The Feast of Tabernacles and Dedication

All the events at these feasts are so connected in the account of the holy John that they seem to flow continuously. The Lord was in the middle of the feast in the temple and taught; He was on the last day of the feast and also taught; He was on the day after this, showed mercy to a sinful woman, and also taught. From this teaching the Jews became so irritated that they desired to stone Him, but He passed through the midst of them unnoticed by them and withdrew.

Next the holy John says: and as He passed, He saw a man blind from his birth and healed him. This was followed by an investigation of this miracle by the Pharisees and a discourse of the Lord about shepherding and sheep.

The Feast of the Dedication came, at which the Lord began His teaching word again with a discourse about sheep and, continuing it, again irritated the Jews so that they rose up against Him. This caused the Lord to withdraw beyond the Jordan.

Thus the account goes continuously. Did the events also proceed continuously? This cannot be said; because between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of the Dedication lie two months. There were certainly other events in these days, but the Holy Spirit did not think it good to inspire the holy John, who was filling out in his Gospel the accounts of other evangelists, to transmit them to us, just as He did not inspire him at first to transmit to us all that was in the first Passover in Jerusalem and in Judea, although about two-thirds of the year elapsed there.

We can, it seems, with certainty determine only the interval between the events at the Feast of Tabernacles and the events at the Feast of the Dedication. To the Feast of Tabernacles the account obliges us to refer what happened in the middle of the feast, what happened on its last day, and what happened at the very beginning of it, when the Lord, threatened with stoning, withdrew. To the Feast of the Dedication we must refer the healing of the blind man.

We base this on the fact that the discourse of the Lord, inseparably connected with the healing of the blind man, continues also at the Feast of the Dedication. Clearly, this healing took place just before the Feast of the Dedication.

The interval is thus indicated between the Lord’s withdrawal from the temple and, probably, from Jerusalem and the healing of the blind man. In such a case the words: as He passed must be given a general sense: “once” or “at some time passing by”—that place where the blind man was sitting; at some time, and not the very day that He withdrew from the temple.

Indicating, however, such an interval, we cannot by any means allow that it would be permissible to fill it with any events from the accounts of other evangelists, and namely from the last section of the evangelist Luke, which contains a description of the ninth journey of the Lord through Galilee. There is no reason for this and there is no indication whatever of what events could be inserted here.