John 10:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Where does He withdraw? Beyond the Jordan, to the place where John baptized. He did not withdraw there without purpose, but in order to remind many of what had happened there and of what John had said about Him. Note that Christ’s withdrawal also takes place in a spiritual sense. He passes into a place that has springs, that is, into the Church from the Gentiles, which has the springs of baptism. Many come to Him by passing through baptism. For “beyond the Jordan” signifies this, a passage through baptism. No one comes to Jesus and becomes truly faithful except by passing through baptism, which is signified by the Jordan.

The Savior leaves Jerusalem and passes into a region abounding in springs. By this, as in a type and riddle, He indicates that He will leave Judea and pass to the Church from the Gentiles, which has the springs of baptism.

There "many" will come to Him, crossing to the other side of the Jordan, for the dwelling of Christ on the other side of the Jordan indicates this. Thus those who have crossed the Jordan through holy baptism hasten to God, for He also passed from the Jewish synagogue to the Gentiles.

And then "many came to Him and believed" the words spoken about Him by the saints.

"And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and He remained there. Many came to Him and said that John did no sign" (Jn 10:40-41). You remember what was said about John, that he was a lamp and bore witness to the day (cf. Jn 5:31, 35).

Why, then, did they say among themselves that John did no sign? John, they said, performed no miracle. He did not cast out demons, drive away fever, restore sight to the blind, raise the dead, feed many thousands with five or seven loaves, walk upon the sea, or command the winds and waves.

John did none of these things, but left testimony to everything of which he spoke. Through the lamp we can reach the day. "John did no sign, but everything that John said about Him was true" (Jn 10:41).

Now Jesus Christ went away to the place where John had formerly baptized, so that those present might remember the sign that occurred during His Baptism and the testimony about Him given by John the Baptist. In this way they would believe in Him. This indeed happened. See:

Their zeal cooled. Nevertheless, they still sought to seize Him, in order to bring Him before the Sanhedrin. But the Lord escaped from them. He went to the other side of the Jordan and wished to spend the last few days in the place where His Forerunner had first acted, and where perhaps He Himself had been pointed out by him (Jn 1:28). The effect of John’s preaching in that place had not yet been effaced. Though late, it bore its fruits. There many believed in Jesus.

After the Feast of Dedication, at which the Jews were so enraged against Jesus Christ that they wanted to seize Him and hand Him over to judgment, He did not remain either in Jerusalem or near it. He went beyond the Jordan, to the place where John had formerly baptized (Jn 1:28), that is, within the bounds of Bethabara or Peraean Bethany, and remained there for some time.

How long Jesus Christ acted on this occasion in the land beyond the Jordan cannot be stated precisely. In any case, one can see that this stay of Jesus Christ within the bounds of Bethabara was not limited to a few days, because the evangelist says that "many came to Him there, and many believed in Him."

And Jesus went beyond the Jordan, to the place where John had formerly baptized. According to the same Evangelist, John first baptized in Bethabara by the Jordan (Jn 1:28), and later in Aenon near Salim (Jn 3:23). It is not known with certainty exactly where Aenon and Salim were. Bethabara, however, was in Perea, that is, in the eastern part of Palestine, situated on the left side of the Jordan and subject to the tetrarch Herod Antipas. It was there that Jesus directed His path.

After this it became still clearer that it was impossible to continue teaching among them. They could not rise to His conception of the Messiah, just as He could not descend to theirs.

To remain among them would have meant only exposing His life continually and needlessly to danger. Judea was therefore closed to Him, just as Galilee had been closed to Him after Herod's well-known attempt.

In all His native land there remained only one region where He could still be safe, namely Perea, the region beyond the Jordan. Therefore He again withdrew to the land beyond the Jordan and stayed there for a time, so that He might once more rest in soul before the greatest feat that lay before Him.

"Again" points to the Lord's former stay there (Jn 1:28). "Beyond the Jordan" means on the side away from Jerusalem, that is, the eastern side of the Jordan, and therefore in Perea.

"Where formerly" means in the first period of His activity (cf. Jn 1:28). Later John baptized in Aenon near Salim (Jn 3:23). "John baptized" refers to Jn 1:28 and the parallels.

"He remained there," more precisely, "He was staying there." From comparison with the narratives of the first three evangelists, it seems necessary to conclude that the Lord also journeyed through Galilee at this time. From there He came into Perea when He was again going to Jerusalem by the region beyond the Jordan (cf. Mt 19:1; Mk 10:1; and, if considered parallel, Lk 18:35).

John speaks only of the Lord's stay in Perea because there the Lord received news of Lazarus's illness, which John intends to narrate immediately afterward in chapter 11.

Again the Pharisees flew into rage and wished to seize Jesus, but He escaped from their hands, because the time had not yet come for Him to suffer. About four months still remained before the Feast of Pascha, when Jesus Christ was to complete His earthly ministry in Jerusalem by His sufferings on the Cross and death.

Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ left Jerusalem and went beyond the Jordan, into Perea, the region across the Jordan, where John the Baptist had preached earlier. There many, already prepared by the preaching of John the Baptist, believed in Jesus Christ.

Jn 10:39-42. "He went out of their hands." The evangelist does not say how Christ Jesus was saved from the hands of His enemies. But if they were so enraged that they took up stones, then without a special miracle He could scarcely have escaped from their hands.

The Savior withdraws from the Jerusalem Jews in order to give the agitated time to come to themselves. He chooses as His place of stay the Bethany of Perea, where the Baptist had preached (Jn 1:28).

Besides the fact that this secluded place was suited for rest and quiet conversations, the very sight of the place of John's preaching revived in the disciples the Forerunner's testimonies concerning Jesus.

The holy evangelists Matthew 19 and Mark 10 also mention the Lord Jesus' stay in the land beyond the Jordan, the Romans' Perea. At the close of His great ministry, the Lord chooses to dwell where He first deigned to appear to the people (Jn 1:28-29).

We note that this is not Salim, where John baptized later (Jn 3:23), but that the Lord goes to Bethabara on the Jordan, where He called His first-called apostles to ministry. Perhaps in this event too we may read an action with special meaning.

The Jordan was, as it were, the boundary of two worlds, the Jewish and the Gentile. The border of Samaria also came near this place. The house of the Jews was "left to them desolate" (Mt 23:38). The Lord stood on the boundary of all nations, and "many came to Him."