i 'l*irovf. ^ litf 31 {f IP ratt 'ltfioro\ifd^it it ri »«#;(• it ry
Ufr^.
i-^ tix v/mTi Xlytrt"* *rt In nT^«uit'«< irTi> nm) I dtpirnit Mxiracji i3»v kiytt ufMt irmpxri rmt «^«A/MV< ttfjuit xitt dttifa^O% riit x^P'^t ^^' ^v^i vrtv wfot OtpifffA.ot.
6' Lurit r»uT» l)p itprij [or q i*prii] r«p *l*u3«/«y mmi Jtril^n
6* I?, ii iyyi/i r« rmrx» [or omit ri v«rx«] «t i*frit r»p
7^ ?p 3i tyyvf it iapry) rvt 'I»i^^Ki'«> ii nttitrviyitt. 10^ iyiwtr* riri rk lyM^itia i* rt7( 'Ii^atcAi'/mk.
Of these, the first and last two are straight- forward statements which need no comment. The second admits of alternative explanations either as
harvest-time or as four months before it. To the third attaches, not only a variety of reading be- tween 'the feast' and 'a feast, but, whichever reading be adopted, a doubt as to the actual feast intended by it. 'fhe fourth involves, again, a question of reading, carrying with it the dillerence of a complete year in the chronology of the Ministry ; and as this problem is at once simpler and more momentous than the other two, it will be on all grounds best to begin with it.
(1) Jn 6*. If the words ri Trdtrxa are retained, three passovers are mentioned by St. John (2" 6^ 11"), so that the Ministry will extend over at least two years. If the words are excised, ' ilie feast of the Jews,' which was ' near ' at hand, may be identified with the Feast of Tabernacles, described as ' near ' in l', and the chronology of the Ministry can then be arranged on a single-year basis : 2"' " Passover in March or April, 4" liarvest in May, 5' Pentecost in May or early June, or Trumpets in September, 6* 1'' Tabernacles in October, 10" Dedication in December, 11" Passover again.
This latter reading, in the belief that it brought the Fourth Gospel into harmony both with the Synoi>lists and with the earliest extra-canonical tradition, was championed first by Browne in his Ordo Sftclorum (London, 1844), and afterwards with more hesitation by Hort in an exhaustive note ad loc. in Westcott and Hort's Gr. Test. (App. pp. 77-81), from which manj' of the data in this article have been dra%vn. But any primd facie presumption on such grounds in favour of the omission of t6 iriaxa would be counterbalanced by the consideration that every known MS, whether of the ori^ijinal Gr. or of tlie VSS, contains the phrase or its rendering ; moreover, the evidence of St. Mark is, as it stands, against the single-year Ministry, while the evidence of the Fathers is much more evenly divided than these two WTitera supposed. Still, the high authority which attaches to all that Hort wrote demands a closer investi- gation of his arijunients. It will be shown that the shorter reading (a) is a phrase unlikely to have been penned by St. John ; (fi) is unsuitable, as interpreted by Hort, to the context ; (y) is un- supported by the direct witness of more than a single Father.
«. If the words ri varx* *" not Pennine, St. John wrote simply tY/ui *]p t] iopryi T<wp 'l0u2«'«r, anu by this he U supposed to have meant the Feust of Tabernacles, as being 1>eyond all others * the feast ' of the Jews. No doubt both in the OT and as late aa the Mishna ' the feast' is used to denote Tabernacles : see Cheyiie on Is 302«. Hut even if Tabernacles retained this pre-eminence,* so that St. John as a Jew could have so used the phnuje himself, would he have done it in writing for Ocntilo Christians? To them I'assover and Pentecost were instinct with associations from the Gospel, while Tabernacles spoke only of the Law, and ' the feast' can only have sup^^ested to them, as the same or a still vaguer phrase suggested in 5^ to Irenwus, the Feast of Passover. And the evangelist, who habitually means by 'the Jews' the enemies of Christ, can hardly have been so wedded to Jewish usage as to employ language which would have one meaning for himself and uiouier for his Ephesian disciples.
fi. The evidence of context tells the same tale. In the first place, the abundance of the grass (Jn Oio roXiij : x^^P^t '" ^lit *^^ of the same occasion) points to spring and not to autumn. Further, 'after these things Jesus was walking in CJalilee' (Jn 7* wtpiiftetTu), and yet on Ilort's hypothesis the same feast which was already near in 6^ is still only near — iyyut iu botli cases— in 72.
y. The patristic evidence for omission can be reduced from the four witnes-scs quoted by Browne and Hort — Irenieus. a heretical sect described by Kpinhanius and called by him Alogi, origen, and Cyril of Alcxanaria— to tlie single testimony of Origen.
Ireuiuus brings the Gnostic theory of a one-year Ministry to the test of agreement with St. John's CJospel, where he llrida that our Lord went up to Jerus. after the Baptism to three Passovers— the first after the miracle of Cooa, the second wtien
* On the one band. It Is for Passover that Joseph and Mar; are said to have gone up yearly to Jerus., Lk 2-*! : on the other, Cyril Alex., probably from Origen, says oo Jn IIBS *vx «i'j tt.ac^s^ H* r«ira( fvtitajAUr M*t 'll/Mi/raA^^ iv rf! mdrx* tit iri ni tirtorryi^.