His mother sometimes tried to defend him: he had grown up in a foreign land among strange customs and ways of thought.
At bottom he had the best of natures, so kind and helpful to others and so severe towards himself.

How like a mother! What mother has not had the best of children?
They despised her remarks and pitied her because her son was so unlike other boys and caused her anxiety.

There was nothing to complain of in his work when he stuck to it.

What a carpenter he might be with such aptness! Only he should not interfere in things he could not understand, and should not disturb people's belief in the religion of their fathers.
One day there was a marriage in the neighbouring town of Cana.

Mary and her relatives were invited, for the bridegroom was a distant cousin.