[Footnote 6: Or, _practised_.] [Footnote 7: Or, _Search the scriptures_.] [Footnote 8: Some ancient authorities read _the only one_.] [Footnote a: This feast of John 5:1 was _most probably_ a Passover (see note at end of volume, note 7). If so, we should know that our Lord's public ministry lasted three years and a fraction, and that the great ministry in Galilee lasted some 18 to 20 months. Otherwise, we should know of only two years and a fraction for the former, and 6 to 8 months for the latter; as John gives three passovers beyond question (John 2:13; 6:4; 12:1), and our Lord's ministry began some time before the first of these. If the feast of 5:1 was not a passover, it is quite impossible to determine what other feast it was. While one would be glad to settle these questions, if it were possible, yet it really does not matter as regards understanding our Lord's _recorded_ history and teachings during the great ministry in Galilee, the only point of difference being that if this feast was a Passover (or if there is an unmentioned Passover) we should conceive of the three journeys about Galilee as occupying a longer time, and including more extensive _unrecorded_ labors in preaching and healing.] [Footnote b: It is to be noted that John's Gospel gives the Jerusalem Ministry of Jesus almost entirely except Galilee in ch. 2, Samaria and Galilee in ch. 4, Galilee in ch. 6 and again in ch. 21. It seems clear that John wrote with full knowledge of the Synoptic Gospels and supplements them at certain points. Both Luke and John were thus critics of the Gospel records.] [Footnote c: Observe that here more than a year before the crucifixion, and probably two years (_i.e._ if the feast of 5:1 was a passover or if an unnamed passover is granted), the hostility of the Jews _at Jerusalem_ (comp. John 4:1) has reached the point of a desire to kill him, as a sabbath breaker and a blasphemer (5:16-18). So we shall find him staying away from Jerusalem at the passover of John 6:4, and until the Tabernacles six months before the crucifixion (John 7:1-10). Meantime, the hostility will go on increasing in other parts of the country (Mark 3:6, etc.).--Notice also that in this discourse at Jerusalem our Lord repeatedly declares himself in a high sense the Son of God, and the appointed judge of mankind (ver. 27), and says that Moses wrote concerning him (ver. 46). All this indicated that he was the Messiah, but he did not here expressly assert it as he did in Samaria (John 4:26). That would have precipitated the collision, for to claim to be the Messiah would in the view of the Jewish rulers involve _political_ consequences. Comp. John 11:48.] § 50. ANOTHER SABBATH CONTROVERSY WITH THE PHARISEES WHEN THE DISCIPLES PLUCK EARS OF GRAIN IN THE FIELDS Probably in Galilee on the Way Back from Jerusalem[a]