John 2–4

At the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus Christ changed water into wine at a marriage celebration in Cana of Galilee. He attended Passover in Jerusalem and cleansed the temple. He foretold His death and Resurrection and performed miracles. Jesus taught Nicodemus that all men must be born of water and of the Spirit to enter God’s kingdom. Jesus testified that He had been sent by God to save the world. John the Baptist testified that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus taught a Samaritan woman, who recognized Him as the Messiah. She shared her witness of the Savior, and many in Samaria believed Jesus to be the Messiah. He healed a nobleman’s son who was dying.

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Background and Context

John 2:1–11

Was drinking wine against the commandments in biblical times?

There are many references in the Bible to the evils of drunkenness and strong drink. These verses do not specifically forbid the use of alcohol, but they do condemn drunkenness. In our day, the Lord has revealed the Word of Wisdom, which does forbid drinking alcoholic beverages. But it is important that we don’t judge the people of earlier dispensations by the commandments the Lord has given us in our day.

John 2:4

Was Jesus being disrespectful when He said to His mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”

The Joseph Smith Translation of this verse helps us understand that Jesus was in fact being respectful. Jesus asked His mother what she wanted Him to do and also expressed His willingness to do it. The corrected verse reads: “Woman, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? That will I do; for mine hour is not yet come.”

In Jesus’s day, the title “woman” was a respectful way to address female adults. His words and actions at the wedding feast show that He “was interested in the routine pressures that women faced. Jesus Christ honored His mother by offering to help her with her burdens and responsibilities.”

John 2:6

How much water did Jesus turn into wine?

limestone pots from the New Testament era in Israel

The translators of the King James Bible used the measurement of a firkin to convey how much liquid each waterpot could hold. A firkin is about 9 gallons (about 34 liters). So if each pot could hold “two or three firkins,” then each could hold between 18 to 27 gallons (about 68 to 102 liters). This means that six pots could have held between 108 to 162 gallons (about 409 to 613 liters).

John 2:13–16

Why were there money changers in the temple?

Jewish pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover needed to purchase animals to offer as sacrifices in the temple. This was part of their worship. In addition, the law of Moses required every adult Jewish male to pay a temple tax each year. Money changers and sellers of sacrificial animals provided a way for visitors to purchase the sacrificial animals they needed and to pay the temple tax.

Handling this business in the outer courts of the temple was irreverent and disrespectful to the sacred purposes of the temple. Moreover, money changers and animal merchants apparently profited by charging excessive prices for their services. As Jesus said, they had turned His Father’s house into “a den of thieves.”

John 2:18–21

What did Jesus mean when He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”?

After Jesus drove the money changers from the temple, some of the Jewish leaders asked Him for a sign proving He had the right to throw them out. Jesus responded by saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They misunderstood and assumed Jesus spoke of the temple. Instead, Jesus was speaking of His body—of His future death and Resurrection. After His Resurrection, Jesus’s disciples remembered this declaration and believed.

John 3:1–2

Who was Nicodemus?

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the “Jewish senate and the highest court in both civil and ecclesiastical matters.” So Nicodemus held a position of political, social, and religious influence. From the scriptures we learn that Nicodemus appears to have been sincere in the questions he asked Jesus. For example, in John 7:45–52 we learn that Nicodemus was ridiculed when he defended the Savior to the chief priests and Pharisees. After the Savior’s Crucifixion, Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea bury the Lord’s body. He also contributed ointments and spices that were used to prepare Jesus’s body for burial.

John 3:14–17

What is the significance of “the serpent in the wilderness”?

During their journey in the wilderness, the Israelites were bitten by poisonous serpents. The people asked Moses to petition the Lord to take the serpents away. In response, God commanded Moses to put a brass serpent on a pole. All those who looked at the brass serpent were healed. Jesus used the symbol of the brass serpent to teach that we all must look to Him to be saved. The Book of Mormon affirms that the brass serpent symbolizes the Savior’s power to save us.

John 3:22–26; 4:1–2

Did Jesus perform baptisms?

The wording of John 3:22 implies that the Savior performed baptisms, while John 4:1–2 implies that He did not. The Joseph Smith Translation of the verses in John 4 clears up this confusion and provides additional information about the Jewish leaders’ intentions toward the Savior:

“When therefore the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

“They sought more diligently some means that they might put him to death; for many received John as a prophet, but they believed not on Jesus.

“Now the Lord knew this, though he himself baptized not so many as his disciples;

“For he suffered them for an example, preferring one another.”

John 4:4, 9, 27

What was the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans?

Samaria became the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel early in the ninth century BC. When the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom (in 722 BC), they took many Israelites captive to Assyria. They then relocated other conquered people to Samaria and the surrounding region.

This new group of people, known as Samaritans in the New Testament, were “partly Israelite and partly Gentile. Their religion was a mixture of Jewish and pagan beliefs and practices.” The combining of paganism with the worship of Jehovah was “despised by later Jews.”

The hostility between Jews and Samaritans increased as a result of several unfortunate historical events. By Jesus’s time, relations were so poor that some Jews from Galilee would rather make the long walk around Samaria rather than going through it when traveling to Jerusalem. This way, they did not “risk having any contact with the Samaritans.”

John 4:19–23

What does it mean that “our fathers worshipped in this mountain”?

In the late sixth century BC, the Samaritans offered to help the Jews rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, but the Jews rejected their offer. Later the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim in Samaria. This is the mountain that the woman at the well was referring to when she said, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.”

In the late second century BC, the Samaritans refused to help the Jews in their revolt against the Seleucids. In response, John Hyrcanus, a Jewish leader, destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim. It was never rebuilt. This act of destruction added to the animosity that already existed between the Samaritans and Jews. It “also increased the [Samaritans’] efforts to distinguish themselves from their Jewish neighbors.”

John 4:24

Why does this verse say that “God is a Spirit”?

The Joseph Smith Translation of this passage gives a clearer understanding of what the Savior taught on this occasion. It reads: “For unto such hath God promised his Spirit. And they who worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Similarly, Bible scholars have noted that while the original Greek text for John 4:24 can be translated as “God is a spirit,” it can also be translated as “God is spiritual” or “God [promises] spirit.” We know from latter-day revelation that God the Father and Jesus Christ have tangible, or physical, bodies and that the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.

The statement in John 4:24 can also be understood as emphasizing the nature of worship rather than the nature of God. Since God is a spiritual being, people must worship Him “in spirit and in truth,” not just through outward rituals performed in specific places.

John 4:27

Why did Jesus’s disciples “marvel that he talked to the [Samaritan] woman”?

To avoid the heat of the day, women living in this area typically went to the well in the early morning or just before the sun went down. To maintain respectability, they would go as a group.

The Samaritan woman who went to the well at midday appears to have been alone. “Only a ‘bad woman’ would be so blatant. She is either a social outcast or knows that travelers can be found at the well at noon and wants to contact them.”

As one Bible scholar noted, Jesus’s disciples may have marveled at His interactions with the woman at the well for the following reasons:

“He [broke] the social taboo against talking to a woman, particularly in an uninhabited place with no witnesses. …
“Jesus ignored the five-hundred-year-old hostility that had developed between Jews and Samaritans.”

Jesus’s willingness not only to talk with the Samaritan woman but to offer her, who was committing serious sin, the path to salvation is a message of hope for all.