Cana
In the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of John refers a number of times to a town called Cana of Galilee.Among Christians and students of the New Testament, Cana is best known as the place where, according to John's gospel, Jesus performed his first miracle, the turning of a large quantity of water into wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1-11) when the wine provided by the bridegroom had run out. None of the synoptic gospels record this event, but in John's gospel it has considerable symbolic importance: it is the first of the seven signs by which Jesus's divine status is attested, and around which the gospel is structured. The story has had considerable importance in the development of Christian pastoral theology, since the facts that Jesus was invited to a wedding, attended, and used his divine power to save the celebrations from disaster, are taken as evidence of his approval for marriage and earthly celebrations, in contrast to the more austere views of Saint Paul as found, for example, in 1 Corinthians:7.
The other references to Cana are in John 4:46, which mentions Jesus is visiting Cana when he is asked to heal the son of a royal official at Capernaum; and John 21:2, where it is mentioned that the apostle Nathanael (usually identified with the Bartholomew included in the synoptic gospels' lists of apostles) comes from Cana. Cana is not mentioned in any other book of the Bible, nor in any other contemporary source.
There has been much speculation about where Cana might have been. John's gospel is not a reliable historical source, and most modern Christians who are not biblical literalists would regard the story of the wedding at Cana as of theological rather than historical significance. But the gospel was apparently originally written for a group of Jewish Christians, and very possibly a group living in Palestine, so it is unlikely that the evangelist would have mentioned a place that did not exist. A tradition dating back to the eighth century identifies Cana with the modern village of Kefr' Kenna, about 7 Km northeast of Nazareth. However more recent scholars have suggested alternatives, including the ruined village of Kenet-el-Jalil, about 9 Km further north, and Ain Kana nearer to Nazareth and a better candidate on etymological grounds. This is not a matter on which certainty is ever likely to be achieved.
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