Where was Cana?

Question

Where was Cana?

Accepted Answer

The site of Cana is disputed. Two places in Lower Galilee are the main candidates: Kafr Kanna, on the road from Nazareth towards the Sea of Galilee, where visitors are shown the place of the wedding today, and Khirbet Qana (Horbat Qana), a ruined village on the northern edge of the Beit Netofa valley about 13 km north of Nazareth, where the map point stands. John calls the place “Cana of Galilee”: “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there.” It was the home of Nathanael, and Jesus was there again when he healed the son of the official from Capernaum, about 26 km away in a straight line. Josephus says that he himself lived for a while at a village of Galilee called Cana. Eusebius, in the fourth century, put the miracle at the Cana of the tribe of Asher, which he placed near Sidon; that is usually taken for today's Qana in Lebanon, about 43 km north of the map point, and few scholars follow him. Khirbet Qana has the stronger case from the sources: a Jewish village of the Hellenistic and Roman periods with a cave complex venerated by pilgrims, excavated from 1998; in the twelfth century Cana was generally placed there, and Josephus scholars find that his Cana fits it. Kafr Kanna has the living tradition and a Franciscan church dedicated in 1881, but how far back its claim goes is disputed: Pringle notes pilgrims mentioning a church there from the eighth century, while McCollough finds no real pilgrim link before modern times. Yardenna Alexandre, who excavated a Roman-period Jewish village at Karm er-Ras beside Kafr Kanna, argues that this was the ancient Cana. The map shows Khirbet Qana and lists the other sites on the place card.