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Length of Jesus' Ministry?
Nutman:
Hi all, new here.
My question is the lenght of Jesus' ministry. I know the Synoptics give more of a "where" and John more of a "when" when it comes to this. By that I mean John's gospels places Jesus at times (i.e. Jewish Holidays) but they all have the last holiday, the Passover.
By counting the number of holidays in John, in this case Passover (3), I get 2 years. Starts on /about a passover and ends on a passover (unless you consider the 40 days before the acension)
When I look through the records of John I see this:
a. He starts at a Passover – goes to Jerusalem
b. There is 4 months until the harvest
c. A feast of the Jews was nigh (the next would’ve been Pentecost – about this time frame) and Jesus goes to Jerusalem
d. Chapter 6 mentions Passover, yet Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem but goes north from Tiberius to Capernaum
e. Goes to the feast of Tabernacles, present in Jerusalem
f. The feast of dedication, its winter – Chanukah
g. Back in Jerusalem for the Passover
I have been trying to figure out if there could be an error in translation, but I don't have the resources to go to older manuscripts or texts.
Why an error:
1. We have a Passover
2. We then have a feast
3. This means we skip the feasts of:
a. Tabernacles
b. Dedication
c. [coming to that Passover] Pentecost
4. Now we get back on track for the Feast of Tabernacles?
5. Dedication
6. the last Passover
Given how accurate God would be in regards to these timely events, doesn’t it appear that the chronology is off? We seem to skip a year of events.
Three times each year, every male among you must appear before God the Lord..." (Exodus 23:14-17)
If Jesus was the Lamb of God, should his ministry be a year? Hebrews gives a wonderful job on Jesus as "this and that" which includes being a sacrifice.
If he didn't goto Jerusalem, he would've broken the Law.
Exodus 12:5 (King James Version)
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Without better research materials, could that 2nd Passover may have been a reference to Pentecost, maybe Tabernacles and he tarried at Capernaum or a possible less important summer holiday based on the chronology of John’s accounts? Could an early translator have made an error?
Granted, John states that not everything Jesus did was recorded becuase of the amount of volumes it would fill, yet it wouldn't have been much to include when he visited Jerusalem.
mharrell08:
--- Quote from: Nutman on May 19, 2011, 09:49:24 AM ---Granted, John states that not everything Jesus did was recorded becuase of the amount of volumes it would fill, yet it wouldn't have been much to include when he visited Jerusalem.
--- End quote ---
That's an interesting question Nutman but the Scriptures don't go into exact details regarding the length of Christ's ministry.
I have a question however: Who/What decides how important the length of His ministry was? Is there an important doctrine that would be contradicted based on the length of His ministry? Because if there is, it might be wise to get to the root of that issue instead. Just a thought to further the discussion.
Marques
gmik:
Welcome Nutmeg to our Forum family.
Most people think he ministered for 3 years. I don't know really.
dave:
This much I know, how ever long or short the ministry of Jesus was, IT WAS ENOUGH, NEITHER TO LONG NOR TWO SHORT. Peace and Love Through Jesus.
Nutman:
--- Quote from: mharrell08 on May 19, 2011, 10:01:23 AM ---
--- Quote from: Nutman on May 19, 2011, 09:49:24 AM ---Granted, John states that not everything Jesus did was recorded becuase of the amount of volumes it would fill, yet it wouldn't have been much to include when he visited Jerusalem.
--- End quote ---
That's an interesting question Nutman but the Scriptures don't go into exact details regarding the length of Christ's ministry.
I have a question however: Who/What decides how important the length of His ministry was? Is there an important doctrine that would be contradicted based on the length of His ministry? Because if there is, it might be wise to get to the root of that issue instead. Just a thought to further the discussion.
Marques
--- End quote ---
The importance of his ministry would be based on what prophetic scriptures that were written about him. If he was the "bread of life", "The Alpha and the Omega", etc. - as well as the "Lamb of God" then significance should be place on the duties of that lamb. In this instance, what were the characteristics of the sacrifical animal and why was it chosen?
Would a 1year ministry be relevant to the Lamb being of the 1st year without spot or blemish and would the Lamb be an allusion to being sin free sacrifice?
I don't think of it as much as being an important doctrine being contradicted, but if you were to have a discussion with someone of Jewish faith, would it take on even more meaning to them to realize that Jesus is the Christ becuase he was a lamb of the first year?
It would be simple to see it written "Jesus' ministery of reconcilliation lasted one year from so-and-so till so-and-so" but it don't.
Yet, if there is a chronological order of events then deduction would indicate the length. Ah, well...
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