After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.
This Gospel gives the Judean ministry of Christ, almost totally omitted by the synoptics.  The Spirit of God directed the apostles in the choice of the material they included.  Jesus had definitely stressed the fact that the Gospel should first be offered to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (Luke 24:27;  Acts 1:8); and "to the Jew first" became a slogan of the missionary work of Paul, and presumably of all the apostles.  How fitting, therefore, that the Lord himself should have carried his great message first to the Jews as revealed in this Gospel, and as we should not have known if only the synoptics existed.  Furthermore, this Judean ministry explains a number of statements in the synoptics which, in the light of this Gospel, are clear references to the Judean ministry.  Thus, Jesus said in Matthew that he had "often" attempted to gather the citizens of Jerusalem unto himself  (Matthew 23:37).  See  Matthew 26:6;  Mark 14:3if, and  Luke 13:34,35, all of which are trace references to the great Judean ministry of Jesus which occurred before John the Baptist was cast into prison, a fact John stressed, thus making it very early in the Lord's ministry.  This Judean part of it lasted from May until December.