The transition begun in 3:22 is continued in 4:1–4. Jesus moves from Jerusalem to the Judean countryside and from there to Galilee by way of Samaria. The intervening material (3:23–36) enables the reader to make sense of this cumbersome introduction to chapter 4. That Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John (v. 1) has already been intimated in 3:26. That the Pharisees noticed this is suggested by the fact that John’s disciples seem to have been reminded of it by a Jew (3:25). What has not been told is Jesus’ response to these developments. The purpose of verses 1–3 is to explain Jesus’ actions by his knowledge. The parenthetical comment recalls other instances in which the narrator attributes things that Jesus said or did to supernatural knowledge that he possessed (cf., e…