Luke 3.21-23 says that Jesus went to John and was baptized being about thirty years old.
Well there's that "about", you see.
This is in harmony with the mosaic law requirement found at Numbers 4:1-3, 22, 23, 29, 30, that any isrealite going into some form of sacred service had to be from thirty years old upward. Thats why its also likely that John was already 30yrs of age when he began his special assignment.
But this is not
necessarily so, is it? I mean, on the one hand, if God had said to John --- "go baptize people", then John wouldn't have said: "No, push off, God, I'm not thirty yet". On the other hand, even if that's the youngest he could have been, there's no reason why God would have started ordering him about bang on his thirtieth birthday --- he waited until Noah was 600 before he started telling him what to do.
We know Jesus ministry lasted three and a half years, becasue the scriptural evidence is that he attended four Passovers as mentioned in John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; and 13:1
Oops, it seems I missed one.
But this only gives us a
lower bound for the length of his ministry.
I think you're being a little more precise tahn can be justified from scripture, but perhaps I'm missing something.
But thanks, your post was most informative.