We find in verse 22 a very definite and sharp break in time.
You know what the weather was like on the Last Great Day. It was the Fall / Autumn season. It was not in the winter, so there is a jump of about a little bit less than two month's time from verse 21 to verse 22. All this really emphasizes that from John 8:1 until this time right here in John 10:21, everything took place on the same day. The location changed a time or two, but it was still the same day.
The events we are looking at here occurred in the Fall before Christ's crucifixion. We are going to have to pay attention to time here. These events took place in the Fall prior to Jesus' crucifixion. What we have been reading of there in John 10, John 9, and John 8 took place during the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, and so it was in the Fall, which was six months before Jesus was crucified. The year for the Jews had just begun on the Feast of Trumpets just a few weeks before those events there in John 8 through John 10:21 occurred.
Here we have to make a little bit of adjustment in our thinking. It is not all that hard. The events—if we were looking at this from a Hebrew point of view, from a Hebrew calendar—took place in the same year, in the same calendar year. The calendar year for the Hebrews began with the Feast of Trumpets, and so six months later it was still the same year. That is not too hard to figure out. However, we use a Roman calendar, so we have to make a little bit of a juggle here in order to get things lined up.
When we look at it on a Roman calendar, we are dealing with two different years. This is because the Roman calendar begins in January and ends at the end of December, whereas the Hebrew calendar begins in September and goes to the following September. Therefore the year that the events of John 8 through John 11:21 occur on our calendar in 30 AD, or sometimes 30 C.E. (C.E. just means Common Era.) We say "A.D." meaning "after Christ," or "Anno Domini," which is Latin for, "Year of our Lord." So we are dealing here with two years in terms of the Roman calendar, but really only one year (actually 6 months worth) on the Hebrew calendar.
