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Joh_2:12. Μετὰ τοῦτο κατέβη , κ . τ . λ .] Direct from Cana? or from Nazareth (Joh_1:46), whither Mary, Jesus, and the disciples had returned? The latter must be assumed as the correct view, because the brothers of Jesus (His brothers literally, not His cousins, as Hengstenberg again maintains; see Joh_7:3; Joh_7:5, and on Mat_1:25; Mat_12:46, 1Co_9:5) had not been with Him at the wedding. It is quite arbitrary to suggest that they were accidentally omitted to be mentioned in Joh_2:2 (Baumgarten Crusius, following earlier commentators).
κατέβη ] down, for Καφαρναούμ (to be written thus, with Lachmann and Tischendorf, in John likewise) lay on the shore of the lake of Tiberias.
αὐτὸς κ . ἡ μήτηρ , κ . τ . λ .] A common ἐπανόρθωσις (correction). See Fritzsche, Conject. p. 25; ad Matt. p. 420; ad Marc. p. 70; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Crit. p. 50 E. John does not tell us why they went down to Capernaum[139] (Mat_4:13 is in a totally different connection). The settlement of the family at Capernaum is left uncertain by John; the fact had but little interest for the Judaistic standing-point of his history, and is neither recorded here, as Ewald maintains (the κ . ἰκεῖ ἔμειναν οὐ πολλ . ἡμ . which follows is against this), nor even presupposed (Wieseler, De Wette, Tholuck), for the mention of the brothers who were not with Him at the marriage forbids this. Nor is the settlement attested either by Joh_4:3; Joh_4:43, or by Joh_6:17; Joh_6:59.
οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας ] because the Passover was at hand, Joh_2:13, which Jesus (and the disciples, Joh_3:22) attended; not, therefore, on account of misconstruction and hostility (Ewald).
[139] Hengstenberg supposes that John mentions this only from a feeling of personal interest; that he himself had belonged to Capernaum, and Jesus had stayed at his father’s house. An utterly groundless conjecture, made for the sake of harmonizing (Joh_1:45; comp. Luk_4:38, Mar_1:29), according to which we should have to regard Bethsaida as a suburb of Capernaum; see, on the contrary, Mat_11:21; Mat_11:23.