THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF OUR SAVIOUR.
=1. As soon as Jesus arrived at the age= of about thirty he left
Nazareth, and probably passing down the valley of the Jordan, went on
his way to Bethabara, John 1:28.
BETHABARA.
=2. John, the forerunner of Jesus=, was baptizing at this place,
the site of which is not known, but from the meaning of the name,
“the house of the ferry, or ford,” it must have been on the banks of
the Jordan. Moreover as John was preaching in Judæa, Matt. 3:1, and
apparently baptizing in the parts of Jordan near at hand, Bethabara
must have been not far off from the locality now identified with it,
namely, somewhere east of the present plain of Jericho, but from John
3:26 it is plain that the place was “beyond,” that is east of Jordan.
The name Beth-barah of Judg. 7:24 may refer to another place farther
up the Jordan, as the word “ford” may have been then, as it is now,
applied to several places.
THE WILDERNESS.
=3. After the baptism of Jesus= by John the Baptist at Bethabara he was
immediately subjected to several very severe spiritual trials called
temptations of the devil, Matt. 4:1. These temptations were preceded by
a period of fasting which continued forty days, after which the attacks
of the evil spirit took place as recorded in Matt. 4, Mark 1, and
Luke 4, but omitted by John.
=4. “The wilderness=” was probably the uninhabited country west of the
northern end of the Dead Sea, a region which seems never to have been
settled; and the immediate scene of the temptation is celebrated in
tradition as that rough and hilly ridge west of the plain of Jericho
called by the Latin Church Quarantania.
DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES.
=5. Soon after= his triumphant victory over the devil in the
temptations our Saviour gained some of his disciples and departed from
this region to Galilee.
It is plain from the first chapter of the Gospel according to John
that the Baptist was near the region of our Saviour’s trial by the
temptations, and was left behind when Jesus and Andrew, Simon Peter and
Philip, the new disciples, left for Galilee. These were added to James
and John afterward in Galilee, Luke 5:10; and to others, who though now
believers, and called simply disciples, constituted afterward that band
of twelve who are distinguished by the more important name of apostles,
that is, envoys, or messengers.
=6. Of these=, Andrew was the first to follow Jesus. The others were
Simon, called Peter, James and his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Thomas, Matthew, called also Levi, Simon the Zealot, Lebbæus, surnamed
Thaddæus, called also Judas, or Jude, James, called “the less” to
distinguish him from the other James, called “the greater,” and Judas
Iscariot, who betrayed Him, and who, when he hung himself, was replaced
by Matthias, Acts 1:15‒26.
THE GENERAL ORDER OF EVENTS. CANA.
=7. After his baptism= in the Jordan and departure to Galilee, the
first event which brought him before the great Jewish public took place
at Cana of Galilee.
CANA OF GALILEE, JOHN 2:11.
=Some variance of opinion= seems to exist as regards the identification
of this place. There are two places, each of which is pointed out as
the Cana of the Gospel. One is eight miles due north of Nazareth and
the other three and a half miles northeast of it. The one is on the
north side of an extensive plain and is entirely in ruins, while the
other is now an inhabited village. Early tradition seems to claim the
former, but the latter is now, and appears always to have been, on the
direct line to Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee from Nazareth, and it
may be due to this fact that many have supposed it to be the Cana of
the Gospel. But the names are not exactly alike, the former having
been for many centuries called Kana of Galilee and the latter only
Kenna. The ruins show that the former was a much finer village than the
latter in every way, and had a Roman road on its south connecting the
Mediterranean with the Sea of Galilee. It is probable, therefore, that
it was at this Cana that two of our Lord’s miracles were performed as
stated in John 2:11 and 4:46‒54.