II. REDATING JESUS' DEATH
12. "AND JESUS HIMSELF BEGAN TO BE ABOUT 30 YEARS OF AGE"
This is the standard translation of Luke, 3, 23. It leaves us with a feeling of approximation : Jesus was more or less 30 when he was baptized by John.
One can nevertheless prefer another meaning of the Greek word "ωσετ" which gives a sense of duration9 : as long as, while.
Another translation of Luke, 3, 23 could then be :
- "Jesus was in his thirties" or
- "Jesus was thirty something",
which implies that he had not yet reached 40 but was over 30. This translation is closer to the Aramean version of Luke's text which says : "Jesus was around thirty."28
To determine the age of Jesus when he died, we have to know his date of birth.
The reader shall find a note (in Annexes p 80) about the Three Wise Men's star, which dates the Nativity to the summer of the year 5 BC (-4).
According to these chronologies, Jesus would then have died at the age of 39 years and 9 months, that is well over 30, which is exactly the meaning of "ωσετ".
This is in accordance with Luke, 3, 23. It also tallies with the Syriac texts mentionned by P. Perrier29 which say that Jesus died during his 6th septennial, i.e. between 35 and 42, which itself excludes a death in year 30.
Let us note as well that the retort (John, 8, 57) : "Thou art not yet fifty years old [...]" implies more that he has a mature age than that he is a young rabbi to whom they would have said : "You are but 30".
This is the argument used by Irenæus at the end of the 2nd century (in Adversus Hæreses, II, 22).
