Tent Work in Palestine — Part 72

Nazareth to Kefr Kenna 3-3/4 English miles. Nazareth to Kânah 8 English miles. Nazareth to Rûmeh 6 English miles. Nazareth to Seffûrieh 3-1/2 English miles. Nazareth to Tabor 5-1/2 English miles.

These measurements, as a glance at the map will show, serve to place Crusading Cana from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries at the northern site of Kh[)u]rbet Kânah. John of Wirtzburg, indeed (1100 A.D.), might be thought to mean Kefr Kenna, because he makes Cana east instead of north-east of Sepphoris; but he gives its distance as double that of the latter town from Nazareth (four miles, whilst Sepphoris is two according to him), the long mile used by most of his contemporaries being evidently intended. The distances thus serve to point in this case also to Kh[)u]rbet Kânah.

Unfortunately the Crusading locality is not of necessity the true one. Writers who could believe that Shiloh was south of Bethel, who could place Tyre south of Carmel and Capernaum on the shore of the Mediterranean, cannot well be received as authorities on such a difficult question. Their identification is thus merely a matter of curiosity. The early pilgrims, before the Crusades, are generally more correct in their views, but even they cannot be received as certainly informed, so many and so curiously perverse are their errors in other points; in this case, moreover, they scarcely mention the place. St. Willibald (722 A.D.) gives a hint of its whereabouts in noticing Cana as on his road from Nazareth to Tabor--a position which seems to suit neither Kânah nor Kefr Kenna. St. Paula (383 A.D.) also passed it on her way from Nazareth to Sea of Galilee; and Theodorus (530 A.D.) makes it equidistant with Nazareth from Sepphoris (both five Roman miles), but does not mention the direction.

The comparative claims of the two places may thus be summed up: Kh[)u]rbet Kânah approaches nearest in name, Kefr Kenna is in the most suitable position.

As regards the name, the word Cana, as spelt in the Greek, seems undoubtedly to represent Kanah as spelt in Hebrew with the "Koph,” a name occurring in the Book of Joshua as that of a town near Sidon (now Kânah) and that of a valley south of Shechem. Kenna spelt with the "Caf” is quite a different word; the root of Kanah has the meaning "reedy,” and this applies well to Kh[)u]rbet Kânah, situate above a large marsh; the root of Kenna signifies "roofed,” and would be spelt properly in Greek with the X, not the K.