Events Leading up to the Capernaum Crisis

152:7.1Sun­day, April 3, Je­sus, ac­com­pa­nied only by the twelve apos­tles, started from Beth­saida on the jour­ney to Je­ru­sa­lem. To avoid the mul­ti­tudes and to at­tract as lit­tle at­ten­tion as pos­si­ble, they jour­neyed by way of Gerasa and Phil­a­del­phia. He for­bade them to do any pub­lic teach­ing on this trip; nei­ther did he per­mit them to teach or preach while so­journ­ing in Je­ru­sa­lem. They ar­rived at Beth­any, near Je­ru­sa­lem, late on Wednes­day evening, April 6. For this one night they stopped at the home of Laz­a­rus, Martha, and Mary, but the next day they sep­a­rated. Je­sus, with John, stayed at the home of a be­liever named Si­mon, near the house of Laz­a­rus in Beth­any. Ju­das Is­car­iot and Si­mon Ze­lo­tes stopped with friends in Je­ru­sa­lem, while the rest of the apos­tles so­journed, two and two, in dif­fer­ent homes.

152:7.2Je­sus en­tered Je­ru­sa­lem only once dur­ing this Pass­over, and that was on the great day of the feast. Many of the Je­ru­sa­lem be­liev­ers were brought out by Ab­ner to meet Je­sus at Beth­any. Dur­ing this so­journ at Je­ru­sa­lem the twelve learned how bit­ter the feel­ing was be­com­ing to­ward their Mas­ter. They de­parted from Je­ru­sa­lem all be­liev­ing that a cri­sis was im­pend­ing.

152:7.3On Sun­day, April 24, Je­sus and the apos­tles left Je­ru­sa­lem for Beth­saida, go­ing by way of the coast cities of Joppa, Cae­sarea, and Ptole­mais. Thence, over­land they went by Ramah and Cho­ra­zin to Beth­saida, ar­riv­ing on Fri­day, April 29. Im­me­di­ately on reach­ing home, Je­sus dis­patched An­drew to ask of the ruler of the syn­a­gogue per­mis­sion to speak the next day, that be­ing the Sab­bath, at the af­ter­noon ser­vice. And Je­sus well knew that that would be the last time he would ever be per­mit­ted to speak in the Ca­per­naum syn­a­gogue.