Anchor My Faith

We Must Leave Judea

Scripture: John 10:40-42

We ended the previous lesson and section with Jesus escaping from the hands of angry Jews who wanted to arrest him. Because of this growing hostility, Jesus makes a change of location ^{Jn 10:40} “[and] went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.”

We learn from John 1:28, that the place where John had been baptizing at first was across the Jordan at Bethany. This is not the same village in which Lazarus was raised as that Bethany was located near Jerusalem. We know this from John 11:1 and 18 ESV: ¹ “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off.” The Bethany that Jesus and his disciples are going to for some relief from the wrath of the Jews is on the east side of the Jordan River.

More information about this location is found at John 3:26 ESV: “And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” At that time Jesus was located on the west side of the Jordan River and the disciples of John were concerned that Jesus was drawing people away from John. On this trip, Jesus goes across the Jordan to where John used to be.

^{Jn 10:41} “And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”’

As it was before when Jesus and his disciples were across the river from John, many people came to him. As they did they said to one another, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” John was a forerunner of Jesus, preparing the way for him by telling the people what to expect from him. These people have had time to listen to and watch Jesus and now realize that what John said was true.

^{Jn 10:42} “And many believed in him there.”

Now realizing that John had correctly spoken of Jesus and that Jesus was sent by the Father into the world to share the gospel, many believed.

Conclusion

This has been an interesting series of lessons (lessons h331 through h382) that has extended from John 7:2 to John 10:42. The content of these four chapters of John are not found in the other gospels. The events covered by these four chapters find their place between Mark 8:26 and Mark 8:27. We will begin the next major section at Mark 8:27, where we left off 51 lessons back from this one.