With the Mother of Jesus and the Royal Official, the narrator introduces two characters whose portrayal acts as a foil to the first of Jesus’ ‘signs’, and establishes the key features of authentic Johannine faith. In between these Cana appearances, the reader is presented with two others, Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, who are invited by Jesus to believe in him. Each of them engages in extended questioning at the end of which a good deal has been learned about Jesus himself, while the faith response