eeks; and according to what
John says, it would have lasted at least three years and three months,
because it appears by the Gospel of this apostle, that, during the
course of His public life He might have been three or four times at
Jerusalem at the Easter feast which happened but once a year.

Now if it is true that He had been there three or four times after His
baptism, as John testifies, it is false that He lived but three months
after His baptism, and that He was crucified the first time He went to
Jerusalem.

If it is said that these first three Evangelists really mean but one
year, but that they do not indicate distinctly the others which elapsed
since His baptism; or that John understood that there was but one
Easter, although he speaks of several, and that he only anticipated the
time when he repeatedly tells us that the Easter feast of the Jews was
near at hand, and that Jesus went to Jerusalem, and, consequently, that
there is but an apparent contradiction upon this subject between the
Evangelists, I am willing to accept this; but it is certain that this
apparent contradiction springs from the fact, that they do not explain
themselves in all the circumstances that are noted in the narration
which they make. Be that as it may, there will always be this inference
made, that they were not inspired by God when they wrote their
biographies of Christ.

Here is another contradiction in regard to the first thing which Jesus

Christ did immediately after His baptism; for the first three
Evangelists state, that He was transported immediately by the Spirit
into the desert, where He fasted forty days and forty nights, and where
He was several times tempted by the Devil; and, according to what John
says, He departed two days after His baptism to go into Galilee, where
He performed His first miracle by changing water into wine at the
wedding of Cana, where He found Himself three days after His arrival in
Galilee, more than thirty leagues from the place in which He had been.

In regard to the place of His first retreat after His departure from the
desert, Matthew says that He returned to Galilee, and that leaving the
city of Nazareth, He went to live at Capernaum, a maritime city; and
Luke says, that He came at first to Nazareth, and afterward went to
Capernaum.

They contradict each other in regard to the time and manner in which the
apostles followed Him; for the first three say that Jesus, passing on
the shore of