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.

These rules are not complicated, and even this is one, with some necessary additions to it, namely: one must adhere to the order of the Gospel events that the two Evangelists follow. For as soon as the two agree, there is only one left on the other side, who must yield to the two, according to the word of the Lord, that in the presence of two witnesses every word shall stand. Only three Evangelists are in the attention because the entire middle of the Gospel history is transmitted by only three Evangelists: St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke. The Gospel of John enters here only with the story of the Lord's sojourn at the second Passover, which alone he has, and the story of the Lord's miraculous feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness, in agreement with the other Evangelists.

In addition to this rule, the following should be added:

1) If, by the instruction of the two Evangelists, we come to an event that is narrated by only one Evangelist, and that Evangelist stands after the latter, determined by the instruction of the two, then it is only appropriate for him to be placed here;

2) when giving a place to an event at the direction of the two Evangelists, it is necessary to draw here the legend about it from the third Evangelist, and at the same time to borrow from it, whatever additional features we have, for a more complete depiction of the event. This is self-evident and is done, since the legend drawn from the third Evangelist is harmoniously included in the story of the two.

But (3) since these features are of such a kind that they cannot be introduced into the tale of the two without upsetting it, then the event must be recognized as repeated with such peculiarities, and the legend about it as special, and given another proper place, guided either by the first additional rule, or by some considerations arising from the correlations of the event;

4) the same must be said of the words of the Lord Saviour, that since they concern one and the same subject in content, but in its depiction they contain significant features in the one Evangelist, they should be considered repeated in the special circumstance in which they stand, and they should be given a place according to the guidance of the first or third additional canon.

These rules, although adapted to the middle of the Gospel history, nevertheless find application in the legends about the initial and final events of this history.