The Surprises Just Keep on Coming!

Last updated on: December 17, 2025 at 1:33 am by Ben Witherington

The Surprises Just Keep on Coming! 2025-12-16T11:37:53-05:00 Ben Witherington

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Here a few more things need to be said to make sense of what we have just witnessed—namely material found nowhere in the Synoptic Gospels.

What we need to notice is that actually the Farewell discourse begins at Jn. 13.31 after the departure of Judas, and by all appearances at the same venue as the meal in John 13, which means at the BD’s house. This is so until we get to Jn.14.31 where Jesus says ‘its time for us to go”. Beginning in John 15.1ff. the teaching continues but in another venue, but where? Wherever it was, perhaps somewhere nearby like the foot of the Mt. of Olives the teaching goes on through John 17 ending with Jesus’ prayer. John 18.1-2 says the disciples and Jesus all crossed the Kidron valley to the Garden, which is identified in the Synoptics as the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘a place where Jesus had often met with his disciples’ hence Judas knows the spot to lead the captors to.

This brings us to John 18.15 where we hear “Simon Peter and ‘the other disciple’ (a very odd expression since many disciples were present, unless, of course this is a reference to Lazarus, the leader of the Judaean disciples, and sure enough we hear immediately thereafter), “Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.” The Galilean disciples were not known to Annas, but Lazarus certainly was.

Here is where I also note that what all this means is that the distinct Farewell discourses, which are not found in the Synoptics at all, are discourses at which the BD (aka Lazarus) was present for, as he was for the journey across the Kidron, the time of Jesus’ capture, and the journey back across the valley to Annas’ house. It is surely Lazarus to whom we owe the record of the Farewell discourses, which he must have set down in writing soon after these momentous affairs. Furthermore, scholars have long noted the numerous echoes of the Farewell discourse in 1 John which is an anonymous sermon with a style and content like the Fourth Gospel. I would suggest this is Lazarus’ later reflections on Jesus’ last night of teaching and some of its implications.

Finally, Notice in the Fourth Gospel the naming of the slave who’s ear was severed (Malchus, a name not mentioned in the Synoptics). But since Lazarus was known to the high priest, he likely also knew the name of the high priest’s slave.

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