Smoodock's Blog

Keep in mind that the Gospel narratives are ancient biographies. It is easy to expect that a biography would present the hero’s life in chronological order, but this wasn’t necessarily so in ancient times. Each Gospel writer had a purpose in mind and wrote to fulfill that purpose. Matthew wrote to the Jews to prove Jesus was their Messiah. In doing so, he created a literary work that presented Jesus’ public life in five sections together with an introduction and a conclusion.

We are studying what Matthew claimed about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, or the first book of his testimony about the words and deeds of Jesus, the Messiah. Matthew’s purpose wasn’t chronological order but an order of five books to parallel the five books of Moses, and in doing so, Matthew hoped to prove to the Jews that Jesus was the Prophet that Moses mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

Reading both Matthew and Mark, and taking their contents literally, gives us the impression that Jesus’ public ministry began immediately after John was cast into prison (Matthew 4: 12; Mark 1:14). John was imprisoned not long after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13), which occurred immediately after Jesus’ baptism. If we interpret Mark and Matthew in this manner, Jesus has only a two-year ministry, instead a three- and-one-half-year ministry, which is what a more careful reading of the Gospel narratives indicates.[1]

If we understand Jesus’ temptations to be metaphorical of men rather than a spirit tempting Jesus, it is more helpful to recognize that Jesus was already preaching in Galilee before John’s imprisonment. Moreover, a quick read of the second, third and fourth chapters of the Gospel of John shows that Jesus already had picked his disciples prior to John’s imprisonment, and they were with him during his first Passover at Jerusalem (John 2). Then, after leaving Judea for Galilee, he returned again to Judea/Jerusalem probably to celebrate Pentecost (John 3:22), and it was after this that John was cast into prison (John 3:24), and Jesus returned to Galilee (John 4:1-3, 43-46). Thus, all the witnesses need to be consulted before we are able to come to a proper conclusion concerning chronology.

Matthew tells us that, when Jesus heard John was cast into prison, he departed for Galilee. His words are carefully chosen, so as not to bring an accusation against a third party, as the reason for Jesus’ departure into Galilee. If Matthew was written late, as many critics would like us to believe, it seems likely that he would have been more forthcoming concerning the reason Jesus left for Galilee. No accusations against Jewish authorities can be made on this account,[2] if all one does is read a single Gospel narrative, but that’s like a jury drawing a conclusion after hearing only one witness against the accused. All the witnesses need to be consulted in order to understand the context of Jesus’ movements.

Why was John cast into prison? Well, the easy answer is that he, John, preached to Herod, accusing him of an unlawful act, adultery, in that he had taken his brother’s wife as his own (Mark 6:18-19). Nevertheless, Herod had to send his officers to arrest John, while he was ministering to the people (Mark 6:17). So, John didn’t tell Herod anything, until he was brought forcefully before him. Therefore, Herod had to have been **told** that John accused him of committing adultery. How and why was this done and by whom? I’ll try to answer that question in my next study.

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[1] See my earlier study: The Four Passovers in Jesus’ Public Ministry.

[2] In other words, Matthew had to have been written early, because, hiding the identities of the responsible parties for John’s imprisonment allows for the Gospel to go forward with minimal opposition. If Matthew named the responsible parties, and if those responsible were powerful Jewish authorities, that would have caused persecution to arise and freedom to preach the Gospel would have been curtailed. Therefore, ambiguity implies an early writing.