Posted on 08/14/2014 2:34:59 AM PDT by markomalley
Msgr Pope ping
Sure, I get that.
Fascinating, thanks for posting.
No chicken dance? No hokie pokie? That's not a wedding.
Given how much wine they drank, they probably had an equivalent.
From that, to today’s “Bridezilla.” Ugh.
My teetotalling fellow Christians still choke at mention of Jesus’ first miracle at the Cana wedding feast.
Especially where the chief steward chides the bridegroom for saving the best wine as he points out that the guests are already too squiffy to appreciate its quality.
Yes, it’s hard to square that final fact with any sort of non-alcoholic beverage. The text does say (in the RSV) “when men have drunk freely,” so perhaps the women weren’t getting smashed. They probably had to be functional to continue taking care of household tasks and children.
Interesting gender roles.....when Jesus fed the five thousand with loaves & fishes, He first said to His disciples, “Have the men recline”, for it was a grassy & comfortable space.
Was that so that the women would be the ones fetching & distributing the baskets of food?
That certainly fits with the text, unless the apostles themselves served everyone.
Maybe (although it doesn’t say) the people were called up in groups, like at a buffet dinner: “The first two tables on the left, you go first ...” and so on. That would be consistent with one of the descriptions of their sitting “in companies on the grass, by twenties and fifties.”
Wedding ping
In Jesus day, men had “wives” and women were like cattle. It took the Catholic Church and the sacrament of marriage to elevate women to the level of wife.
Knowing a number of people from India, their weddings seem quite similar to what was described in the Bible (arranged by families, dowries, long betrothals, massive party lasting for days).
** The Hebrew, ah and the Aramaic aha could be used to refer to those who were brothers and sisters, half brothers, cousins and even other near relations. Extended family networks were both insisted upon, and essential for survival. To have these ties and be dependent upon them, was every Jewish person’s duty, and an absolute necessity for survival.**
And so we get references to Jesus’ family in many passages. Glad to see this real reference.
The first miracle of Christ a Cana shows the importance of a couple of things to me.
First, the importance of weddings and marriage and family.
Second, the importance of intercession — remember it was Christ’s mother who said to him, “They have no wine.” After his reply, she then utters her last words in the Bible: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Thanks for the ping to this interesting article.
Ping!
**Was that so that the women would be the ones fetching & distributing the baskets of food?**
No, the apostles played this part in the scenario....remember they were learning to be leader/servants like Christ.
Mary’s first intercession to our Lord Jesus Christ!
My teetotalling coworkers would have preferred for Him to reply, “Mother, there is already too much drunkenness at this feast, and I will not contribute to the guests’ further inebriation!”
(How did Mary His mother know of Jesus’ miraculous powers?)
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