The Perean Ministry
East of Jericho
January-February, 33 A.D.
Hostility toward Jesus came to a head with his teachings in Judea from Tabernacles to Chanukah (mid-October through December.) Sometime between late December and early January, Jesus and the Twelve crossed the Jordan into Perea. We aren’t given the exact location of where they were or what he did. Basically, it was a time of waiting and teaching.
​
Luke records several teaching events in this time, but doesn’t clarify where they occurred. Most likely, these were outside of Jerusalem in Judea or Perea. It would seem that Jesus left Jerusalem after Chanukah in late December and followed up on the previous work of the seventy-two.
​
Later, Luke makes the comment that enroute to Jerusalem, Jesus went along the Galilee-Samaria border, which seems strange if these times of ministry were in Perea—which is now basically Jordan. Since none of the locations are given, it would seem that Jesus left Jerusalem and followed the main routes though the cities and villages east of the Jordan. If so, he most likely went around the south end of the Dead Sea to the King’s Highway, which ran from the harbor at Eilat, north to Damascus. Perhaps he then turned north and worked his way up into the old tribal areas of Rueben, Gad, and Manasseh. If he turned back to Jerusalem from this area, just southeast of the Sea of Galilee, he would have then returned as Luke says—along the border of Galilee-Samaria.
​