The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry 54
The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry
According to Luke 3:1, Jesus began his public ministry "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” Here, we might think, is an indication that should yield an exact date. But the matter is not so simple. Tiberius became emperor after the death of Augustus in August of A.D. 14. If this is when Luke begins his fifteen years, then the date of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry would be either 28 or 29. 103 But Tiberius began a coregency with Augustus in A.D. 11/12.
Counting from this date would place the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in 25/26 or 26/27. 104 However, while we cannot be certain, the former way of reckoning the beginning of Tiberias’s reign is the most natural, and it is therefore likely that Luke dates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in either 28 or 29. With any of these dates, justice is done to Luke’s approximation that Jesus was "about thirty years old” at the beginning of his ministry (Luke 3:23).