250px|thumb|[[Kafr Kanna described as "Cana of Galilee". Holy Land Photographed by Daniel B. Shepp, 1894.]]

Cana of Galilee () is the location of the Wedding at Cana, at which the miracle of turning water into wine took place in the Gospel of John.

The location is disputed, with the four primary locations being Kafr Kanna, Khirbet Qana and Reineh in Lower Galilee, and Qana in Upper Galilee in Lebanon. The Arabic phrase "Qana el-Jalil" has been said not to be in use as a placename other than in Gospel-related contexts.

The name possibly derives from the Hebrew or Aramaic word for reeds.

Written references to Cana

Biblical references

thumb|right|250px|Cana is very positively located in Shepherd's Historical Atlas, 1923: modern scholars are less sure.

Among Christians and other students of the New Testament, Cana is best known as the place where, according to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus performed "the first of his signs", his first public miracle, the turning of a large quantity of water into wine at a wedding feast (John 2, ) when the wine provided by the bridegroom had run out. Although none of the synoptic gospels record the event, mainstream Christian tradition holds that this is the first public miracle of Jesus.

The other biblical references to Cana are also in John: John 4 (), which mentions that Jesus is visiting Cana when he is asked to heal the son of a royal official at Capernaum; and John 21 (), where it is mentioned that Nathanael (sometimes identified with the Bartholomew included in the synoptic gospels' lists of apostles) comes from Cana.

The Book of Joshua mentions one city () and one brook (; ) named Kanah (Cana) – neither is likely to be the Cana of Galilee. that had been thought to mention a certain Kana. It relates that six hundred fifty captives were taken there. However, a revised transliteration revealed the one well-preserved syllable to be Ku, not Ka.

Flavius Josephus mentions more than one place named Cana. In the context of the Galilee, there are two mentions in his Life: one is a place on the road from Iulias, and the other is a place where he resided, about a day's walk from Tiberias.

Locating Cana

thumb|right|300px|Map of the [[Lower Galilee with possible locations of Cana:<br>

Kafr Kanna, blue; Khirbet Qana, red.]]

There has been much speculation about where Cana might be. In his Gospel, the author makes no claim to have been at the wedding. Many would regard the story of the wedding at Cana as of theological rather than historical or topographical significance; it is the first of the seven miraculous "signs" by which Jesus's divine status is attested, and around which the gospel is structured.

The consensus of modern scholarship is that the Fourth Gospel was addressed to a group of Jewish Christians, and very possibly a group living in Judea province; so it is unlikely that the evangelist would have mentioned a place that did not exist. There is a minority view that the gospel was written for a gentile audience, and those who take this view assert that the description in the passage about the marriage at Cana of "six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification", in spite of reflecting good knowledge of the ritual washing habits among Jews at the time, is specifically for a gentile audience, who would not know the topography of the Holy Land. On this hypothesis, the name "Cana" might have some purely symbolic significance.

There are four primary locations which have been under consideration as the New Testament Cana:

  • Upper Galilee
  • Qana, Lebanon
  • Lower Galilee
  • Kafr Kanna, Israel (also spelled Kefar Kenna)
  • Karm er-Ras, the western part of Kafr Kanna
  • Khirbet Qana, Israel
  • Ain Qana, Israel

Qana, Lebanon

The village of Qana, about from Tyre, Lebanon, is traditionally held to be the correct site by most Christians, and is Eusebius's pick in his 4th century Onomasticon.<!--Displays badly in Firefox, correctly in IE.--><!--AKA Eusebius Werke--> It is a popular tourist site commemorating the miracle.

Kafr Kanna and Karm er-Ras

The first time this site is associated with New Testament Cana is in a mid-17th century report to the Pope by Francesco Quaresmi, the papal emissary to Palestine, where he noted there were two possible candidates: Khirbet Qana and Kafr Kanna. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a tradition dating back to the 8th century identifies Cana with the modern Arab town of Kafr Kanna, at the foot of the Nazareth range, about northeast of Nazareth.

Some scholars believe, according to archaeological evidence, that the identification of Kafr Kanna was the result of the decline of Khirbet Qana beginning in the Mamluk period. They note that it was a common practice for new and more affluent and easily accessible sites to be established in place of old ones to accommodate increases in pilgrim traffic, particularly in the late Medieval and Ottoman periods.

Karm er-Ras, the western part of Kafr Kanna, was recently excavated by Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre. However, this could either be an ancient retention, as Edward Robinson maintained, Some early Christian pilgrim reports mention a spring in association with the Cana of Galilee, but no excavations had been conducted there yet as of 2015.

See also

  • Ain Qana, municipality in South Lebanon northeast of Qana

References

Bibliography

  • <small>(free access)</small><!--|access-date= 2014-04-30-->
  • Comprehensive list of online resources and references relating to John 2:1–11 at The Text This Week
  • "Cana" in Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)