John 7:1

John 7:1. And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. The events of chap. 6 belonged to the period of the Passover; chap. 7 is occupied with the feast of Tabernacles. The interval covered by the brief description of this verse, therefore, is about six months. During that time Jesus ‘was walking in Galilee,' for in Judea His enemies ‘were seeking to kill Him.' As it is John himself who gives the notes of time from which we learn the length of this period, we have here another illustration of the selective principle on which his Gospel is composed. The ministry in Galilee is in the main passed over, partly, no doubt, because the Evangelist well knew that the types of Gospel teaching that were most widely current chiefly presented the Saviour's work in Galilee: partly, because this work was less closely connected with his purpose to bring out with clearness the progress and development of the conflict between Jesus and the representatives of the Jewish people. The period before us receives a lengthened notice in two of the earlier Gospels. We may, with great probability, refer to it four Chapter s in Matthew (15 - 18), three in Mark (7 - 9), besides half of the ninth chapter in Luke. To it, therefore, belong our Lord's visits to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, the miracles wrought for the Syrophoenician woman and for the deaf and dumb man in Decapolis, the feeding of the four thousand, Peter's second confession followed by our lord's announcement of His approaching sufferings and death, the Transfiguration, together with other miracles and discourses. The principal outward characteristics of this portion of our Lord's public ministry are the wider range of His travels and the comparative privacy which He seems usually to have maintained: the progress in the training of the Twelve, which is most observable, we may also in great measure connect with the retirement thus sought by their Master.