In my last post, I looked at the statement that Irenaeus made that Jesus was around 50 years old when He died. Today I want to look at this from a different angle. The Jesus Police suggested a good way to approximate the age of Jesus at death. There are certain markers that we know that were in place at the time of Jesus’ birth and death. By locating those markers in history, we can find out a date range for both his birth and death. Then using those date ranges, we can come up with an age range for Jesus at the time of His death.

Biblical/ historical markers concerning Jesus’ birth

Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1) Ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD.

Census (Luke 2:1) A census occurred in 6 BC according to Josephus. Quirinius’ census occurred in 6-7 AD.

Herod (Matthew 2:1) Herod died in 4 BC.

Quirinius (Luke 2:2) Governor of Syria from 6-12 AD.

The Star of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:9) Various theories place the celestial occurrence between 12 and 2 BC.

Slaughter of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16) Unknown 

It is generally accepted that Jesus was born sometime between 7 and 4 BC.

Biblical/ historical markers for Jesus’ baptism

Tiberius (Luke 3:1) Tiberius reigned from 14-37 AD.

Based upon Tiberius’ reign and that John the Baptist began ministry when he was around 30 years old, Jesus was born around 1 BC.

Biblical/ historical markers for Jesus’ death

Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:13) Governor from 26-36 AD.

Caiaphas (Matthew 26:3) High Priest from 18-37 AD.

Herod Antipas (Luke 23:7) Reigned from 4 BC to 39 AD.

The most likely year for Jesus’ death is 33 AD but other years have strong arguments for them.

Now let’s put it all together. The youngest Jesus could have been, based on the latest birthdate and earliest death date, was 20. This is highly unlikely since we know that He was 30 when He began His ministry. The oldest that Jesus could have been was 48. Again this is unlikely since it is based upon an astronomical occurrence and conjecture. The most likely age of Jesus at the time of His death is somewhere between 37 and 41 based upon the most probable dates of birth and death.

Personally, I lean toward the 41, not because I turn 41 this year, but because of the testimony of Irenaeus and John 8:47 which has the Jews questioning Jesus: "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" If the Jews knew the age of Jesus, why didn’t they choose to say “You are not yet 40”? My guess is that Jesus must have exceeded the age of 40 but had not reached 50.

Next:

Does the idea that Jesus was in ministry for 7-11 years versus 1-3 years in popular thought, change your view of Jesus and His ministry?

In dealing with the dates of his birth, there are some irreconcilable differences. Quirinius was not a ruler while Herod the Great as alive. Both play into the nativity narratives. What does this say about Biblical inerrancy? Did Luke goof?