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The duration of the ministry of HAMASHIACH

 

I have been asked the question if the ministry of the Messiah (HaMashiach) lasted about a year?  The short answer is “no”.

I have written about the timing of the birth and the life of YAHUSHA, which I will summarize it here.  According to scripture, first consider that a child becomes a man in his twentieth year:

Bemidbar (Numbers) 1:3

Everyone that passes among them that are numbered from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto YAHUAH. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Yisra’el: you and Aharon shall number them by their armies.

Bemidbar (Numbers) 1:18        

And they assembled all the assembly together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.

The reckoning of HaMashiach then begins not on the day of his birth, neither on the day of his death, nor on the day of the beginning of his ministry, but rather in his twentieth year.  To make this reckoning, we must first determine if there is an historical record concerning the date of his birth.

Mattithyahu (Matthew) 2:1-8 gives us this information:

Now when YAHUSHA was born in Beyt Lechem of Yahudah in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came Magi from the east to Yerushalayim, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Yahudiym? for we have seen his star rising in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Yerushalayim with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where HAMASHIACH should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Beyt Lechem of Yahudah: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And you Beyt Lechem, in the land of Yahudah, are not the least among the princes of Yahudah: for out of you shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Yisra’el. 7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the Magi, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Beyt Lechem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

The record here is that Herod the Great held the throne through 4 B.C., and Herod Archeleus took the throne in 4 B.C. following the death of Herod the Great. Consider the rest of the record:

Mattithyahu (Matthew) 2:9-23

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw rising in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Miryam his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned of EL in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of YAHUAH appeared to Yoceph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Mitsrayim, and be there until I bring you word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Mitsrayim: 15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of YAHUAH by the prophet, saying, Out of Mitsrayim have I called my son.

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Magi, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Beyt Lechem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the Magi. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Yirmeyahu the prophet, saying, 18 In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of YAHUAH appeared in a dream to Yoceph in Mitsrayim, 20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Yisra’el: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. 21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Yisra’el. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Yahudah in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of EL in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galiyl: 23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Natsariyth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Natsariy."

The sequence of events, using the hermeneutics of the Seder Olam Rabah, places these events as close to one another as possible.  Our key is, of course, the star of Beyt Lechem.

Consider the history concerning the death of Herod the Great.

The generally accepted date for the death of Herod the Great was in 4 B.C.  Josephus in his Antiquities 17:167 records that Herod died between an eclipse of the moon and the following Passover.  Let’s look at the Passover record:

On March 23, 4 B.C., which would have been the 15th day of Aviv, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, or Matsah, there was a total eclipse (a blood moon), whereas the year before there were only partial eclipses.  However, for those of you who follow the feasts, we can also note that there was a total eclipse (a blood moon) on 15 Ethaniym (Tishrei), the first day of the feast of tabernacles, or Sukka’oth.  So, in order for Herod to die between an eclipse of the moon and the following Passover, and to die in the year 4 B.C., his death necessarily followed the eclipse of Sukkoth.

Now, compare with Yesha'yahu (Isaiah) 9:5

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

Here we have a description that indicates that garments rolled in blood shall be for burning fuel for the fire.  Which fire?  The fire that disposed of the linen garments of the Levites following the sacrifices of Yom Kippur on the 10th of Tishrei (Ethaniym), five days earlier.

And what follows Yesha'yahu 9:5?

Yesha'yahu (Isaiah) 9:6              

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty EL, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

This puts our events as follows:

A comet (or rogue planet) appears sometime around the 9th of Av – a famous date in the Hebrew world – and the Magi notice and begin their journey to the west.  They arrive in Yerushalayim somewhere between Yom Teruah (Rosh Ha’Shanah – 1 Tishrei [Eythaniym]) and Yom Kippur (10 Tishrei).  They advance to the Sukka in Beyt Lechem to find the infant, having been born on the day of the eclipse of the moon on 15 Tishrei, 4 B.C. (September 15) sometime thereafter, but before the family proceeds to Yerushalayim according to Lucas 2:21-23:

Lucas (Luke) 2:21-23

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called YAHUSHA, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Mosheh were accomplished, they brought him to Yerushalayim, to present him to YAHUAH; 23 (As it is written in the Torah of YAHUAH, Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to YAHUAH;)"

Thereafter, Herod commands the death the innocent:

Mattithyahu (Matthew) 2:16

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Beyt Lechem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

Herod the Great then dies before the end of the Gregorian year (and before Passover) in the 4th year B.C.

So, we have concluded that the birth date of Mashiach is 15 Tishrei [Ethaniym] on the calendar of YAHUAH, or September (that is, the seventh [sept] month) 15 on Gregory’s calendar, in 4 B.C.  This means that YAHUSHA completes his twentieth year on the 15 Tishrei, 16 A.D.,

If we have the birth of Mashiach in 4 B.C., then we conclude that his thirtieth year would be in the year 26 A.D. 

The timing of the Pecach, the timing of the placement in the tomb, the timing of the two women at the tomb, and the resurrection, given what we know about scripture in Mattithyahu 27 and 28, requires that Pecach begin on Tuesday evening, and Matsah on Wednesday evening, allowing for the placement of the body in the tomb on the day of the preparation (Pecach) before the high Sabbath of Matsah, leaving the body in the tomb for three nights; namely Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and three days; namely, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, allowing for the resurrection just before the evening change on Saturday evening into the Sabbath of First Fruits, which began on Saturday evening and went until sundown on Sunday, can only have occurred in one of two years during the lifetime of Mashiach: either 16 AD or 28 AD. 

YAHUSHA would have been in his ministry from sometime mid-year 26 AD to the Pecach in 28 AD, meaning his ministry was about 2 years, and it puts his death at age 31. 

That is as far as I can reckon.  

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