As I mentioned in a previous topic, the use of quantity, numbering, dates, measurements and such in the Bible is impossibly wonky for several reaasons.
1. In Hebrew, Greek and Latin there were no separate number symbols exclusively used for math purposes. Instead, letters of their alphabet did double-duty. (Such as A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.)
2. Superstitious ideas about the "meaning" of numbers was rampant and Gematria (looking for hidden mysterious in the inherent "number of "words") preoccupied scriptural writing and studies.
3. Calendar changes throughout history (such as the switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian) were haphazardly begun by different countries at different times. Co-ordinating things cannot be synchronized from one to the other easily.
4.The original autograph manuscripts of Bible writers simply disappeared and do not exist at all for purposes of checking accuracy of modern translations with copies of copies of copies starting about 250 years after the actual writings!
In view of the above, I thought it would interesting to look at a simple question and see if the Bible can "answer" it for us:
How old was Jesus when he began his ministry and in what year did this take place?
Luke verse 1: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." It was at this place, where John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and "the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him (v.23), being commended by the Father with "a voice [that] came from heaven," He began His ministry.
Tremendously detailed, isn't it? Must make it very easy to answer our question. But, look at the result:
In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, who began his reign in August, 14 A.D., Jesus, according to Matthew, was at least thirty-three years of age; according to Luke, about twenty-two.
Regarding this subject, Dr. Geikie writes as follows: "The age of Jesus at his entrance on his public work has been variously estimated. Ewald supposes that he was about thirty-four, fixing his birth three years before the death of Herod.
Wieseler, on the contrary, believes him to have been in his thirty-first year, setting his birth a few months before Herod's death. Bunsen, Anger, Winer, Schurer, and Renan agree with this.
Lichtenstein makes him thirty-two.
Hausrath and Keim, on the other hand, think that he began his ministry in the year AD. 34, but they do not give any supposed date for his birth, though if that of Ewald be taken as a medium he must have been forty years old, while, if Wieseler's date be preferred, he would only have been thirty-seven ... Amidst such difference, exactness is impossible" (Life of Christ, Vol. I, pp. 455, 456).
- From the death of Herod, a comet, and a census we can narrow down Jesus' birth to 5-6 B.C. According to Luke, Jesus was around 30 years old when he started his ministry. His ministry started around A.D. 26-27 (cross reference rulers mentioned with other records outside of the Bible). If you count the number of Passovers (a yearly feast) mentioned, his ministry lasted for at least 2 years, take into account another unknown feast, likely over 3 years. Because of the day of the week he was crucified on (and the day he rose from the dead) he either died in A.D. 30 or A.D. 33.
- According to most Bible scholars Jesus was born in 4 BC (either the spring or the fall) by our modern calendar and began His ministry around 27 AD (age 30). .
- Can we really depend on the "precision" of the inspired Bible to answer ANY question requiring detail, quanity, accuracy and chronology?