His preaching. For Christ willed to begin piously and rightly, and in fitting order, with religion and the house of God, by driving out from it the sellers who were profaning it. Let every visitor, reformer, and Apostolic preacher do the same, following Christ's example.
Verse 17: Zeal for Your House Has Consumed Me
17. AND HIS DISCIPLES REMEMBERED THAT IT IS WRITTEN (Psalm 68:10): THE ZEAL OF YOUR HOUSE HAS CONSUMED ME. — This zeal was the righteous indignation of Christ, says Euthymius, or rather the ardour and burning passion of His soul, for removing those things that offended God (whom He loved supremely) and the honour of God, who therefore took up wrath and indignation as a whetstone, so as to sharpen Himself thereby, and boldly to expose Himself, His life and reputation, for the defence of God's honour. For Christ did this here before the avaricious and proud Scribes and Pharisees who were hostile to Him. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: "Zeal," that is, the fervour and burning devotion to promoting the glory of Your temple, in which You, O Lord, dwell as in Your house; and the indignation that I conceived against the sellers who profane and ruin it, "has consumed me," that is, has swallowed me up. Symmachus translates: has consumed, has eaten me away, as fire consumes iron, and the fire transforms it into itself, so that it seems to be no longer iron but pure fire.
St. Augustine asks: "Who is consumed by zeal for the house of God?" and answers: "He who strives to amend all the perverse things he happens to see there; he does not rest; if he cannot amend them, he endures, he groans, and says to himself: 'My zeal has made me waste away, because my enemies have forgotten Your words,'" Psalm 118:139. Hence Bede here: "Let us too be zealous, brothers," he says, "for the house of God; if we see a brother who belongs to the house of God, swollen with pride, accustomed to slander; if enslaved to drunkenness, if weakened by luxury, if troubled by anger, if subject to any other vice, let us strive, insofar as our ability permits, to correct him, to set right what is polluted and perverse: and if we cannot amend such people, let us bear it not without the sharpest pain of mind, and especially in the very house of prayer, where the Body of God is consecrated, where the presence of angels is never doubted to be always near, let us strive with all our strength that nothing improper be done, that nothing hinder our own prayer or that of our brethren."
I said more about zeal at Deuteronomy 32:10, and Sirach 48:4, at the words: "Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch." For Elijah, zealous for God, was a type of Christ zealous for the house of God. See also what I said about the zeal of Paul in the Prooemium to the Acts of the Apostles, no. 99 and elsewhere.
Verse 18: What Sign Do You Show Us?
18. THE JEWS THEREFORE ANSWERED AND SAID TO HIM: WHAT SIGN DO YOU SHOW US, SINCE (that) YOU DO THESE THINGS? — That is: What miracle do you offer, by which you show that you drive out the sellers from the temple contrary to custom, by authority received from God? For from man, for example from the high priest or from the governor, we know you have none. For Christ had intimated that He was sent by God, indeed that He was the Son of God, for He had said in verse 16: "Do not make the house of My Father a house of trade." They therefore demand that He prove by a miracle that He is the Son of God the Father, and the Messiah; just as Moses showed signs and wonders from heaven, says Rupertus, by which he demonstrated to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that he was sent by God, to lead out the Hebrews.
THE JEWS — namely those buying and selling, whom He had driven from the temple, and their supporters and friends, or patrons, especially the priests and Scribes; for Christ's boldness stung and burned them, because they had been deprived of their profits by Him and marked with public disgrace.
Verse 19: Destroy This Temple, and in Three Days I Will Raise It Up
19. JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID TO THEM: DESTROY THIS TEMPLE, AND IN THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT UP. — He aptly proves His authority over the temple through His power to rebuild it. THIS TEMPLE — namely My body, which Christ here indicated by placing His hand on His chest. Note here that the body of Christ is called a temple because in it dwelt the fullness of divinity, not only through grace, as He dwells in us, but bodily and personally, Colossians 2:9. So Cyril, as if to say: You, O unbelieving Jews, ask from Me a sign or miracle — behold, I assign you this one: namely, My resurrection from death, which indeed is now obscure to you because you are unbelieving, but which you will understand shortly after, or will easily be able to understand, when you see Me rise again on the third day. For from this you will know who, of what sort, and how great I was; namely, that I was Lord of My body, so that I might allow it to die at will and bring it to life again; and consequently, that I am much more the Lord of this temple, inasmuch as it is a type and shadow of My body, and therefore I have the authority to drive you sellers and buyers out of it. So Bede.
Furthermore, Christ called His body "temple" rather than something else, because this dispute was taking place in the temple and about the temple, since He had driven the sellers out of it, as if to say: So that you may know, O Jews, that I am the Lord of the temple, "destroy" — that is, I permit you to destroy, and I know that you will in fact destroy the temple of My body, when you crucify and kill Me — and I, within three days, by My own power, says Cyril, will raise it up, as Lord of it, and much more of your material and inanimate temple, which is only a figure of the living and divine temple, namely My body. "Destroy," He said, says Euthymius, not exhorting them to His murder; but because He knew what they were going to do, He predicted it in figurative speech: destroy therefore, or overturn to the ground, separate from the soul, and dissolve the union that exists with it." So Euthymius.
Verse 20: Forty-Six Years Was This Temple in Building
20. THE JEWS THEREFORE SAID: FORTY-SIX YEARS WAS THIS TEMPLE IN BUILDING, AND WILL YOU RAISE IT UP IN THREE DAYS? — Note: the temple of the Jews was built three times. First, by Solomon, over seven years, 3 Kings 6:1. This is not the one discussed here, both because it was completed in seven years, not 46; and because it had long since been burned and utterly destroyed by the Chaldeans, and therefore could not be designated by Christ here.
Second, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, the temple burned by the Chaldeans was rebuilt by Zerubbabel and his companions, from the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the sixth year of Darius Hystaspis, 1 Ezra 3:6, which period many think was 46 years, and that it is of this the Jews are speaking here. So St. Chrysostom, Bede, Theophylactus, Euthymius, Eucherius, Toletus, Jansenius, Maldonatus here, and Eusebius in his Chronicle, who compute the 46 years thus: Cyrus reigned 30 years, Cambyses his son and successor 9 years, the Magi 1 year, whom Darius Hystaspis succeeded, in whose sixth year the temple was completed. Add all these years, and you will find 46.
But this computation is erroneous; for the first year of Cyrus, in which he gave the Jews permission to rebuild the temple, is understood not of his reign, that is, when he began to rule in Persia and then reigned for 30 years; but of his monarchy, that is, when, having captured Babylon and killed Belshazzar, he transferred the monarchy from the Babylonians to himself and the Persians, and at the same time freed the Jews captive in Babylon and sent them free to Judaea, giving them at the same time the authority to rebuild the temple. All of which Cyrus did in the 27th year of his reign, which was the first of his monarchy, which lasted only three years; for Cyrus reigned as monarch for only three years; for in the third year he was killed by Tomyris, queen of the Scythians. I showed this to be so at 1 Ezra 3:6. Therefore, from the first year of Cyrus, when the construction of the temple began, to the sixth year of Darius, when it was completed, 46 years did not elapse, but only 15: for Cyrus reigned three years as monarch, he was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who reigned only six years after his father Cyrus, then the Magi for seven months, and finally Darius Hystaspis, in whose sixth year the temple was completed. Add all these years, and you will find only fifteen. Nevertheless, it could have been that the Jews, ignorant of profane chronology, reckoned here not 15 but 46 years; because they counted the 30 years of Cyrus's reign, not just the three of his monarchy: the same error has been made by so many learned interpreters, both Greek and Latin, whom I cited a little above. The Jews therefore could have attributed 46 years to the construction of the temple of Zerubbabel, and be speaking of it here.
Third, this temple was rebuilt by Herod the Ascalonite, who killed the infants in Bethlehem, and, in order to secure the kingdom of Judaea for himself and his posterity and to be considered the true Messiah by the Jews, erected a new temple for them. And it is very probable that the Jews are speaking of this temple here, from the pronoun "this," which indicates the present temple, since the two previous ones had long since been virtually destroyed and could not be pointed to. Now Herod began this construction of the third temple in the 18th year of his reign, for then he announced his intention to build the temple, as Josephus attests, book XV of the Antiquities, chapter 14. Therefore, since Christ was born around the 35th year of Herod's reign, as I showed at Luke 2:1, it follows that from the beginning of this third temple of Herod to the birth of Christ, 16 years had elapsed, to which add the 30 years of Christ's life, and you will have 46, which is what we are looking for: for in His 30th year, when Christ was baptized, this dispute of Christ with the Jews occurred, at the beginning of His preaching. So Baronius, in the year of Christ 31.
You will object: Josephus, in the passage cited, asserts that Herod completed the construction of the temple in eight years; so where are the 46 years? I answer that Herod completed the temple in eight years as regards the primary parts of the temple, namely the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; however, he and his successors laboured for many years afterwards in embellishing it, up to the year 30 of Christ, for in constructing the courtyards, porticos, and all its interior and exterior ornamentation, eighteen thousand men laboured for that long, as the same Josephus attests, book XX of the Antiquities, chapter 8. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: For 46 years they have laboured in erecting and adorning this temple, and eighteen thousand men are still labouring; and you alone will accomplish as much in the space of three days?
Finally, some think that the Jews are speaking of both temples, that of Zerubbabel and that of Herod; for this was both a double and a single, or one and the same, temple: for Herod did not so much construct a new temple as embellish the old one of Zerubbabel; for he only took down part of it, to raise it higher, grander, and more ornate, as Vilalpandus vigorously proves from Hegesippus and others, book V On the Temple, disputation 4, chapters 68 and 69, and I showed the same at length at Haggai 2:10. The temple therefore, built by Zerubbabel in 15 years, was afterwards augmented and adorned over many more years by the Maccabees, by Simon the son of Onias the High Priest, Sirach 50:1, and by Herod, and if you compute all their years, you will easily find 46. So Arias and Francisco Lucas here, and our Gaspar Sanchez, Zechariah 1:12. So too the new Basilica of St. Peter in Rome (the old one of Constantine the Great having been demolished) was built over a hundred years, and we still see continual building going on in it — now towers, now altars, now chapels, now columns, now vaulting, now inlay, etc.
Symbolically, the 46 years of the temple's construction signify that in as many days the body of Christ was formed. Hear St. Augustine, book XIV On the Trinity, chapter 5: "This number corresponds to the perfection of the body of Christ; for forty-six times six makes two hundred seventy-six, that is, nine months and six days; and in that much time the perfection of the body of Christ was brought to birth; for He was conceived on the eighth day before the kalends of April, on which day He also suffered, and was born on the eighth day before the kalends of January." The same author, book LXXXIII, Question 56: "It is said that human conception in the first six days has the likeness of milk, in the following nine is converted into blood, then in twelve becomes solid, in the remaining eighteen is perfectly formed, and then increases until birth; which number makes forty-five, and with one added (which signifies the sum) forty-six: which multiplied by six, which is the head of this arrangement, makes two hundred seventy-six; and so as many years as there were in the building of the temple, so many were there in the perfecting of the body of the Lord."
The same, in his Tractate 10 on John here: "Christ received His body from Adam; and in Greek anatole is East, dysis is West, arktos is North, mesembria is South, whose first letters make the name ADAM, for from the four winds the elect are to be gathered when the Lord comes to judgment. The letters of the name Adam also have the number forty-six, according to the Greeks; for alpha denotes one, delta four, again alpha one, and mu forty: thus they make forty-six." Bede says the same, as does St. Cyprian (or whoever is the author), in the treatise On Zion and Sinai; Clement of Alexandria, book VI of the Stromata, and others.
Tropologically: the soul builds for itself a temple of virtue and perfection by keeping the four Gospels and the Decalogue (for four multiplied by ten makes 40, which is a solid number, an index of solid and perfect virtue) through the six days of this week, that is, of life.
Verse 21: He Spoke of the Temple of His Body
21. BUT HE WAS SPEAKING OF THE TEMPLE OF HIS BODY. — St. Chrysostom asks: "Why did He not reveal to the doubters that He called His flesh a temple?" and answers: "Because they did not believe His words;" indeed, if He had revealed it, the Jews would have mocked Him and treated Him even worse.
Verse 22: They Believed the Scripture and the Word
22. WHEN THEREFORE HE HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD, HIS DISCIPLES REMEMBERED THAT HE HAD SAID THIS, AND THEY BELIEVED THE SCRIPTURE AND THE WORD THAT JESUS HAD SPOKEN. — "And they believed the Scripture," which foretold that Christ would rise from the dead, which they had not previously understood, but only then understood when they saw it actually fulfilled in Christ's resurrection. Such Scripture is Psalm 15:10: "You will not abandon my soul in hell, nor will You let Your Holy One see corruption." And Hosea 6:3: "He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up."
AND THE WORD WHICH JESUS HAD SAID — namely, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They believed this word when they saw Christ rising on the third day; for they understood that Christ had spoken metaphorically about the resurrection of His body, not about the rebuilding of the temple.
Verse 23: Many Believed in His Name When They Saw His Signs
23. NOW WHEN HE WAS IN JERUSALEM AT THE PASSOVER, ON THE FEAST DAY (that is, on the feast day of the Passover), MANY BELIEVED IN HIS NAME — that is, in His name; namely, that He truly bore and displayed the name of Messiah, or that He truly was the Messiah, that is, the Christ, as He Himself called Himself and was publicly named and celebrated by the faithful. For among the Hebrews it is the same to "believe God" and to "believe in God," as Jansenius rightly proves; although St. Augustine distinguishes between them here.
SEEING HIS SIGNS (miracles) WHICH HE WAS DOING — so that by them He might prove Himself to be the Christ.
Verse 24: Jesus Did Not Entrust Himself to Them
24. BUT JESUS DID NOT ENTRUST HIMSELF TO THEM, BECAUSE HE KNEW ALL MEN. — "Did not entrust," that is, "did not confide in them;" for although He knew that they believed in Him, He likewise knew that they were changeable, and could easily fall away from this faith and be perverted by so many Pharisees and Scribes, their enemies, for their authority, force, and power were great. So St. Chrysostom and Euthymius. For this reason Christ did not deal with them securely or for long, but departed to other places in Judea, as will be clear in the following chapter, verse 22. For He knew not only what they were then thinking and doing, but also what they would afterwards think and do against Him, namely that they would persecute Him even to death and the cross.
Verse 25: He Knew What Was in Man
25. AND BECAUSE HE DID NOT NEED ANYONE TO BEAR WITNESS ABOUT MAN; FOR HE HIMSELF KNEW WHAT WAS IN MAN. — For He searched the heart of each person, whether it was steadfast, or fickle and inconstant. Therefore, as St. Chrysostom says, "He did not care about outward words, He who enters into their very souls, who breaks into human thoughts, who knew that their fervor would soon grow cold: Jesus had no need of witnesses to know the minds He had formed. The craftsman knew better what was in His work;" St. Augustine adds: "than the work itself knew what was in itself. The Creator of man knew what was in man, which the created man himself did not know. For this dignity, says Cyril, is attributed to the true God alone and to no creature — to be a knower of hearts (καρδιογνώστην), and to know the soul of man without any outward evidence being given." Hence the Psalmist, Psalm 32:15: "He who fashioned their hearts one by one, who understands all their works." So Franciscus Lucas, Jansenius, Barradius, and others.
Tropologically Bede: "Let us never be secure about our own conscience, but always anxiously fear; for what lies hidden from us cannot lie hidden from the eternal Judge."