THE FOUR PASSOVERS

Harmonizing with this prophecy are the Gospel accounts of his life, in particular that by the apostle John. How so? In that it tells us that four Passovers came and went during Jesus’ ministry. The first mentioned by John took place shortly after Jesus performed his first miracle: “Now the passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”​—John 2:13.

Then at John 6:4 we read: “Now the passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.” As usual, Jesus went up to Jerusalem because it was a requirement of the law of Moses. (Deut. 16:2) The last Passover, which is mentioned by all four Gospel writers, Jesus celebrated with his twelve apostles just before his death.​—Matt. 26:17; Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11; John 13:1.

And there is yet another reason for concluding that the festival mentioned at John 5:1 was a passover. What is that? From the accounts of the other Gospels​—which feature Jesus’ Galilean ministry—​it appears that it would have taken Jesus far more than a year to accomplish all that he did between the Passover mentioned at John 2:13 and the one referred to at John 6:4.