Many people are taught that Yeshua's Ministry was either three and a half years or seventy weeks. Both these ideas are based off of a persons idea of interpreting prophesy. Be it based off of Daniel or otherwise, but not off of what the Gospels actually say! So today I would like to go through what is truly said of the length of Yeshua's ministry without these preconceived notions clouding the final verdict.
Before beginning we must start our foundation with a few things we have confirmation of, the year of his birth in int he fall of 3BC and the year of his death in the spring of 30AD.
First we need to look at when Yeshua's ministry began. Luke 3:23 says, Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. It was supposed that he was a son of Yosef who was of Eli. Showing us a relative age for his start. Interestingly enough the Jewish people of the time believed that a man must be thirty years of age before his teaching holds any authority to listen to, before one can be a Rabbi. Luke has even more to tell us, as we know that Yeshua's cousin, Yochannan the Immerser (John the Baptist), was about six months older than Yeshua (See the year of his birth post), we can then look at Luke 3:1-3, In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius’ rule; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Y’hudah, Herod ruler of the Galil, his brother Philip ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 with ‘Anan and Kayafa being the cohanim g’dolim; the word of God came to Yochanan Ben-Z’kharyah in the desert. 3 He went all through the Yarden region proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven. This further enforces what was stated in verse 23 as the the fifteenth year of Tiberius is historically held to being 28AD. John would have been 30 years old, turning 31 around the time of that Passover, and Yeshua being 30!
Leading us then to see that Jesus's first miracle would have been in the spring of 28AD, shortly before his first Passover in Ministry. We see these events in John 2:1-13, On Tuesday[a] there was a wedding at Kanah in the Galil; and the mother of Yeshua was there. 2 Yeshua too was invited to the wedding, along with his talmidim. 3 The wine ran out, and Yeshua’s mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 Yeshua replied, “Mother, why should that concern me? — or you? My time hasn’t come yet.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now six stone water-jars were standing there for the Jewish ceremonial washings, each with a capacity of twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Yeshua told them, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. 8 He said, “Now draw some out, and take it to the man in charge of the banquet”; and they took it.9 The man in charge tasted the water; it had now turned into wine! He did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. So he called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone else serves the good wine first and the poorer wine after people have drunk freely. But you have kept the good wine until now!”11 This, the first of Yeshua’s miraculous signs, he did at Kanah in the Galil; he manifested his glory, and his talmidim came to trust in him.12 Afterwards, he, his mother and brothers, and his talmidim went down to K’far-Nachum and stayed there a few days.
13 It was almost time for the festival of Pesach in Y’hudah, so Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim.
John 6:4 comes up next then, saying, Now the Judean festival of Pesach was coming up. Now, I don't want anyone to get to hung up on this verse as the second Passover. While I hold that this verse is entirely legitimate many do not and dispute it's authenticity. I do however want you to see that in the end this verse doesn't matter to the goal. It certainly supports the second Passover, the Passover of 29AD. But even if it is not an original verse to the Gospel of John it does not change the historical evidence we have in support of the year 28AD being the start of Yeshua's ministry and the year 30AD being the end of it.
We then see the Crucifixion of Yeshua takes part on the Passover of 30AD, the third Passover. John 11:55 shows us the start of the events leading up to the crucifixion, saying, The Judean festival of Pesach was near, and many people went up from the country to Yerushalayim to perform the purification ceremony prior to Pesach. You can then follow the rest of the crucifixion story from there, or any other Gospel.
So we can then conclude that Yeshua started his formal ministry at the age of 30, in the spring of the year 28AD near Passover. He died two years later, almost exactly, as he was crucified on Passover in 30AD. Making Yeshua 32 at the time of his death as his 33rd birthday would not have been until the fall of 30AD. His ministry then could only have been for about two years.
So there's a couple of issues with the two primary theories. With the idea of seventy weeks we run into the idea that it rejects the John 6:4 verse, claiming it was added at a later time. The second issue is that it goes against the historical account. To claim his ministry was seventy weeks is either to change the year his ministry began, by stating the fifteenth year of Tiberius is wrong and this scripture is wrong; or by claiming that he wasn't crucified in 30AD. Another issue they run into is that John 3 clearly shows us his ministry began around a Passover, and John further shows us it ended on a Passover. By no means can seventy weeks come out to equal the duration of only one year. In fact it can be said to come out to around sixteen months, which then to say that he was still crucified on a Passover starts his ministry in the fall of the prior year, completely against what John 3 states. The seventy week theory simply can not fit the biblical account.
The idea of the three and a half years that has been the most prevalent comes from an interpretation of prophesy within Daniel done by Eusebius of Ceasarea. It also doesn't fit as John shows us that the time could not have been 'a half" at all, starting and ended with Passovers. The historical account would also refute the idea that three years passed as there is only two within 28AD and 30BC. But the biggest issue here is that the interpretter placed more value on fitting his idea of prophesy than following what the scripture stated, that there was only 3 Passovers, and he started on the first and ended on the third. We must always place the word of scripture above our translation of prophesy, to get the big picture.
