3-Year Ministry Timeline of Jesus

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cyberseeker
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Cyberseeker said:
As I understand it, he missed 2 Passovers (not to mention Tabernacles.) For example, in his second year Passover he was on the other side of Lake Galilee (John 6:1-4), after which he traveled to Phoenicia. (Mark 7:24) In his late ministry period we are told that he stopped fraternizing with the Jews. (John 11:54) That means going to Jerusalem, yes?
Click to expand...
The incident with the lame man at Bethesda is the second Passover Jesus went to. Yep after the incident during the Feast of the Dedication Jesus left Jerusalem and ministered in Perea. But you simply can’t prove how much time Jesus spent in Perea.
 
There is a Passover that you did not need to keep, if you had already kept the Passover, thus fulfilling the law. I personally don’t think Jesus Christ would miss a Passover. I believe he kept one Passover, then the second year He was the Passover.
 
The seasons provide us with clues to the chronological order of the gospels. The month of Nisan was springtime, and the month of Tishri was autumn. They were also when the 2 main feasts of Passover and Tabernacles were observed.

That is why I have shown Nisan and Tishri on each year, because it enables us to p(name removed by moderator)oint summer and winter events in-between. For example, the eating of the grain (Mark 2:23) could have only happened in the summer in the middle of Jesus’ first year.

Similarly, it helps locate the ‘calming of the sea’ (Mark 4:35) because storms in Galilee were a feature of winter there. When these seasonal clues are taken into account, the various gospel stories fit together quite nicely.
 
Cyberseeker said:
The seasons provide us with clues to the chronological order of the gospels. The month of Nisan was springtime, and the month of Tishri was autumn. They were also when the 2 main feasts of Passover and Tabernacles were observed.

That is why I have shown Nisan and Tishri on each year, because it enables us to p(name removed by moderator)oint summer and winter events in-between. For example, the eating of the grain (Mark 2:23) could have only happened in the summer in the middle of Jesus’ first year.

Similarly, it helps locate the ‘calming of the sea’ (Mark 4:35) because storms in Galilee were a feature of winter there. When these seasonal clues are taken into account, the various gospel stories fit together quite nicely.
Click to expand...
True.
 
JB_Brother_4446 said:
Mine is a two year timeline.

Jesus baptized January 6, 28 A.D.
Jesus cleanses temple 1st time 28 A.D.
Jesus feeds 5000 29 A.D.
Jesus enters Jerusalem Nisan 10 30 A.D.
Jesus cleanses temple second time Nisan 11 30 A.D.
Jesus is crucified Nisan 15 30 A.D.
Click to expand...
There’s some great info on here, so thanks to you all.

For what it’s worth, JB, I have come up with the same timeline as you (2y 3m) but shifted back to 26-28 rather than 28-30.
 
jbejon said:
There’s some great info on here, so thanks to you all.

For what it’s worth, JB, I have come up with the same timeline as you (2y 3m) but shifted back to 26-28 rather than 28-30.
Click to expand...
Why?
 
Well, quite a few church fathers have a 28 AD date for the crucifixion, which would point to an earlier-than-28 start-date for Jesus’ ministry. And a few synchronicities then make better sense with a 26 AD start-date. You can still have John the Baptist’s ministry begin in Tiberius’s 15th year (if Luke begins his count with the start of Tiberius’s co-regency), and you can still accommodate John’s mention of 46 years (20 BC + 46 years, counted inclusively), but you can additionally accommodate Basilides’ date for the crucifixion (Tiberius’s 16th year) and Clement’s 42-year gap between the crucifixion and the fall of Jerusalem (in 70 AD).
 
jbejon said:
Well, quite a few church fathers have a 28 AD date for the crucifixion, which would point to an earlier-than-28 start-date for Jesus’ ministry. And a few synchronicities then make better sense with a 26 AD start-date. You can still have John the Baptist’s ministry begin in Tiberius’s 15th year (if Luke begins his count with the start of Tiberius’s co-regency), and you can still accommodate John’s mention of 46 years (20 BC + 46 years, counted inclusively), but you can additionally accommodate Basilides’ date for the crucifixion (Tiberius’s 16th year) and Clement’s 42-year gap between the crucifixion and the fall of Jerusalem (in 70 AD).
Click to expand...
Here’s the thing: the Romans never counted from an emperor’s coregency. A popular way of counting the 15th year of Tiberius is that the Syrians counted from late A.D. 27 to late A.D. 28. And there were two temple cleansings: the one at the beginning of Jesus ministry and the one during Holy Week. Eusebius has a 40 year gap for the Crucifixion to the destruction of the temple.
 
Hi JB. Yes, as far as I can tell, that’s true. But then Josephus did reckon on the basis of co-regencies, e.g., in the case of Herod’s sons. I don’t think it necessarily follows that Luke did the same thing, but it certainly makes it possible. I don’t know what you mean by ‘the Syrian’ method of counting. Do you have a reference? I take Eusebius’ mention of 40 years to be a ‘round number’, akin to ‘a generation’. That strikes me as the best way to reconcile the mention of both 40 years and 42 years.

P.S. I’ve written up some of my thoughts on the matter here in case you’re interested in further details: academia.edu/24267678/A_Chronology_of_Jesus_Ministry
 
jbejon said:
Hi JB. Yes, as far as I can tell, that’s true. But then Josephus did reckon on the basis of co-regencies, e.g., in the case of Herod’s sons. I don’t think it necessarily follows that Luke did the same thing, but it certainly makes it possible. I don’t know what you mean by ‘the Syrian’ method of counting. Do you have a reference? I take Eusebius’ mention of 40 years to be a ‘round number’, akin to ‘a generation’. That strikes me as the best way to reconcile the mention of both 40 years and 42 years.

P.S. I’ve written up some of my thoughts on the matter here in case you’re interested in further details: academia.edu/24267678/A_Chronology_of_Jesus_Ministry
Click to expand...
Cited from Agape Bible Studies:
The annals of the Assyrian Empire discovered by archaeologists record 12 years between the reigns of King Ahab of Israel and King Jehu of Israel. However, the Biblical record records 14 years between the reigns of these two kings with two kings between them, Ahaziah who ruled for two years and Jehoram who ruled 12 years ( 1 Kings 22:51; 2 Kings 3:1). What at first glance appears to be a discrepancy can be easily explained by historians. Ancient kingdoms had different ways of recording reignal years of their kings. The Assyrians and Babylonians credited the entire year when a king died to his reign, even if he died in the beginning of the year and his successor ruled 11 months of that year. That first year for the new Assyrian king would be designated his “ascension year” and the new king’s “year 1” did not begin until the first day of the following year. Historians call this method the “accession year” system or the “post-dating” system.

However, in Egypt the newly crowned Pharaoh recorded the actual year he came to the throne as “year 1” of his reign even though it was a partial year. This system of dating a reign is called the “non-accession-year” system, or “ante-dating.” The kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel adopted the Egyptian system of dating a king’s reign. Jeroboam I was the first king of the divided Northern Kingdom of Israel. He was a prince of the tribe of Ephraim and a descendant of Joseph son of Jacob/Israel and Joseph’s Egyptian wife Asenath. When King Solomon exiled Jeroboam, the refugee Ephraimite prince sought refuge in Egypt, so it is understandable that the Egyptian system is the one adopted by the Northern Kingdom’s first king. The Kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, adopted the Assyrian system of only counting the first full year of a king’s reign as “year 1”. Therefore, the two year difference between the Assyrian annals and the Israelite kings Ahab and Jehu are really just one full year plus part of a year that was counted as the predecessor’s year. The 12 years of Joram were 11 full years plus the months from his predecessor’s death and so the Biblical account is not in error. By the Israelite system of counting reigns Ahaziah and Joram ruled for 14 years, but according to the Assyrian system, which only counted the full years of a reign, they ruled for 12 years just as Shalmaneser’s Assyrian annals record.

Your 28 date for Jesus death doesn’t line up with Biblical evidence that Jesus ate the Passover before he died on a Friday. And tradition tells us Luke was a Syrian, so he would have been familiar with this type of counting. Luke wasn’t Josephus.
 
Dear JB,

I’m familiar with the distinction between accessional and non-accessional reckoning. But I still don’t see you how get part of 27 AD to be Tiberius’s 15th year. What kind of years are you counting here? Nisan-years, Tishri-years, Roman (Jan.) years?

28 AD is fine with a Passover meal before a Friday crucifixion. That’s discussed in the link I provided.

James.
 
40.png
jbejon:
P.S. I’ve written up some of my thoughts on the matter here in case you’re interested in further details: academia.edu/24267678/A_Chronology_of_Jesus_Ministry
Click to expand...
Welcome to the conversation jbejon. Ive downloaded your paper, and will get back to you later. If you want to see some of my similar papers you can find them here: Academia - Christian Gedge
 
Thanks very much Christian! Yes, please do let me know any thoughts you have on the matter. I’m conscious I may well have made some errors in calculations or method (always an issue when working on chronologies), and it would be valuable to me to see if, where, and why your ideas differ from mine. James.
 
jbejon said:
Dear JB,

I’m familiar with the distinction between accessional and non-accessional reckoning. But I still don’t see you how get part of 27 AD to be Tiberius’s 15th year. What kind of years are you counting here? Nisan-years, Tishri-years, Roman (Jan.) years?

28 AD is fine with a Passover meal before a Friday crucifixion. That’s discussed in the link I provided.

James.
Click to expand...
The Syrian method. That was the method I used.
 
jbejon said:
Dear JB,

I’m familiar with the distinction between accessional and non-accessional reckoning. But I still don’t see you how get part of 27 AD to be Tiberius’s 15th year. What kind of years are you counting here? Nisan-years, Tishri-years, Roman (Jan.) years?

28 AD is fine with a Passover meal before a Friday crucifixion. That’s discussed in the link I provided.

James.
Click to expand...
A nowoezone.com/NTC12.htm

This passage is the basis for my use.
Tiberius became Caesar on August 19, 14, and in that year Dios 1 fell on October 15. Thus, his first regnal year according to the Syro-Macedonian calendar would be from Dios 1, or October 25, 13 until October 14, 14. Luke would have measured the fifteen years from that year one by non-accession, or inclusive, reckoning. Thus, the “fifteenth year” fell from October 20, 27 to October 9, 28. According to Luke’s Syro-Macedonian reckoning John the Baptist began his ministry between these two dates. This falls in line with the arrival of Pontius Pilate by the autumn of 27. The earliest first Passover of Jesus’ ministry would have been in 28.

Check out this link:
nowoezone.com/NTC12.htm
 
40.png
jbejon:
P.S. I’ve written up some of my thoughts on the matter here in case you’re interested in further details: academia.edu/24267678/A_Chronology_of_Jesus_Ministry
Click to expand...
Ive printed it out, and appreciating the amount of research you’ve done. However, an April AD 26, to April AD 28 ministry seems too early to me. This is especially so considering your 3 BC birth of Jesus, and his age at baptism.

Also, are you aware that the Passover fell on Tue/Wed in AD 28? Jesus was crucified Friday.
 
JB_Brother_4446 said:
A nowoezone.com/NTC12.htm

This passage is the basis for my use.
Tiberius became Caesar on August 19, 14, and in that year Dios 1 fell on October 15. Thus, his first regnal year according to the Syro-Macedonian calendar would be from Dios 1, or October 25, 13 until October 14, 14. Luke would have measured the fifteen years from that year one by non-accession, or inclusive, reckoning. Thus, the “fifteenth year” fell from October 20, 27 to October 9, 28. According to Luke’s Syro-Macedonian reckoning John the Baptist began his ministry between these two dates. This falls in line with the arrival of Pontius Pilate by the autumn of 27. The earliest first Passover of Jesus’ ministry would have been in 28.

Check out this link:
nowoezone.com/NTC12.htm
Click to expand...
Ah, I see; Dios-years. Thanks. That seems possible then.
 
Cyberseeker said:
Ive printed it out, and appreciating the amount of research you’ve done. However, an April AD 26, to April AD 28 ministry seems too early to me. This is especially so considering your 3 BC birth of Jesus, and his age at baptism.

Also, are you aware that the Passover fell on Tue/Wed in AD 28? Jesus was crucified Friday.
Click to expand...
Hmm…I don’t personally see a problem here. Jesus would ‘begin to be about 30’ at his baptism, as stated by Luke. And, with intercalation, you can have a Friday Passover in 28 AD. I think both of those issues are covered somewhere. Thanks for taking the time to look at it. James.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top