I get three facts, partly helped by the researches of others, as to the period of the blessed Lord's ministry. Before He entered on His public ministry—calling disciples away from all to follow Him, but after His baptism by John when He had begun to teach and make disciples and had been back into Galilee—John 1:43 and beginning of chapter 2 in verse 13 we have a Passover; John, as often observed, not cast into prison (chap. 3: 24). In Matt. 12 we have the corn ripe after a Passover, for they could not eat corn till after it, perhaps after Pentecost even, and John was now cast into prison—had been there some time—he had heard there of His works; chap. 11. It is in Matt. 4:12 That He hears John is cast into prison—perhaps the same time as John 4. He was then, i.e. Matt. 12 in Galilee. In chapter 14, we have the five thousand people fed; after Matt. 12, but then (John 6) the Passover was nigh; John 7 feast of tabernacles. Then He lingers about in Jerusalem, Jordan, etc., and comes up for the last Passover, i.e. three years and a part of a year.