This question, which is of such importance not only for the chronology of this period, but in regard to the unnamed Feast at Jerusalem to which went up (St. John 5:1), has been discussed most fully and satisfactorily by Canon Westcott (Speaker’s Commentary, vol. ii. of the New Testament, p. 93) The following data will assist our inquires.LTJMBA 172.1

1. Jesus spent some time after the Feast of Passover (St. John 2:23) in the province of Judaea. But it can scarcely be supposed that this was a long period, for —LTJMBA 172.2

2ndly, in St. John 4:45 the Galileans have evidently a fresh remembrance of what had taken place at the Passover in Jerusalem, which would scarcely have been the case if a long period and other festivals had intervened. Similarly, the King’s Offer (St. John 4:47) seems also to act upon a recent report.LTJMBA 172.3

3rdly, the unnamed Feast of St. John 5:1 forms an important element in our computations. Some months of Galilean ministry must have intervened between it and the return of Jesus to Galilee. Hence it could not have been Pentecost. Nor could it have been the Feast of Tabernacles, which was in autumn, nor yet the feast of the Dedication, which took place in winter, since both are expressly mentioned by their names (St. John 7:2, 10:22). The only other feasts were: the Feast of Wood-Offering (comp. The Temple &c., p. 295), the Feast of Trumpets, or New Year’s Day, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Esther, or Purim.LTJMBA 172.4

To begin with the latter, since of late it has found most favor. The reasons against Christ’s attendance in Jerusalem at Purim seem to me irresistible. Canon Westcott urges that the discourse of Christ at the unnamed Feast has not, as is generally the case, any connection with the thoughts of that festival. To this I would add, that I can scarcely conceive our Lord going up to a feast observed with such boisterous merriment as Purim was, while the season of the year in which it falls would scarcely tally with the statement of St. John 5:3, that a great multitude of sick people were laid down in the porches of Bethesda. ^{1I must here correct the view expressed in my book on The Temple p. 291, due to a misunderstanding of St. John 4:35. Of course, if latter had implied that Jesus was at Sychar in December, the unnamed feast must have been Purim.}LTJMBA 172.5

But if the unnamed Feast was not Purim, it must have been one of these three, the Feast of the Ingathering of Wood, the Feast of Trumpets, or Day of Atonement. In other words, it must have taken place late in summer, or in the very beginning of autumn. But if so, then the Galilean ministry intervening between the visit to Samaria and this Feast leads to the necessary inferences that the visit to Sychar had taken place in early summer, probably about the middle or end of May. This would allow ample time for Christ’s stay in Jerusalem during the Passover and for His Judaean ministry.LTJMBA 173.1

As we are discussing the date of the unnamed Feast, it may be as well to bring the subject here to a close. We have seen that the only three Feasts to which reference could have been are to the Feast of Wood Offering, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement. But the last of those could not be meant, since it is designated, not only by Philo, but in Acts 27:9, as the fast not the feast nhsteia, not eorth (comp. LXX., Leviticus 14:29 &c., xxiii. 27 &c). As between the Feast of the Wood Offering and that of Trumpets I feel at considerable loss. Canon Westcott has urged on behalf on the latter reasons which I confess are very weighty. On the other hand, the Feast of Trumpets was not one of those on which people generally resorted to Jerusalem, and as it took place on the 1st of Tishri (about the middle of September), it is difficult to believe that anyone going up to it would not rather have chosen, or at least remained over, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, which followed respectively, on the 10th and 15th days of that month. Lastly, the Feast of Wood Offering, which took place on the 15th Ab (in August), was a popular and joyous festival, when the wood needed for the altar was brought up from all parts of the country (comp. on that feast The Temple and its Services &c., pp. 295, 296) As between these two feasts, we must leave the question undecided, only noticing that barely six weeks intervened between the one and the other feast.LTJMBA 173.2

1. The Location of Sychar.

Appendix 16—On The Jewish Views about Demons and the Demonised Together with some Notes on the Intercourse between Jews and Jewish Christians in the First Centuries. (See Book III. ch. 14.)