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Joh_2:1. Τρίτῃ ] is, with Origen, c. Cels. vi. 30, to be reckoned from the last-named day, Joh_1:44, not from the coming to Cana (Ewald), which has not yet been alluded to. Thus we have in all six days from Joh_1:19, not seven (see on Joh_1:41), in which number Luthardt would find this symbolic meaning: “It is a Sabbath, as it were, which Jesus here is keeping.”
By τῆς Γαλιλαίας the village of Cana (now not Kafar kenna, as Hengstenberg and Godet still think, but Kana el-Jelîl: see Robinson, III. p. 443; Ritter, XVI. 753 ff.), about three hours N.W. from Nazareth, is distinguished from another Cana; for in Joh_2:11; Joh_4:46; Joh_21:2, τῆς Γαλιλαίας is also added, and hence it must be taken as a standing descriptive addition, as if belonging to the name (like our “Freiburg im Breisgau” and the like), and not here as a mere allusion to the arrival in Galilee (B. Crusius). The other Cana lay in the tribe of Asher, Jos_19:28 (S.E. from Tyre; comp. Robinson, III. 657), and though also to be considered as belonging to Galilee, was yet so near to Phoenicia, that the designation of our Cana as Κ . τῆς Γαλιλαίας , in distinction from the other, is justified on geographical grounds. Ewald distinguishes our Cana from the Kanath lying east of the river district, but the name ( ÷ÀðÇú , Num_32:42, 1Ch_2:23; and Bertheau on the word; Κανάθ LXX., Κανάθα Josephus) does not correspond.
καὶ ἦν ἡ μήτηρ , κ . τ . λ .] Mary was already there when Jesus and His disciples arrived in Cana, no doubt arranging and helping (see Joh_2:3; Joh_2:5) in the friend’s house where the wedding was to take place. That shortly before the baptism of Jesus she had come to live at Cana (Ewald), but soon after removed thence to Capernaum (Joh_2:12), is without specific intimation both here and in Joh_4:46. That Joseph was not there with her, is in keeping with his entire disappearance (equally unaccountable as it is) from the Gospel narrative after Luk_2:41 ff. It is usually assumed, though without proof (see Joh_6:42), that he was already dead.