Key Takeaways
During theEasterseason , Christians observe Jesus ' resurrection from the idle , just days after his crucifixion at the hands of the Romans . Whether you ’re spiritual , agnostical or atheistical , it ’s backbreaking to ignore the influence of Jesus Christ and theBiblein Western culture . But how much can we really know about the historical Jesus ' timeline from scriptural accounts ? Do we even knowhow old Jesus was when he died ?
Helen Bondis a faith professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the carbon monoxide gas - host ( with this writer ) of a podcast calledBiblical Time Machine . She says that the Bible is surprisingly skimpy when it descend to basic point about Jesus — what he attend like , whether he was married , etc . — and is frustratingly vague or contradictory when establishing fact likewhen Jesus was bornand when incisively he died .
" We do n’t lie with the date of anything with any specificity , " say Bond , who nonetheless tried to trace the exact day of the month of the original Easter in an excellent article titled " date the destruction of Jesus . "
Many people who follow the Christian faith trust that Jesus was 30 when he was christen , and that his earthly mission lasted exactly three years , summons certain biblical passages . This would mean Jesus died at the age of 33 . But a closer spirit at the Bible reveals some fuzzier maths .
Wasn’t Jesus 30 When He Started His Ministry?
In the New Testament , there are four separate biographies of Jesus have it off as the four gospels : Matthew , Mark , Luke and John . scriptural scholars believe that the gospel of Mark was write first , and that the authors of Matthew and Luke elaborated upon Mark ’s account . The gospel of John was indite last and includes some story that are not in the early schoolbook . Only one of the four gospels directly addresses Jesus ' age .
" Mark , the earliest gospel , says nothing at all about Jesus ' age , " says Bond . " When Luke rewrites Mark ’s story , he says that ' Jesus himself was about thirty class old when he commence his ministry . ' Maybe that comes from specific cognition , maybe it come from eyewitness , or maybe it ’s his general take on Mark , but that ’s the only position where we have any sort of age for Jesus . "
That rhyme in Luke 3:23is the basis for the widespread feeling that at age 30 Jesus begin publicly teach and performing miracles . But the text edition only says that Jesus was " about thirty , " which could mean that he was 29 , 31 or even a youthful - looking 40 .
The only other clue about Jesus ' age issue forth in the gospel of John ( John 8:57 - 59 ) , when Jesus enjoin a group of Jewish leaders that he knew Abraham , the Old Testament patriarch . " You are n’t even 50 years onetime ! " the Jewish leaders reply . " How can you say that you have view Abraham ? "
Taken together , the two verse line in Luke and John paint a moving picture of a vernal Jesus in the prime of his lifespan , but the gospels are not accurate about his age . Today we might discover this strange , but it would n’t have enervate multitude in the first century C.E.
" This was a club where masses did n’t jazz with any level of precision when they themselves were born , " says Bond . " It ’s a advanced matter for us to be able-bodied to say precisely when thing happened . "
Didn’t Jesus Teach for Three Years?
This is another Bible " fact " that is n’t as cut off - and - dry as you might retrieve .
Nowhere in the New Testament does it explicitly say that Jesus ' ministry — from his baptism by John until his crucifixion in Jerusalem — last three years . The means that number has been calculated is by counting how many times the Bible say that Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to observe Passover , the annual Jewish holiday immortalize the Exodus from Egypt .
In Mark , the earliest gospel , there ’s only one credit of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem , during which Jesus is arrested , tried and sentenced to expiry . By that calculation , some scholars conceive that Jesus ' ministry was just one twelvemonth or less .
But in the church doctrine of John , Jesus appears to make three separate pilgrimage to Jerusalem to observe Passover — John 2:13,John 6:4andJohn 12:1 — and is pop during the third trip . That ’s where we get the idea that his ministry was three days long .
In fact , some expert placeJesus ' last age at about 37 bearing in mind that he was born during King Herod ’s reign around 4 or 5 B.C.E. , and that John the Baptist protrude preaching in the fifteenth yr of Roman emperor moth Tiberius ' sovereignty ( according toLuke 3:1 ) , which would be 29 C.E. This is also when Jesus began his earthly ministry . Adding in three year for the three Passovers and these scholars determine that Jesus was 36 or 37 twelvemonth old when he died .
But Bond says that John ’s repetition of the Jerusalem pilgrim’s journey might shine the author ’s theological interests more than any diachronic reality .
" The author of John is very keen on Jesus coming down to Jerusalem and being the replacement for Jewish banquet , " says Bond , " so you have to require , are there theological reasons for this or did Jesus ' ministry really last that long ? "
Another smash against the " three - year " possibility is that the religious doctrine of John , while important theologically , is " not generally remark for its historical accuracy , " James Bond says . John was the last of the gospel narratives of Jesus ' life to be write , likely between 80 and 100 C.E. , place at least half a century between the author and the events he described .
Where does that leave us ? Since it ’s unreadable if Jesus ' ministry was one year or three years long , and it ’s also unreadable if Jesus was 30 or " about 30 " when he began his ministry , it ’s very difficult to calculate with any certainty exactly how old Jesus was when he was dun .
