Question:
Please explain Luke 3:23 in the Revised Version. Jesus was baptized at the age of thirty. His ministry began A.D. 27. Did His ministry begin three years before His baptism?
Answer:
Our inquirer has confounded the beginning of the Christian era with Christ’s birth. The start of the Christian era is about four years after the birth of Jesus. It was placed there in the thirteenth century by Roger Bacon. He found that the paschal full moon A.D. 33 fell on Friday, and this circumstance led him and several others, such as Scaliger, Usher, and Pierson, to conclude that this was the year of the crucifixion. Still, Dr. Hales’ Chronology shows that it was not the year of the crucifixion. Christ began His ministry at about thirty in the autumn of A.D. 27. He closed it in the spring of A.D. 31, three and one-half years later.
