Bible Synapse
After his baptism, did Jesus go straight into the wilderness or to a wedding at Cana?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 5 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Immediately after the baptism the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness, where he is tempted for forty days.
And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, tells what he had seen at the baptism, and the next day two of his disciples follow Jesus.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. …
The day after, Jesus decides to go into Galilee and calls Philip.
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
On the third day there is a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and Jesus and his disciples are invited.
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
The objection
Mark says that “immediately” after his baptism the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, where he stayed forty days. John seems to have Jesus with John the Baptist the next day, gathering disciples the day after, setting off for Galilee and attending a wedding at Cana on “the third day”, with no room for forty days in the desert.
The answer
John’s Gospel does not describe the baptism itself; his account of these days begins later, when priests and Levites come from Jerusalem to question John the Baptist (John 1:19). The next day the Baptist sees Jesus “coming unto him” and tells the crowd what he had seen at the baptism: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove” (1:29, 32). His word in verse 32, tetheamai, is a perfect tense, ‘I have seen’, looking back on something already past. So the days John counts, ending with the wedding on “the third day” (2:1), start from the questioning of the Baptist, not from the baptism.
That leaves room for Mark’s order: Jesus was baptised, went at once into the wilderness for forty days, and then came back to the Jordan, where John pointed him out as “the Lamb of God” (1:29, 36). Matthew Henry and John Gill both read the passages this way, with Jesus coming back to John from the temptation.
Other answers Christians give
John fills gaps
Many think John wrote knowing the other Gospels and chose to add what they had left out: the Baptist’s witness to Jesus and Jesus’ first meetings with his disciples. On this view John passes over the temptation because the others had already told it.
From the classic commentators
As soon as ever Christ was baptized he was immediately hurried into the wilderness, to be tempted; and there he was forty days. During his absence John had continued to bear testimony to him, and to tell the people of him; but now at last he sees Jesus coming to him, returning from the wilderness of temptation.Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 1 (1706–1721)
This seems to have been after Christ had been forty days in the wilderness, from whence he now returned, and came to attend on John’s ministryJohn Gill, Exposition on John 1:29 (1746–1763)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: John 1, at Bible Hub
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 1, at HelloAO
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on John 1, at Bible Hub