Site of Jesus' First Miracle Found?

Just in time for Christmas, news media are reporting that archaeologists have found the site of Jesus' first miracle: turning water into wine. Anyone who reads the reports closely, however, will notice that there is little support for these claims.

Fox News is a good example, reporting that shards of large stone jars have been found:

They believe these could have been the same kind of vessels the Bible says Jesus used in his first miracle, and that the site where they were found could be the location of biblical Cana. But Bible scholars caution it'll be hard to obtain conclusive proof — especially since experts disagree on exactly where Cana was located. ... The shards were found during a salvage dig in modern-day Cana, between Nazareth (search) and Capernaum. Israeli archaeologist Yardena Alexander believes the Arab town was built near the ancient village. The jar pieces date to the Roman period, when Jesus traveled in the Galilee.

[A]rchaeologist Shimon Gibson, cast doubt on the find at modern Cana, since such vessels are not rare and it would be impossible to link a particular set of vessels to the miracle. "Just the existence of stone vessels is not enough to prove that this is a biblical site," and more excavations are needed, he said.

Israeli archaeologist Yardena Alexander is convinced that she has found "a village of Jesus" where he performed his first miracle, but she sounds more like a passionate evangelist than a scientist. The site may or may not have been Cana, but the discovery of shards from large jars hardly demonstrates anything very interesting about a possible connection between Jesus and the site. To label the entire village as the "site" of Jesus' first miracle is bit overblown — the "site" would have to be the house where the miracle was performed, not simply the general area.

Don't believe everything you read in the news...

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