166.  The fourth gospel says that after the visit to Jerusalem at the feast of Dedication Jesus withdrew beyond Jordan to the place where John at the first was baptizing (x. 40).  Matthew and Mark also say that at the close of the ministry in Galilee Jesus departed and came into the borders of Judea and beyond Jordan, and that in this new region the multitudes again flocked to him, and he resumed his ministry of teaching (Matt. xix. 1f.; Mark x. 1).  What he did and taught at this time is not shown at all by John, and only in scant fashion by the other two.  They tell of a discussion with the Pharisees concerning divorce (Mark x. 2-12); of the welcome extended by Jesus to certain little children (Mark x. 13-16); of the disappointment of a rich young ruler, who wished to learn from Jesus the way of life, but loved better his great possessions (Mark x. 17-31); of a further manifestation of the unlovely spirit of rivalry among the disciples in the request of James and John for the best places in the kingdom (Mark x. 35-45),—­a request following in the records directly after another prediction by Jesus of his death and resurrection (Mark x. 32-34).  Then, after a visit to Jericho (Luke xviii. 35 to xix. 28), these records come into coincidence with John in the account of the Messianic entry into Jerusalem just before the last Passover.

167.  The fourth gospel tells in addition of a considerable activity of Jesus in and near Jerusalem during this period.  In making the journey beyond Jordan start from Jerusalem (x. 40), John shows that Jesus must have returned to the capital after his withdrawal from the feast of Tabernacles.  When and how this took place is not indicated.  Later, after his retirement from the feast of Dedication Jesus hastened at the summons of his friends from beyond Jordan to Bethany when Lazarus died (xi. 1-7).  From Bethany he went not to the other side of Jordan again, but to Ephraim (xi. 54), a town on the border between Judea and Samaria, and from there he started towards Jerusalem when the Passover drew near.  This record of John has, as Dr. Sanday has recently remarked (HastBD II. 630), so many marks of verisimilitude that it must be accepted as a true tradition.  It demands thus that in our conception of the last journey from Galilee room be found for several excursions to Jerusalem or its neighborhood.  One of these at least—­to the feast of Dedication (x. 22)—­represents another effort to “gather the children of Jerusalem.”  While not without success, for at least the blind man restored by Jesus gave him the full faith he sought (ix. 35-38), it showed with fuller clearness the determined hostility to Jesus of the influential class (x. 39).