Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 9 · Doctrines 1 · Question 68
Quest. 68. In what yeare of his age Christ was baptized.
1. Some are of opinion, that Christ was 30. yeares complete before he was baptized: of which opinion was Beda, that Christ was baptized the 6. of Ianuarie, 13. dayes after he was full 30. yeare old, lib. de ration. temp. c. 41. So also Chrysostome hom. 10. in Matth. Euthymius in 3. c. Matth. Bernard serm. 1. de Epiphania. doe thinke that Christ came to be baptized after he was full thirtie yeare old: the same is the opinion of Iosephus Scaliger, lib. 6. de emendat. tempor. But this opinion is thus refelled. 1. because the word foreign, quasi, as it were 30. yeare old, Luk. 3. 23. sheweth that he was not full 30. yeare old. Scaliger answereth, that sometime this is not a word of doubting, but of affirming, as Ioh. 1. 14. we sawe the glorie thereof, as the glorie of the onelyonly begotten, &c. But he should hauehave giuen vsus an instance, where this word is vsed in numbring otherwise, then vncertainely and by way of geffe. 2. the words are, Iesus was about 30. yeare old foreign beginning: the meaning of which words must be, that he beganne to be about 30. yeare old: Euthymius to make his opinion good, readeth foreign, that is, entring or proceeding, referring it to his preaching: but the words is foreign, beginning, Iosephus Scaliger thinketh, that the word is not referred to the 30. yeares but put absolutely, after the phrase of the Hebrewes, as he giueth instance of that place, Gen. 9. 20. Noah beganne to be an husbandman: But this instance is against him: for Noah beganne then first after the …ood to be an husbandman: and this word beginning, cannot stand absolutely in any good sense, vnlesse there should be relation to something in respect whereof this beginning is.
2. An other opinion is, that Christ when he was baptized was onelyonly entred into his 30. yeare, about some 13. dayes: so Pererius vrging the strict words of Luke, that Christ began then to be about 30. yeare old: and maketh Ireneus with others to fauour this opinion; the first thus writeth, lib. 2. aduers. haeres▪ c. 39. Ad baptismum venit, &c. he came to baptisme not hauing yet fulfilled 30. yeares, but beginning to be about 30. yeare old, as S. Luke signifieth. Pererius iudgement here is agreeable to the words of the text, sauing that he holdeth Christ to hauehave beene borne in December, whereas there must be 3. yeares and an halfe betweene Chists baptisme and his passion, as is shewed afterward.
3. A third opinion is of Epiphanius, haeres. 50. that Christ was 30. yeares old within two moneths: whom he holdeth to hauehave beene borne vponupon the sixt day of Ianuarie, and to hauehave beene baptized in his 30. yeare, two moneths before the ende thereof about the sixt of Nouember: But the word, beginning, which S. Luke vseth, sheweth that he was toward the beginning rather then the ende of his 30. yeare.
4. Wherefore it is more probable, that Christ was baptized in the beginning, not in the ende of his 30. yeare, in the sixt monethmonth Tisri, whereof this reason may be yeelded out of Daniel, because Christs death ended halfe of a weeke, wherein the couenant was confirmed, which beganne at his preaching, immediately after his baptisme, H. Br. Concent. And if the 70. weekes must ende iust at the death of Christ, as is prooued before quest. 49. and Christ beginning to preach immediately after his baptisme, preached 3. yeares and an halfe, it must followe, that he was baptized in the beginning of his 30. yeare: And in this sense Christ is said in proper speaking to be thirtie yeare old, when he was but entring into his thirtie yeare, see more hereof quest. 71. and 72. following.
5. M. Lydyat thinketh that Christ dimidia ex parte exegerat annum aetatis tricesimum, had passed the halfe of his 30. yeare, when he was baptised, and the word foreign, beginning, he referreth to his preaching, not to his age. But I encline rather to the former opinion. 1. for there is no mention made at all of Christs preaching, in respect whereof he should be said to beginne: the words doe thus stand in the text, and Iesus himselfe was as it were of thirtie yeares beginning, &c. 2. neither did Christ immediately after his baptisme beginne to preach: he was first tempted. 40. dayes in the wildernes, next after his baptisme, as S. Luke sheweth in the next chapter. 3. and if Christ were baptised in the middest of his 30. yeare, and after that liued 3. yeares and an halfe, beeing put to death in the spring, it will followe, that he was also borne about that time of the yeare, which is also M. Lydyats opinion, which is verie improbable, as shall be shewed afterward quest. 71. following.
6. But M. Lydyat hath yet a more strange opinion: he thinketh that Iohn Baptist began to preach 4. yeares before Christ was baptised, in the 15. yeare of Tiberius raigne; and that Christ was baptised in the beginning of the 19. yeare of Tiberius, and suffred in the 22. yeare: his chiefe reasons are these.
1. There are 30. yeares, at what age Christ was baptised, from the 41. of Augustus, wherein Christ was borne, to the 19. of Tiberius.
2. The Temple was in building 46. yeares, Ioh. 2. which beganne to be built in the 18. yeare of Herod, whence vntounto the 15. yeare (he would say 19. yeare) of Tiberius are 47. yeares.
3. Iohn was not imprisoned and put to death before the 20. and 21. of Tiberius, for presently after Iohns beheading, followed the battell betweene Herod and Aretas king of Arabia, for repudiating his daughter, and marying Herodias his brothers wife, which was in the beginning of Vitellius gouernement: which was in the 21. yeare of Tiberius, as Cornel. Tacitus testifieth, lib. 6. Annal.
4. The yeare wherein Christ beganne to preach was a sabbaticall yeare, as appeareth Luk. 4. but there was no sabbaticall yeare, after the 15. yeare of Tiberius, till the 20. To this purpose M. Lydyat lib. de emendat. tempor. from p. 169. to p. 176.
Contra. Though I will not of purpose oppose my selfe to so excellent a Chronologer, who hath taken great paines in this kind of studie, which I professe not; yet because that his opinion is singular, I hope I may without offence examine his reasons, to giuegive him occasion further to consider of them, least the common aduersarie might take aduantage thereby.
1. The 30. yeares of Christs age were expired in the 15. yeare of Tiberius, from the 41. of Augustus wherein Christ is held to hauehave beene borne: and M. Lydyat maketh mention of one Petavius a learned Chronologer of Paris, who prooueth that Christ must be borne 30. yeares before the 15. yeare Tiberius, p. 153.
2. That place in Ioh. c. 2. must be vnderstood of the building of Zorobabels Temple, not of Herods, as hath beene shewed before, quest. 58.
3. Iohns troubles beganne before the 20. yeare of Tiberius, for when Herod tooke his brother Philips wife Herodias, his brother was then liuing, at what time Iohn reprooued him: but Philip died in the 20. yeare of Tiberius, Ioseph. lib. 18. c. 6. and the warre vponupon that occasion might followe some yeare after.
4. That yeare wherein Christ preached was not a sabbaticall yeare: Christ prepareth them by his preaching against the acceptable yeare, which was that wherein he suffred, which was both a sabbaticall and Iubile yeare: for the Iubile beeing a type of Christ, in whom we should enioy the true Iubile, in the remission of sinnes, the figure and shadowe and the bodie must agree together.
5. But that Christ was baptized in the 15. yeare of Tiberius, S. Luke putteth it out of doubt, c. 3. 1. M. Lydyat answereth that the Euangelist assigneth that yeare for the beginning of Iohns preaching, not for Christs baptisme: for Iohn must hauehave a longer time giuen him then so to prepare the way for Christs to preach and baptize, p. 171. But as Iohn Baptists birth was but 6. moneths before Christs, so the like time might suffice for his forerunning in preaching: the Euangelists set downe the baptisme of our Blessed Sauiour, as following immediately vponupon the preaching of Iohn: yea S. Iohn saith, that the next day after his solemne baptizing, he saw Iesus comming vntounto him, Iohn. 1. 29.