Devotional: John 2:4

Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
John 2:4: “Jesus said unto her, Woman what have I to do with thee, my hour has not yet come.”
Woman:  Aramaic (Syriac)  ‘anath – a married woman, a woman who is not a virgin.  Greek: gunai – a married woman
In the KJV rendering of this verse it sounds like Jesus was being very harsh and disrespectful to His mother.   Indeed we tend to lose a lot in translation.  Even if the Book of John were not written in Aramaic, John would have taken his notes in Aramaic and the conversation would have been in Aramaic.  Hence the Syriac version of the Bible would carry the more correct word used here for the word woman (‘anath)  and the Greek rendering (gunai) seems to agree.  He was addressing  his mother as a married woman.
One would have to ask, would not simply saying the Aramaic word for mother (‘amah) have accomplished the same thing and been more respectful?  I do have a pet theory. The Aramaic word, ‘amah, sounds an awful lot like the Hebrew word ‘almah, which means an unmarried woman, either she has never been married or was widowed. In some cases it might refer to a woman who was divorced or abandoned.  This is the same word used in Isaiah 7:14 which was a double prophecy.  There would be a fulfillment in Ahaz’s time as a sign that his enemies would be destroyed by God as well as a future event of a coming Messiah who would be born of a virgin.  The word alamah was an excellent choice of words for this prophecy as it could mean both a virgin and non-virgin.  The term would be used for a non-virgin and unmarried woman who bore a son during Ahaz’s time and a virgin, Mary, who bore the Messiah.  Perhaps Jesus was making a little play on words hinting a little secret shared only between He and His mother at that time, that is, that He was the Son of God and maybe He would do a little miracle to sort of set the stage for His entry into His Messianic mission.
Calling His mother ‘anath in Aramaic was really a sign of respect in that culture.  Joseph would have most likely died at this point but not before Mary had other children and would thus no longer be a virgin.  In a sense Jesus was doing her an honor calling her an ‘amah as this would be declaring that she was as single mother, by the death of her husband who raised her children under the hardship of widowhood.  I have heard successful men and women speak with pride for their mothers when they say: “My mother was a single mother and raised me.”  I think the NIV, which did a little paraphrasing, expressed it best – “Dear woman.”
The expression “my hour has not yet come” is really an Aramaic idiom.  The BYOB concept was a common practice at oriental weddings with everyone male bringing his own brew and trying to show off that he had the best wine. Maybe the other women were starting to give Mary a hard time that her son did not bring any wine to the wedding as was the custom.  Mary may have been keeping a little secret that her son was going to offer the best wine ever.  Jesus response to His mother in the Aramaic was literally: “what to you and to me, not yet woman.”  Again, my pet interpretation of that phrase, based upon what I view as the context, would be almost conspiratorial: “What we talked about dear woman, but not yet – patience.”   With a little knowing and maybe the smugness of a proud mother, she went to the attendants and instructed them to do whatever Jesus said.  She knew what Jesus proposed to do would be a bit strange and she had to prepare the servants.  Jesus was going to use the water in the vessels that the guest used to wash their hands and feet in before the meal.  When he ordered the servants to fill the vessels he was saying to add water to replace the water splashed out during the bathing.  Keep in mind, people did not wash their hands and feet for hygienic  purposes in those days, they did it for ritualistic purposes as required by Jewish law to symbolize purification or cleansing.  Jesus was going to demonstrate His role as the Messiah by taking the filth and dirt and purifying it.
Still people washing their hands and feet after traveling through dusty roads can make the water pretty rank.  That is probably why Jesus waited until the last hour to introduce his BYOB.  In Oriental culture it was a sign of good hospitality to get you totally bombed at a wedding and Jesus was probably waiting until the guests were too drunk to care if they were drinking bath water or not.
I suspect John recorded this story to declare to the world and future generations that Jesus came to this world to take all its grimy, stinking, filth and purify it into pure good wine.