Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 73:1 (NA 2022)
Article: Reckoning Tiberius’s Reign And Jesus’s Baptism First- And Second-Century Evidence Concerning Tiberius’s Fifteenth Year (Luke 3:1)
Author: Andrew E. Steinmann

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Reckoning Tiberius’s Reign And Jesus’s Baptism
First- And Second-Century Evidence Concerning Tiberius’s Fifteenth Year (Luke 3:1)

Andrew E. Steinmann

Distinguished Professor of Theology and Hebrew
Concordia University, Chicago
[email protected]

Abstract

One much-discussed Bible verse relating to the chronology of Jesus’s ministry is Luke 3:1, where Jesus’s baptism is placed during Tiberius’s fifteenth year. Normally, Tiberius’s reign is said to have begun after Augustus’s death, making AD 29 his fifteenth year as emperor. However, some have wished to date the fifteenth year of Tiberius earlier by claiming that Luke would have understood Tiberius’s reign as commencing sometime between AD 11 and 13, when Tiberius was granted joint authority with Augustus over the provinces. A survey of the extant literary–historical sources from the first and second centuries combined with surveys of the surviving numismatic and inscriptional evidence reveals that there is no support for an earlier dating of Tiberius’s reign. Thus, it is highly unlikely that Luke or his readers would have understood the fifteenth year of Tiberius as occurring before AD 29.

1. Introduction

Luke 3:1, which places Jesus’s baptism in Tiberius’s fifteenth year (see Luke 3:21), is key to establishing the chronology of Jesus’s ministry.1 The Gospel of John mentions several feasts, including three Passovers (John 2:13, 23; 6:4; 11:55 (twice); 12:1; 13:1; 18:39; 19:14), Tabernacles (John 7:2), Dedication (John 10:22), and an

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unnamed feast, either Tabernacles or Pentecost (John 5:1). This indicates that Jesus’s ministry from his baptism to his crucifixion may have lasted more than two years in duration at a minimum.2 In addition, the Synoptic Gospels report the disciples plucking grain roughly halfway between the beginning of Jesus’s Galilean ministry and the feeding of the five thousand, which places anothe...