Well, we packed up and left the Sea of Galilee this morning. Our first stop was in Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle – changing water into wine for a desperate host at a wedding feast – see John 2:1-11. Before arriving, our guide Lazarus gave us a bit of a lowdown on the story. Wow, there are so many layers to this story! I couldn’t begin to capture it, but scholars have found a parallel between this story and Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection narrative, the whole “three days / third day” thing, and saving the best for last thing. Hmm, methinks we could learn a lot by at least listening to this kind of discussion, tends to interpret & explain some of those contradictions that folks tend to come up with regarding the faith. Plus, remember that the book was effectively recorded by nomadic sheep herder people, and it contains their perspective and cultural views. By getting over here and seeing some of their perspectives, it really helps in my understanding, anyway.
So as is often the case with these things, there is a site which tradition holds is the place for the changing of water into wine, and multiple churches have been built on this site – more modern churches on the ruins of older churches that have decayed and fallen.
Cana at that time was a very small place, maybe a couple of football fields wide and a couple of football fields long. So folks searched for a place where a wedding feast could take place, and where such ritual washing jars as was mentioned in the story, would be kept. This site is such a site, and with such a small village, it is very likely the place.
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| Cana Wedding Church. |
| Entrance to Wedding Church. |
| Stone water jar for ceremonial washing, just like the one in which Jesus turned water into wine. |
| Mouth of the stone water jar above. |
| Foundation of crusader era church on same site. Hmm, folks seem to want to toss money in the hole. Why don’t they just put in the collection box at the door??? Looks like crap with all that money down there. |
| There was Mass going on up above in the church. The priest can be seen shooing us out the door! I guess he didn’t appreciate the interlopers in his church. |
| Some of the other mosaics, inside the church. |
| Canadian contribution, interesting & unique – right next to the exit door! |
| We always seem to be intruding on a Mass! |
| The real gate, which leads to fake courtyard. |
| The fake courtyard. |
| Early excavation damaged upper layers, discarded material, ugh. |
| Modern techniques catalogue and preserve as much as possible. |
| Tepid room – floor would sit on top of these piles – and HOT air circulates underneath the floor. |
| Hot room – again floor would sit on these piles – and EVEN HOTTER air circulates under the floor. |
| Some of our group messes around on ancient Roman public toilets! |
| Main part of theatre stage. |
| Half of the seating of the theatre – sorry didn’t have a wide angle shot! |