the gospel according to St Matthew

Notes:

CHRONOLOGY OF THE GOSPELS.

1. IN DEALING WITH THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE GOSPEL PERIOD
we have to ascertain

1. the starting-point,
2. the length of our Lord's life and Ministry,
3. the arrangement of it as gathered from the Gospels.

On all these points there are differences of opinion.
It is generally agreed that the birth of Christ ought to be set back by at least four years.
It seems to have happened very shortly before the death of Herod the Great.
Herod died in the 750th year from the building of Rome, i.e. four years before the usual starting-point of Christian chronology,
so that we are forced to the conclusion that our Lord was born BC 4, or, according to some, a little earlier.

2. OUR LORD'S MINISTRY.
The starting- point of the -Ministry is given very clearly in St.Luke iii.1.
Caesar Augustus, under whose reign our Lord was born, had died,
Tiberius having been associated with him on the imperial throne for the last three years of his reign, AD.11-14.
The fifteenth year from the commencement of this joint reign brings us to AD.26 by which time Pihite was acting as procurator of Judaea;
Caiaphas had been appointed High Priest the year before, while his father-in-law Annas still probably presided over the Sanhedrin;
Herod Antipas was still carrying on his Iong rule in Galilee, and Herod Philip in Bashan and the neighbourhood.
All these notes of time fit in with the conclusion that AD.26 was the beginning of John thie Baptist's work, and consequently of our Lord's Ministry, and that His death and resurrection must have taken place in AD.29 or 30.

3. THE DURATION OF HIS MINISTRY is usually reckoned at three and a half years,
but some reckon it as two and a half.
A great deal depends on the meaning of St.John v.1.
If the feast named was a Passover,
we know that the Ministry was three and a half years.
If it was not a Passover, there is no reason for prolonging the Ministry beyond two and a half years.
On the whole, it cannot be said for certain that the feast was a Passover.
The probabilities both regarding the text and the interpretation are against it.
(See Revised Version, John v. 1.)

4. DIVISIONS.
The Gospel Narrative may be thus divided:-

1. The Nativity and Early Life of Jesus.
2. From the Preaching of John to the First Passover.
3. From the First Passover to the Second.
4. From the Second Passover to the Third.
5. Holy Week.
6. The Death and Burial.
7. The Resurrection and the Great forty Days.

[See Tischendorf's Synopsis Evangelica;
Bp.Ellicott's Lectures on the Life of the Lord;
Dr.Edersheim's Life & Times of Jesus of Nazareth.]
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© Paul Ingram 2007.