It will be remembered that PtolemÆus asserted that the time of Christ's ministry did not exceed the period of one year. This drove IrenÆus to claim that it continued for the space of ten years, on the authority of a tradition derived from John. The precise time when, and what, PtolemÆus wrote, we have no means in our day of finding out; for his writings, like all those of the Gnostics, doubtless perished under the destructive edict of the Emperor Constantine. We are at liberty to conclude that he wrote before the fourth Gospel appeared, as he limits the time to one year, which agrees in that respect with the Synoptics. Had he had any knowledge of the fourth Gospel, he might, by adopting the mode of reasoning on this subject used by the orthodox, have made the time three years instead of one. It will be noted that Irenaeus, in his controversy with Ptolemaeus, makes no mention of the fourth Gospel, but falls back on a tradition. In a dispute with a sharp-witted adversary, he found it safer to rely on a tradition, as evasive as the mirage of the desert, than the authority of the fourth book of John. The reason for this preference will be readily seen when the subject is understood. According to Matthew, after the temptation in the wilderness, Christ returned to Nazareth, in Galilee. He left Nazareth and came and dwelt in Capernaum, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, as spoken by Esaias: "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Chapter iv. 15, 16, 17.)

Here the place where Christ commenced to preach is clearly defined; and as the spot had been pointed out by Isaiah seven hundred years before, there could be no mistake, unless the inspiration of the great Hebrew prophet was at fault. Mark and Luke substantially agree with Matthew; so, according to all three, Christ began his labors at Capernaum. The precise time in the year we cannot tell, but it must have been shortly after the fourteenth of March (Nisan), when the celebration of the Passover commenced. At the following festival, as we will show, Christ was put to death. In the meantime he had performed the greater part of his work, which would require not much less than a year. That Christ should go to Jerusalem to celebrate the first Passover after he began to preach is not only probable but almost certain. Everything shows that he did. The laws of Moses commanded every Jew to observe this feast; and although no place is specified, all deemed it the highest religious duty to go to Jerusalem for that purpose. On such occasions "an innumerable multitude came hither out of the country—many beyond its limits," according to Josephus. Hence the great destruction of the Jewish people, who had come up to the holy city to celebrate, when it was destroyed by Titus. Christ could hardly fail to be present at the first celebration after he began to preach, especially as he was accustomed to go every year from childhood with his parents, according to Luke. If Christ attended the first festival after he began his work, his ministry continued for less than one year, for he went there but once after he began to preach. The early part of his career was solely passed in Galilee, according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. His labors were confined to his own country, mostly in the neighborhood of the sea of Tiberias. At length, as the time for the celebration of the Passover approached, his thoughts were directed toward the city of David. At CÆsarea Philippi he concluded at last to go to Jerusalem. "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." (Matt. xvi. 21.) At length he "departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan." (Chap. xix. I.) "And when he was come into Jerusalem all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?" (Chap. xxi. 10.) Would that question have been asked if he had been there the year before? That this was Christ's first visit to Jerusalem, according to the first three Gospels, will not admit of a doubt. Here he taught and preached until he was handed over bound into the hands of Pilate. He never after this left the city until his immortal spirit took its flight from Calvary. The itinary of Christ, as we have it in the first three Gospels, renders it impossible that he made any visit to Jerusalem except the one above mentioned. We can trace him, step by step, from the beginning to the end of his career. He began to preach at Capernaum, and from there he traveled all over Galilee. In the meantime he delivered his divine Sermon on the Mount. From the Mount he returned to Capernaum. From here he entered a ship and rebuked the sea. He next crossed over to the country of the Gadarines. From there he recrossed the sea and went into his own city.

Once more he travels over Galilee, preaching, and healing diseases. On the shores of Tiberias he delivered the parable of the sower, and again went back to his own country. While there he heard of the death of John the Baptist; when he crossed over the sea of Tiberias, and on the east shore fed the multitude. After events which are fully declared, he and his disciples crossed the sea and went to the land of Gennesaret. From there he departed unto the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He returned unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain and again fed the multitude. From here he went unto the coast of Magdala, and from there to CÆsarea Philippi, when he made up his mind at last to go to Jerusalem. In the meantime it was not possible for him to have made a visit to the Holy City. He had not even been in Judea. According to John, Christ did not manifest his divine power at Capernaum, but at Cana. This was not a great while before the feast of the Passover, for he went from Cana to Capernaum, where he remained "not many days" but went to Jerusalem to celebrate. As John and the writers of the first three Gospels have Christ attend the first festival after he began his ministry, it follows, according to John, that Christ at that time had just begun to teach; while, if we believe the other three writers, he had nearly performed his work, and came to Jerusalem to meet his death. The Gospel of John causes Christ to make three distinct visits to Jerusalem: first, soon after the miracle at Cana, the same mentioned by Matthew, Mark and Luke; the second, when he attended a feast of the Jews, which Dr. Robertson and other learned writers claim was the Passover; and a third, when he went to witness the feast of the Tabernacle. Now, if the first three Gospels are true, then everything stated in the fourth as the works of Christ must have been performed after his death! Every day, from the time he set out from Capernaum to teach, to his first and last entrance into Jerusalem, is accounted for in the first three Gospels. This second visit was not without a special significance.

So strong was the proof in the last half of the second century that John had never been to the western coast of the Mediterranean, that IrenÆus and others of that century dare not assert that the fourth Gospel was written by him in Asia Minor. On this point the great criminal is silent. But, in the Gospel itself, there is an evident effort made to have it appear that it was written before the fall of Jerusalem. Even the learned Basnage and Lampe were betrayed into this belief, and so were others. Lardner fixes the date in the year 68, Owen 69, and the learned Michaelis in 70. That such men should have fallen into this belief is truly wonderful, for its fallacy is apparent at first view. This Gospel, as none dispute, was written in reply to the Gnostics, and as none of that sect, as will be shown, was known to be in existence until the second century, it at once disposes of the question. Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Mills, Fabricius and Bishop Tomline, with others, saw the dilemma, and fixed the date of the Gospel at a later period—some at 97, and others at 98.

That part of this Gospel by which Dr. Lardner and others were misled is as follows: "Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches." From the language here used, they conclude that Jerusalem was standing when the Gospel was written, as the present is used instead of the past tense. Few things troubled the Catholics of the second century more than to find a convenient date for John's Gospel. If it was written before the fall of Jerusalem, where there was a sheep market having five porches still standing, it was too early, by many years, for Corinthus and other leading Gnostics. If its date were fixed at the end of the century when John was in Asia Minor, Catholics were met with proof that John never was there. The story of the angel, and the man who had an infirmity for eight-and-thirty years, was a clumsy invention to make way for the deception as to the early date of the Gospel. If there was in fact such a pool as represented, whose medical properties were dependent upon the visitation of an angel, and which had properties to cure all diseases, it was the only one of the kind, or anything like it, ever known to man; its fame would have spread far and wide, and Jewish historians, who delight to dwell upon anything which belongs to their country, would have emphasized a phenomenon like the pool of Bethesda, as proof of divine favor shown to their nation. It excites the anger of commentators, and Doddridge among the rest, that Josephus has failed to notice it; and among the extraordinary motives assigned for his silence is a fear that he "would disgust his pagan readers"! The same commentator says: "It is probable that the miracle was not wrought for any length of time, and perhaps ceased on this occasion. This may account for the surprising silence of Josephus in a story which made so much for the honor of his nation. He himself was not born when it happened, and, though he might have heard the report of it, he would, perhaps (in the modern way), oppose speculation and hypothesis to fact." Jenks, another commentator, says: "It is true the Jewish historians, who are not sparing in praise of Jerusalem, do none of them mention this pool, for which, perhaps, this is the reason: that it was taken as a presage of the approach of the Messiah, and, therefore, they who denied him to be come industriously concealed such an indication of his coming." No one has ever pretended to have found this pool, although pious travelers have found every other spot consecrated by the life and death of Christ. Helena, the mother of Constantine, as early as A. D. 326, made a pilgrimage to the Holy City to discover the places made sacred by scenes in the life of the Saviour; and when human energy and skill failed, she called to her assistance the aid of the miraculous. But the powers that enabled her to find the true cross, after a waste in the earth of over three hundred years, and detect the place of the Lord's sepulcher, and other sacred spots which Infidel hatred vainly attempted to obliterate, failed to discover the place where the angel of mercy found ground to rest her feet when she descended from heaven, loaded with blessings for the blind, halt and withered.

It is admitted by all writers, and especially Michaelis (vol. iii. part I, p. 280), that the Gospel of John was written in answer to the Gnostics, and especially Corinthus, who lived in the last years of the first century. It was possible to spin out the life of John to the end of the century, and thus bring him near the time when Corinthus flourished; but it is fatal to the claim, set up by Irenaeus and others, that John was the author of the fourth Gospel, that the quarrels which grew out of the writings of Corinthus failed to attract notice until some time about the middle of the second century. You may look in vain among all the writings of the Fathers and others of the first century to find the name of Corinthus or any of his writings, although we can trace Gnosticism, in its primitive stages, as early as the first years in the second. Still, it assumed but little importance in its contests with Christianity until some time after the year A. D. 117. Buck says that "Many persons were infected with the Gnostic heresy in the first century; though the sect did not render itself conspicuous, either for numbers or reputation, before the reign of Adrian, when some writers erroneously date its rise? There was no call or demand for the fourth Gospel until Christians and Gnostics commenced their quarrels, which was long after John's death, even admitting that he lived to be a hundred years old. There was no help in the emergency which then arose, but to antedate the fourth Gospel, to confound the time when Cerinthus wrote with the time when the spread of his doctrines created discussion among Christians."