Endnote

Preface

1. As the Gospels are followed, we can identify four Passovers during Jesus' ministry: The first Passover was when He first stayed in Capernaum the "not many days" and then afterwards went to the feast (John 2:12-23). The second was when Jesus gives a sermon during "a feast of the Jews (John 5:1)," teaching about Him and His Father's mission of raising the dead into life (John 5:24-30). The third Passover when He fed the Five thousand - of which He did not go to Jerusalem to celebrate (John 6:4-10 and 7:1). And then the fourth Passover, the Passover He was crucified.

There can be some debate concerning the second one from John 5:1 as being a Passover, but Sir Robert Anderson gives the following explanation,

"John mentions expressly three Passovers at which the Lord was present; and if the feast of John 5:1 be a Passover, the question is at an end. It is now generally admitted that that feast was either Purim or Passover, and Hengstenberg's proofs in favour [sic] of the latter are overwhelming. The feast of Purim had no Divine sanction. It was instituted by the decree of Esther, Queen of Persia, in the 13th year of Xerxes (B.C. 473), and it was rather a social and political than a religious feast, the service in the synagogue being quite secondary to the excessive eating and drinking which marked the day. It is doubtful whether our Lord would have observed such a feast at all; but that, contrary to the usual practice, He would have specially gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate it, is altogether incredible."

2. It was necessary for Jesus to be both God and man for the following two reasons: Only a man could pay the ransom price sin requires (death) on man's behalf. And it is only God who can be sinless, which is the prerequisite for a man to be the sacrifice in place of sinful man. Jesus is the uniting of these two truths. (Also see endnote number 81 of chapter three.)