John 2:10

μεθυσθῶσιν. Have become drunk, are drunk. The A.V. does not give the full coarseness of the man’s joke, although in Matthew 24:49; Acts 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:7; Revelation 17:2; Revelation 17:6, the same word is rightly translated. The Vulgate has inebriati fuerint; Tyndall and Cranmer have ‘be dronke’; the error comes from the Geneva Bible. Of course the man does not mean that the guests are intoxicated; it is a jocular statement of his own experience at feasts.

ἕως ἄρτι. This was true in a sense of which he never dreamed. The True Bridegroom was there, and had indeed kept the best dispensation until the last. Ἄρτι occurs about 12 times in this Gospel, 7 in Matt., not at all in Mark or Luke. It expresses the present in relation to the past and the future, ‘at this stage,’ ‘at this crisis,’ whereas νῦν regards the present moment only, ‘now’ absolutely. Comp. John 5:17; John 9:19; John 9:25; John 13:7; John 13:19; John 13:33; John 13:37; John 16:12; John 16:31, &c.