35. Comp. St. Mark vii. 2-5; St. Matt. xxiii. 25, 26; St. Luke xi. 38, 39.
36. Sanh. 17
a.
At any rate, such would not be exhibited on an occasion like the present; and outside the
reception-room, as St. John with graphic minuteness of details relates, six of those stone
pots, which we know from Rabbinic writings,37 were ranged. Here it may be well to add,
as against objectors, that it is impossible to state with certainty the exact measure
represented by the 'two or three firkins apiece.' For, although we know that the term
metretes (A.V. 'firkin') was intended as an equivalent for the Hebrew 'bath,'38 yet three
different kinds of 'bath' were at the time used in Palestine: the common Palestinian or
'wilderness' bath, that of Jerusalem, and that of Sepphoris.39 The common Palestinian
'bath' was equal to the Roman amphora, containing about 5 ¼ gallons, while the
Sepphoris 'bath' corresponded to the Attic metretes, and would contain about 8 ½gallons.
In the former case, therefore, each of these pots might have held from 10 ½to 15 ¾
gallons; in the latter, from 17 to 25 ½ Reasoning on the general ground that the so -called
.
Sepphoris measurement was common in Galilee, the larger quantity seems the more
likely, though by no means certain. It is almost like trifling on the threshold of such a
history, and yet so many cavils have been raised, that we must here remind ourselves, that
neither the size, nor the number of these vessels has anything extraordinary about it. For
such an occasion the family would produce or borrow the largest and handsomest stone -
vessels that could be procured; nor is it necessary to suppose that they were fil led to the
brim; nor should we forget that, from a Talmudic notice,40 it seems to have been the
practice to set apart some of these vessels exclusively for the use of the bride and of the
more distinguished guests, while the rest were used by the general company.
37. These 'stone-vessels' (Keley Abhanim) are often spoken of (for example, Chel. x. 1).
In Yaday. i. 2 they are expressly mentioned for the purification of the hands.
38. Jos. Ant. viii. 2. 9.
39. For further details we refer to the excursus on Palestinian money, weights, and
measures, in Herzfeld's Handelsgesch. d. Juden, pp. 171 -185.
40. Shabb. 77 b. So Lightfoot in loc.
Entering the spacious, lofty dining- room,41 which would be brilliantly lighted with lamps
and candlesticks, the guests are disposed round tables on couches, soft with cushions or
covered with tapestry, or seated on chairs. The bridal blessing has been spoken, and the
bridal cup emptied. The feast is proceeding - not the common meal, which was generally
taken about even, according to the Rabbinic saying, 42 that he who postponed it beyond
that hour was as if he swallowed a stone - but a festive evening meal. If there had been
disposition to those exhibitions of, or incitement to, indecorous and light merriment,43
such as even the more earnest Rabbis deprecated, surely the presence of Jesus would
have restrained it. And now there must have been a painful pause, or something like it,
when the Mother of Jesus whispered to Him that 'the wine failed.'44 There could, perhaps,
be the less cause for reticence on this point towards her Son, not merely because this
failure may have arisen from the accession of guests in the persons of Jesus and his