"Gospel Quest" (or The Jesus Timeline)

[DeistPaladin]

I've never heard this one before. But upon researching, apparently 50 years is "the completion of manhood" for a Jew. Isn't this just saying that Jesus is still in his prime?

Perhaps, if not for the theologians following John that thought Jesus was 50 when he was crucified.

Mark uses the words "immediately" and "at once" 42 times in his gospel (Greek eutheōs and euthus). I could post plenty of articles about why he probably does this--they are readily available. Do you believe all 42 are to be taken literally, that absolutely nothing happened in the meantime?

As Brakeman has pointed out, translation errors are still errors. But putting that aside...

All three Synoptics agree that Jesus immediately went into the wilderness for 40 days and returned when JtB was out of the way and in prison. It was only AFTER this point, the return from the wilderness, that Jesus began his ministry and gathered disciples.

John's Jesus not only started gathering disciples right away but opened a rival baptism ministry while JtB was still practicing (and beat JtB at his own game). There is no mention in John that Jesus left his ministry and his disciples to dwell in the wilderness. Further, this entire narrative of Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil makes no theological sense for John's Jesus who is one with his Father Yahweh, which is likely why John omitted and rewrote this point.

The Synoptic Jesus was clearly separate from and subordinate to his Father. Jesus didn't have as much knowledge ("no man knows the day... not even the Son, but the Father only") and has a subordinate will ("Let this cup be passed from me but no my will but thy will be done"). The Synoptic Jesus speaks to his Father in 2nd person and of him in 3rd. Likewise, the booming voice from the sky speaks to Jesus in 2nd person and of him in 3rd.

John's Jesus was still fuzzy on the identity issue but it was here that we start to see a Trinitarian Jesus, one who said "I and my father are one". Were you to read the Synoptics in isolation, you would not have any idea that Jesus was anything more than a holy man or a demigod offspring of Yahweh.

This is why the Synoptic Jesus has his 40 days of temptation (how could God be tempted with kingdoms of the earth) but John's Jesus does not. This is why the Synoptic Jesus waits for JtB to get out of the way but John's Jesus does not. This is why the Synoptic Jesus has his ministry around Galilee and eventually works his way to Jerusalem but John's Jesus kicks off his ministry in Jerusalem with the "cleansing of the Temple".

Two different stories about two different Jesuses (Jesusi?) because one was written much later when "the Jews" were a separate (and rival) sect and Christianity had evolved their savoir to being one with Yahweh.

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I've read to this point. Two things. Matthew does place Jesus' birth pretty firmly before 4 BC, just before Herod dies. So scholars are left to explain Luke.

Yes, theologians are stuck with Herod the Great and have to move Luke's Jesus to accommodate, a pity since Luke gives us the most historical landmarks and is the easiest to reconcile with itself.

One is the "two governorships" of Quirinius, which was never allowed since it would give a governor too much power over one province and risk secession. Additionally, we know where Qurinius was and it wasn't in Syria being governor.

So some apologists drop involving Quirinius and try to interpret that Luke meant to say "before" and not "when" or "during". This brings us back to "translation errors are still errors". But again let that go.

The previous census was in 9 BCE (perhaps as late as 8 BCE). Judea was not a province of Rome at that time. The census of Quirinius was because Rome had acquired a new province and wanted to asses its taxation potential. Furthermore, a JC birth in 8 BCE would have made Jesus too old to be "about 30" when John the Baptist even started his ministry, let alone when he was put in prison.

Multi-fail.

Also, this date allows for the all-so-interesting celestial dance between 3-2 BC, which may have been what the Magi saw:
http://www.bethlehemstar.net/setting-the...ists-star/

3-2 BCE would have been later than 4 BCE. Herod died in 4 BCE and so he couldn't have been talking with the wise men two years later.