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Passovers In John

John 2:13 states ‘the Jews Passover was at hand’ and Jesus went up to Jerusalem to Cleans The Temple. This verse in John leads many to set Jesus’ ministry as being 3 and ½ years in length. In John 6 we read of another such comment ‘and The Passover was nigh.’ Notice the similarity in these two statements. John does not give any  details about the Passover in John 6. The One in John 6 must be after a Passover as the boy’s lunch is ‘barley loaves’ and barley is not harvested until after The Passover.

There is also ‘a feast of the Jews’ in John 5:1. Jesus heals the crippled man at The Pool of Siloam. Because this was on a Sabbath and Jesus tells the healed man to take up his bed and walk, Jesus is confronted by the Jews. John does not state which Feast this is. If this is a continuation of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread from John 2, John 3,4, and 5 must be crammed into a month and a half before John 6…. (Or John may not always be in chronological order.)

Three of the ‘sign’- ‘feast’ words are connected in John 2:13+, 5:1+ and 6:1+. John may be placing these three events out of chronological order in these three situations. Or perhaps only chapters 5 and 6 are not in chronological order. We are given very sketchy timeline information in all three of these events. To use these three feasts as markers for the passage of three years is tenuous and leaves gaping holes of several months in a three year ministry.

See the Diagram in Home > Bas Doc > Jesus > Birth and Years….

M. Rood dismisses John 6:4 as not being found in early manuscripts. He then places John 5 as The Day of Pentecost. This possibility requires only John 6:4 to be out of chronological order or dismissed as inaccurate. Thus there are several possible alternatives which might reduce the ministry years to only one and one half years….

John 2:13 through 2:23 writes about Jesus cleansing The Temple of those who sold sacrifice animals, and evidently there were money changers there as well, who exchanged the various currencies into coinage acceptable by those who sold at The Temple. John writes, Many believed on Jesus then because of the miracles He did. (This must refer to the later miracles performed during His ministry, because the only miracle performed previously in John was the unadvertised miracle of turning water into wine.)

On the other hand, if John has taken the cleansing event from a later time in His ministry, the reference to many believing due to the miracles would fit the timeframe. It seems John is not always strictly chronological as much as many would like that Gospel to be. If this is true, we cannot use John to count a 3 and ½ year ministry. Please look at the diagrams that show the various years of Jesus’ Ministry. Home>Bas Doc> Jesus>Years

John 6:4 Writes, “And The Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.” This event must have been after a Passover as the lad’s barley loaves were multiplied to feed the multitude.  Barley was harvested after The Wave Sheath was observed during The Days of Unleavened Bread. This event should not be counted as another year having passed. There is no activity involved to indicate when this event occurred, except the previous celebration in John 5 or the Passover in John 2:13 might apply….

John 11:55 First mentions the final Passover where Jesus is The True Passover Lamb of God. This event is written about then in John Chapters 12 through 19. The Last Passover in John 13 through 19 is the final Passover in Jesus’ ministry. That is the only one we must count fully on…!!! The Passover in John 2:13-23 can also be counted as the beginning of a new year of ministry in Jesus’ life…. See the Diagrams in Basic Doctrine > Jesus > Birth and Ministry. There are several diagrams. Thus the duration of Jesus’ ministry is slightly over 1 and ½ years. (To this we might add the 40 days He appeared after His resurrection.)