WHEN Was Jesus Crucified?
Previous Parts:
Part 2 - Link
Part 3 - Link
Part 4 - Link
Part 5 - Link
Part 6a - Link
Part 6b - Link
Part 6c - Link
Part 6d - Link
Part
6e – Irenaeus.
Now
Irenaeus (130 – 202 CE) wrote a number of works, including references to his
alleged crucifixion in Against Heresies
(Latin: Adversus haereses) and Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching.
With the two works, one learns that Irenaeus was convinced Jesus was crucified
in 42 CE at the earliest, during Emperor Claudius’ reign.
First,
his Against Heresies II.22. In paragraph 1, Irenaeus completely
trashes the Synoptic timeline of Jesus’ career, particularly as outlined in gLuke 3:23 & 4:19:
There are not, therefore, thirty
Æons, nor did the Saviour come to be baptized when He was thirty years old….
Moreover, they affirm that He suffered in the twelfth month, so that He
continued to preach for one year after His baptism; and they endeavour to
establish this point out of the prophet (for it is written, “To proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution” [Isaiah 61:2]),
being truly blind,… not understanding that which is called by Isaiah the
acceptable year of the Lord, nor the day of retribution. For the prophet
neither speaks concerning a day which includes the space of twelve hours, nor
of a year the length of which is twelve months. 1
The
last may be true, but there is no indication that Luke understands this as
allegorical. In fact, NT scholars link
it to the Jewish year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:10. Irenaeus
does, though, in order to refer to the Church Age, “the whole time of faith
during which men hear and believe the preaching of the Gospel, and those become
acceptable to God who unite themselves to Him.” 1
Now
that we have established a baseline, that Irenaeus does not accept the Synoptic
timeline, we shall go on to figure out when he thought Jesus was crucifed.
In the
beginning of paragraph 3, he follows the common practice of harmonizing the
gospels, stating that “after His baptism, the Lord went up, at the time of the
Passover [sic], to Jerusalem, in accordance with what was the practice of the
Jews from every land, and every year, that they should assemble at this period
in Jerusalem, and there celebrate the Passover. [sic]” 3 The Passovers he cites are the three in
gJohn: the first right after Jesus’ water into wine demonstraion at Cana
(2:13), the second according to Irenaeus is where Jesus cures the man disabled
for 38 years at the Pool of Aesculapius in Jerusalem (5:1-15), and just before
he feeds a vast crowd with five loaves of bread at Lake Galilee (6:4), the third
and last six days after he raises Lazarus from the dead in Bethany (11:54,
12:1) where he gets questioned by the Jewish Sanhedrin, tried, convicted and sentenced
by Pilate and whacked by the Romans. Well so far, so good: irenaeus has Jesus
now observing three Passovers after his baptism. That means he should be about
32 or 33, correct?
Not on
your life!
For in
the beginning of paragraph four, Irenaeus claims Jesus, after his baptism, came
to Jerusalem “possessing the full age of a Master… so that he might properly be
acknowledged by all as a Master.” 4
He goes on to say that Jesus fulfilled every age of humanity: infants,
children, youths, old men [and women], passing “through every age,” and thus
“sanctifying” each stage a a person’s life. 5
Now in
the fifth paragraph, we get to the key of Irenaeus’ reasoning: he admits to
Jesus beginning to being about thirty years of age when he was dunked in the
River Jordan by John the Baptist:
For when He came to be baptized,
He had not yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about
thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed
it: “Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old,” [Luke 3:23]
when He came to receive baptism) 6
But he
goes on that Jesus lived far longer than just one year or even three-and-a-half
years! Nota bene:
Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years,
and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but
from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age,
which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher 7
Irenaeus
is clearly arguing that Jesus lived to an advanced age, past the age of 50,
much like Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BCE) who was stabbed in the porch of Pompey’s
Theatre and crucified in imagine two
or five 8 days later. And what
evidence does he have for this, since the extant Canonical Gospels so clearly
stare he had a one-year ministry (Synoptics) or a two-to-three year ministry
(gJohn)? Well he tells you:
…even as the Gospel and all the
elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of
the Lord, [affirming] that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the times of
Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not
only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from
them, and bear testimony as to the [validity of] the statement. 9
Here is
is stating he got the information from the elders of the churches in southwest
Asia Minor, and the elders got the information from the Apostles, including
John, who, according to Irenaeus, stayed with them in Asia Minor until the
times of Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 CE).
And
from the sixth paragraph we find that it is John’s Gospel he is referring to
when he says the Gospel testifies to the fact that he attained old age and the
status of a teacher:
But, besides this, those very
Jews who then disputed with the Lord Jesus Christ have most clearly indicated
the same thing. For when the Lord said to them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad,” they answered Him, “You are not
yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” [John 8:56-57] 10
He then
argues that if he was just over the age of thirty, the fellow Jews of Jesus who
were questioning him would certainly not say, “You are not yet fifty years
old,” but rather “You are not yet forty years old.” But the whole point of the
Jews’ questioning him was that they knew just from observation that Jesus was
much younger than Abraham, and would certainly not have been old enough to have
seen Abraham’s day. Which, for that purpose, fifty would have been just as much
a suitable number as forty; who cares if the person of the story in
question.was just over thirty or just under fifty, or even a short time after?
But I digress. It certainly mattered to Irenaeus, who makes a very big issue
out of it. 11
Now we
do not have the information in Against Heresies as to what year Jesus was
allegedly crucified in, for that we have to look in his Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching. Here, he cheerfully states
that he was executed during the procuratorship / prefecture of Pontius Pilate,
but during the Government of Claudius Caesar (24 January 41 – 13 October 54)!
And this is what Irenaeus wrote: “For Herod the king of the Jews and Pontius
Pilate, the governor of Claudius Caesar, came
together and condemned Him to be crucified.” (emphasis mine) 12
So the
crucifixion would have occurred sometime around 42 CE or later. 13 Apparently Irenaeus is privy to a
tradition that is not in any of the Canonical Gospels. Not only is the date far removed from Eusebius
and Tertullian’s guesses and Pontius Pilate’s prefecture of 26-36 CE, but his
source for the trial of Jesus apparently has Herod as a presiding official alongside Pilate, as in the Gospel of
Peter. And Irenaeus continues the
above quoted sentence with the following:
For Herod feared, as though He
were to be an earthly king, lest he should be expelled by Him from the kingdom.
But Pilate was constrained by Herod and the Jews that were with him against his
will to deliver Him to death: (for they threatened him) if he should not rather
do this than act contrary to Cæsar, by letting go a man who was called a king. 14
Conclusion:
Irenaeus
sets the crucifixion of Jesus around 42 CE or later, but no later that 54
CE. This is at variance from Eusebius
and Tertullian’s computed dates, which is indicative of confusion among the Apostolic
and Ante-Nicene Church Fathers as to the actual date of the crucifixion.
Notes:
2. Ibid., pgh. 2.
3. Ibid., beginning of pgh. 3.
4. Ibid., beginning of pgh. 4.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid, paragraph 5.
7. Ibid.
8. Depending on whether you trust
the ancient historians, who state the funeral of Julius Caesar was on March 17,
or the bulk of modern scholarship, which says it was on March 20.
9. Against
Heresies
II.22.1, pgh. 5.
10. Ibid., beginning pgh. 6
11. Ibid., read the rest of pgh. 6.
Here is the key quote: “Now, such language is fittingly applied to one who has
already passed the age of forty, without having as yet reached his fiftieth
year, yet is not far from this latter period. But to one who is only thirty
years old it would unquestionably be said, “You are not yet forty years old.”
For those who wished to convict Him of falsehood would certainly not extend the
number of His years far beyond the age which they saw He had attained; but they
mentioned a period near His real age, whether they had truly ascertained this
out of the entry in the public register, or simply made a conjecture from what
they observed that He was above forty years old, and that He certainly was not
one of only thirty years of age. For it
is altogether unreasonable to suppose that they were mistaken by twenty years,
when they wished to prove Him younger than the times of Abraham. For what
they saw, that they also expressed; and He whom they beheld was not a mere
phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and blood. He did not then want much of
being fifty years old; and, in accordance with that fact, they said to Him,
“You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” (emphasis mine)
12. Irenaeus, Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching 74, immediately after quoting
Acts 4:25ff. Link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/irenaeus/demonstr.preaching_the_demonstration_of_the_apostolic_preaching.html.
13. Assuming Jesus’ birth year of 4
BCE and a lifespan of at least 45 years, Jesus would have been crucified no
earlier than 42 CE. Cf. Wikipedia, Irenaeus,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irenaeus.
This article cites in its n. [46], Robert M Price. "Jesus at the Vanishing
Point," in James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy (eds.) The Historical
Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity, 2009, p. 80-81. Ditto Wikipedia, On the Detection and Overthrow of the
So-Called Gnosis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Detection_and_Overthrow_of_the_So-Called_Gnosis#Main_arguments,
n. [14]. Also, the ccel.org source linked in n. 12 indicates that Claudius did
not become Emperor until 42 CE.
14. Same as n. 12 above.
