At about the same time John was writing his gospel, the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo interpreted Melchizedek, the king who offered Abraham wine and bread (Ge 14:18), as a type of the coming Messiah who would give God’s people wine instead of water (Allegorical Interpretation 3.82). Jesus enacted that replacement of beverage at Cana as a sign that points forward to the significance of Jesus’ subsequent death. When Jesus died on the cross he replaced the ceremonial waters of ritual Judaism