John 2:1-12
“Notice what you notice.” On the third day… (v. 1). This item goes back to John’s first chapter. Jesus’ first appearance to John is noted in verse 29, beginning with The next day… his first Behold the Lamb of God… Then we have Jesus’ second appearance to John in verse 35, again beginning with The next day… and another Behold the Lamb of God… So John’s writings may not have been as “pure” as ours. That “next day” may have been a week or more past. (When I taught on a MWF schedule I would often begin a Monday lecture with “Yesterday…” when it had actually been three days past.) So yeah, the “next day”… But now John writes specifically On the third day… (v. 1). So is John, in fact, more chronological, more historical than we’ve often imagined/expected? It also was not lost on me that John closes this incident with Jesus and others going to Capernaum and …they stayed there for a few days (v. 12, ESV and NASB) or …they did not stay there many days (NKJV). John clearly looks to be reporting first person actual activity.
If in fact John (the writer) is reporting chronologically, then John the Baptist had to be baptizing further north than “east of Jerusalem”. A “next day” walk would not have taken Jesus and his disciples all the way to Cana, some 60-80 miles!
One final item, John begins verse 12 with After this he went down to Capernaum… Here there is no specificity on the exact day. Why? Jewish weddings were week-long events, not like ours today – one day affairs.
Not a lot of theology or philosophy, but interesting to me nonetheless…!
Slava Bohu!!