:*"As he '''drew near to Jericho'''...He '''entered Jericho''' and was passing through." Luke 18:35 and 19:1. The village of [http://bibleatlas.org/bethany.htm Bethany] is closer to Jerusalem than [http://bibleatlas.org/jericho.htm Jericho].
:It is known that some wealthier Jews owned more than one house, sometimes in different villages or cities. The house of Martha here in Luke 10:38 may have been another than the house in the village of Bethany (John 11:1). The assertion, advanced by many exegetes, ''is by no means certain'', that —that this "certain house" is "undoubtedly, without doubt" the same house of Lazarus in Bethany near Jerusalem. According to Vincent, Martha (not Lazarus) significantly "received" Jesus ('''ὑπεδέξατο''', ''from the words'' '''ὕπο''', under, ''and'' '''δέχομαι''', to receive) under her roof. It was '''she''' who received him under '''her''' roof. Martha is marked as the head of the household. It was her house. In Bethany, by contrast, Lazarus appears as head of the household. See John 11:1; 12:1-2. <br> If the house of Martha in this "''certain village''" in Luke 10:38 is the ''same'' village identified in the Gospel of John as "''Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha''", then Jesus would afterward have departed with his disciples and traveled again north away from Jerusalem and back through the cities and villages of Samaria and into Galilee, before returning again south and traveling back with them toward Jerusalem in accordance with the account of his final journey in the Gospel of Luke. This is the conclusion of several commentators regarding what they interpret as an apparent discrepancy between [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/10-38.htm Luke 10:38] and [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/17-11.htm Luke 17:11]. <br> After the Jews took up stones to stone him (John 10:31), "''He went away again '''across the Jordan''' to the place where John at first baptized, '''and there he remained'''. And many came to him, and they said 'John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.' And many believed on him there.''"' (John 10:40-42) John had at first baptized about 40 miles north of Jerusalem, in Aenon near Salim. After a period of time, it is not impossible that Jesus, like Paul after him (Acts 15:36), in this last and final preparatory phase of his ministry, "''on his journey to'' [be received up in] ''Jerusalem''", returned to visit every city where he and the seventy others had proclaimed the Gospel (Luke 10:1). This was his final planned itinerary.
:In either case, there is no firm basis in the text for asserting here any confusion or contradiction as some suppose.
:This ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)'' assumes the historical and chronological sequence of each of the four Gospels. This parallel reading, side by side, of the four Gospels together presents the winter feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem John 10:22-42 as occurring before the events of Luke 9:51 and following 51–19:28 narrating Jesus' final journey before being "taken up". <br> In contrast, many commentaries place Luke 10:38-41 and texts following as taking place before the winter feast of the Dedication in John 10:22, on the assumption that Martha received Jesus in the house at Bethany, based solely on the implicit belief that no Jew could own more than one house and that "her house" is, ''and must therefore be'', "undoubtedly" the house of Lazarus. This then presents the difficulty of harmonizing and redacting within the narrative of Luke 9–19 the winter feast of the Dedication in John 10 which immediately precedes the raising of Lazarus in John 11 and the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in John 12, which we remember and celebrate as [[Palm Sunday]] before [[Easter]].
:Most interpreters in the 18th through 21st century assume the meaning of a journey to a destination which does not deviate from a direct route, and not a roundabout final farewell tour—because he had "''set his face toward Jerusalem''". This appears to be the cause of their speculation that Luke was confused by conflicting accounts of the events related to him. However, according to a conservative Christian assessment of the veracity of the scriptures, the apostles and evangelists writing in retrospect after his passion and resurrection are more fully aware of Jesus' final resolve, that this roundabout tour before Passover is in fact his final journey toward Jerusalem, and they explicitly say so. <br> The doctrine of the inerrant inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself, of God as the primary Author of scripture infallibly guiding the evangelists to include only those things and expressions He desired and nothing more, rejects as unacceptable any "confusion" on the part of the Gospel writer, implying as it does accepting "confusion" on the part of God.