How many times did Jesus visit Jerusalem?

One of the obvious differences in chronology between John's gospel and the 'Synoptics' (Matthew, Mark and Luke) is that John gives an business relationship of Jesus in Jerusalem on iv dissimilar occasions, two during a Passover (John 2.xiii, 12.12), one during an unnamed festival (John v.ane) and one at Hannukah (John 10.22). (The third Passover is mentioned in relation to the feeding of the v,000 in John 6.4). The Synoptics instead present Jesus in Jerusalem only in the final days of his ministry, and include the cleansing of the temple episode in this period; it is this which provokes opposition to Jesus and leads to his execution.

For some time information technology has been a mantra of NT studies that the Synoptics are in general more historically reliable, and John is the 'symbolic' or spiritual gospel which arranges things to suit its theological agenda. Just which of the accounts is probable to exist true to the bodily chronology of Jesus' life?

Any observant Jewish male would have visited the city for the 3 main pilgrim festivals (Passover, Shavuot or Pentecost, and Succoth), so unless Jesus' public ministry was less than a year, this is prima facie evidence that John is likely to exist correct here. Only there is some other important clue in Matthew and Luke. Both include a proverb of Jesus where he longs to gather Jerusalem 'every bit a hen gathers her chicks':

At that fourth dimension some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Get out this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He replied, "Become tell that flim-flam, 'I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I volition reach my goal.' In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next twenty-four hours—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I take longed to get together your children together, equally a hen gathers her chicks nether her wings, and you were not willing. Await, your business firm is left to you desolate. I tell you, you volition non see me over again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the proper name of the Lord.' (Luke thirteen.31–35)

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who impale the prophets and rock those sent to you, how ofttimes I have longed to gather your children together, equally a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Expect, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you volition not see me again until yous say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' (Matthew 23.37–39)

As elsewhere in the gospels, here Matthew and Luke appear to feel free to locate this saying of Jesus in quite unlike contexts—for Luke, as part of Jesus' long journeying to Jerusalem which shapes the gospel from chapter 9, for Matthew post-obit Jesus' seven woes on the leaders whilst in Jerusalem—simply they converge about exactly in recording Jesus' words.

The Lukan version has some interesting features. At least some of the Pharisees are friendly to Jesus, and in the following chapter we see Jesus yet sharing table fellowship with them. Luke is holding out the hope that the Jewish leadership will yet recognise who Jesus is and acknowledge him. Jesus' response to their warning includes two oblique references to his death and rising again on the tertiary twenty-four hour period.

In both versions, the language of being 'desolate' appears to be borrowing from the warnings of sentence in Jeremiah 12 and 22. In citing Ps 118.26, and focussing on seeing 'me', Jesus (as elsewhere, particularly in Matthew) is identifying his presence with the presence of the God of State of israel, something Luke makes more explicit in Luke 19.44. Jesus' entry on Palm Sundayis the time of God's visitation to the city.

But what are the unsaid timing and location of this shared saying? Jesus is addressing Jerusalem direct, so information technology appears that he is at the urban center. And he appears to be looking forrad to the time when he volition be greeted with the words from Ps 118, and then information technology anticipates Palm Sun itself. Matthew indeed locates Jesus in Jerusalem when he says this, but gets the timing 'wrong', as the triumphal entry has already happened. Conversely, Luke gets the timing 'correct' by bringing the maxim much before in his gospel, just gets the location 'incorrect' in having Jesus even so on the long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.

In fact, we tin can run across other places where Luke gets the location 'incorrect'. In Luke 10, when Jesus has merely only set out for Jerusalem from Galilee, he visits Martha and Mary who live 'in a certain village (Luke 10.38). But John tells us which village this is—Bethany, just outside Jerusalem! Information technology is clear that Luke is much more than interested in organising this fabric by theme, and not by chronology; he has merely been pedagogy the disciples nearly entering villages and being received past a 'person of peace', and then information technology is natural that he should include the story of Jesus doing but that in this department.

It is articulate, as well, that Matthew has placed the saying as a counterbalance to the denunciations of the leadership; R T France notes that

…this is ane of the hints which occur in the Synoptic Gospels that the writers were aware of Jesus' previous visits to Jerusalem (every bit the Fourth Gospel records them) even though they have called to record only the i climactic arrival (NICNT commentary, p 883).

Of course, there are clearly thematic elements to John's arrangement; capacity 5 to 11 revolve around Jesus engagement with the Jewish festivals and the implications of that. But on the question of visiting Jerusalem, information technology looks as though John's chronology is the ane we should go by. (This is supported by other elements of John's gospel which show he was especially interested in geographical details.)

This is significant both for our agreement of the relationship betwixt the gospels, also every bit for how nosotros read and preach on each of them. John's account really explains a number of features of the Synoptics which are otherwise hard to account for.

• Why is at that place early opposition to Jesus' ministry in Galilee from the Jerusalem leaders? Because they have met him already when he had visited the urban center.
• How is information technology that the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem are already so hostile when Jesus arrives, if Palm Sunday was his outset visit? If John is right, then they have already encountered him numerous times.
• How can Jesus say in Mark xiv.49 'Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not abort me'? if he has only been doing that before in the calendar week? Because, according to John, this has been his habit (see e.grand. John ten.22–23)
• How could Jesus have made the secret arrangements for the Passover in Marking 14.12–16 (and parallels)? Because he has visited numerous times, and has friends who live there.

This ties in with other points at with John and Marker interlock with 1 some other:

• How did Peter gain archway to the High Priest'southward courtyard (Mark 14.45)? Because John alone tells us some other disciple who was with Peter was well known there (John eighteen.15–16).
• Why was Jesus charged at his trial with threatening to destroy the temple (Mark fourteen.58–59)? Because of his proverb before in his ministry building (John 2.19)
• Why did the Jewish leaders send Jesus to Pilate (Mark fifteen.one–3)? John lonely tells us that they were not permitted to comport out the death judgement (John 18.31)

And so if we want a chronology of Jesus' ministry, so nosotros need to look to Mark and the 'corrections' to that in John. In Matthew and Luke, the material is bundled much more by theme, not least in Matthew's gathering of Jesus' teaching into five blocks. And then when reading or preaching on these gospels, we demand to expect at the thematic and theological connections with surrounding material, rather than assuming these gospel writers are making a point most chronology.

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