Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John

by Isaac Newton

From this time therefore Jesus taught in the Synagogues of Galilee on the sabbath-days, being glorified of all: and coming to his own city Nazareth, and preaching in their Synagogue, they were offended, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built to cast him headlong; but he passing thro' the midst of them, went his way, and came and dwelt at Capernaum, Luke iv. And by this time we may reckon the second Passover was either past or at hand.

All this time Matthew passeth over in few words, and here begins to relate the preaching and miracles of Christ. When Jesus, saith he, had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, and from that time began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Matth. iv. 12. Afterwards he called his disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John; and then went about all Galilee, teaching in the Synagogues,—and healing all manner of sickness:—and his fame went thro'out all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people,—and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, Matth, iv. 18, 25. All this was done before the sermon in the mount: and therefore we may certainly reckon that the second Passover was past before the preaching of that sermon. The multitudes that followed him from Jerusalem and Judea, shew that he had lately been there at the feast. The sermon in the mount was made when great multitudes came to him from all places, and followed him in the open fields; which is an argument of the summer-season: and in this sermon he pointed at the lilies of the field then in the flower before the eyes of his auditors. Consider, saith he, the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven, &c. Matth. vi. 28. So therefore the grass of the field was now in the flower, and by consequence the month of March with the Passover was past.

Let us see therefore how the rest of the feasts follow in order in Matthew's Gospel: for he was an eye-witness of what he relates, and so tells all things in due order of time, which Mark and Luke do not.

Some time after the sermon in the mount, when the time came that he should be received, that is, when the time of a feast came that he should be received by the Jews, he set his face to go to Jerusalem: and as he went with his disciples in the way, when the Samaritans in his passage thro' Samaria had denied him lodgings, and a certain Scribe said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest, Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head, Matth. viii. 19. Luke ix. 51, 57. The Scribe told Christ he would bear him company in his journey, and Christ replied that he wanted a lodging. Now this feast I take to be the feast of Tabernacles, because soon after I find Christ and his Apostles on the sea of Tiberias in a storm so great, that the ship was covered with water and in danger of sinking, till Christ rebuked the winds and the sea, Matth. viii. 23. For this storm shews that winter was now come on.

After this Christ did many miracles, and went about all the cities and villages of Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, and every disease among the people, Matth. ix. he then sent forth the twelve to do the like, Matth. x. and at length when he had received a message from John, and answered it, he said to the multitudes, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; and upbraided the cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not, Matth. xi. Which several passages shew, that from the imprisonment of John till now there had been a considerable length of time: the winter was now past, and the next Passover was at hand; for immediately after this, Matthew, in chap. xii. subjoins, that Jesus went on the sabbath-day thro' the corn, and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat,—rubbing them, saith Luke, in their hands: the corn therefore was not only in the ear, but ripe; and consequently the Passover, in which the first-fruits were always offered before the harvest, was now come or past. Luke calls this sabbath δευτεροπρωτον, the second prime sabbath, that is, the second of the two great feasts of the Passover. As we call Easter day high Easter, and its octave low Easter or Lowsunday: so Luke calls the feast on the seventh day of the unlevened bread, the second of the two prime sabbaths.

In one of the sabbaths following he went into a Synagogue, and healed a man with a withered hand, Matth. xii. 9. Luke vi. 6. And when the Pharisees took counsel to destroy him, he withdrew himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known, Matth. xii. 14. Afterwards being in a ship, and the multitude standing on the shore, he spake to them three parables together, taken from the seeds-men sowing the fields, Matth. xiii. by which we may know that it was now seed-time, and by consequence that the feast of Tabernacles was past. After this he went into his own country, and taught them in their Synagogue, but did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Then the twelve having been abroad a year, returned, and told Jesus all that they had done: and at the same time Herod beheaded John in prison, and his disciples came and told Jesus; and when Jesus heard it, he took the twelve and departed thence privately by ship into a desert place belonging to Bethsaida: and the people when they knew it, followed him on foot out of the cities, the winter being now past; and he healed their sick, and in the desert fed them to the number of five thousand men, besides women and children, with only five loaves and two fishes, Matth. xiv. Luke ix. at the doing of which miracle the Passover of the Jews was nigh, John vi. 4. But Jesus went not up to this feast; but after these things walked in Galilee, because the Jews at the Passover before had taken counsel to destroy him, and still sought to kill him, John vii. i. Henceforward therefore he is found first in the coast of Tyre and Sidon, then by the sea of Galilee, afterwards in the coast of Cæsarea Philippi; and lastly at Capernaum, Matth. xv. 21, 29. xvi. 13. xvii. 34.

Afterwards when the feast of Tabernacles was at hand, his brethren upbraided him for walking secretly, and urged him to go up to the feast. But he went not till they were gone, and then went up privately, John vii. 2. and when the Jews sought to stone him, he escaped, John viii. 59. After this he was at the feast of the Dedication in winter, John x. 22. and when they sought again to take him, he fled beyond Jordan, John x. 39, 40. Matth. xix. 1. where he stayed till the death of Lazarus, and then came to Bethany near Jerusalem, and raised him, John xi. 7, 18. whereupon the Jews took counsel from that time to kill him: and therefore he walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there continued with his disciples till the last Passover, in which the Jews put him to death, John xi. 53, 54.

Thus have we, in the Gospels of Matthew and John compared together, the history of Christ's actions in continual order during five Passovers. John is more distinct in the beginning and end; Matthew in the middle: what either omits, the other supplies. The first Passover was between the baptism of Christ and the imprisonment of John, John ii. 13. the second within four months after the imprisonment of John, and Christ's beginning to preach in Galilee, John iv. 35. and therefore it was either that feast to which Jesus went up, when the Scribe desired to follow him, Matth. viii. 19. Luke ix. 51, 57. or the feast before it. The third was the next feast after it, when the corn was eared and ripe, Matth, xii. 1. Luke vi. 1. The fourth was that which was nigh at hand when Christ wrought the miracle of the five loaves, Matth. xiv. 15. John vi. 4, 5. and the fifth was that in which Christ suffered, Matth. xx. 17. John xii. 1.

Between the first and second Passover John and Christ baptized together, till the imprisonment of John, which was four months before the second. Then Christ began to preach, and call his disciples; and after he had instructed them a year, lent them to preach in the cities of the Jews: at the same time John hearing of the fame of Christ, sent to him to know who he was. At the third, the chief Priests began to consult about the death of Christ. A little before the fourth, the twelve after they had preached a year in all the cities, returned to Christ; and at the same time Herod beheaded John in prison, after he had been in prison two years and a quarter: and thereupon Christ fled into the desart for fear of Herod. The fourth Christ went not up to Jerusalem for fear of the Jews, who at the Passover before had consulted his death, and because his time was not yet come. Thenceforward therefore till the feast of Tabernacles he walked in Galilee, and that secretly for fear of Herod: and after the feast of Tabernacles he returned no more into Galilee, but sometimes was at Jerusalem, and sometimes retired beyond Jordan, or to the city Ephraim by the wilderness, till the Passover in which he was betrayed, apprehended, and crucified.

John therefore baptized two summers, and Christ preached three. The first summer John preached to make himself known, in order to give testimony to Christ. Then, after Christ came to his baptism and was made known to him, he baptized another summer, to make Christ known by his testimony; and Christ also baptized the same summer, to make himself the more known: and by reason of John's testimony there came more to Christ's baptism than to John's. The winter following John was imprisoned; and now his course being at an end, Christ entered upon his proper office of preaching in the cities. In the beginning of his preaching he completed the number of the twelve Apostles, and instructed them all the first year in order to send them abroad. Before the end of this year, his fame by his preaching and miracles was so far spread abroad, that the Jews at the Passover following consulted how to kill him. In the second year of his preaching, it being no longer safe for him to converse openly in Judea, he sent the twelve to preach in all their cities: and in the end of the year they returned to him, and told him all they had done. All the last year the twelve continued with him to be instructed more perfectly, in order to their preaching to all nations after his death. And upon the news of John's death, being afraid of Herod as well as of the Jews, he walked this year more secretly than before; frequenting desarts, and spending the last half of the year in Judea, without the dominions of Herod.