All four gospels know that traveling to Jerusalem (elevation about 750 meters, or about 2450 feet) is correctly described as going up (Matthew 20:17, 18; Mark 10:32, 33; Luke 2:4, 42; 18:31; 19:28; John 2:13; 5:1; 7:8, 10, 14; 11:55; 12:20). Mark and Luke know that leaving Jerusalem is correctly described as going down (Mark 3:22; Luke 2:51; 18:14). This is perhaps not particularly significant, as a capital city is typically portrayed as elevated in relation to other places. There are, however, a couple of occasions when we get the impression that the Gospel writers know rather particularly the topography of the land. In Luke 10:30-31 we read of Jesus telling a story that begins as follows: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among the robbers who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when we saw him he passed by on the other side.” Jericho is, in fact, the lowest city on earth, over 250 meters (over 800 feet) below sea level. Going from Jerusalem to Jericho involves a descent of approximately one kilometer. Go down is therefore very much the right expression. The passage assumes a direct route between Jerusalem and Jericho, which of course there is.
In John 2:12 the journey from Cana of Galilee to Capernaum is described as going down. Similarly, in John 4 we have an account of a nobleman coming to Jesus while Jesus is in Cana, begging him to come down and heal his son who is in Capernaum. The verb come down is repeatedly used to describe the journey from Cana to Capernaum (John 4:47, 49, 51). The location of Cana is disputed, but the lowest of the candidates, Khirbet Qana, is at an elevation of about 200 meters (about 700 feet), whereas Capernaum is over 200 meters below sea level. Likewise Luke 4:31 describes travel from Nazareth (around 350 meters, or 1150 feet above sea level) to Capernaum as going down.
Rather specific knowledge is evidenced by the words attributed to Jesus in Luke 10:13-15 and its parallel in Matthew 11:21-23):
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
Jesus upbraids three Jewish towns or villages—Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum—contrasting the first two with the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon. The little-known village Chorazin is in fact on the road to Bethsaida, and just a couple of miles north of Capernaum. As far as we know, there was not a single literary source that could have provided this information to a Gospel author.
Luke and John both show knowledge that there are two routes between Judaea and Galilee: the hilly route via Samaria and the indirect route avoiding Samaritan areas via the Jordan valley. In Luke 9:51-53 Jesus and his disciples are refused passage through Samaria when traveling southward from Galilee to Judaea. In John 4:4 Jesus takes the route northward from Judaea to Galilee through Samaria. However, Luke also describes a journey to Jerusalem via Jericho (Luke 18:35) and then through the villages of Bethphage and Bethany (Luke 19:29). John depicts Jesus as making his final approach to Jerusalem from the east via Bethany (John 12:1).
The information in Luke and John accords with the way Matthew and Mark portray Jesus’s final approach to Jerusalem. He is said to go from Galilee to the Transjordan (Matthew 19:1; Mark 10:1) and to approach Jerusalem from Jericho (Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46) and then Bethphage, which is located by the narrative as on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1). (Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels? [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2018], 58-61, italics in original)
