CANA. - A locality "of Galilee" (Jn. 2:1, 11; 4:46; 21:2), distinct from the C. of the tribe of Asher (Josh. 19:28) and from the homonymous stronghold in Arabia (Moab) of which Flavius Josephus speaks (Antiq. Jud., XIII, 15, 1). Its identification is disputed between the present-day localities of Kefr Kennah and Hirbet Qānah. Until recent times Kefr Kennah, 6 km east-northeast of Nazareth on the "way of the sea" of Galilee, was regarded as C. by almost all Catholic Palestinologists. The main argument for the supporters of this identification is the testimony of the pilgrims of the 4th century, first of all the Peregrinatio s. Paulae (PL 22, 491: "Haud procul [from Nazareth] cernitur C."); other texts in D. Baldi, p. 250 ff. Moreover, C. seems to have been in the southern part of Galilee:
Jesus, returning from Judea, reaches C. first of all (Jn. 2, 1; 4, 46). But there is a philological difficulty: the Eastern versions write C. with the consonant q, not k; moreover, the double n does not suit the form Qānā that occurs in the Pēlīṭā and other versions. Therefore another locality situated to the north on the edge of the Asochis plain (el-Baṭṭōf), Hirbet Qānah, has had the preference of many since the Middle Ages, although the greater distance of 14 km from Nazareth poses a difficulty, since the Virgin Mary was present at the wedding (Jn. 2, 1).
The strongest reason is the expression Κανᾶ τῆς Γαλιλαίας in all four passages in which the New Testament mentions C. As the corresponding form in Flavius Josephus (Vita, 16) suggests, there was only one C. in the northern province of Palestine: κώμη τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἢ προσαγορεύεται Κανᾶ. This was Hirbet Qānah. There indeed Flavius Josephus quartered as military commander to defend Galilee (A.D. 66), having nearby the strongholds of Sogana and Iotapatha. From this city he marched with the army for an entire night toward Tiberias and in the morning was only in the vicinity (πλησιάζων) of this city (Vita, 17); which does not suit Kefr Kennah, from which the distance was only about 20 km. Finally, as present-day experience shows, the difficulty of traveling through the region of Hirbet Qānah, which is of a basaltic nature, makes the march quite arduous, especially at night. This region also explains why the royal official (Vulg. regulus, Jn. 4, 46, 52), having set out from C. at the 7th hour (1 p.m. today), only reached his residence at Capernaum the next day: he must in fact have interrupted the journey at night, which would not have occurred under the other hypothesis, since he could have covered 33 km the same day.
Bibliography10 works
Urbano Holzmeister
THE WEDDING AT CANA
The oldest representations of this miracle of the Lord are not earlier than the 3rd century; the narrative had made an impression even on the pagans, as the Passio of Theodore and Didymus shows (P. Franchi de Cavalieri, Intorno alla Passio di Teodora e di Didimo, in Note agiografiche, 8 [Studi e Testi, 65], Vatican City 1935). Wilpert has published the representations of the miracle found in the Roman catacombs; the oldest of them, in the cemetery Ad duas lauros, shows in the background the scene of the banquet, while in the foreground on the right the Lord touches one of the six water jars with the wonder-working rod (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 57; other examples in pls. 166, 1 and 186, 1 and in Nuovo Bull. d'arch. crist., 20 [1920], p. 83).
In the hypogeum discovered in 1858 in Alexandria in Egypt the representation of the miracle of C. (5th-6th century) is much damaged; but Wilpert succeeded in recognizing the liturgical-eucharistic character of this scene in connection with the others (Eucharistische Malereien der Katahomben Karmonz in Alessandria, in Ehrengabe Deutscher Wissenschaft dargeboten von Katholischen Gelehrten, Freiburg 1920, pp. 273-82). Another example is offered by the painting in the underground church of Deir Abu Hennys in Antinoe. In sarcophagi the scene is more frequent: Christ touches with the wonder-working rod one of the water jars placed at his feet; often the scene is combined with that of the multiplication of the loaves (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pls. 8, 3; 17, 2; 127, 2; 218, 1; 227, 2). In one of the sarcophagi of St. Victor in Marseilles the scene of the miracle is together with that of the Canaanite porters. The miracle of C. is then found again in the mosaics in the vault of the baptistery of Naples, and in the cycle of the basilica of St. Apollinaris Nuovo in Ravenna.
Also in one of the panels of the door of St. Sabina the miracle of the marriage at C. was carved. In the gilded glasses the water jars of the miracle of C. have the peculiarity of being provided with a lid (R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro, Rome 1864, pls. VII, nos. 1 and 2; VIII, 1). In the ivories it appears at Ravenna, in a diptych of Milan, in one of Palermo, in a binding of Oxford, etc.
Asterius of Amasea in the 5th century recalls that some Christians used very rich garments on which they had depicted Collecta ex historia evangelica argumenta such as, for example, nuptias Galileae et hydrias (PG 40, 166-67).
In the excavations of Elatea C. Diehl found again near the theme of the Church of the Panaghia, rebuilt in the 13th century, a large stone on which was written in Greek: "this is the stone that comes from C. of Galilee where N. S. Jesus Christ changed water into wine" (Bull. de corresp. hellénique, 9 [1885], p. 33).
Antoninus of Piacenza recounts in his itinerary that he had gone to C. ubi Dominus fuit ad nuptias, that he had sat in that same place and had written there the names of his parents (H. Grisar, La pietra di C. e l'itinerario del cosiddetto Antonino di Piacenza, in La Civ. Catt., series 18th, XI [1903, III], pp. 600-609).