I place the Baptism of our Lord near the close of the month. This was immediately followed by His withdrawal into the wilderness.
a.d. 28. February.
The whole of this month I suppose to have been passed by our Lord in the wilderness.
a.d. 28. March.
About the 10th or 12th of March our Lord appears “in Bethany (or Bethabarah) beyond Jordan where John was baptizing.” John i. 28.
On the next day, John, Simon and Andrew come to our Lord, and on that which follows our Lord “findeth Philip,” and “Philip findeth Nathanael.” John i. 43, 45.
Indications in the Gospels of the season of the year in which the events happened are so rare that we catch even at slight matters—one such occurs here—Nathanael is seen “sitting under the fig tree,” John i. 48; and as [pg 475] he would hardly have done so if the tree had been bare, it is probable that at this time the fig tree was already in leaf. It might have been so by March 10th; for the climate of the Jordan valley, in the deep cleft of the limestone rocks, far beneath the level of the Mediterranean and three thousand feet lower than the hills of Judæa, was almost tropical; and fig trees, which on the high ground about Jerusalem were not in leaf till April, would be at least a month earlier at this “Peræan Bethany,” as the place is called by Bishop Ellicott
I suppose our Lord to have left “the place where John was baptizing” not later than March 10th and to have been present at the marriage at Cana on or near the 14th. The Passover in this year fell on the 30th of March, and, assuming that our Lord reached Jerusalem on the 28th March, a fortnight has to be accounted for. I have explained, p. [165], what I suppose to have happened in the meanwhile, viz. that our Lord returned with His family to Nazareth, which was 4 miles from Cana, and that, owing to the displeasure shewn by the inhabitants, either at His pretensions or at His having performed His first miracle at another place, He and His mother, His brethren and His disciples removed to Capernaum—“there they abode not many days,” John ii. 12. Our Lord then went to Jerusalem, and His family, though not mentioned, may have gone there also. Whether they ever settled again at Nazareth is uncertain. They were at Capernaum in March, a.d. 29, Mark iii. 21, 32. Observe that the sisters of our Lord are not named: they remained at Nazareth, where they were probably married. We read, “Are not His sisters here with us?” (implying that the brothers were not so), Mark vi. 3.
a.d. 28. April.
Our Lord during this month was with His disciples at Jerusalem; the events are related in St John, Chap. ii. 13 to Chap. iii. 21.