Why would Jesus' first miracle be turning water into wine? (page 3)

Benjamin Belial

Because he was "a glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners."

garybuss

Jesus' first miracle was healing the midwife who delivered him. Then he healed the nanny who touched his dirty diaper.

I guess he wanted to show that it was OK to be normal, unlike WTBS.
What is interesting to me was that he provided wine when other disappeared, i.e. when a good number of guests were already intoxicated. Way I see it is that he in essence showed that it was OK to have few more when you are happy and relaxed, unlike WTBS again.

peacefulpete

Combine Narkissos' golden nugget about the symbolic significance of the 'Word' being the bringer of wine with Leolaia's insightful comment about the author's intentional emmulation of Moses' legends and we can see the process involved in Gospel writing. I am still very much convinced that the weddding and Cana episodes originally appeared later in the story but were divided and relocated for thelogical reasons. IMO the Ephiphany celebration's asociation with Jesus' baptism seems a likely motive but we may never know.

MungoBaobab

Transforming a stone into a loaf of bread to nourish the Son of God would be a selfish and frivolous display of power.

BUT

It's okay to call upon God's power and miraculously cater to a bunch of drunks at a party.

Riiiiiiiight.

fairchild

Crumpet,

Let me know when you have sophisticated your miraculous powers to turn leaves into money. I have a huge piles of leaves here, I all raked them up last fall. I could sell you some leaves to practice with, what do you think?

Navigator

The author of John doubtless had his own agenda for relating the story of that "miracle", but was apparently not familiar with aramaic customs and culture. Middle Eastern weddings were extended celebrations which included a great deal of drinking. According to George Lamsa, it was the responsibility of the guests to provide the wine and not the host. The grooms best friend would go first and presumably provide the best wine. It would have been a social faux paux to provide the wine out of turn as that would have insulted the guest whose turn it was. When Mary said to Jesus, "they have no wine" she was, in effect, asking him "Is it not your turn?" His response was, "My hour is not come". In other words, it is not my turn. It was the custom that when the Rabbi's turn came, and Jesus was a Rabbi, he was to serve water and encourage everyone to sober up. The Urantia book indicates that the so called miracle was an accident; that Jesus did not intend to turn the water into wine, but was responding to his mother's embarrassment for the married couple. Another possibility is that the water tasted pretty good to a bunch of drunks. Having sampled a fair amount of middle eastern wine, I can assure you that I would rather drink water.

Why would Jesus' first miracle be turning water into wine?