Jesus Withdraws to Ephraim

As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”

But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.