Week 36 John 2-13
While I was reading Luke’s gospel I noticed that he packed together a whole lot of events that all took place in the north – up in Galilee. Then he had Jesus leaving the north country and beginning a long road trip toward Jerusalem. Along the way more stories were told – a kind of multi-chapter travelogue. So since I was still thinking about that when I got to John’s gospel I decided to track Jesus’ geographic locations & relocations. What I found was that John – unlike Luke – recorded several trips between Galilee and Judea:
In John 2 Jesus started his public activities up north in Cana & Capernaum. Then he heading south to Judea.
He left Judea in chapter 4 and returned north (going through Samaria).
After spending time in Galilee it was back to Jerusalem in 5. Then north to Galilee in 6 and back to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths in 7.
I couldn’t find any other north-south trips recorded by John. It makes it seem that from chapter 8 on Jesus stayed in or around Jerusalem.
As far as travels go Luke and John really seem to come at the story differently. I realize that trying to jigsaw the accounts together would be tricky. I figure I’m on more solid ground reading each of the gospels independently rather than attempting to do a scissors-and-paste rewrite trying to shoehorn them all into a seamless narrative.