John 2:8

And he saith unto them, Draw out now and bear to the ruler of the feast. And they bare it.

Commentators have speculated at length upon WHERE the change took place, whether in the pots, or on the way to the ruler of the feast, etc.; but if the apostle had not intended to imply that the whole supply in the water-pots was changed into wine, it is simply inconceivable that the number and capacity of the pots would have been mentioned at all. One water-pot would have provided at least one round of wine!

Along with C. S. Lewis, this writer receives this miracle as a literal creative act of God incarnate. He said:

Every year, as part of the natural order, God makes wine. He does so by creating a vegetable organism that can turn water, soil, and sunlight into a juice which will, under proper circumstances, become wine .... Once, in one year only, God, now incarnate, short-circuits the process; makes wine in a moment; uses earthenware jars instead of vegetable fibers to hold the water.[5]

Regarding the question of what kind of wine this was, all kinds of irresponsible speculations abound. Even Barnes gave elaborate arguments to prove that the wine here created by the Lord was nothing more than the pure juice of grapes with no alcohol content whatever; but, as Barnes admitted, "The wine referred to here was doubtless such as was commonly drunk in Palestine."[6] And it is precisely this evident truth that rebukes any notion that this wine was merely the unfermented juice of grapes. On Pentecost, the apostles were accused of being full of new wine (Acts 2:3-15), to the extent of intoxication, a charge that Peter denied; but he did not deny that the wine common in those days was capable of producing intoxication; on the other hand, his defense tacitly admitted it. Also, the opinion of the ruler of the feast that the wine Jesus made was superior in quality to that they had drunk earlier, supports the conclusion that it was not merely pure grape juice. This is not to say, however, that the wine Jesus made was supercharged with alcohol like some of the burning liquors that are marketed today under the label of "wine". THAT we emphatically deny; but to go further than this and read WINE as GRAPE JUICE seems to this writer to be a perversion of the word of God.

[5] A. M. Hunter, The Gospel according to John (Cambridge University Press. 1965), p. 30.

[6] Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 193.