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Yitzhak Magen

IMPERVIOUS TO IMPURITY. In the miracle at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine. The water was in “six stone jars [of water] for the Jewish rites of purification” (John 2:6). Stone vessels are a telltale sign of a predominantly Jewish population, because, unlike clay vessels, stone vessels are not subject to impurity. First-century C.E. fragments were found in the residential quarter at Sepphoris. Stone vessels such as these are rarely found at sites known to have been inhabited by gentiles but have been found at 23 sites throughout the Galilee. When whole, the stone vessels would have looked like the jars pictured here found in Jerusalem.