The
Order of things in the Book of John
John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem.
John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the
feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
John 3:22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land
of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 23 Now John also was
baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they
came and were baptized.
(this was by the
Jordan river south of the Galilee)
John 4:4 But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city
of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to
his son Joseph.
John 4:43 Now after the two days
He departed from there and went to Galilee.
John 4:45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him,
having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had
gone to the feast.
Then Yeshua healed
the son of a nobleman from Capernaum (John 4:46-53).
John 4:54 This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out
of Judea into Galilee.
John 5:1 After this there was a
feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
They don’t tell
you which Feast it was. Why not? The translator had no idea. John would never have said, “a feast of the
Jews”! He was one.
According to the
order of the Feasts laid out in Leviticus 23, this would have been the Feast of
Shavuot or Pentecost. It would have been
around 40-50 days after Passover (no way to tell exactly), so there was plenty
of time for Yeshua and the disciples to travel to the Jordan river, up through
Samaria and into Galilee. But, since
this next feast was approaching, they would have headed back to Jerusalem. That is what the Torah would have required of
them and Yeshua would not have failed to do this!
Notice, they say
it was the Sabbath. Maybe it was the
weekly sabbath, or, since it was a Feast day, maybe it was a special or ‘high’
Sabbath for the Feast?
This is part of
the description for Shavuot or Pentecost:
Nu 28:26 Also in the
day of the first-fruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after
your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no
servile work:
Shavuot is the
Feast of Weeks – (7 weeks or 49 days, then the 50th is a sabbath).
This Feast is a
one-day event however.
John 6:1 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which
is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw
His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on
the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.
Now look at
this. He no sooner sat down in Tiberias,
when all of a sudden we are to believe the Passover is approaching again!??
John 6:4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. (??????)
More than likely,
this could be the Feast of Trumpets, or it might be just saying that the Feast
of Tabernacles or Sukkot was approaching.
That happens in the 7th month of the year. That would mean about 3-4 months had passed
since they were last in Jerusalem. That
is possible, but it would not be almost a full year to Passover again!
My guess is that
whoever was compiling the book of John into Greek, didn’t know about the Feasts
very well at all, or possibly didn’t know the Torah. It is very odd. There is NO WAY someone like
John would have this so mixed up.
John 6:5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude
coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that
these may eat?"
John 6:8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to
Him, 9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so
many?"
John 6:10 Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now
there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
To feed the 5000
men plus women and children, he used 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. So what? Barley is the crop that grows early in the
Spring, but it is usually not quite ready for harvest (or just barely) by
Passover time. There would not have been
loaves of barley bread available yet – unless they were months old, and that is
not likely.
This just helps to
show that it had to be well after Passover time for there to even be barley
loaves.
Also, if it had
been Passover time again, Yeshua and the disciples would have been heading to
Jerusalem for the Feast. They don’t
go. They stay around the Galilee.
Hmmmm…
John 6:59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in
Capernaum.
John 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not
want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
John 7:2 Now the Jews' Feast of
Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart
from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that
You are doing.”
** Ah. This is now
very interesting! The Feast of
Tabernacles comes about 2 weeks after the Feast of Trumpets I mentioned above
(which the translator called Passover).
Both are in the 7th month of the year. You are NOT required to be in Jerusalem for
Trumpets, but you ARE required – as a Torah observant Jew – like Yeshua – to be
there for Tabernacles. This is also
called the Feast of Sukkot. It is a
7-day feast with an 8th day celebration at the end – called the Last
Great Day.
John 7:8 "You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this
feast, for My time has not yet fully come." 9 When He had said these
things to them, He remained in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had
gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were
in secret. 11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is
He?"
So again, Yeshua
went up to the Feast as required by the Torah.
If you read from
here on you can see some of the things Yeshua said and did during this feast
time.
John 7:37 On the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone
thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the
Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
John 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Now early in the
morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He
sat down and taught them.
This should be the
day after the Feast ended, but there may still have been many people from out
of town who had come there.
Through chapters 8,
9 and 10, Yeshua does some amazing things and is still in Jerusalem – read
those on your own.
John 10:22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in
Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in
Solomon's porch.
This is an
interesting passage. Some immediately
think this means it was Hanukkah time. Other teachers have found where Sukkot
was also called the Feast of Dedication – because that is when Solomon
dedicated the First Temple. (2Chronicles 5:1-3)
They say that
there are really only 2 seasons in the Bible – Summer and Winter. This means the rainy season which begins in
the Fall is considered Winter (biblically).
“In the Bible we have no reference to
spring or autumn; the only seasons mentioned are "summer and winter"
(Genesis 8:22; Psalms 74:17; Zechariah 14:8).
Winter is the season of rain lasting
from November to May. "The winter is past; the rain is over" (Song of Solomon 2:11).
John 10:39 Therefore they sought again to seize Him,
but He escaped out of their hand. 40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan
to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed.
So He is done with
the Feasts and heads back to the North.
John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of
Mary and her sister Martha.
John 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when
He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7
Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."
John 11:17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had
already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about
two miles away.
It makes sense
that it was the 4th day, because it would take a couple days of
walking to get there from the Jordan area.
John 11:55 And the Passover of the Jews was near, and
many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify
themselves.
This should be
accurate that it very well could have been Passover again – a couple months
after his last visit to the Jerusalem area.
I wonder if maybe
we don’t know much about what happened outside of Jerusalem during some months
because the things said or done weren’t as BIG as the ones done in the city.
Just a guess on my part.
John 12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead.
Then his triumphal
entry:
John 12:12 The next day a great multitude that had
come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took
branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna!
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!"
John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that
His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having
loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
From this point
on, we know the rest of his time was spent in Jerusalem or the surrounding area
until his death on the cross.
As beautiful as
the rest of the events of this book are, I want to end here for the sake of
this discussion.
I simply wanted to
point out that by knowing the order and minor details of the Feasts of Yehovah
(the LORD), you can accurately plot out what really happened in the Book of
John. I don’t know who compiled this record, but it was clearly not John
himself.
Do we throw out
the Book of John? God forbid! We just have to know that some details were noted
wrongly and can easily be corrected by looking to the Torah. I hope this sheds some light for you. Feel free to disagree on any of this. Until John’s Hebrew gospel is allowed to be
revealed, we have to do the best we can.
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