From Jordan to Golgotha
“And the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:22, 23).
How long was the spirit-begotten life of Jesus Christ? Nobody knows precisely. But from Autumn 29 AD to Spring 33 AD is about 3½ years.
Having acknowledged that no one knows with certainty, we may consider a possibility. That Jesus was born a very few years after 4 BC has been shown by W. E. Fil-mer, Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 17, Number 2, pages 283-298 (October 1966).1
Jesus at Jordan
Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, was a priest of the course of Abijah, which was the eighth course of 24 (1 Chronicles 24:1-10). With two courses per month, in 3 BC the eighth course would have been June 30 to July 13 (15 days, based upon Nisan 1 = March 18). Jesus was conceived in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, which would be about December 8 to January 6. Thus, John was probably born in the second week of 2 BC, April, and Jesus was probably born in 2 BC, September, or perhaps early in October. (In 2 BC, Tishri 1 = October 1. A majority of early Christian commentators say or imply that Jesus was born in 3/2 BC.)
Therefore, Jesus’ baptism cannot have been before 29 AD. Luke 3:1 puts the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar (14-37 AD), which would be 29 AD. (In 29 AD, Tishri 1 = Wednesday, September 28.) Jesus began to be about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), therefore, about September of 29 AD. The third of three mandatory feasts that Israelites were required to observe “in the place which Jehovah shall choose” (Deuteronomy 16:13-17, i.e., at the Temple in Jerusalem) was October 12-18 that year.2 And Jesus’ family was observant (Luke 2:41).
Unless Jesus were born September 1 or 2, he could not have been baptized at or after his thirtieth birthday, spent forty days in the wilderness, and returned to Jerusalem in time for the Feast of Sukkoth. And Luke 4:13-14 apparently says that Jesus returned from the forty days to Galilee, rather than to Jerusalem; so Jesus’ baptism and the forty days must have come after the Feast of Sukkoth (Booths, or Tabernacles).
Christ at Golgotha
The single most-likely assumption is that Jesus was baptized on the first Sabbath after the Feast of Sukkoth, or Saturday, October 22. If so, then it follows that the number of days of Jesus’ spirit-begotten life to his crucifixion (April 3, 33 AD) was: (3 x 365 + 1) + 10 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 28 + 31 + 3 = 1260 days.
That is, (3 years + leap day) + days left in October + November + December + January + February + March + days in April.
So what is the relationship to the 1260 days of the two witnesses and the celestial woman in Revelation 11:3 and 12:6? This writer does not know. So let the relationship be left as an exercise to the reader.3
– Bro. James Parkinson
Postnote: Josephus’ lunar eclipse was followed by Herod, terminally ill of distemper, going to the warm baths at Callirrhoe beyond the Jordan River, calling the eminent men of Judea and interning them in the hippodrome, and having his son Antipater slain. That was followed by five more days until his death, then a 25-mile funeral procession at 1 mile per day. After that Archelaus suppressed sedition at the Temple, and then came the Passover Feast.4
To sandwich all this in between the partial lunar eclipse of 4 BC March 13, 3:15 am Jerusalem time (with the umbra just reaching to the center of the moon) and the Passover Feast, April 12-18, strains credibility excessively. (To postulate that the 3 BC Passover is meant, strains credibility to suppose Herod’s sons, Herod Antipas and Herod Archelaus, would have waited still longer to go to Rome seeking confirmation.)
However, if it was the total eclipse of 1 BC January 10, 1:28 am (lasting 95% of the maximum duration), to the Passover Feast, April 9-15, then all these events can easily fit into those three months. The 1 BC reckoning of Herod’s death is consistent with a birth of Jesus within three weeks of the 2 BC Autumnal Equinox; and Herod’s slaughter of babies at Bethlehem during his terminal illness would be in character with his other acts at that time.
(1) Filmer notes that of Emil Schiirer’s three fundamental assumptions (leading to 4 BC for the birth of Jesus Christ), two are patently false and the third is dubious. Objections that Herod’s sons, Archelaus and Antipater, apparently began reigning in 4 BC, need not mean that Herod had died; it may coincide with Herod’s demotion from “Caesar’s friend” to “servant.” (Ernest L. Martin, The Birth of Christ Recalculated!, Foundation for Biblical Research; 1978, pages 83-86.)
(2) The solution to the Leviticus 23:39-43 problem of a seven-day Feast of Sukkoth ending in the eighth day would appear to be a feast beginning at sundown at a time when the beginning of the day was being reckoned at sunrise.
(3) Editor comment – If the two witnesses represent the Old and New Testaments, then they are the written Word of God (Mark 7:13). Jesus is the living Word of God (Revelation 19:13). Thus it is engaging to see Revelation 11:3 define a period of 1260 days in the ministry of the two witnesses, and to see Jesus fulfill a period of 1260 days for his ministry.
The parallel is strengthened in Revelation 11:7-12, which depicts a death of the two witnesses, then their resurrection and ascention to heaven, as occurred with Jesus also.
(4) Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 17, 6:1 to 9:3.