Although Mary cannot determine the time for the complete and full revelation of Jesus’ glory, she does not take his answer as a denial of her specific request. So she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

There may be some complication in rendering the servants, since no servants have as yet been mentioned in the context. It may be more natural, therefore, to say “the servants in that household” or “the persons who were serving the wine” or “… had been serving the wine.”

In some instances the use of the pronoun he (in an expression such as do whatever he tells you) could be interpreted as somewhat standoffish or even disrespectful, since a mother might be expected to speak to servants about her own son by some such expression as “Do whatever my son tells you to do.” As is so often the case, one must be very sensitive to the use of pronominal forms, since they frequently carry rather subtle connotations.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .