John 6:4

And the Passover,. feast of the Jews, was nigh.

This statement gives us. note of time and shows that the country was green with the freshness of spring. It was not far from April 1st, and the trees were in full leaf. The proximity of the greatest of the festivals that were celebrated at Jerusalem (the Passover, which began that year A. D. 29, on April 17th), would give occasion for. large increase of visitors around Galilee, as the crowds gathered for the journey. The gathering at such. time of. crowd of 5,000 men, attracted by so famous. teacher, is not incredible. The mention of the Passover is an aid to the chronology of the Lord's ministry. The feast named in John 5:1 could hardly be that of Purim, for then he would not have left Jerusalem before the Passover, it following only about. month later. If that feast was. Passover, we have now reached. period of two years from the Passover at which he cleansed the temple (2:13). It is clear that the feast, now so near at hand, was not attended by the Savior, the only one that he seems to have omitted during his ministry. Perhaps the plots to kill him when last in Jerusalem explain his absence. "His hour was not yet come."