Jericho to Nazareth (about 60
that there is no necessity to select a site for His bapt J day's journey of Cana. A|^; ' '" ' " "
■ithir
- . of Cana. Again, the favourite time for
March (Wetzstein in Ztschr. f. Ethnol. v. [1873)). So that we have another indication of the early season of the year, which supports the h}potliesis of a baptism at the Pass- over preceding the Passover of Jn 21^, a period of time required for the preparation and selection of the disciples, and for the nursing of their nascent faith bv miracles, of which one, a typical sign, as are all the seven signs in the Fourth Gospel, is narrated in Jn V-^-. To this faith reference is made in v." *And his disciples believed in him.' Nor does the Master's change of manner (v,'-i ' But Jesus would not trust himself to them') suggest the beginning of a mission.
The order in St. Mark's Gospel is of little service liere._ For Mk l" (' Now after that John wa,s put in prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching') refers to an event, the imprisonment of the Baptist, which was clearly later than Jn 4', and is, therefore, to be taken not as a note of time, but as a general introduction to the Galilaean ministry, which forms the subject of the Second Gospel. The selection of the disciples (Mk P^'i^), the missionary work of Mk 1™ i!i7WMei' cit Tds dxoixivat Ku/ioTrdXei's, a portion of Mk 1-3, and apparently Lk 5'-" (tlie scene with Peter on the lake), may'behui^' to the (ialila-an work previous to Jn2". On this hyiKithesis, wliich lills in the awkward gap between ('he 13th and 14tli verses of Mk 1, the baptism of .lesus would fall on tlie Passover of a.d. 27.
3. Length of the Ministry. — If the date of the beginning of the ministry be appro.\imately lixed, the year of its close will vary according to the estimate we form of its length. Prof, von Soden (Encyc. Bibl. art. 'Chronology') reduces it to a one year basis, while Prof. Sanday (art. 'Jesus Christ' in Hastings' DB ii. 610) retjuires nearly 2^ years for his scheme of our Lord's miiii>tiv. This difl'erence is due to the fact that St. .Iiiliii seems to extend that ministry over three I'assoveis, while the Synoptists mention but one Passover.
(a) In the Second Gospel there seem to be three data for a chronology. (1) Mk 2=^ mentions ears of corn {riWoi'Tes Toii (rraxvas). As the earliest barley was in April, the latest in June, it is be- lieved that the point of time we have here is Pass- over, which was of old associated with ' ears of corn'; the name of the month in which it was held being formerly 'Abib T2K or 'ear of corn.'
(2) Mk 6»" describes the miracle of tlie feeding of the .5000, in the course of which wo read that the peojile were arranged in companies, irpaaai vpa.<nal (a phrase suggestive fif garden-plots), and seated iwl Ti} x^"PV XopTv, an indication of early spring.
(3) Mk 11, linal Passuvcr. In these data Turner ('Chronology of NT ' in Hastings' DB) sees a sug- gestion of a two years' ministry. But it is evident that the arrangement of this Gospel is according to subject-matter, not to time. The time relation of the episode of the ears of corn cannot be satis- factorily settled with regard either to the events it precedes or those it follows in the narrative. It IS, therefore, quite possible that it preceded the Passover of Jn 2". In St. Luke's Gospel it occurs shortly after the scene with St. Peter on the Lake (Lk 5'-"), wliich must have preceded Jn 3=^ where Jesus and His dhcip/cs go into the land of Judiea and continue baptizing there ; and in both the .Second and Third Gosjiels it directly follows the question, 'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, and thy disciples fast not ?,' which occasioned the Parable of the Bridegroom and the Children of the Bridechamber, which seemingly but not really corresponds with the discussion in Jn 3-" between the disciples of John and a Jew about 'purifying,' which evoked from the Baptist the rhapsody on the bride and bridegroom. For the questions are quite difi'ereiit, and belong to distinctly ditterent contexts ; that in the Synoptists being caused by the feast of Levi and perhaps in- directly by the feast at Cana of Galilee, while that of the Fourth Gospel arose in connexion with the work in Juda?a after the Passover of Jn '2''.
No fresh light is thrown on the passage by the disputed point of time €y tra/ificlTifj SevTfpoirpuiTi^, which Wetstein explains as thelirst Sabbath of the second month, .Scaliger as the first Sabbath after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Godet as the lirst Sabbath of the ecclesiastical year. The ripeness of the wheat suggests the month of lyyar or May. And it is quite possible to conceive our Lord in that month (called in the old style Zii- (ii) or the 'month of flowers,' and in the new slyle 'lyyar (i;x) or 'the bright and flowering month') teaching the people in the plain and on the hill to 'consider the lilies of the field, how they grow' (Mt 6=*). It seems not impossible, therefore, to reconstruct the Second Gospel on the basis of a single year follow- ing the Passover of Jn 2", with a year or greater part of a year previous to that Passover.