John 2:12
in John 2After this, He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples, and they stayed there a few days.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples; and there they abode not many days.
KJV
After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
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This verse in John 2
Commentary
19 notes on this verseA commentator
Origen of AlexandriaCOMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.3-4, 10, 18-20 · Written before 253.
The other three authors of the Gospels say that after the Lord's struggle with the devil, he withdrew into Galilee. Matthew and Luke, however, say that he was in Nazareth first after these events and that he left there and went to settle in Capernaum.
This site's exposition
He went down to Capernaum
He goes down to Capernaum, and His mother, His brothers and His disciples go with Him. Capernaum sits on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and becomes the base of the Galilean ministry. The road from here runs to Jerusalem and the Passover.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
"He went down," as the evangelist says, "to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they continued there not many days." Behold He has a mother, and brethren, and disciples: whence He has a mother, thence brethren. For our Scripture is wont to call them brethren, not only that are sprung from the same man and woman, or from the same mother, or from the same father, though by different mothers; or, in truth, that are of the same degree as cousins by the father's or mother's side: not these alone is our Scripture wont to call brethren. The Scripture must be understood as it speaks. It has its own language; one who does not know this language is perplexed and says, Whence had the Lord brethren? For surely Mary did not give birth a second time? Far from it! With her begins the dignity of virgins. She could be a mother, but a woman known of man she could not be. She is spoken of as mulier [which usually signifies a wife], but only in reference to her sex, not as implying loss of virgin purity: and this follows from the language of Scripture itself. For Eve, too, immediately she was formed from the side of her husband, and as yet not known of her husband, is, as you know, called mulier: "And he made her a woman [mulier]." Then, whence the brethren? The kinsmen of Mary, of whatever degree, are the brethren of the Lord. How do we prove this? From Scripture itself. Lot is called "Abraham's brother;" he was his brother's son. Read, and thou wilt find that Abraham was Lot's uncle on the father's side, and yet they are called brethren. Why, but because they were kinsmen? Laban the Syrian was Jacob's uncle by the mother's side, for he was the brother of Rebecca, Isaac's wife and Jacob's mother. Read the Scripture, and thou wilt find that uncle and sister's son are called brothers. […]
But rather were those disciples brethren; for even those kinsmen would not be brethren were they not disciples: and to no advantage brethren, if they did not recognize their brother as their master. For in a certain place, when He was informed that His mother and His brethren were standing without, at the time He was speaking to His disciples, He said: "Who is my mother? or who are my brethren? And stretching out His hand over His disciples, He said, These are my brethren;" and, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, the same is my mother, and brother, and sister." Therefore also Mary, because she did the will of the Father. What the Lord magnified in her was, that she did the will of the Father, not that flesh gave birth to flesh. Give good heed, beloved. Moreover, when the Lord was regarded with admiration by the multitude, while doing signs and wonders, and showing forth what lay concealed under the flesh, certain admiring souls said: "Happy is the womb that bare Thee: and He said, Yea, rather, happy are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." That is to say, even my mother, whom ye have called happy, is happy in that she keeps the word of God: not because in her the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us; but because she keeps that same word of God by which she was made, and which in her was made flesh. Let not men rejoice in temporal offspring, but let them exult if in spirit they are joined to God.
(Tr. x. in Joan. 1, 2) The Lord our God is He, high, that He might create us; low, that He might create us anew; walking among men, suffering what was human, hiding what was divine. So He hath a mother, hath brethren, hath disciples: whence He hath a mother, thence hath He brethren. Scripture frequently gives the name of brethren, not to those only who are born of the same womb, or the same father, but to those of the same generation, cousins by the father's or mother's side. Those who are unacquainted with this way of speaking, ask, Whence hath our Lord brothers? did Mary bring forth again? That could not be: with her commenced the dignity of the virgin state. Abraham was uncle of Lot, and Jacob was nephew to Laban the Syrian. Yet Abraham and Lot are called brethren; and likewise Jacob and Laban. (de Cons. Ev. c. ii. c. xvii. [39.]) And His disciples; it is uncertain whether Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee, were of their number or not at this time. For Matthew first relates that our Lord came and dwelt at Capernaum, and afterwards that He called those disciples from their boats, as they were fishing. Is Matthew perhaps supplying what he had omitted? For without any mention that it was at a subsequent time, he says, Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren. (Matt. 4:18) Or is it better to suppose that these were other disciples? For the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, call not the twelve only, but all who believing in God were prepared for the kingdom of heaven by our Lord's teaching, disciplesa. (id. cap. 18). How is it too that our Lord's journey to Galilee is placed here before John the Baptist's imprisonment, when Matthew says, Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee: and Mark the same? […]
A commentator
Origen of AlexandriaCOMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.39 · Written before 253.
proposed
We must ask, however, why his brothers are not invited to the wedding (nor were they present, for they are not mentioned), but they go down to Capernaum with him and his mother and the disciples.
(Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. iii. c. 24) When copies of the three Gospels had come to the Evangelist John, he is reported, while he confirmed their fidelity and correctness, to have at the same time noticed some omissions, especially at the opening of our Lord's ministry. Certain it is that the first three Gospels seem only to contain the events of the year in which John the Baptist was imprisoned, and put to death. And therefore John, it is said, was asked to write down those acts of our Saviour's before the apprehension of the Baptist, which the former Evangelists had passed over. Any one then, by attending, will find that the Gospels do not disagree, but that John is relating the events of a different date, from that which the others refer to.
12 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
"After this He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they continued there not many days." Wherefore comes He with "His mother to Capernaum"? for He hath done no miracle there, and the inhabitants of that city were not of those who were rightminded towards Him, but of the utterly corrupt. And this Christ declared when He said, "And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell." Wherefore then goes He? I think it was, because He intended a little after to go up to Jerusalem, that He then went to Capernaum, to avoid leading about everywhere with Him, His mother and His brethren. And so, having departed and tarried a little while to honor His mother, He again commences His miracles after restoring to her home her who had borne Him. Therefore the Evangelist says, After "not many days," "He went up to Jerusalem." He received baptism then a few days before the passover. But on going up to Jerusalem, what did He, a deed full of high authority; for He cast out of the Temple those dealers and money changers, and those who sold doves, and oxen, and sheep, and who passed their time there for this purpose.
The Medieval Church6 voices
The Lord manifested himself above to the disciples. In this part up to the fourth chapter, the manifestation made to the Jews is treated, to whom he manifests himself in a threefold manner, namely by sign, by word, and by Sacrament. Therefore this part has …
Our Lord's brethren are the relations of Mary and Joseph, not the sons of Mary and Joseph. For not only the blessed Virgin, but Joseph also, the witness of her chastity, abstained from all conjugal intercourse. Or Capernaum, we may interpret "a most beautiful village," and so it signifies the world, to which the Word of the Father came down.
It tends to disturb some people that in the opening portion of this Gospel reading it is said that when our Lord went down to Capernaum, not only his mother and his disciples followed him, but also his brothers. There have been heretics who supposed …
He did not stay many days there, on account of the Passover, which was approaching: And the Jews' passover was at hand. But He continued there only a few days, because he lived with men in this world only a short time.
Above, the Evangelist presented the sign Christ worked in order to confirm his disciples; and this sign pertained to his power to change nature. Now he deals with the sign of his resurrection; a sign pertaining to the same power, but proposed by Christ to …
The Lord comes to Capernaum for no other purpose than to leave His Mother there, so as not to lead Her with Him everywhere. Since they had gone to Cana for the wedding, and the wedding had passed, He returns His Mother to Capernaum, to …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
It is called the Jews' passover, because it was peculiar to them (Christ is our Passover); now shortly God will no longer own it for his. Christ kept the passover at Jerusalem yearly, ever since he was twelve years old, in obedience to the law; but now that he has entered upon his public ministry we may expect something more from him than before; and two things we are here told he did there:-- 1.
After this he went down to Capernaum,.... After he had been at Cana, and at the wedding there: after he had wrought the miracle of turning water into wine; and after he had manifested forth the glory of his deity thereby, and had confirmed the faith of his disciples, he departed from thence, and went lower into the country of Galilee, to Capernaum, a city near the sea of Tiberias; and which, from henceforward, he made the more usual place of his residence, and whither he frequently resorted, and therefore it is called his city, Mat 9:
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
To Capernaum - See the notes at Mat 4:13. Not many days - The reason why he remained there no longer was that the Passover was near, and they went up to Jerusalem to attend it.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1869)
The second miracle which our Lord is recorded to have wrought demands our attention in these verses. Like the first miracle at Cana, it is eminently typical and significant of things yet to come. To attend a marriage feast, and cleanse the temple from profanation were among the first acts of our Lord's ministry at His first coming. To purify the whole visible Church, and hold a marriage supper, will be among His first acts, when He comes again. We see, for one thing, in this passage, how much Christ disapproves all irreverent behavior in the house of God .
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1869)
proposed
The second miracle which our Lord is recorded to have wrought demands our attention in these verses. Like the first miracle at Cana, it is eminently typical and significant of things yet to come. To attend a marriage feast, and cleanse the temple from profanation were among the first acts of our Lord's ministry at His first coming. To purify the whole visible Church, and hold a marriage supper, will be among His first acts, when He comes again. We see, for one thing, in this passage, how much Christ disapproves all irreverent behavior in the house of God . We are told that He drove out of the temple those whom He found selling oxen and sheep and doves within its walls—that He poured out the changers' money and overthrew their tables—and that He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!" On no occasion in our Lord's earthly ministry do we find Him acting so energetically, and exhibiting such righteous indignation, as on the occasion now before us. Nothing seems to have called from Him such a marked display of holy wrath as the gross irreverence which the priests permitted in the temple, notwithstanding all their boasted zeal for God's law. Twice, it will be remembered, He discovered the same profanation of His Father's house going on, within three years, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at the end. Twice we see Him expressing his displeasure in the strongest terms. "The thing is doubled" in order to impress a lesson more strongly on our minds. The passage is one that ought to raise deep searchings of heart in many quarters. Are there none who profess and call themselves Christians, behaving every Sunday just as badly as these Jews? Are there none who secretly bring into the house of God their money, their lands, their houses, their cattle, and a whole train of worldly affairs?
The words behind it
24 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Μετὰ | meta | After | G3326 → | 461 times |
| τοῦτο | touto | this | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| κατέβη | katebe | He went down | G2597 → | 81 times |
| εἰς | eis | to | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| Καφαρναοὺμ | kapharnaoum | Capernaum | G2584 → | 16 times |
| αὐτὸς | autos | He himself | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἡ | he | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μήτηρ | meter | mother | G3384 → | 83 times |
| αὐτοῦ | autou | of Him | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀδελφοὶ | adelphoi | brothers | G80 → | 343 times |
| αὐτοῦ | autou | of Him | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μαθηταὶ | mathetai | disciples | G3101 → | 260 times |
| αὐτοῦ, | autou | of Him, | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἐκεῖ | ekei | there | G1563 → | 105 times |
| ἔμειναν | emeinan | they stayed | G3306 → | 118 times |
| οὐ | ou | not | G3756 → | 1664 times |
| πολλὰς | pollas | many | G4183 → | 367 times |
| ἡμέρας.¶ | hemeras | days. | G2250 → | 389 times |
ΜετὰAfter
metaG3326 →461 times
τοῦτοthis
toutoG3778 →1381 times
κατέβηHe went down
katebeG2597 →81 times
εἰςto
eisG1519 →1755 times
ΚαφαρναοὺμCapernaum
kapharnaoumG2584 →16 times
αὐτὸςHe himself
autosG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἡthe
heG3588 →19766 times
μήτηρmother
meterG3384 →83 times
αὐτοῦof Him
autouG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
οἱthe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
ἀδελφοὶbrothers
adelphoiG80 →343 times
αὐτοῦof Him
autouG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
οἱthe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
μαθηταὶdisciples
mathetaiG3101 →260 times
αὐτοῦ,of Him,
autouG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἐκεῖthere
ekeiG1563 →105 times
ἔμεινανthey stayed
emeinanG3306 →118 times
οὐnot
ouG3756 →1664 times
πολλὰςmany
pollasG4183 →367 times
ἡμέρας.¶days.
hemerasG2250 →389 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 12:46While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him.
it leads to
- Matthew 13:55
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 7:3
So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing.
- John 7:5
For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.
- Mark 3:31–35
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came and stood outside. They sent someone in to summon Him,
- Luke 8:19–21
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him, but they were unable to reach Him because of the crowd.
- Matthew 13:55
Through
Mark 6:3Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him.
it leads to
- Matthew 12:46
While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 13:55–57
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
- John 6:42
They were asking, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then can He say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”
- Matthew 12:46
Where this verse is studied
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Studies17
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About John
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 17 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alcuin of York, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on John 10; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, Homilies on the Gospels 2.1; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bonaventure, Commentary on John, Chapter 2; Eusebius of Caesarea, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of John 23; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.3-4, 10, 18-20; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.39; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on John and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on John.