the same as always: in the three the crowd loves him; in the fourth it
carps at and argues with him. We must again miss the sojourn of Jesus in
Galilee, according to the three, and his visit to Jerusalem, according
to the one, and pass to his entry into Jerusalem in triumph. Here we
notice a most remarkable divergence: the synoptics tell us that he
was going up to Jerusalem from Galilee, and, arriving on his way at
Bethphage, he sent for an ass and rode thereon into Jerusalem: the
fourth gospel relates that he was dwelling at Jerusalem, and leaving it,
for fear of the Jews, he retired, not into Galilee, but "beyond Jordan,
into the place where John at first baptised," i.e., Bethabara, "and
_there he abode_" From there he went to Bethany and raised to life a
putrefying corpse: this stupendous miracle is never appealed to by the
earlier historians in proof of their master's greatness, though
"much people of the Jews" are said to have seen Lazarus after his
resurrection: this miracle is also given as the reason for the active
hostility of the priests, "from that day forward." Jesus then retires
to Ephraim near the wilderness, from which town he goes to Bethany, and
thence in triumph to Jerusalem, being met by the people "for that they
heard that he had done this miracle." The two accounts have absolutely
nothing in common except the entry into Jerusalem, and the preceding
events of the synoptics exclude those of the fourth gospel, as does the
latter theirs. If Jesus abode in Bethabara and Ephraim, he could not
have come from Galilee; if he started from Galilee, he was not abiding
in the south. John xiii.-xvii. stand alone, with the exception of the
mention of the traitor. On the arrest of Jesus, he is led (ch. xviii.
13) to Annas, who sends him to Caiaphas, while the others send him
direct to Caiaphas, but this is immaterial. He is then taken to Pilate:
the Jews do not enter the judgment-hall, lest, being defiled, they could
not eat the passover, a feast which, according to the synoptics, was
over, Jesus and his disciples having eaten it the night before. Jesus is
exposed to the people at the sixth hour (ch. xix. 14), while Mark tells
us he was crucified three hours before--at the third hour--a note of
time which agrees with the others, since they all relate that there
was darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour, i.e., there was thick
darkness at the time when, "according to St. John," Jesus was exposed.
Here our evangelist is in hopeless conflict with the three. The accounts
about the resurrection are irreconcilable in all the gospels, and
mutually destructive. It remains to notice, among these discrepancies,
one or two points which did not come in conveniently in the course of
the narrative. During the whole of the fourth gospel, we find Jesus
constantly arguing for his right to the title of Messiah. Andrew speaks
of him as such (i. 41); the Samaritans acknowledge him (iv. 42); Peter
owns him (vi. 69); the people call him so-(vii.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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