> From: Lucy Pick <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Age of Christ Redux
>
> Evidently early Christians were as confused as we seem to be about the age
> of Christ. I offer the following passage from a thirteenth-century
> anti-Jewish treatise I am studying:
>
> "John Chrysostom says that Jesus fulfilled the justice of the Law for thirty
> years. After thirty years he was baptised, which seems to be contrary to
> the Gospel where Luke says, " Jesus was beginning his thirtieth year," (Lc
> 3,23). Thus he had not finished his thirtieth year, but he had begun the
> thirtieth, and a year is counted for the whole, and afterwards he taught the
> justice of the Gospel in that thirtieth year and in the two folllowing
> years. And thus for three years he fulfilled the justice of the Gospel."
>
> This passage shows that the question whether Jesus died at age thirty-two or
> thirty-three is an old one. I haven't found the citation to Chrysostom (but
> I haven't looked very hard). If someone recognizes it, I would love to
> know. I suspect that a look at the the _Glossa ordinaria_ for the passage
> from Luke might turn up a discussion of patristic opinion on the question.
>
> Lucy K. Pick
This seems to be a reference to Chrysostom's Homily 10 in Matthew (on Mt
3.1-2), which explicitly refers to "Luke" (see 3.23 in which it is said
that Jesus "began" when he was "about 30 years" -- vague language that
doubtless led to various confusions) as evidence that it was after 30
years that John baptized Jesus -- after Jesus had fulfilled what the law
required and had reached adult maturity.
In general, discussions about the age of Jesus (and for that matter, the
date of his birth and of his death) revolve around (1) dating the death of
Herod the Great, about 4 bce (subsequent to Jesus' birth, in those
traditions); (2) dating of the known governance of Quirinius, and thus his
census, in 6 ce; (3) Lk 3.23 Jesus was "about 30 years"
when baptized (around the 15th year of emperor Tiberius, who began to rule
around 14 ce); and (4) the number of annual Jewish festivals (passovers)
required for the sequence of events in G.John -- about 3 years; sometimes
a reference is also made to (5) the passage in G.John that "he is not yet
50 years old" (8.57). The step from items #3 and #4 to the conclusion of
"33 years" (however reckoned) seems to have been an easy path to take,
regardless of the complications presented by the other items, and
especially by G.Luke's apparent confusions.
Bob Kraft, UPenn
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|