11 Grk “for the purification of the Jews.”
12 Grk “holding two or three metretes” (about 75 to 115 liters). Each of the pots held 2 or 3 μετρηταί (metrētai). A μετρητῆς (metrētēs) was about 9 gallons (40 liters); thus each jar held 18–27 gallons (80–120 liters) and the total volume of liquid involved was 108–162 gallons (480–720 liters). Significantly, these jars held water for Jewish ceremonial washing (purification rituals). The water of Jewish ritual purification has become the wine of the new messianic age. The wine may also be, after the fashion of Johannine double meanings, a reference to the wine of the Lord’s Supper. A number have suggested this, but there does not seem to be anything in the immediate context which compels this; it seems more related to how frequently a given interpreter sees references to the sacraments in John’s Gospel as a whole.

In other versions

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.

Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons.

Now six stone water jars were set there, in accordance with the ceremonial cleansing of the Jews, each holding two or three measures.

And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

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