Searching for Cana: Where Jesus Turned Water into Wine

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On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

(John 2:1–11, NRSV)

Less well known, Jesus healed a young boy’s fever in Cana (John 4:46–54). And the disciple Nathanael came from Cana (John 21:2).

So where is Cana?

At least five sites have been proposed as the place where Jesus turned water into wine, his first miracle and first attestation to his divine status.

I believe we have found it and are excavating New Testament “Cana of Galilee.”¹

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I admit that we have not discovered a first-century Aramaic inscription reading, “You are entering Cana,” but we seldom have that degree of assurance in archaeology. What I can say is that all signs point in this direction.

Khirbet Cana (“the ruins of Cana”), a bare 8.5 miles from Nazareth (and, equally important, 5 mi northeast of Sepphoris) in lower Galilee, has long been identified as New Testament Cana, although not without question. Our work here, however, has served to confirm this traditional identification.

Khirbet Cana is situated on a limestone outcropping that rises 330 feet above the floor of the Bet Netofa Valley. In antiquity, the village was located at an important junction of Roman roads connecting Tarichaea on the Sea of Galilee with Ptolemais (Akko) on the Mediterranean coast.²

Architectural remains at the site go back to the Hellenistic period (323–166 B.C.E.). In the Maccabean period (166–40 B.C.E.) and in the Roman period (40 B.C.E.–324 C.E.), Khirbet Cana was a vibrant Jewish village interconnected with other Jewish villages in lower Galilee. Its Jewish identity is based primarily on numismatic and architectural indicators. The coins recovered in the Hellenistic and Roman occupation strata clearly point to a Jewish population. As noted by Israeli numismatist Danny Syon, “[T]he six Maccabean coins are by 033 themselves sufficient evidence of a Jewish presence at Qana in this period, as these coins were in use almost exclusively by Jews.”³

Several structures have also led to the conclusion that this was a Jewish village in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A large building (about 65 by 48 ft) on the acropolis from the late first- or early second-century C.E.⁴ had two rows of interior columns, benches along the sides and finely plastered floors and walls. These architectural features correlate very strongly with structures built in this period and identified as synagogues.^a Roman-period synagogues typically served a variety of communal needs and were not dedicated solely to prayer or the study of Torah. From this same period we also found several stepped pools identified as miqva’ot (Jewish ritual baths).

Numerous fragments of stone vessels also indicate the inhabitants were Jewish because stone vessels were not subject to impurity according to Jewish law and were therefore common among Jews at this time.

Finally, an ostracon incised with the Hebrew script has been identified as an abecedary and dates to the second century C.E.

This combination of material evidence, along with the site’s location amid other villages identified as Jewish, make a strong case for claiming that Khirbet Cana was a modest-sized Jewish village in the lower Galilee from the Hellenistic period onward (c. 200 B.C.E.–650 C.E.).

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Perhaps the most explicit identification of Khirbet Cana with New Testament Cana comes from a fascinating cave complex we discovered on the south slope of the site. At the end of our first excavation season, somewhat by accident (as is so often the case in archaeology), we came upon an opening to a cave at the base of a fig tree. While the cave was largely filled with dirt and with sheep and goat dung, we could nevertheless see plaster on the walls and faint traces of Greek graffiti.

The excavated cave was roughly circular, approximately 20 feet in diameter, 8 feet high at the center point and oriented east-west. The interior was covered with several layers of plaster. The Greek graffiti, when we could make them out, read “Kyrie Iesou” (“Lord Jesus … [enter … deign to …]” and such), written on the ceiling and walls.

Excavation of a portion of the floor exposed three layers of lime plaster, indicating it was an important cave when laid, dating from the Byzantine period (415–654 C.E.) through the Crusader period (1024–1217 C.E.).

On the western side of the cave was a bench that could seat eight to ten people. On the eastern side was an apse-like curve that was blocked with a reused sarcophagus lid turned on its side, which served as a kind of altar.⁵ It was covered with several layers of plaster and bore a chiseled Maltese-style cross on the side facing visitors. Further investigation of the lid-now-turned-altar revealed three more crosses. Carbon-14 tests of the plaster in which the crosses were incised date it to the fifth–sixth centuries; the crosses would appear to date from the same period.

The top edge of the sarcophagus lid was worn smooth, suggesting that pilgrims placed their hands on top while praying.

Above the sarcophagus lid/altar was a shelf to hold stone vessels, two of which were found in situ. There was space for another four. Six stone jars would have held the water that Jesus turned into wine (John 2:6). All this suggests that Khirbet Cana was regarded as New Testament Cana from a very early time.

Directly above this altar, holes were cut into the cave walls, apparently as beam holes to hang a curtain or some other apparatus to segregate the altar area.

In the narrow area between the altar and the cave wall, we discovered two small pieces of marble, both decorated with gold leaf, one with an acanthus leaf design. The plaster attached to it suggests that it was part of a marble wall panel. In the same location and in the same strata of soil, a griffin covered in gold leaf was discovered. The griffin has a spike attached to it, suggesting that it was part of a lavish piece of furniture. In the Crusader level of fill, we found a large round piece of clear window 035 036 glass that may have been associated with the viewing of relics.

This cave, which we labeled Cave 1, was in fact part of a much larger complex of four (or possibly more) interconnected caves that have been explored and drawn but not excavated. This is enough, however, to indicate that there was an ambulatory or processional entering the caves at one end and exiting at the other.

These caves at Khirbet Cana were no doubt a major Christian underground veneration complex, similar to and as intricate as the underground passages in Bethlehem associated with the Church of the Holy Nativity.

The shrine at Khirbet Cana was obviously constructed in the belief from a very early time that this was the Cana where Jesus had turned water into wine.

Immediately to the south of the cave opening at Khirbet Cana are remnants of an Arab village in which we recovered a section of a marble column drum, part of a limestone chancel screen and a portion of a monumental wall about 4.5 feet wide, indicating that a church and perhaps a monastery were also associated with the cave shrine. It is hardly surprising that a holy site with a veneration complex would also have a monastery and a church attached to it.

Pilgrims’ reports from the Byzantine and Medieval periods offer another line of evidence in identifying Khirbet Cana as the site referred to in the Gospel of John. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Empress Eudocia and Emperors Anastasius and Justinian made generous imperial donations to churches and monastic foundations. This encouraged a real hunger for a tactile experience of the Holy Land to worship and receive blessings “where his feet had stood.” This resulted in a far richer collection of relevant texts in the form of guidebooks and pilgrim diaries.

A guidebook titled The Layout of the Holy Land, composed between 517 and 527 C.E. and attributed to a certain Theodosius,⁶ describes a Christian pilgrim route from Jerusalem west to Jaffa, then north along the coast to Caesarea, then east to Diocaesarea (Sepphoris) and “from Diocaesarea it is five miles to Cana of Galilee”⁷—the precise location of Khirbet Cana.

A more vivid and effusive account from about 570 C.E. comes from the so-called anonymous Pilgrim of Piacenza. He locates “Cana where the Lord attended the wedding” 3 miles from Sepphoris, a clear indication that in his mind Cana was Khirbet Cana.

There, he tells us, “We actually reclined on the couch. On it (undeserving though I am) I wrote the names of my parents … Of the waterpots, two are still there, and I filled one of them up with wine and lifted it up full on to my shoulders. I offered it at the altar, and we washed in the spring to gain a blessing. We [then] traveled on to the city of Nazareth.”

This account is helpful not only in its topographical details but also in its description of the site. Moreover, the route followed is what would be expected in terms of our knowledge of the roads used by Byzantine pilgrims. The road from Ptolemais (Akko) to Diocaesarea (Sepphoris) was the main road through lower Galilee, and from there it would be easy to travel the short 3 to 5 miles north across the valley to Khirbet Cana before turning southwest to Nazareth.

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A number of references to Cana in pilgrim texts dating to the period of the Crusades are significant in terms of the site’s location. One of the most interesting was written by the Anglo-Saxon (possibly German) Saewulf (1101–1103 C.E.), who reports, “Six miles to the north of Nazareth is Cana of Galilee, where the Lord at the wedding changed the water into wine.”⁸

Similar locations are indicated by Belard of Ascoli (c. 1155 C.E.) and Burchard of Mount Sion (1283 C.E.).⁹ Belard of Ascoli provides the first explicit reference to the use of a cave as part of the veneration complex: “The hamlet of Cana is situated between Nazareth and Tiberias. The place of the wedding is a cave dug out in rock, which would take about fifty men.”¹⁰ This observation dovetails well with the archaeological finds at Khirbet Cana.

The Dominican friar Burchard of Mount Sion places Sepphoris “two leagues to the south of Cana of Galilee.”¹¹ He too mentions the veneration site: “The place is shown at this day where the six water pots stood, and the dining-room where the tables were placed.”

These Crusader-period texts clearly indicate that Khirbet Cana was the established location of Cana of Galilee for visiting pilgrims. It is noteworthy that the texts make reference to a monastery as well as the cave complex.

Early maps also confirm Khirbet Cana as New Testament Cana. They consistently locate Cana of Galilee north or west of Sepphoris. One of the earliest maps to attempt to render the land of Palestine with some accuracy was included in Marino Sanuto’s Book of Secrets of the Faithful to the Cross on the Recovery and Protection of the Holy Land. Sanuto, a Venetian nobleman, composed the work in 1321 and presented it to the Pope in the hope of inspiring him to mount a new crusade to the Holy Land. The book included several maps drawn by Petrus Vesconte, a cartographer of some note. Vesconte’s map of the Holy Land for the first time depicts relative directions and distances between sites.¹² Vesconte locates Cana of Galilee directly north of Sepphoris in line 038 with Khirbet Cana. He also identifies Nazareth on the map in its proper relationship to Sepphoris, that is, 3 miles to the southeast.

The Medieval Holy Land mapmakers thereafter continue to locate Cana of Galilee either north or west of Sepphoris. For example, the lithographic facsimile of the map that William Wey produced in 1462 shows Cana of Galilee directly north of Sepphoris. Cana’s identification is accompanied by a drawing of six water jugs that mark Jesus’ miracle, indicating that the map was likely for pilgrim use.¹³

The first time another site is associated with New Testament Cana arises in a mid-17th-century report to the Pope by the papal emissary to Palestine, Francesco Quaresimo. He noted that in his time there were two candidates: Khirbet Cana and Kefar Kenna. The identification of a second site appears to be the result of the decline of Khirbet Cana beginning in the Mamluk period, reflected in the archaeological evidence. Moreover, 16th-century Ottoman tax records indicate that there were only 25 males in Khirbet Cana, three unmarried. This compares with about 600 villagers in the new possibility, a site with a similar name—Kefar Kenna, located, we are told, about 4 miles from Nazareth. It was a common practice, especially among the Franciscans in the late Medieval and Ottoman periods, to accommodate increases in pilgrim traffic by establishing new (and more well-to-do and easily accessible) sites as the authentic ones for sites associated with New Testament references to Jesus in Jerusalem.^b No doubt they did this elsewhere as well.

The alternative site of Kefar Kenna (also known as Kafr Kanna) is the site most often visited as Cana of Galilee by tourists today. It is a large village 3 miles northeast of Nazareth. Recent archaeological work in the Franciscan church at the site has uncovered some stone vessels, Herodian-type lamp fragments and other artifacts that may suggest a first-century occupation.¹⁴ Evidence of an ongoing Jewish presence is represented by a synagogue mosaic fragment dating to the third or fourth century with an Aramaic inscription. What is missing, however, is any archaeological evidence that the site was venerated by Christian pilgrims before the church complex was built at the site in the 19th century. Although there is a 17th-century reference to this site as a possible contender for Cana pilgrimage, there is no significant pilgrimage link until the 19th century. This weighs heavily against its identification as the New Testament Cana of Galilee.

Still another contender is Karm er-Ras, located immediately north of Kefar Kenna. A recent salvage excavation at the site led by Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre has convinced her that Karm er-Ras is “the original ancient village of Cana.”¹⁵ This conclusion she regards as “apparent.” A substantial Roman village had clear evidence of a Jewish population: Miqvaot were exposed in association with houses and limestone vessels. The village declined significantly in the Late Roman period (135–324 C.E.) and was abandoned at the beginning of the Byzantine era. Alexandre suggests that this explains why pilgrimage subsequently shifted to the nearby site of Kefar Kenna in the Byzantine period. 039 Although it is undoubtedly true that the site was a Jewish village in the Roman period, that is as far as the evidence takes us.

Alexandre suggests that a reference to Cana by first-century Jewish historian Josephus can be identified with her site. In his Life, Josephus recounts that when he was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee during the Jewish revolt against Rome, he lived for a time in Cana (Life 86). But where was the Cana to which Josephus refers? Alexandre argues that it could well be her site of Karm er-Ras. However, Josephus’s description of the site correlates with Khirbet Cana rather than Karm er-Ras—or at least that is the view of prominent Josephus scholars who have studied this reference. Thus Steve Mason, a leading Josephus scholar, writes that “Khirbet Qanah … rises 100 meters above the Bet-Netofa valley on the N edge, about 2.5 km from Iotapata (Yodefat) … This central location [of Khirbet Cana] in Lower Galilee, with easy access routes, the nearby fortress [Iotapata/Yodefat], and a commanding view of both the main valley and the access to Iotapata, would have made Cana an ideal location for Josephus.”¹⁶

In short, the only basis for associating Karm er-Ras with Cana of Galilee is its close proximity to Kefar Kenna, another losing contender for New Testament Cana. This seems very thin evidence for associating this site with first-century New Testament “Cana of Galilee.” Moreover, the site has no early association with the Cana miracle story.

Another site in Galilee, Ain Qana (the spring of Cana), is located about a mile north of Nazareth, but no excavations have been conducted here. Some early Christian pilgrim reports mention a spring in association with Cana of Galilee, so the site may have some viability, but in the absence of more substantial data, it is not a serious candidate.

The final contender, strange as it may seem, is Qana al-Jalil (“Cana of Galilee”) in modern-day Lebanon, about 18 miles from Tyre. Stranger still, it is mentioned as Cana in Eusebius’s fourth-century Onomasticon. He cites this Cana in addition to the one in Galilee. Nevertheless, Eusebius regards the Lebanese Cana as the one where the water-to-wine miracle occurred. And this identification continues in a few texts and maps into the Medieval period.¹⁷ To this day, many Lebanese Christians regard the Lebanese Cana as the site of Jesus’ first miracle. It is, in times of peace, a popular tourist site commemorating the miracle.

In conclusion, however, Khirbet Cana remains the best candidate for the location of Cana, where Christian tradition locates Jesus’ first miracle. It is the one site identified by pilgrims as Cana of Galilee before the 17th century. Moreover, the guidebooks and texts produced by Christian pilgrims from the Byzantine period through the Crusader period offer not only strong topographical indicators of Khirbet Cana as the location of Cana of Galilee, but also a description of a veneration complex that correlates strikingly with the impressive cave complex exposed at Khirbet Cana. Together this evidence supports the scholarly consensus that the site we are excavating is indeed “Cana of Galilee.”

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus […]