John 4:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The evangelist here brings the miracle to the hearer’s remembrance, thereby exalting the glory of the Samaritans.

The Galileans received Him after the miracles He had performed among them and in Jerusalem. The Samaritans received Him for His teaching alone.

Thus the evangelist says only that Jesus came to Cana, and does not add the reason for which He came. He withdrew into Galilee because of the Jews’ hatred. But why to Cana?

The first time He was invited there to a wedding. But why, and for what purpose, did He come now?

It seems to me that He came in order to strengthen still more, by His presence, the faith produced by the miracle. He also wished to draw them still more by coming to them freely, leaving His own country and preferring them.

The evangelist reminds us of the miracle in Cana, where the water was changed into wine, first to set forth more clearly the dignity of the Samaritans.

The Galileans, he says, received the Lord because of the signs performed in Jerusalem and among them. The Samaritans received Him solely because of the woman’s testimony and the teaching of the Lord Himself.

Second, he does this to show us that the royal official also received some good, though not yet wholly worthy, understanding of Christ from the miracle in Cana.

He calls him “royal” either because he was of royal descent, or because he held some office of authority bearing such a title.

“He came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine.”

Christ generously bestows benefits upon those who are rightly disposed and readily show recognition and gratitude for the good they receive. He grants an abundant gift of greater blessings.

Therefore He comes to Cana in order to perform miracles. He judges it fitting to bring benefit to its inhabitants, since the signs already performed there had sown beforehand the conviction that He could accomplish all things.

Verses 46-48. “And there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. Jesus therefore said to him...”

But there, when He changed the water into wine, as John himself writes, His disciples believed in Him, though the house was filled with crowds of guests.

So great a miracle was performed, and no one believed except His disciples. To this country of Galilee He again made His way.

And there, when He turned water into wine, as John himself wrote, His disciples believed in Him. The house, of course, was full of guests.

So great a miracle was performed there by Him, and nevertheless no one believed in Him except His disciples.

And now He returned to this city of Galilee. And behold, a certain royal official whose son was sick came to Him.

He began to ask Him to come, that He might come to that city or house and heal his son, for he was at the point of death (cf. Jn 4:46-47).

“Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine.”

He came into Galilee because of the envy of those living in Judea. He did not go to the city called His own country, lest it fall under still greater condemnation for its inattention to Him.

Previously Jesus Christ had come to Cana for a wedding by invitation. Now He came in order to strengthen, by His presence, the faith that had arisen from the earlier miracle.

He also came to draw the inhabitants to Himself still more, since He came of His own accord, without any special request, and preferred them to His fellow countrymen.

“And there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum.”

The royal official (Basilikos) was, of course, one of the courtiers of the tetrarch Herod Antipas. Though Herod was not a king in the strict sense, he possessed royal rights, and in a figurative sense was even called king, as for example in Mt 14:9. His servants, therefore, were called royal officials. This could not have been a Gentile royal official, a Roman, because history does not show that there were Roman garrisons or officials in Capernaum, or in Galilee generally.

Having entered the territory of His native region, Jesus Christ nevertheless did not go to Nazareth. There the inhabitants were accustomed to seeing Him in the ordinary conditions of life, as a member of a family of carpenters well known to them.

Because of ordinary human weakness, they were least of all able to regard Him as a prophet, and still less as the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

Pointing to this circumstance, He “Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country” (cf. Lk 4:24).

In the other Galilean cities, by contrast, the ground had already been prepared for His reception. Besides the well-known miracle He had performed in Cana of Galilee, many Galileans had witnessed “what He had done in Jerusalem at the feast.”

And the Savior came again “to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine.”

Thus, because the Galileans received Him with honor, He remained in their country and came to Cana. See the note on Jn 2:1 and following.

The Lord came now precisely to Cana because here the ground had been more prepared for His fruitful activity. His earlier miracle and the special disposition of some toward Him had prepared it, since they had previously invited Him to the wedding feast.

“In Capernaum,” see the note on Mt 4:13 and parallels, there was a certain royal official. He occupied a position at the royal court of Herod Antipas of Galilee, though precisely what position is unknown.

The word may denote either a military or a civil office.

Why he was in Capernaum, when the tetrarch’s residence was Tiberias, is also unknown. Perhaps he was no longer in office.

“His son was sick”: with a fever, as is clear from what follows (Jn 4:52).

Verses 46-47. “Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine.”

Cana lay on the road from Nazareth to Capernaum and the lake of Tiberias. Why did Jesus stop here? To revive by His presence the faith awakened by the first miracle, as Zigabenus says.

“In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick.”

He came to Jesus in Cana with a request for his dying son.

The petitioner is called Βασιλικος by the evangelist. The Syriac translator understands this as one serving the king. In the Ethiopic translation it means one serving at the king’s court.

Flavius, in de bello 7, 5.2, calls the ambassadors sent by the Parthian king to Titus Βασιλικοι. He also first calls Herod’s ministers υπηρεται, servants, and then Βασιλικοι (Antiq. 15, 8.4).

The Lord, received by the people of Galilee with love and with the honor due to a great prophet, comes to Cana. There He "performed the beginning of His signs," as John the Evangelist indicates (Jn 2:11). Here also, by His almighty word, He works a second miracle.

The royal official (Βασιλικὸς), that is, a courtier of Herod Antipas the tetrarch, goes to the One of whom the people speak as the Messiah, as the One sent by God. Josephus, for example in De Bell. Iud. 1:11, calls all courtiers or those close to the king βασιλικοί. Herod Antipas the tetrarch was sometimes also called a king, as in Mt 14:9.