John 10:22-38

THE DISCOURSE AT THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION

Again we seem to have a gap in the narrative. Between John 10:21-22 (but see below) there is an interval of about two months; for the Feast of Tabernacles would be about the middle of October, and that of the Dedication towards the end of December. In this interval some would place Luke 10:1 to Luke 13:21. If this be correct, we may connect the sending out of the Seventy both with the Feast of Tabernacles and also with John 10:16. Seventy was the traditional number of the nations of the earth: and for the nations 70 bullocks were offered at the Feast of Tabernacles—13 on the first day, 12 on the second, 11 on the third, and so on. The Seventy were sent out to gather in the nations; for they were not forbidden, as the Twelve were, to go into the way of the Gentiles or to enter any city of the Samaritans (Matthew 10:5). The Twelve were primarily for the twelve tribes; the Seventy for the Gentiles. The words ‘other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must lead,’ must have been spoken just before the mission of the Seventy.

Dr Westcott, on the strength of the strongly attested (B L 33 and the Thebaic and Armenian Versions) ἐγένετο τότε τὰ ἐγκ., At that time there took place the F. of the Dedication, would connect chaps. 9 and John 10:1-21 with this later Feast rather than with Tabernacles. In this case the interval of two months must be placed between chaps. 8 and 9

Is it possible that τὰ ἐγκαίνια here means the Dedication of Solomon’s Temple, which took place at the Feast of Tabernacles (1 Kings 8:2; 2 Chronicles 5:8)? If so, there is no gap in the narrative. Ἐγκαίνια is used in LXX. of the Dedication of the second Temple (Ezra 6:16), and ἐγκαινίζω is used of the first Temple (1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 7:5). At the Feast of Tabernacles some commemoration of the establishment of a permanent centre of national worship would be natural.