how old was Jesus????

[WISDOM]

GREAT QUESTION!!!! sure got my attention! so i googled it... this is what i found, for what that's worth. it does come from carm.org which seems to be pretty reliable.

http://www.carm.org/questions/Jesus_age.htm

How old was Jesus when He was crucified?

We do not know for sure the exact age of Jesus when He was crucified, but He was probably 33 years old. Here is the argument.

Jesus was baptized. But the reason He was baptized was to "fulfill all righteousness," (Matt. 3:15). He had to fulfill the legal requirements for entering into the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4; Heb. 5:8-10; 6:20). Priests offered sacrifice to God on behalf of the people. Jesus became a sacrifice for our sin (1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:21) in His role as priest.

To be consecrated as a priest, Jesus had to be: 1) washed with water - baptism - (Lev. 8:6; Exodus 29:4, Matt. 3:16). 2) Anointed with oil - the Holy Spirit - (Lev. 8:12; Exodus 29:7; Matt. 3:16). Additionally, He may have needed to be 30 years old, Num. 4:3, "from thirty years and upward, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tent of meeting."

Therefore we can conclude that Jesus began His earthly ministry at the age of 30. Since it went on for 3 1/2 years before Jesus was crucified, it is safe to say that He was 33 at the time of His death.

Concur....in accordance with the Word!

[Guest shiloh357]

Ok Shiloh357! Sorry this took longer to respond then I thought, but I was challenged to see if Rabbi Yochanan was right or not. SO I studied this thoroughly and here is what I found and discovered.

As for time of year Yeshua starts his ministry, the reading Yeshua makes was in Isaiah 61:1-2, and is actually NOT in any of the Haftarah portions. Believe it or not (in fact don't believe me- mayber I missed it) Isaiah 61:1-9 is not read at all.

The problem here is that in the first century, the Torah reading covered a three year cycle, not the current one year cycle we are familiar with. Also the current haftarah reading schedule is not the same, either. Neither was the haftarah readings fixed as they are today.

The current 1 year cycle we are familiar with came after the destruction of the Temple, and became fixed sometime in the 3rd century C.E. The Haftarah is believed to have begun in the days when Antiochus ruled Jerusalem. It is believed that since the Torah was banned, the Jewish people managed to read from the prophets and writings, albeit in secret.

As for Yeshua's reading of the haftarah, it was customary in the first century for the reader to read before and/or after what was considered the established Haftarah reading. So it does not follow, that we cannot know from Luke 4 the time when Yeshua first began his ministry. Most scholars believe that Yeshua began His ministry in the late Summer, early Fall. Yeshua clearly was reading from the Haftarah. In fact, the New Testament has some of the most historic evidence of the existance of the Haftarah in ancient times (Luke 4:17, Acts 13:15).

Did you notice Isaiah 61:1-2 talks about "the year of the LORD'S good pleasure"....

"The acceptable Year of the Lord." Yes, and it is a reference to the "year of the Jubilee." That makes my point. The Jubilee year began in the Fall (Lev. 25:9ff). Therefore, it is most fitting that Messiah would begin His ministry with a Scripture mentioning the year of Jubilee. It is also fitting that Messiah would begin His ministry on a Jubilee Year. Furthermore, He did not quote all of v. 2, which talks about the day of the Lord's vengence, referred to elsewhere as the "Day of the Lord." This is always connected with the High Holy Days. The "Day of the Lord" is characterized as both a time of wrath, and a time of peace, at the same time. It is a time of wrath for those who do not have the Messiah, and a time of peace for the believers in Messiah.

The Day of the Lord is also a common term for the Millenium (Atid Lavo), and it is typfied by the Fall Festival of Sukkot. If the Biblical pattern follows the Messiah will be coronated on Rosh Hashannah, and the New Temple will be ready and dedicated during Sukkot just as the first Temple was, in the days of Solomon during the month of Epanim (Tishrei). Everything about the passage Messiah quoted speaks to the Autumn of the year being the time he began His ministry.

[Isaiah-smiles]

According to Luke 3:23, Jesus was 30 when He was baptized and then He was led into the wilderness to be tempted in the 3 areas of which man was tempted and failed ("For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."-1 John 2:16). I believe that this began His ministry, because of the anointing when the Holy Spirit descended and lighted upon Him in the form of a dove. From hencefourth, He would have to be observed, i believe, for three years as being a "Lamb unblemished". Just like the Passover lamb had to be observed for 3 days. And as 1 Peter 1:18-20 states, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" His ministry was out in the open for ALL to observe, for what I believe, to be for 3 years. So, what I can conclude with this is that it was very probable that Jesus was 33 years old when He was sacrifriced for the atonement of our sin

[other one]

The world was transfixed by the year 2000--worried about the'Y2K' bug in computers,

millennial madness in cult groups, political union in Europe, and a proposal to make

Mary "co-redemptrix" in the Catholic Church. While Rome flirted with blasphemy, few

realized that the true 2000th lunar anniversary of the birth of Jesus was August 22, 1998,

or on September 11, 1998 by the solar calendar dating we now use.

Many may live to see the consequences of the anniversary, if it foreshadowed a coming

fake Christ. Or at the least, there were dozens of lunatics eager to take advantage of the

year 2000 hysteria to get the attention of the gullible.

Yet the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity actually came 475 days before year 2000

began. The correct anniversary date was about sundown, Jerusalem time, the end of the

Sabbath, Saturday August 22, 1998.

How can we know the exact day--and nearly the hour--of the birth of Jesus?

Simple arithmatic. A child could have done it, if only the basic assumptions had been

correct. But they weren't. In the 19th century, critical scholars made a crucial decision to

reject a total lunar eclipse in January 1 BC and to accept instead one in March 4 BC, as

the chronological cornerstone for dating the death of Herod the Great, and thereby, the

possible birth years for Jesus.

By so doing, the critics could argue Jesus had to born before 4 BC, contradicting

Luke, who tied Jesus' 30th year to the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, 27-28 AD. Luke

effectively placed the birth in 3 BC, as did many of the early church fathers. Ironically,

even the date used by the Pope during the Christmas Eve midnight mass ritual is itself

consistent with the last half of 3 BC.

The dirty little secret is that virtually all the available evidence has always pointed

at the harvest period of 3 BC as the focal point of the Nativity--including the possibility

of a late summer birth.

By rejecting Luke, scholars also threw out the date of the birth Luke gives in his

Gospel. In his second chapter, Luke tells what happened the day Mary came to the

Temple for purification 40 days after the birth of Jesus. All one has to know is what

day this was. And Luke plainly names the day. In fact, he includes three statements

identifying the day. So what day was this?

Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. The 10th day of the seventh month of the

Hebrew calendar.

In Luke's time, Yom Kippur was called three things: The day of the "Fast," the day

of the "Purification,"and the day of "Redemption." Luke uses all three to identify the

day Jesus was brought to the Temple. And he even quotes the Torah rule that mandates

the 40-day period for the mother to wait after the child's birth [Lk 2:22-38].

And if there were any doubt that it was Yom Kippur, Luke tells of a woman named

Anna who had been in the Temple for a "night and day" without leaving. There was

ONLY ONE DAY A YEAR when a person could pray overnight in the Temple: Yom

Kippur. All other days, the Temple was locked at sundown.

This shows the 40th day of Mary's Purification had begun at the end of Yom Kippur,

the end of the 10th day of the 7th month, because we know the Purification was done at

the earliest opportunity--at the beginning of the 40th day after birth. And since the 6th

month normally had only 29 days, simple arithmatic shows Mary's 39 days of Purification

had to have begun around sundown on the 1st day of the 6th month, called Elul.

This was the night of the first sighting of the new moon of Elul. The Magi in Babylon

were recording this sunset sliver of the new moon on a clay tablet. The cuneiform tablet

the Magi made at that hour 2000 years ago, along with thousands of others from Babylon,

resides in the British Museum. It is possible that this clay tablet was inscribed by one of

the famous Magi who later brought a strange set of gifts to Bethlehem. So the new moon

seen by the Magi in Babylon at the very moment of Jesus being born is recorded on one of

the tablets now in London. Cuneiform scholars have identified the date on this tablet as

equivalent to September, 11, 3 BC.

The Hebrew lunar calendar dates vary with respect to our solar calendar. So the 1st

of Elul was September 11th in 3 BC, but began on August 22 in 1998. The same was true

in the days of the early church, of course. In a given year, the 1st of Elul could have fallen

on September 8th, for example.

This may solve another ancient mystery. No one seems to know how Rome came to

honor September 8th as the birthday of Mary. There is no Biblical, historical, or church

tradition to explain it. It just emerges out of nowhere. Rome keeps the 8th of December as

the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary [ie. conceived without original sin]. It is

a holy day of obligation for all Catholics to attend Mass. This feast is clearly based upon

September 8th also, and mortal sin is attached to the failure of a Catholic to observe it, yet

the origins of these dates are unknown.

On the other hand, we can now see that if Jesus were born on September 11th as Luke

indicates, then Jesus would have been conceived around December 8th in 4 BC. The now

mysterious Mary dates fit Jesus quite well. How might this have happened?

In the late 4th century, in early 380 AD, Pope Damasus I was endeavoring to force all

Christians in the Roman Empire to yield to his authority. He got the Emperor to issue an

edict requiring them to practice the religion of Rome. We know that it is about this time

the Christmas midnight Mass was first celebrated and December 25th first identified as a

Catholic holy day. It is said Damasus was seeking to lure the people away from pagan

rites honoring the birth of the sun god at midnight by compelling Catholic attendance at a

memorial in honor of Christ's death, ie the Mass. The people confused this Mass with the

pagan solar birth rituals conducted at that same time. Gradually, the Christ-Mass became

associated with the Nativity.

Meanwhile, the true feast around September 8th, which naturally honored Mary in

giving birth to Jesus, was converted into a day commemorating her own birth, and an old

holyday honoring the conception of Jesus was converted into a day commemorating the

conception of Mary on December 8th. Strangely, there is still widespread belief among

non-Catholics that this is the day Jesus was concieved--a possible lingering remembrance

of the original meaning of this date.

We can also tell from Luke's Gospel that Jesus had been born in early evening, for

Luke says the shepherds were keeping watch by night, but still had time to go into town

and tell the people what they had seen earlier that evening. People rose early with the sun

in those days, and would have been asleep by 9 or 10 pm. Therefore, the birth had taken

place no later than 8 pm, and probably before 7 pm. Yet Luke says it happened at night,

which means after sunset--surely after 6 pm in September. Hence, it follows that Jesus

was born within a few minutes of 6:30-7:30 pm on the evening of September 11th, 3 BC.

A confirmation of this time is in the book of Revelation. Historian Ernest L. Martin

consulted NASA lunar-phase tables and found the image of the heavens in Revelation 12

showed where the sun and the moon were, relative to Virgo, at the time Jesus was born,

pin-pointing sunset of September 11th of 3 BC. It seems the moon moves so quickly it is

"beneath the feet" of Virgo only a few hours every month. Moreover, the moon comes

within two lunar diameters of Virgo's feet at the time of a new moon but once in 30 years.

The only such occurance any time near the birth of Jesus was on September 11th, 3 BC.

Most previous attempts at determining the birth time were based upon astrology and

dating the Star of Bethlehem. No one considered 3 BC because that year had erroneously

been assumed to follow Herod's death. However, Dr. Martin has proven that Herod did

not die in 4 BC, but in 1 BC. Scholars are now generally accepting the new chronology for

Herod, and this in turn has allowed the confirmation of the New Testament date for the

birth of Jesus. Unfortunately, many churches continue to promote the critics' errors and

paganized traditions about the Nativity.

[K.L.]

wow. Other One, is that your website your quoting? Fascinating. Will be studying that one the side.

Shiloh357 Thankyou for that. This actually gives me two questions then. If anyone knows if the Jordan River is a calm river all year or is there a time that would be safest to baptize? The fall being Yeshua's birthday as thought, would be a dry season or rainy season? The Fall start of his Ministry makes since in light of a more cooler and wet possibly spring. But it still doesn't place Yeshua's ministry to 3 1/2 years. Last night in fact I opened it up to a group and presented the argument and we made our best effort to lengthen his ministry as much as possible by scripture. The best was 2 1/2 years if John's second "Passover" was really a "Passover" or a wrong translation to "feast". Through scripture alone. How can you get 3 1/2 years. (This is open to anyone not just Shiloh357). I'm also very skeptical of "church fathers"so I don't put hardly any weight to their opinions.

Also Luke states Yeshua was beginning his 30th year. That would make him 29 (maybe he was baptized on his birthday )

K.L.