Afterwards when the feast of Tabernacles was at hand, his brethren upbraided him for walking secretly, and urged him to go up to the feast.

But he went not till they were gone, and then went up privately, John 7:2; and when the Jews sought to stone him, he escaped, John 8:59. After this he was at the feast of the Dedication in winter, John 10:22; and when they sought again to take him, he fled beyond Jordan, John 10:39, 40; Matthew 19:1; where he stayed till the death of Lazarus, and then came to Bethany near Jerusalem, and raised him, John 11:7, 18; whereupon the Jews took counsel from that time to kill him: and therefore he walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there continued with his disciples till the last Passover, in which the Jews put him to death, John 11:53, 54.

Thus have we, in the Gospels of Matthew and John compared together, the history of Christ’s actions in continual order during five Passovers. John is more distinct in the beginning and end; Matthew in the middle: what either omits, the other supplies. The first Passover was between the baptism of Christ and the imprisonment of John, John 2:13; the second within four months after the imprisonment of John, and Christ’s beginning to preach in Galilee, John 4:35; and therefore it was either that feast to which Jesus went up, when the Scribe desired to follow him, Matthew 8:19; Luke 9:51, 57; or the feast before it. The third was the next feast after it, when the corn was eared and ripe, Matthew 12:1; Luke 6:1. the fourth was that which was nigh at hand when Christ wrought the miracle of the five loaves, Matthew 14:15; John 6:4, 5; and the fifth was that in which Christ suffered, Matthew 20:17; John 12:1.