Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 3:24

"For John was not yet cast into prison." — John 3:24 (ASV)

This period of Jesus’ ministry in Judea is not paralleled by any account in the Synoptic Gospels (cf. Matthew 4:12–21; Mark 1:14). It occurred before the arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist, for he and Jesus were preaching and baptizing simultaneously. Both were exercising a rural rather than urban ministry at this time. Jesus and his disciples remained in the Judean country; John was preaching farther north.