Section 566 — A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels

(/-) St. Luke s Gospel is divisible into two parts. The second (9™-19^' containing matter peculiar to him), being devoted to the doings and teachings of the M.astcr as the days of His assumption were being fulliUed (9'''), seems to restrict the Lord's ministry to a single ye.ar, 'the acceptable year of the Lord ' (4" ; cf. Is"()F). The reference to ' three

412

DATES

years 'in the parable of the Fig-tree (13'), which suggested to many (Bengel among others) the be- ginning of a third year of ministry, is a vague expression to which 13^- ('to-day and to-morrow, and on the third day') might be a parallel. In 4"-9™ there is but one apparent reference to any work outside the Galiloean, 'lovSaias (NBCL) of i** being a variant for TaXiXaios. But ' Jud;ea ' in tlie days of St. Luke included all Palestine (cf. 23=).

(1) 213.2a 'And the Jews' passover \v.as at hand, and Jesus

went up to Jerusalem . . . And he was in Jerusalem at the passover during the feast.'

(2) 435 ' Say ye not, There are yet four months (TtT/ut^r,.).-),

and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and consider (Hsio-airbe) the fields that they are whit« already to harvest.*

(3) 51 ' After these things there was a [or the) feast of the

Jews, .iiid Jesus went ujj to Jerusalem.'

(4) Ci ' Nnw ftlif p.issover, TO Ta<r;t«, uncertain] the feast of

{') 7- ' N>\\ til'' .lews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.* (I') 1"^- 'Th''n t lie dedication took place in Jerusalem.* (7) IJ' '.I'siis then, six days before the passover, came to

Jn -ip (a) ovx itieh \eyerc on en TeTpdiir)i>6s ianv Koi 6 depiap-m Ipxerai. ; (/3) iSov, Xiyw v/uv . . . on \evKai eiaiv irpbs 0(pi(!p.6v, is a difficult note of time. Tlie simplest interpretation is to take a literally of a harvest still remote, and j3 spiritually of a harvest already ripening. Origen, however, held that it was already the middle or end of harvest when these things happened (mi Joan. tom. xiii. 39. 41) ; but it is evident that our Lord made no long delay in Jud«a after the unpleasantness that had occurred between His disciples and Jolin's, and it would not be long before the popular Baptist, with his great following, would hear of liis greater Rival (Jn 3-"), or before the Pharisees would note the falling oil' of the Baptist's followers. The fact that the im- pression His works in Jerusalem had made on the Galilaeans was still fresh (Jn 4*=), and that He did not tarry more than two days, possibly only one (fieTo. di TO.! Bvo •^/ifpas, Jn 4''^), among the kindly and believing Samaritans, and that He was wearied with the journey (4"), points to no long inter\-al between 2'* and 4-'= and to no leisurely mode of travelling. Again, the word In has a touch of reality, which suggests tlie natural interpretation of Terpa/ivos against those who would read the pa.ssage proverbially : ' Is it not a sayin" that there are four months between sowing and reaping?' There is nothing, however, to prevent one taking the lateness of the Galihean harvest into account, and reading the pa.ssage thus : ' Say ye not, ye men of Galilee, wliere the harvest is later than in Judaja, where Jeroboam lield his feast of ingatlier- ing on the 15th day of the eighth month (1 K 12"-) instead of on the 15th day of the seventh (Lv 23*"), that harvest is yet four months ofi'?' If these words were spoken towards the end of Kisan, the four months referred to would be Nisan (March-April, end), lyyar (April - May), Sivan (May-June), and "Thammuz (June-July, begin- ning). This would be in keeping with the fact that the harvest naturally varied not only with season, but also with elevation, etc., and that, while it commenced in the lowlands of the Jordan Valley in April, it ended on sub-alpine Lebanon in August (see art. ' Wheat ' in Hastings' DB).

Jn 5' ' And there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem ' (with alternative readings, ioprri antl rj eopr^, the latter being sup- ported by the Alexandrian type of text, doubtless through the influence of Eusebius, who maintained a three years' ministry with four Passovers). What this feast was cannot definitely be s.aid. Iren.TUs regarded it as a Passover. The early Greek Church identified it with Pentecost. 'We-^i-

cott {ad loc.) suggests Trumpets (September), as 'many of the main thoughts of the discourse- Creation, Judgment, and Law — find a remarkable illustration in the thoughts of the festival.' But Ex 19' states that it was in the third month {i.e. after Passover) that the Law was given on Sinai. This would correspond with Pentecost, which is described in the later Jewish liturgy as ' tlie day of tlie giving of the Law ' (Saalschiitz, Das 3Ios. Becht, p. 42«), and by Maimonides (Moreh neb. iii. 41) as 'dies ille quo lex data fuit.' Furthermore, the strict regulations and calculations of the Sabbaths of the harvest period between Nisan 16 and Pente- cost, the Feast of Weeks, add point to the contro- versy concerning the Sabbath day (Jn 5'"'"*). The voluntary nature of the cure, a contrast with tlie signs of 2". and 4" performed by request, suggests that this act was in accordance with the Pente- costal regulations of Dt 16'", a free-will offering of His own hand, and tici'diiliiii;- to Lv 23" the glean- ing of His harxr'^t f"r ih'' i"Mjr.