2:3a

When the wine ran out: This is the situation when the action started in the story. The people at the wedding festivities (celebration) had drunk all the wine that the bridegroom’s family had provided. There was none left. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

When there was no more wine
-or-
When all the wine was used (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
When the wine was gone (New International Version)

In many languages it may be more natural to start the action of a story with a separate, independent clause. For example:

The wine supply ran out during the festivities. (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
The people/guests drank/finished all the wine.

wine: In this culture, wine was the common drink during meals among the Jews of Jesus’ day. Wine is an alcoholic drink. It is made from the juice of a fruit called grapes. When grape juice ferments, it becomes wine.

In some areas, people may not be familiar with grapes or with wine. If that is true in your area, here are some other ways to translate wine :

• Use a general term for an alcoholic drink.

• Use a specific term that can also be used to refer to alcoholic drinks in general. For example:

millet beer
-or-
palm wine
-or-
something like palm wine

• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:

alcoholic grape juice
-or-
fermented grape/fruit juice

Jesus’ mother said to Him: Jesus’ mother spoke to him when and because all the wine had been drunk. You may want to make the reason-result relationship explicit in your translation. For example:

so Jesus’ mother told him (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
and that is why Jesus’ mother said to him

2:3b

They have no more wine: Jesus’ mother knew Jesus could help with the need for more wine. She knew this was a serious problem for the hosts. She was implicitly asking Jesus to help.

In some languages it may be necessary to indicate that this is an implied request. For example:

Jesus’ mother said to him, “⌊Look!⌋ The people do not have any wine to drink.”
-or-
Jesus’ mother said to him, “There is no wine for people. ⌊Please help them.⌋ ”

They: There are two ways to interpret the reference of the pronoun They.

(a) The pronoun They refers to the guests. It means that the guests had nothing to drink. For example:

Jesus’ mother said, “The guests have no wine to drink.”

(b) The pronoun They refers to the hosts, the bridegroom’s family. It means that the host and people in charge had nothing to offer the guests to drink. For example:

Jesus mother said, “The hosts have no wine to serve to the guests.”

Both interpretations represent the same situation. Either is acceptable.

wine: See how you translated this word in the last verse.

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