III.

Beginning of His Public Ministry

All three Synoptic Gospels (the first three Gospels, so called because they present a similar overall view of the life of Christ) record Jesus' public ministry as beginning after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and as lasting for about one year (See also Mark, Gospel According to). The Gospel According to John describes it as beginning with the choosing of his first disciples (1:40-51), and as lasting for perhaps three years.

The account of the public ministry and immediately preceding events is generally the same in the Synoptic Gospels. Each describes the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Each reports that after the baptism Jesus retired to the neighboring wilderness for a 40-day period of fasting and meditation. All three synoptists mention that in this period, which some biblical scholars view as a time of ritual preparation, the devil, or Satan, tried to tempt Jesus. Matthew (4:3-9) and Luke (4:3-12) add descriptions of the temptations to which Jesus was subjected.

After Jesus' baptism and retirement in the wilderness, he returned to Galilee, visited his home in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), where his fellow Nazarenes objected to him, and then moved to Capernaum and began teaching there. About this time, according to the synoptists, Jesus called his first disciples, “Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother” (Matthew 4:18) and “James the son of Zebedee and John his brother” (Matthew 4:21). Later, as his followers increased in number, Jesus selected 12 disciples to work with him (see Apostle).