I will proceed then to isolate a core, but I proceed with the anxiety
that appears as we attempt to imagine a “lost” source and as we venture out
into any risky human endeavor. Far less edited and perhaps closer to the
original form of the tradition received by the Evangelist may be the following
(parentheses add words necessary for idiomatic English but not present in the
Greek text):
A wedding occurred at Cana in Galilee. Jesus and his mother were
there. His brothers and disciples were invited to the marriage. When the wine
failed, Jesus’ mother says to him: “They have no (more) wine.” His mother says
to the servants: “Whatever he might say to you, do (it fully).” And there were
standing there six stone jars for the purification of the Jews. (Each jar was
able to) hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus says to them: “Fill the jars with
water.” And they filled them to the top. And he says to them: “Now withdraw
(some) and take (it) to the head waiter.” And they took (it). And when the head
waiter tasted the water, (now) having become wine, he calls the bridegroom and
says to him: “Every man serves the good wine first; and when they have drunk
(freely), then the poor wine. (But) you have kept the good wine until now.”
This was the first of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. And his disciples
believed in him. [After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and
his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there for a few days.] (Jn 2:1–12)
The clustering of verb tenses in this putative core is remarkable; at
the beginning and end the present tense (“says”) dominates but in the middle
numerous aorists are used (and they are typical of the subsequent editing found
in 2:10–11). Was the present tense used to bring out the present meaning of the
action (historic present) and do these verbs not reflect the work of the author
of the source?
The last sentence is in square brackets, because it also seems to be
added or heavily edited by the Fourth Evangelist, as Faure, Schmidt, and
Bultmann saw. The flow of thought is probably interrupted by an editorial
aside, especially “he did not know whence it had (come).” Clearly editorial are
the words: “[though the servants who had drawn the water knew].” The brackets
are in the Greek edition to warn about editing. The ending of the sentence has
the Tendenzen so typical of the Evangelist’s style and theology: the
concept of knowing and irony. That is, the head waiter knows good wine but
ironically he does not know what is important; yet the lowly servants know. Due
to the heavy editing of the source, we cannot now discern how and where the
original story ended. (James H. Charlesworth, “Is It Conceivable that Jesus
Married Magdalene?: Searching for Evidence in Johannine Traditions,” in Jesus
as Mirrored: The Genius in the New Testament [London: T&T Clark, 2019],
483)
