If Jesus began His ministry in 24-25 AD, how could this be the 15th year reign of Tiberius Caesar as mentioend in Luke 3:1-2?
Within your question, there seems to be several presuppositions ranging from the start of Jesus’ ministry to John’s ministry and how both overlap at a particular time period. To best answer your question, let’s begin with the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign in light of John’s ministry from a historical point of view using external sources.
With that being said, the dating of the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar is often an ambiguous topic of reckoning dates and time periods. For instance, the dating of John’s ministry typically follows ancient historians accounts such as Thucydides, Polybius, and Josephus. The reasoning for this difficult understanding of dates is based upon the estimation of scholars debating between a “traditional view” versus a “popular view” for the proper date of the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign. In Luke 3:1, Luke documents the following governors, tetrarch, and the high priesthood to ground the reader in the period of history which the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus overlapped. The dates for these individuals are as follows:
Tiberius Caesar, Roman Emperor – AD 14-37
Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea- AD 26-36
Herod, tetrarch of Galilee- 4BC- AD 39
Annas ben Seth, high priest- AD 6-15
Joseph Caiaphas, high priest- AD 18-36
In one instance, discrepancies come about due to the actual reign of Tiberius overlapping with that of Augustus (AD 11/12). For example, in Syria, they were known to regard the first year of a ruler’s reign from the time of their accension to the first new year that followed. Another reason for the discrepancy is individuals looking to pinpoint, ‘to a t’, the actual year of the death of Christ, whether it be some agreeing with a crucifixion date of AD 33 rather than an AD 30 date. So, with considering the reckoning of time from various historical perspectives, it requires one to examine the scholarship of previous historians as well as the scriptures themselves, to come up with a “favorable” timeline of events. To that end, we can look to ancient historian Suetonius who provides historical data that speaks to both the overlapping implications of Tiberius’ reign and Augustus’ illness to death. Suetonius explains what is known as “co-princeps” which simply is powers equal to that of the emperor of that day, and in this case, Suetonius speaks to Tiberius’ co-princeps with Agustus. Here is one excerpt from his writing entitled, “De Vita Caesarum- Tiberius”:
After two years he [Tiberius] returned to the city from Germany and celebrated the triumph [for his military victories in Germany and Pannonia]....Since the consuls caused a law to be passed soon after this that he should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus and hold the census with him, he set out for Illyricum on the conclusion of the lustral ceremonies [which culminated the census]; but he was at once recalled, and finding Augustus in his last illness but still alive, he spent an entire day with him in private [emphasis italisized] (Augustus 97:1; Tiberius 20–21)
So according to Suetonius It is estimated that this co-princeps authority was granted to Tiberius in the first half of AD 13 which would put the ministry of John the Baptist beginning in or around AD 27. This would be the same year that in the fall, John the Baptist would baptize Jesus. From there, one could follow the Passover progression chronicled in the gospels as follows:
1st Passover – Spring of AD 28 (John 2:23, “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”)
2nd Passover – Spring of AD 29 (John 6:4, “The Jewish Passover Festival was near.”)
3rd Passover – Jesus Crucified in AD 30 (John 11:55;12:1;13:1;18:28;19:14)
Conclusively, it is safe to assume that Jesus died in AD 30. With that being said, as one pursues historical data and scholarly research on this matter, we always encourage the scriptures to be the primary source of reference. And when scripture does not provide definitive dates or time periods, we can look to other historical documentation to help us establish proper time periods. Ultimately, what we should take away from this is that Jesus died. The debate of dating has been an issue for centuries and will more than likely continue to be a matter of contention for some, however, as believers in Christ, we must hold to the foundational truth in knowing that whether it was AD 30 or AD 33 that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead, according to the scriptures.
