Loading...I am in London for the summer and would like to do another small dinner with active blog members on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Possibly a pint in advance. This time it will be on my home-away-from-home turf, Wimbledon, specifics TBD.
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Dear Bart,
Welcome back to the UK! May I ask an off-topic question?
In Luke 3:1 we see a claim that John the Baptist started his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius.
I have two questions:
1. What time span does this correspond to our calendar? (Some count from the year 12, so they assign 9/26-9/27, others from the year 14, so they assign 9/28-9/29, what is your view?)
2. As far as I’m aware, Luke seems to be the first to assign a year to John’s ministry – how accurate do you think his claim is?
Many thanks in advance.
I’d say it’s complicated (I guess that’s why it’s debated!) Part of the complication: does Luke actually know which year Tiberius started to reign? And, yes, what does that mean. Normally it’s taken to mean immediately after the death of Augustus, and that’s how I would take it. But I don’t think there’s any way you can trust Luke’s chronology, in general or in particular. Think of Quirinius, governor of Syria when Herod was king of Israel. Woops. Off by ten years on that one….
Yes, you’re right about the error with Quirinius in Lk2:2, but perhaps that was not the same author of Lk3-24?
Nevertheless, I have my doubts that the date in Lk3:1 is right either if Jesus was crucified in 30AD – the following year of Tiberius if we could from Augustus’ death.
I don’t think there’s enough time for John to become well known, then Jesus to be baptised, gather disciples, then John to be imprisoned, spend some time in prison before execution, then Jesus to minister for some time before his final week. I get the sense you’d need at least a couple of years to elapse for all that to occur.
Perhaps Luke, having used Mark, assumed the time from Jesus’ baptism to his crucifixion was less than a year given that Mark only has one Passover?
Good point about ch. 2. I actually think that too. And yup, Mark seems to take place over some months, from the beginning of fall harvest to spring passover. But I don’t know how long it would take for all those things to happen. Jesus may have had a short ministry, e.g.
Oh that’s interesting that you’ve identified a rough beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Mark – how do you arrive at the fall harvest?
I can’t find anything in ch1, but then we find the disciples plucking heads of corn at the end of ch2 – is that how we get there?
Yup.
Hi Dr. Ehrman, this is the “fundamentalist Yeskovian”/translator of “The Gospel of Afranius”, if you remember! I tried to write a more academic defense of it, and Richard Carrier said it’s worth trying to publish (and one of my American friends, also a mathematician, declared himself persuaded upon reading it together with most of the book itself), I wonder what you think (it’s fifteen pages long): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HoGxCToi6K5wlBI07wRZ4CS5QKv3dDZV/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=110839838703026576676&rtpof=true&sd=true
I’m sorry I won’t be able to give it a good read, but I’d suggest passing it by a New Testament scholar for an opinion. Good luck with it,
Thank you for replying! That’s the idea 🙂 If I may mention just one thing from it though, I think you were incorrect in saying there was no Roman spy activity there (if I understood you right) – e.g. Josephus says, “spies were everywhere in cities and villages, lying in wait for all sorts of gatherings”, he mentions many people being “disappeared”, etc.
Also, if Lydia McGrew counts, she extremely grudgingly acknowledged that it is “consistent with the evidence”
Sorry — I don’t recall saying anything about Roman spies. Then again, I have a lousy memory.