ACC ~ John 2 v6

JARS FOR PURIFICATION, NOT DECEPTION

CHRYSOSTOM: There was a reason why the Evangelist says, “After the manner of the purifying of the Jews.” [He said this] so that none of the unbelievers might suspect that lees had been left in the vessel and then water was poured upon them and mixed with them in order to make a very weak wine. Therefore he says, “After the manner of the purifying of the Jews,” to show that those vessels were never receptacles for wine. Palestine is an arid country with few fountains or wells. They used to fill water pots with water so that they would not always have to go to the rivers if they became defiled, but rather could have the means of purification readily at hand. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 22.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:77. Caesarius of Arles finds an analogy between the water jars and baptism, Sermon 167.1 (FC 47:402-9).

CHANGED WATER IN JARS SYMBOLIZES CHANGED NATURE IN WOMB

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: Why did our Lord change nature at the beginning of his signs, if it was not to show that the divinity that changed nature in the interior of the jars was the same that changed nature in the womb of the virgin? And at the conclusion of the signs, he opened the tomb to show that the insatiable nature of death would not keep hold of him; he confirmed and ratified these two uncertainties of his birth and of his death. As to their nature, these waters were turned into the [fruit of] the vine; their stone vessels were not changed within their own nature. They were a symbol of his body, which was wonderfully conceived in a woman, and in a marvelous way by [the intervention of] no man within the virgin. He thus made wine out of water to teach about the manner of his conception and birth. He called upon the six jars as witness to the one virgin who gave birth to him; for the jars conceived in a unique way that was not customary for them, and they brought forth wine, and then they did not continue to produce [it]. Thus did the virgin conceive and give birth to Immanuel, and then she ceased and did not continue [to give birth]. The offspring of the jars was from smallness to grandeur, and from vileness to excellence, for from water came good wine. In this case [the birth from the virgin], however, it was from grandeur to weakness and from glory to contempt. Yet in the case of these jars, they were for the purification of the Jews, and our Lord poured his instruction into them, to teach that he came in the way [found in] the Law and the Prophets, and he transformed everything by his teaching, just as wine [was made] from water. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 5.6-7. [1]

[1] CB709 add: 40-42.