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the days of the temptation * had come to him. For how, when John had been handed over, was it still possible for the Savior to come to him again at the Jordan? But they did not know that the other three evangelists recount the time after John was handed over, saying precisely: “Now when Jesus heard that John had been handed over, he left Nazareth and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea”. And you see that in truth all things are said harmoniously by the four evangelists. For John also appears to narrate again in sequence, that after the Savior performed the first sign and came to Capernaum, and performed some signs there and went up to Nazareth and read the book, then after the baptist was handed over, he came and dwelt in Capernaum for not many days. These are the days after the day of the Epiphany and his coming to Capernaum and to Nazareth and his going up to Jerusalem for the Passover and his coming again to John where he was baptizing in Aenon near Salim. For thus he says, “After this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers, and 2.282 they stayed there not many days”; for it did not yet indicate the permanent stay about which he later said that after John was handed over, he came and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea. “And the Passover of the Jews was near, as he says, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves in the temple, and the money-changers sitting”. And after he cast out the same money-changers and those selling the doves and the other things, and had said: Take these things hence and do not make my Father’s house a house of trade, and had heard from them, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” and had said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, when Nicodemus came to him, and after saying many things, he says, “Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he remained with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; for John had not yet been thrown into prison”. And when John had said many things, that “He who has the bride is the bridegroom,” then the Gospel says, “When therefore Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples), he left the land of Judea and departed again into Galilee. And it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria”; when he sat at the well and spoke with the Samaritan woman, and the Samaritan woman announced about him to those in the city, and the Samaritans came to him and asked him to stay with them, “and he stayed there two days, and many more believed because of his word.” “And after the two days he came into Galilee” “and there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum,” when Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives,” and he believed and the boy was healed. And the Gospel says, “This again was the second sign that Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee”. “After this there was a feast of the Jews—and I think that he is speaking about another feast of the Jews, either Pentecost or of Tabernacles—and Jesus went up to Jerusa-2.283-lem,” when, having come to the sheep pool on a sabbath, he healed the one who had been paralyzed in sickness for thirty-eight years. From this point, then, when the acceptable year was fulfilled, they began to persecute him from the time he healed the paralytic at the pool on a sabbath; then again it says, “for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus more, because he not only was breaking the sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God”. How then is it not

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τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ πειρασμοῦ * πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐληλυθέναι. πῶς γὰρ Ἰωάννου παραδοθέντος ἐνεδέχετο ἔτι τὸν σωτῆρα πρὸς αὐτὸν πάλιν ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰορδάνην; οὐκ ἔγνωσαν δὲ ὅτι οἱ ἄλλοι τρεῖς εὐαγγελισταὶ τὸν χρόνον τὸν μετὰ τὸ παραδοθῆναι τὸν Ἰωάννην διηγοῦνται ἀκριβῶς λέγοντες· «ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι παρεδόθη ὁ Ἰωάννης, καταλιπὼν τὴν Ναζαρὲτ κατῴκησεν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ τὴν παραθαλάσσιον». καὶ ὁρᾷς ὅτι κατὰ ἀλήθειαν τὰ πάντα τοῖς τέτρασιν εὐαγγελισταῖς συμφώνως εἴρηται. καὶ γὰρ καὶ φαίνεται κατὰ τὴν ἀκολουθίαν πάλιν διηγούμενος ὁ Ἰωάννης, ὅτι μετὰ τὸ ποιῆσαι τὸ πρῶτον σημεῖον τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ ἐλθεῖν εἰς Καφαρναούμ, ποιῆσαί τε ἐκεῖ τινα σημεῖα ἀναβῆναί τε εἰς Ναζαρὲτ καὶ ἀναγνῶναι τὸ βιβλίον, παραδοθέντος λοιπὸν τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἦλθεν καὶ κατῴκησεν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας. αὗται δέ εἰσιν αἱ μετὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τῶν Ἐπιφανείων καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ Καφαρναοὺμ καὶ ἐπὶ Ναζαρὲτ ἔλευσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα διὰ τὸ Πάσχα ἄνοδον καὶ τὸ πάλιν ἐλθεῖν πρὸς τὸν Ἰωάννην ὅπου ἐβάπτιζεν εἰς Αἰνὼν ἐγγὺς τοῦ Σαλήμ. οὕτω γὰρ λέγει «μετὰ τοῦτο κατῆλθεν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ αὐτὸς καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ 2.282 ἐκεῖ ἔμειναν οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας»· οὔπω γὰρ ἐδήλου τὴν τελείαν καταμονὴν περὶ ἧς ὕστερον εἶπεν ὅτι μετὰ τὸ παραδοθῆναι τὸν Ἰωάννην ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ τὴν παραθαλάσσιον. «καὶ ἐγγὺς ἦν τὸ Πάσχα τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὡς λέγει καὶ ἀνέβη εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ εὗρεν τοὺς πωλοῦντας ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τοὺς βόας καὶ τὰ πρόβατα καὶ τὰς περιστερὰς καὶ τοὺς κερματιστὰς καθημένους». καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἐκβαλεῖν τοὺς αὐτοὺς κερματιστὰς καὶ τοὺς πωλοῦντας τὰς περιστερὰς καὶ τὰ ἄλλα, καὶ εἰρηκέναι· ἄρατε ταῦτα ἔνθεν καὶ μὴ ποιῆτε τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός μου οἶκον ἐμπορίου, καὶ ἀκηκοέναι παρ' αὐτῶν «τί σημεῖον δεικνύεις ἡμῖν ὅτι ταῦτα ποιεῖς;» καὶ εἰπεῖν αὐτοῖς «λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγείρω αὐτόν», ὅτε Νικόδημος ἦλθε πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ μετὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν πολλὰ φησίν «ἦλθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν γῆν καὶ ἐκεῖ διέτριβεν μετ' αὐτῶν καὶ ἐβάπτιζεν. ἦν δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης βαπτίζων ἐν Αἰνὼν ἐγγὺς τοῦ Σαλήμ, ὅτι ὕδατα πολλὰ ἦν ἐκεῖ· οὔπω γὰρ ἦν βεβλημένος εἰς τὴν φυλακὴν ὁ Ἰωάννης». τοῦ δὲ Ἰωάννου πολλὰ εἰπόντος, ὅτι «ὁ ἔχων τὴν νύμφην νυμφίος ἐστίν», εἶτα λέγει τὸ εὐαγγέλιον «ὡς οὖν ἔγνω ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἤκουσαν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ὅτι Ἰησοῦς πλείονας μαθητὰς ποιεῖ καὶ βαπτίζει ἢ Ἰωάννης καίτοι γε Ἰησοῦς αὐτὸς οὐκ ἐβάπτιζεν, ἀλλ' οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ, ἀφῆκεν τὴν Ἰουδαίαν γῆν καὶ ἀπῆλθε πάλιν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν διέρχεσθαι διὰ τῆς Σαμαρείας»· ὅτε ἐπὶ τῷ φρέατι ἐκαθέσθη καὶ τῇ Σαμαρείτιδι διελέχθη καὶ ἀνήγγειλεν ἡ Σαμαρεῖτις περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ Σαμαρεῖται καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν μεῖναι παρ' αὐτοῖς «καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ δύο ἡμέρας καὶ πολλῷ πλείους ἐπίστευσαν διὰ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ.» «μετὰ δὲ τὰς δύο ἡμέρας ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν» «καὶ ἦν τις βασιλικὸς οὗ ὁ υἱὸς ἠσθένει ἐν Καφαρναούμ», ὅτε εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς «πορεύου· ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ» καὶ ἐπίστευσεν καὶ ἰάθη ὁ παῖς. καὶ λέγει τὸ εὐαγγέλιον «τοῦτο δεύτερον πάλιν σημεῖον ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐλθὼν ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν». «μετὰ τοῦτο ἦν ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων οἶμαι δὲ ὅτι περὶ ἄλλης ἑορτῆς Ἰουδαίων λέγει, ἢ Πεντηκοστῆς ἢ σκηνοπηγιῶν καὶ ἀνέβη Ἰησοῦς εἰς Ἱεροσό2.283 λυμα», ὅτε ἐπὶ τῆς προβατικῆς κολυμβήθρας ἐλθὼν ἐν σαββάτῳ ἰάσατο τὸν τριάκοντα ὀκτὼ ἔτεσιν ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ παραλελυμένον. ἀπ' ἐντεῦθεν λοιπὸν πληρωθέντος τοῦ δεκτοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἤρξαντο αὐτὸν διώκειν ἐξότε τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς κολυμβήθρας παραλυτικὸν ἰάσατο ἐν σαββάτῳ· εἶτα πάλιν λέγει «ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἐδίωκον οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἔλυε τὸ σάββατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγεν τὸν θεόν, ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ». πῶς οὖν οὐ