New Eve

The miracle at Cana takes place on the seventh day of John’s gospel. It’s a wedding, and it’s “Sabbath.”

If we assume that the fall of Adam took place on the first Sabbath, then the Johannine Sabbath provides some neat parallels and reversals. In particular, this parallel may illuminate Mary’s role: She urges Jesus to provide wine, but Jesus puts her off with “My hour is not yet come.” Jesus is true Adam who waits until the right time to take the fruit of the vine.

Mary is also a true, better Eve. Having told by her Son to wait, she waits, and instructs the servants to do whatever He requires. She is not an impatient Eve, but like the Seed of the Woman waits to receive the cup.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Classroom Heals the Wounds of Generations

Peter J. Leithart

“Hope,” wrote the German-American polymath Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “is the deity of youth.” Wholly dependent on adults, children…

Still Life, Still Sacred

Andreas Lombard

Renaissance painters would use life-sized wooden dolls called manichini to study how drapery folds on the human…

Letters

I am writing not to address any particular article, but rather to register my concern about the…