It is to be remarked that no mention is made of _disciples_ being in attendance upon our Lord, from the time of His reaching Galilee by way of Samaria to that of His presenting Himself to the four Apostles by the Lake shore—that is, as I take it, from May to October A.D. 28.(129) The little company that came through Samaria probably broke up on reaching Galilee. They had their bread to earn and for the most part went back to their callings; while our Lord during the summer of A.D. 28 was preaching in various synagogues, and went, almost unattended, to Jerusalem. The absence of His followers would account for the scantiness of our information as to this period. I suppose that the feast spoken of in St John’s Gospel (chap. v. 1), took place early in the autumn of the same year A.D. 28. It was, I conceive, about the close of this feast that the Baptist was thrown into prison; upon this, our Lord returned into Galilee, and His official ministry began.(130) We cannot suppose Him to have been quite alone at this feast at Jerusalem, because some one must have been there to report what took place. I do not think that John was with our Lord at the feast, because, if he had been so, he could only have been absent from Him a few days before our Lord rejoined him on the Lake shore, and the incidents of this call give the impression that the separation had been of much greater length. I incline to think that our Lord was attended by Philip, who alone, at that time, had received the order “Follow Me.”(131) If John drew some of his information from Philip, this will help to account for his frequent mention of him.(132) It was on our Lord’s visit to this feast that He first incurred the active enmity of the Scribes. It followed from His miracle at the pool of Bethesda, which took place on the Sabbath day. Since the cure was wrought by a word there was no breach of the law; but “the Jews” (by which word St John indicates the hierarchy) were shocked that He should tell the man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day. “The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And for this cause did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”(133) The hostility of the Scribes, we see, is very deadly. The Pharisees are often scandalised at infractions of their sabbath notions, but they do not seek our Lord’s death as the Scribes do. The latter were probably Sadducees, tinged with western philosophy, and they were actuated by other motives beside zeal for the Law.