We don’t know how long Jesus and his small band taught near John’s base of ministry. The view varies from a few weeks to up to eight months. We know Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for Passover, which had been in mid-April. The only other hint as to how long he was in Judea is his comment at the Sychar well. There, he says to his companions, “You have been saying that it’s four months until harvest, but the fields are ripe for harvest now.”

Some have tried to make this a comment saying that the grain was ripe in the fields. If so, it would have been immediately following Passover, but that would seem to make the first part of the comment nonsensical. If the fields were literally ready for harvest, why would his companions have been talking about “four months until harvest”? The harvest would come in early January which would move the time back to September. If so, this time in Judea would have been about six months. Whenever they returned home, they apparently left Judea for a mixture of reasons.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke skip over this period between Jesus’ temptation and his return to Galilee after Passover. Both Matthew and Mark say they returned after John’s arrest. John tells us that they left when Jesus became aware that he had become a focus of attention for the Pharisees. In John, the implication is that the decision was made while John the Baptist was still free. Could heightened skirmishes with the Pharisees and John’s arrest have coincided? It would seem so.

If Jesus decided to leave because of growing opposition from the politically powerful Pharisees—as John tells us—and left when John was arrested—as Matthew and Mark say—they must have gotten out of Herod’s jurisdiction just in time.

Matthew and Luke tell us that Herod Antipas arrested John because of John’s condemnation of the adulterous king. Luke just mentions John’s arrest in passing, giving it earlier than its chronological place. Antipas was never a strong ruler and would have never acted against a popular figure without the support of the Pharisees. If this was the time of John’s arrest, his ministry would have lasted about 18 months. He would languish in prison for an unknown period—perhaps up to another year—and then be beheaded.