They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with certain women, and Mary, the Mother of the Lord Jesus, and with His brethren. And they were always in the temple, glorifying and blessing God.

Thus the Lord ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And the Apostles, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, went and preached everywhere, with the Lord's help and the strengthening of the word with subsequent signs.

260. Final Afterword

In. 20, 31;

21, 25.

The Lord Jesus did many other miracles before His disciples, which are not written in this book. For if everything created by Him were to be written in detail, then, I think, the world itself would not be able to contain the books written.

And these things are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is Christ the Lord, the Son of God, and that by believing ye may have life in his name.

Amen.

ON THE SEQUENCE OF GOSPEL EVENTS

Historical and Theological Research

TO READERS[37]

Offering to your attention the Gospel history in its present form, of the many that can be said on this occasion, I consider it urgent to explain to you only in full detail why I have chosen this particular order for the events of the Gospel, and not another, in which they follow one another.

1. The Main Sections of the Gospel History

First of all, I will point out the general order of action of the Lord the Savior.

After thirty years of hidden life, the Lord reveals Himself to the world, and for three and a half years He acts divinely among people, showing God incarnate in Himself by Divine wisdom in teaching, by Divine power in signs and wonders, by Divine wisdom, goodness and holiness in life and in the way of acting, and by Divine omniscience in the conduct of the thoughts of the heart and future things.

From the first Passover, therefore, to the time it was said, eight months, or two-thirds of the year, elapsed. If we add here the time from the Baptism of the Lord to the first Pascha, then all up to now, or before the Lord's dwelling in Capernaum, must be considered a whole year from His appearance to the world.

The end of this action also takes place again in Jerusalem, or in Judea in general, from the Feast of Tabernacles to the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension. For the Lord, having descended from Galilee to Jerusalem and Judea, did not go out from there, but remained there to the end; only once did He cross the Jordan for a short time. This is another six months from the end of September to the beginning of May.

The middle of this action takes place entirely in Galilee. Upon His return from Judea to Galilee, the Lord settled in Capernaum, where He lived and from here He went forth to preach in Galilee. He went to Jerusalem only once, on the second Passover, and did not tarry there, but after the healing of the thirty-eight-year-old paralytic, having solemnly declared His equality with God the Father, He immediately returned again to Galilee. The action in Galilee thus lasted for about two years continuously, and everything went on in such a way that the Lord, having been in Capernaum, went with His disciples to walk through Galilee with preaching and beneficent miracles, and, having finished the predestined walk, returned again to Capernaum, in order to begin again a new walk in Galilee; so that all this time of the Lord's work can be divided into His sojourn in Capernaum and His walks in Galilee, giving the latter names for the most convenient memorization of some especially remarkable during the Lord's action.

2. Rules for establishing order

Following the events of the Gospel

As the subject of my speech to you is to indicate the methods for establishing the order of the Gospel events, I will first note in general that at the beginning and end of the Lord's action the establishment of the order of the course of the events of the Gospel presents no difficulty. Here and there, for the most part, the nature of events and the direct indications of the legends about them oblige us to accept for them this and not another order of their sequence. Not so in relation to the middle of the Lord's action. Here the legends do not give definite indications for this, and the properties of the events are not such that they themselves determine their place. Therefore, it is necessary to establish certain rules in advance and then be guided by them in the ordering of the events of the Gospel. The indication of these rules is the main thing in my word to you. For as soon as you agree to recognize their legitimacy, you will not refuse to admit that the order of the events of the Gospel, in which the present Gospel history offers them, stands on a firm foundation.