At the Feast of Dedication

164:0.1As the camp at Pella was be­ing es­tab­lished, Je­sus, tak­ing with him Na­than­iel and Thomas, se­cretly went up to Je­ru­sa­lem to at­tend the feast of the ded­i­ca­tion. Not un­til they passed over the Jor­dan at the Beth­any ford, did the two apos­tles be­come aware that their Mas­ter was go­ing on to Je­ru­sa­lem. When they per­ceived that he re­ally in­tended to be pres­ent at the feast of ded­i­ca­tion, they re­mon­strated with him most earnestly, and us­ing ev­ery sort of ar­gu­ment, they sought to dis­suade him. But their ef­forts were of no avail; Je­sus was de­ter­mined to visit Je­ru­sa­lem. To all their en­treaties and to all their warn­ings em­pha­siz­ing the folly and dan­ger of plac­ing him­self in the hands of the San­hedrin, he would re­ply only, “I would give these teach­ers in Is­rael an­other op­por­tu­nity to see the light, be­fore my hour comes.”

164:0.2On they went to­ward Je­ru­sa­lem, the two apos­tles con­tin­u­ing to ex­press their feel­ings of fear and to voice their doubts about the wis­dom of such an ap­par­ently pre­sump­tu­ous un­der­tak­ing. They reached Jeri­cho about half past four and pre­pared to lodge there for the night.