Loading...I received a very interesting question from a blog reader, and it has led to an unexpected answer.
QUESTION
Is there any significance to the age of Jesus and its relation to the start of his ministry?
RESPONSE:
I don’t know what the questioner actually means about the “significance” of Jesus’ age, and so I’ve decided to answer a related question. What, in fact, was his age? Well, the matter is … like so much else in our universe … unexpectedly complicated.
It turns out I dealt with this years ago on the blog. I know because I just checked. I had forgotten about that post, and even more interesting, I had forgotten my answer, which contains some information that I ALSO FORGOT. In fact, some really interesting information. I bet you didn’t know (as I apparently used to know) that there is a discussion of Jesus’ age in the writings of one of the most important early church fathers, which indicates that Jesus grew to be a relatively old man before he was crucified. Huh?
OK, here’s my answer from before, where I discuss the entire matter.
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You’ve probably seen the popular inspirational quote that goes something like this, “Jesus didn’t start his ministry until he was 30 years old, and yet he changed the world.” I guess this is supposed to encourage people in their teens and twenties that haven’t accomplished much in their life. (As if comparing their potential future to the accomplishments of the supposed “Son of God” is supposed to make them feel better! Ha!)
It also illustrates a common assumption (or perhaps misconception), that Jesus was 30 years old when he began his ministry. Is that a fact? If so, where does the Bible say so?
Do we also know how old was Jesus was when he was baptized or when he died?
How Old Was Jesus When He Died?
There is not a slam dunk answer. In fact, I ask all my students at Chapel Hill this question (many of whom answer incorrectly) on their first-day quiz.
Almost everyone who thinks about the matter thinks that Jesus was 33 years old when he died. But the New Testament never says so and I bet most people don’t know how that age is calculated. Moreover, I bet even more people don’t know that there was an early Christian tradition (attested in the second century) that he was much older than that!
Yesterday I was reading one of the most important proto-orthodox authors of the second century, Irenaeus, whose five-volume work “Against the Heresies” is a sustained attack against various Gnostics (and other Christians that he considers to be “heretics”). In doing so I ran across a passage I had highlighted many years ago, when I first read the text. It involves Jesus’ age. And it has a surprising view of the matter.
So let me start at the beginning. Why do people always say that Jesus was 33 when he died, if the New Testament never says so? It is by combining two pieces of evidence that come to us from two different Gospels.
ONE – Jesus’ Age at His Baptism and Start of Ministry
According to Luke 3:23, Jesus was “about thirty” years old when he was baptized by John. Now, let me say that, historically, there’s no way to know whether Luke had special information about this or if he was just guessing. Mark gives no indication at all of Jesus’ age. Neither does Matthew or John. How would Luke, who did not know Jesus and was, writing so many decades after Jesus’ life, in a different part of the world, know? Either he (a) had a reliable source unavailable to the others; (b) had an unreliable source; or (c) came up with it himself. My guess is that it is the latter, but there’s no way to know for sure.
In any event, that is the starting point for the calculation.
TWO – The Duration of Jesus’ Ministry
The second datum comes from the Gospel of John, where Jesus attends three separate Passover feasts during his public ministry. Since this is an annual festival, it means that in John his ministry must have lasted somewhat over two years. But it is normally taken to be three years.
As to this second datum, I should point out that in the other Gospels there is only *one* Passover Feast mentioned, the one at the end, during which Jesus is executed. In fact, Mark’s Gospel – where Jesus’ age is never mentioned – seems to take place only over the course of months. It appears to start in the fall, when there is grain to be plucked in the fields (2:23; Or maybe it’s the spring harvest?). And after that, everything happens “right away.” Read Mark carefully. One thing happens after the other. One of Mark’s favorite words is “immediately.” And then we come to the Spring Passover festival, and Jesus is arrested and executed. It seems that the ministry lasted only a few months.
In any event, if you take the “about 30 years old” of Luke and the three Passovers of John, you come up with 33 years at the time of death.
But, as I indicated, there was a contrary tradition embraced rather emphatically by Irenaeus. He claims, in fact, that it is the heretics who want insisted that Jesus ministered only for a year and died in his 30s.
“I don’t know what the questioner actually means about the “significance” of Jesus’ age.”
Sorry, I meant did his actual age of 30 have some unknown ties to the messiah and his coming.Usually, most scriptures that deal with numbers,seem to have meaning behind it.
Thanks for answering my curiousity.
Ah, no, nothing that we know of.
It’s been (well) noticed that the parallel is to King David (surprise):
http://www.errancywiki.com/index.php?title=2_Samuel_5:4
“David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. (ASV)”
I think this is the best guess as to “Luke’s” source.
http://skepticaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/
Was Irenaeus alone on this, or do we know of other early Christian writers who thought Jesus was older?
None that I know of.
As far as I know, the only early Patristics who commented to the extent Irenaeus of Lyons (yes, “Lyons”) did agreed with him:
Victorinus (relatively well known)
Theodore of Mopsuestia (not at all well known. Relatively recently translated into English
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/theodore_of_mopsuestia_nicene_02_text.htm
The primary source for all three is the Gospel of John which, when read by itself (as it intended), indicates that Jesus was fifty (ish) when he died.
http://skepticaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/
Joseph was 30 when entering Pharoah’s service. Priests had to be 30 before working with the Tabernacle. David was 30 when beginning his reign. Was there a tradition that 30 was an age of maturity? Is that all Luke really meant?
Not that I know of, but it’s an interesting idea.
I recall a show showing art of Jesus. As very young, beardless and angelic in the earliest art. Later art shows a bearded, older and sterner Jesus. Seems there were many views early on.
Interesting!
Enjoyed the “ABA” very much and was happy to make an additional donation. Question: At least some disciples, i.e. the very first Christians, saw visions of Jesus after his death. Right? So, did they interpret that similarly to Paul’s interpretation of his vision of Jesus? i.e. even though in their case, it wasn’t years but only months or perhaps just weeks or even days after the crucifixion, that Jesus must have gone straight to Heaven/God/some celestial place before making these earthly appearances? If not, then please clarify, because I thought I heard you make a statement along the lines of the following:
The very earliest Christians didn’t think that Jesus hung around Earth for a bit before being exalted to be with God. Rather they believed that Jesus was fully exalted immediately.
Yes, that’s right. The resurrection and the ascension are not separated as distinct events until the book of Acts. No one else says anything like that: Jesus was taken up to heaven, almost right away. If he appeared to people like Paul, he was coming down from heaven to do so — the kind of thing that happens with angels in the OT.
Wow! That story from Iranaeus is intriguing and his argument from the text is logical.
With that much biographical time to work with, Nikos Kazantzakis could have written a version of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST in which the alternate life of Jesus really happens rather than being a vivid hallucination experienced while he’s suffering on the cross.
Any thoughts about why Iranaeus’s idea didn’t catch on with the other Church Fathers?
Almost certainly because Luke claims Jesus was about 30.
Fascinating. On a related note, do You have an answer as to the year Jesus died? I recently heard your lecture in which you noted that the gospels give conflicting accounts of whether Jesus was arrested on a Thursday or Friday. Assuming it was right after the Passover meal, do we know when Passover occurred in those early years? If we assume that at least one of the Gospel writers has the day of the work correct, does that give us six and idea as to the correct year?
I don’t have a strong opinion. Had to be between 26-36 (when Pilate was governor). But no year in there appears to have Passover on either Thursday or Friday. Go figure….
A bit of a sidebar: Can we even be certain of calendars (and their accuracy) in use during in that region during those years? It seems possible that there could be disconnects (e.g.; regional Kings ‘adjusting’ a day/date by decree) since there was no way to synchronize the world clock calendars in those days. A single ‘time/date’ standard would have been difficult to pull off and maintain, so can we really know if the Jerusalem and/or Jewish ‘Thursday’ in March of 26 A.D. was the same as the Roman and/or Pagan ‘Thursday’ in March of 26 A.D.? I can’t image there being no ‘adjustments’ by conquered regions to the conquering forces date/time declarations over many, many decades of conflict. It would not seem to of been a very big problem in those days if one traveled across the sea (or to a different region) and landed in a place where the weekday was different that they expected. They would just adapt and go on – no big deal.
It would be easier for me to answer the question — it’s an interesting one! — if you could tell me if you ahve something specific in mind that involves a calendar. Are you thinking of the death of Jesus? In that case there is a specific calendar: the calendar of festivals observed in Jerusalem in the 20s and 30s; for that there was no variation.
Fascinating post. I always wondered whether it was a coincidence that Jesus was supposed to have died at 33, the same age as Alexander the Great, unless 33 was the ancient world’s equivalent of 27 (ie. the age when rock stars like Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin etc tend to die). Incidentally, two of the most famous screen Christs, Jeff Hunter and Max Von Sydow, were both 35 going on 36 when they played Jesus. But a 50 year old Jesus changes everything. It reminds me of the time when I discovered that Davy Crockett was 50 when he was killed at the Alamo. It seemed to jar with our preconceptions that heros always die young.
What I find most perplexing is that early Christians did not seem to know or care about such basic information concerning Jesus. Paul tells us so very little. But also Mark: no age, no duration of ministry, nothing about life before baptism, no physical description, …
Is it not strange that early Christians would not care? Perhaps this is yet another difference between antiquity and more modern times?
Seems strange to us, that’s for sure! But other Christians in antiquity don’t mention it as strange, to my knowledge. That’s strange too.
Lots o’ moving parts to this conversation. If you put any stock in the historicity of the Matthew gospel’s nativity story (I realize you probably do not) then Jesus was born towards the end of Herod the Great’s life. For many years, it was believed the death of Herod was one of the firmest dates in antiquity, 4 BCE. Ok, again using Matthew’s gospel, the family fled to Egypt until Herod died. Throw in the great conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in the Pieces constellation as the star of Bethlehem then you’ve got an even firmer date of 6 BCE.
Fast forward to Luke’s statement “about 30 years old” and this places his baptism in roughly 24 CE.
As to the Passovers in the John gospel, three are explicitly mentioned, but I the statements made by John, the one who was baptizing, about Jesus being the lamb of God only make sense if he made them during or close to a Passover, would be #4 in his gospel. Also in chapter 5 the enigmatic use of the phrase “a feast of the Jews” could be applied to any of them, Passover #5? How’s this for a trapeze act?
A conjunction of three planets could not be the star of Matthew. Matthew’s star moves, stops and disappears over Jerusalem, reappears and moves on to Bethlehem, and then stops over a particular house. This cannot be a regular star up in the firmament.
The point is moot, in that Herod allegedly wanted to kill boys 2 years old and down.
The John gospel… what happens if the reference by John the Baptist in chs 1&2 about the lamb of God occurred when it would make sense – around Passover? And if the unnamed feast of the Jews in ch 5 is yet another Passover? For a total of 5? Jesus died let’s say 30 CE, according to our good friend Dr Tabor this jives with the Passover beginning on a Thursday that year. Trapeezing it up we get Jesus about 35/36 or so when he died.
I know I know… pure conjecture.
Perhaps it was one of the Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) that the U.S. Government is now acknowledging exist? 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY
Running late as usual, but I thought about the Billy Graham Crusade and can completely understand if someone was approached personally by the late Mr. Graham, say when he was in his fifties, to join his team wouldn’t we just drop everything and join. Even the agnostic part of me would give it a try.
Only if they already knew who he was and what he was about, I guess.
I was aware of the verse in John. Growing up, I believe I was taught that he looked older due to his rough and less than lavish life style. So they grossly mistook his age. That’s just what I was taught. I never thought about an 18 year ministry. Interesting!
I will let the reference to Irenaeus in this post serve as a segue to a question that I have been wanting to ask. Can you recommend a book surveying what we know about the lives of the early church fathers and the effect of their theological writings on Christianity?
It really depends what kind of thing you’re looking for. There are “Patrologies” that are kind of encyclopedic discussions of early Christian writings, with brief articles and bibliographies. The ones I know about are wirten at a scholarly level but are accessible, e.g., Dopp and Geerlincs, Dictionary of Ealry Xn Literature; Drobner, The Fathers of hte Church; Mroreschine ad Norelli: Early Xn Greek and Latin Literature. These tend to be highly informative but not overly scintilating if what you are looking for is some non-fiction entertainment. There are books written about all the major figures, of course, individually. And collections of texts with bibliographies, e.g., in my book After the NT. Hope this helps a bit!
Dr Ehrman,
Could it be possible that Jesus baptizing age mentioned in Luke is based on Lunar Calendar? For every 10 Solar calendar years, we roughly loose 1 lunar year….so maybe its 30 Lunar years which make Jesus 27 when he was Baptized?
I believe they followed the Julian calendar back then.
I thought the mention of his age being thirty was to say he was old enough to be a rabbi. Didn’t they have certain ages at which you began school, then went to the next level, then the smartest got to be taught by a rabbi, and you had to be at least thirty to begin having your own disciples?
Or, possibly, Jesus’ age is about when you were old enough to begin serving in the temple as a priest
(Num 4vs3)?
So, Luke mentions it to make some larger point about who Jesus was.
There were not official rules about what it meant to be a rabbi in Jesus’ time. The word was not a kind of official title (like say, Distinguished Professor) but a description (“teacher”). Only later did the “official” idea of a rabbi develop.
The idea of an 18 year ministry really throws into question the year of his birth i.e. around the last years of Herod and/or the ministry of Paul. If Jesus died near 50 years of age (we’d also have to forget about Pontius Pilate) then Paul’s writings would also be pushed back drastically.
So, if Irenaeus is correct, Jesus would have been born not at the end of Herod’s reign but more to the late middle. Or, he would have died around 45(?) CE pushing Paul back to the 60’s or maybe 70’s. This would also push or the Gospels back as well or have them be much more contemporary to Jesus’ life.
Very interesting! I particularly like your saying that “One of Mark’s favorite words is “immediately.””When reading Mark, I found that stories are independent and illy connected in the early chapters. (before Ch.11 Jesus going to Jerusalem, of course) It seems to me that Jesus was in a rush and had to do one thing right after another, and I did not notice that he uses “immediately” frequently lol!
I don’t mean to sidetrack this thread, but, Bart says to plug a question in anywhere and his original post was somewhat about figures (ages). Some years ago, I read in a Bible commentary (“Erdmann’s”?) that translating numerical values in the OT into English is problematic because an anomaly with regard to how numbers are presented in biblical Hebrew leads to the possibility that they have been inflated by a factor of 10 in most English translations. If this were so, if would make some of the accounts in the Hebrew Bible somewhat more plausible, such as Solomon’s sacrifices (1 Kings 8:63 ) or the number of soldiers in the Assyrian army (Isaiah 37:36 ) . I was wondering if you have ever investigated this question and what your thoughts might be? Also, are there any similar problems with the way numerical values are represented in the Greek text of the NT?
It actually does not work that neatly, at all. Was this person claiming that if the BIble says someone lived 670 years it *really* meant he lived 67? Yeah, there’s zero evidece of that. And of course it would also mean that if someone like Moses is said to have lived 120 years it means that he actually died when he was 12!
If today’s 70 really is “yesterdays” 50, what is 2000 yesterday’s 50? Not sure I want to know but I am today’s 71 and much of the Galilee (including Nazereth) is about 100 miles from Jerusalem. Long walk for a 50 year old of any era!
Bart: to be fair, I should have clarified that the commentary was referring to large numerical values, such as the census in the book of Numbers, not to the ages in the accounts. As you point out, trying to reduce the ages would often result in an absurdity.
OK, I see. It still is almost certainly simply away to get around the problem with the numbers…
i picked up a book from a used bookstore about the early church, its by a guy called Jaroslav Pelikan, is he a good source? i think he’s a christian, which i am myself, but i always trust it more is someone more sceptical endorses it, i just got done with your book on how we now jesus existed, it was really fab, 10/10
Yes, he was a major scholar, a historian of Christianity with a long career at Yale. I met him once when I was a young scholar just starting out and he was a very senior revered person, and a very nice one as well.
Though we don’t know his exact age, do most scholars assume he was around 30-40? He died younger than his mother, had multiple brothers and sisters, and his birth is normally placed around the time that would give us that age range. What’s your best guess and why? Thanks!
It’s a decent guess. But we don’t know the ages of his mother or siblings either.
One can hardly fail to notice that Irenaeus appears inconsistent in insisting that Jesus must have experienced old age in order to save the old, yet was never, for example, a woman. Do Irenaeus’s writings enlighten us as to how he would answer that objection? (It would be easy to make assumptions by projecting the views of his contemporaries. I don’t want to do that.)
My suspicion is that it never occurred to him.