It
is confusing, and I cannot claim to have a handle on it all; also, it has been ages since I really looked into the so-called Alogi or Gaius of Rome on this level.
I think, however, that the Passover in John 2 after the miracle at Cana may not be the issue, or at least not the main issue. There are 3 or 4 Passovers mentioned in John:
John 2.13: 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [After Cana; this is the episode of the cleansing of the temple.]
John 5.1: 1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [Not called a Passover, but a lot of people think/thought it is.]
John 6.4: 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. [The feeding of the 5000; it is not said that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for this Passover.]
John 13.1: 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. [This is the Passover during which he was executed.]
Irenaeus is clear in
Against Heresies 2.22.3 about accepting John 2.13, John 5.1, and John 13.1 as Passovers. He kind of glides over John 6.4, but that is probably because his avowed purpose in this section is "to ascertain how often after his baptism the Lord went up, at the time of the Passover, to Jerusalem." Jesus did not go up during the Passover of John 6.4; therefore, the feeding of the 5000 is mentioned but not counted.
Epiphanius, on the other hand, is clear in
Panarion 51.21.28 about
not accepting John 5.1 as a Passover, writing, "'After this there was a feast of the Jews' — I presume he is speaking of
another feast of the Jews, Pentecost or Tabernacles — 'and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.'" This is the miracle which Epiphanius interprets as marking the end of "the acceptable year."
Epiphanius is not simply counting Passovers like Irenaeus does; rather, he is actually determining which
month certain things happened in. It appears to me that he accepts the miracle at Cana as having preceded a Passover feast, but he definitely thinks that John 5.1 is from some other feast, and he seems to accept the Passover which is approaching at the feeding of the 5000, since he has Jesus baptized at age 29, but
nearly 30 full years old (for so he interprets Luke's wording, "Jesus
began to be 30 years old" at the baptism), in November, then working the Cana miracle precisely on his birthday in January (about 20 days after the temptation, which lasted 40), then attending a Passover in Jerusalem in April or March. This is the first Passover mentioned in John. Epiphanius does not need to deal with the second possible Passover, in John 5.1, so we next consider that he probably accepted the Passover in John 6.4 as the second Passover of Jesus' career. Finally, there is the third Passover, mentioned in John 13.1, during which Jesus died. The length of time between a first Passover and a third Passover is two years (plus a day to account for the Passover itself), agreeing with Epiphanius' calculations (A) that Jesus was baptized at age 29, but nearly 30, thus apparently experiencing that first Passover, after Cana, at age 30, and (B) that Jesus died at age 32 (or, as Epiphanius puts it, during his 33
rd year). Thus:
- Passover 1 (after Cana): age 30.
- Passover 2 (before the feeding of the 5000): age 31.
- Passover 3 (the passion of Christ): age 32 (= during his 33rd year).
If that makes sense....