Excavation at Cana

There's a favorite Scripture passage (John 2:1-11) that is read in some Christian weddings today (including my own). It describes a wedding in the village of Cana that Jesus, his disciples, and his mother attended. Then when the wine had run out, Jesus performed (at the behest of his mother) his first miracle, changing the water in six stone jar into wine.

The Associate Press is reporting today that American archaeologists excavating a site near what has been thought to have been Cana have "found pieces of stone jars from the time of Jesus, and believe they have found biblical Cana."

Now stone jars were fairly common, and there is little or no chance of proving if these were THE stone jars. But the evidence is certainly intriguing. Shards from these vessels are "large enough to be the same type of jars described in the Gospel of John."

Further excavations are needed, but there seems to be no doubt that this new site will become a destination of many pilgrimages.