YESHUA’S MINISTRY

A chronological snapshot
of Yeshua’s Ministry

​be How Long did Yeshua’s Ministry Last?

There has been much speculation among Christian scholars as to how long Yeshua’s ministry lasted. After a great deal of searching I have found no source that brings that question back to the words of Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) for guidance. Given the fact that Yeshua was born a Jew, lived as a Jew and died as a Jew, suggests he would most certainly observed all the appointed times set forth in the Torah of Moshe. Particularly as he himself was the Word of God who gave the words of Torah to Moshe as YHVH as confirmed by the words of Yochanan’s (John’s) Gospel where we are told in 1:1-3:- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.
 
Those words clearly indicate that Yeshua in his pre-human form, was not only responsible for the creation, but also the giving of the Torah to Moshe at Mt. Horev (Sinai), which is further supported by the words of Sha’ul in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, which says:-
 
“For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, also they all ate the same food from the Spirit, and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah.”
 
Based on that evidence it is clear that Yeshua would have kept every Mo’ed (appointed time of God) as mandated by Torah. Hence, each event and stage of his earthly ministry, must be measured against the words of Torah. Only then, through the words of Tanakh, and the Gospels together we can determine just how long Yeshua’s ministry lasted.
 
When we look at the Besorah (Good News) as a whole, including the Book of Acts, we see that of them all only Yochanan’s account provides a chronological timeline. So, it is necessary to consider each Mo’ed mentioned in that Gospel against Yeshua’s own stated movements. Each event in his ministry must be considered against the Hebraic background that is found in the Tanakh. Only then will the real timeline begin to emerge.

His Immersion to the next Pesach

Immediately following his immersion, Yeshua is said to have gone away to the wilderness for forty-days, after which he was tempted by the adversary in Yerushalayim. From there he travelled back to Beit-Anyah where he had been immersed and two days later he returned to the Galil (Galilee). Then there appears to be a considerable period of over two months when he wintered over back in Nazarat, before he launched into his ministry activities. We find the Gospel of Yochanan takes up the chronological timeline starting in Chapter Two, with verse 2:13 being the actual start point of the chronological record, with each Mo’ed mentioned by name shown bolded. 

Establishing the Year

​Before we can consider the timeline in Yochanan’s Gospel, it is necessary to determine in which year Yeshua’s ministry began. For that information we turn to the Gospel of Luke, where we are told in 3:1-4 and 21-22:- 
 
In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius’ rule; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Y’hudah, Herod ruler of the Galil, his brother Philip ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, with ‘Anan and Kayafa being the cohanim g’dolim; the word of God came to Yochanan Ben-Z’kharyah in the desert. He [Yochanan the Immerser] went all through the Yarden region proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven.....v 21 While all the people were being immersed, Yeshua too was immersed. As he was praying, heaven was opened; the Ruach HaKodesh came down on him in physical form like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with you.”

Through these verses we can determine that Yeshua was immersed and received the commission from his Father to begin his earthly ministry, at the beginning of 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Roman history records that the Senate met on the 18 day of September 14 CE exactly one month after the death of Emperor Augustus and on that day installed Tiberius as the new Caesar. Tiberius began ruling on 18 September 14 CE.

Counting forward to the beginning of his 15th year brings us to 19 September 28 CE, which as Luke 3:1 states that is when Yochanan the Immerser began his ministry of immersion. So, using that date as our benchmark we can determine that Yeshua was also immersed around that same time in the year 28 CE

 Based on the sequence of events that are recorded across the four Gospels between his immersion and the actual start of his teaching ministry we can determine the time that lapsed between his immersion and the 1st Pesach mentioned in Yochanan 2:13. The time between his immersion and that Pesach appears to have been 180 days or six months

 That can be established by considering the sequence of events recorded as follow:-

​The movements of Yeshua over the 180-day period between are obscure and not chronologically documented. However the above breakdown gives an indication of the likely sequence of events that dominated the winter period before Yochanan takes up his timeline starting in Yochanan 2:1. That is where Yochanan’s narrative picks up the sequence of Yeshua’s movements with him going to the wedding in Kanah (Cana). From that point onward there is an unbroken record of the events as they occurred right through Yochanan’s Gospel until in Yochanan 12:12 we find Yeshua riding into Yerushalayim on the 10th Aviv in preparation for his death on Pesach.

The Chronological Timeline of Yochanan

2:1 On Tuesday (3rd day of the week) there was a wedding at Kanah in the Galil; and the mother of Yeshua was there. Yeshua too was invited to the wedding, along with his talmidim.
 
2:12 Afterwards, he, his mother, and brothers, and his talmidim went down to K’far-Nachum and stayed there a few days.
 
2:13 It was almost time for the festival of Pesach [29CE] in Y’hudah, so Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim.
 
2:23 Now while Yeshua was in Yerushalayim at the Pesach [29CE] festival, there were many people who “believed in his name” when they saw the miracles he performed.
 
3:22-23 After this, Yeshua and his talmidim went out into the countryside of Y’hudah, where he stayed awhile with them and immersed people. 23 Yochanan too was immersing at Einayim, near Shalem, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to be immersed.
 
4:3-7 Yeshua left Y’hudah and set out again for the Galil. This meant that he had to pass through Shomron. He came to a town in Shomron called Sh’khem, near the field Ya‘akov had given to his son Yosef. Ya‘akov’s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon. A woman from Shomron came to draw some water. 
 
4:43-45 After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.
 
4:46-47 He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 
 
5:1-3 After this, there was a Judean festival; [possibly Shavuot? 29 CE (year 1)] and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled.
 
5:9-10 Now that day was Shabbat, [before Shavuot Sunday] so the Judeans said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! It’s against Torah for you to carry your mat!” 
 
5:16 and on account of this, the Judeans began harassing Yeshua because he did these things on Shabbat.
 
6:1-5 Some time later, Yeshua went over to the far side of Lake Kinneret (that is, Lake Tiberias), and a large crowd followed him, because they had seen the miracles he had performed on the sick. Yeshua went up into the hills and sat down there with his talmidim. Now the Judean festival of *Pesach* was coming up; so when Yeshua looked up and saw that a large crowd was approaching, he said to Philip, “Where will we be able to buy bread, so that these people can eat?”
 
*Pesach* - That Mo’ed was much more likely to have been Yom Teruah 29 CE, otherwise the gap between verses 5:1 and 6:1 would be a period of over 15 months with no mention of any activities on the part of Yeshua. During such a long period he would have gone up to Yerushalayim for Shavuot and Sukkot in the next year. However, the next Mo’ed to be mentioned is Sukkot in verse 7:2, which makes the sequence totally unworkable. Hence, if the Mo’ed in verse 6:4 was actually Yom Teruah then the next Mo’ed mentioned in verse 7:2 should be Sukkot which falls just 15-days after Yom Teruah and fits the time sequence perfectly. Therefore, if the “Pesach” of verse 6:4 is Yom Teruah there is no long silent gap!
 
Two further problems in connection with 6:4-5 as being Pesach are; 1) he would not have been teaching Jewish men on the hills of Galil, because they would all be on their way toward Yerushalayim in preparation for Pesach including Yeshua himself; 2) Yeshua when asking the question about buying food for the crowd would be relating to the lack of trading during the celebration of Yom Teruah, which was a Holy Convocation, which is also a day on which no work nor trading is done. Hence, Yeshua’s question in 6:5 directed at Philip.
 
6:14-15 When the people saw the miracle he had performed, they said, “This has to be ‘the prophet’ who is supposed to come into the world.” Yeshua knew that they were on the point of coming and seizing him, in order to make him king; so he went back to the hills again. This time he went by himself.
 
6:16-17 When evening came, his talmidim went down to the lake, got into a boat and set out across the lake toward K’far-Nachum.
 
6:22-24 The next day, the crowd which had stayed on the other side of the lake noticed that there had been only one boat there, and that Yeshua had not entered the boat with his talmidim, but that the talmidim had been alone when they sailed off. Then other boats, from Tiberias, came ashore near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had made the b’rakhah. Accordingly, when the crowd saw that neither Yeshua nor his talmidim were there, they them- selves boarded the boats and made for K’far-Nachum in search of Yeshua.
 
6:25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
 
6:59 He said these things as he was teaching in a synagogue in K’far-Nachum.
 
6:66-67 From this time on, many of his talmidim turned back and no longer travelled around with him. So Yeshua said to the Twelve, “Don’t you want to leave too?” 
 
All the places referenced between 6:3 and 6:59 are located in the Galil and throughout that period there are no references to any other Mo’ed, so it is reasonable to conclude that the period covered by those verses was the 10-day period between Yom Teruah as suggested for 6:4 and Yom Kippur, which occured just 5-days before Sukkot in 7:2. That would allow 5-days travel time for his brothers to get up to Yerushalayim for Sukkot.
 
7:1-3 After this, Yeshua travelled around in the Galil, intentionally avoiding Y’hudah because the Judeans were out to kill him. But the festival of Sukkot in Y’hudah was near; so his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go into Y’hudah, so that your talmidim can see the miracles you do. 
 
7:8-9 You, go on up to the festival; as for me, I am not going up to this festival now, because the right time for me has not yet come.” Having said this, he stayed on in the Galil.

7:4 Not until the festival was half over did Yeshua go up to the Temple courts and begin to teach.
 
As Yeshua suggested everyone went to Yerushalayim in time for the start of Sukkot, then he set off after the Mo’ed had begun. Allowing 5-days travel he would have arrived in the city in time for Hoshana Rabbah (the day of the water pouring), which is day 7 of Sukkot as 7:37 states.
 
7:37 Now on the last day of the festival, Hoshanah Rabbah, Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! 
 
8:1-2 But Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak, he appeared again in the Temple Court, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 
 
8:59 At this, they picked up stones to throw at him; but Yeshua was hidden and left the Temple grounds.

9:1-2 As Yeshua passed along, he saw a man blind from birth. His talmidim asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned — this man or his parents — to cause him to be born blind?” 
 
8:7 and said to him, “Go, wash off in the Pool of Shiloach!” (The name means “sent.”) So, he went and washed and came away seeing.
 
9:13-14 They took the man who had been blind to the P’rushim. Now the day on which Yeshua had made the mud and opened his eyes was Shabbat.
 
10:19-20 Again there was a split among the Judeans because of what he said. Many of them said, “He has a demon!” 
 
10:22-23 Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. 
 
10:31-32 Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him. Yeshua answered them, “You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father’s power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?”
 
Between verses 7:37 and 10:39 there are a number of references to the fact that Yeshua remained in Yerushalayim between Hoshanah Rabbah and Hanukkah, which is a period of 70-days. Then in verse 10:40 - He went off again beyond the Yarden.
 
10:39 One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands. He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there.
 
There is no indication how long Yeshua spent across the Yarden before he returned to raise El’azar. But it certainly would have been a relatively short period because next we see in 11:54, that because of the Judeans, he again leaves the city. He then heads northward to the town of Efrayim. Then in the very next verse 11:55 everyone is again preparing for Pesach. That was the Pesach during which he was arrested and executed.
 
11:1There was a man who had fallen sick. His name was El‘azar, and he came from Beit-Anyah, the village where Miryam and her sister Marta lived.
 
11:17 On arrival, Yeshua found that El‘azar had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Beit-Anyah was about two miles from Yerushalayim, 
 
11:53-54 From that day on, they made plans to have him put to death. Therefore Yeshua no longer walked around openly among the Judeans but went away from there into the region near the desert, to a town called Efrayim, and stayed there with his talmidim.
 
11:55 The Judean festival of Pesach [30 CE]  was near, and many people went up from the country to Yerushalayim to perform the purification ceremony prior to Pesach.
 
12:1-2 Six days before Pesach, Yeshua came to Beit-Anyah, where El‘azar lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead; so they gave a dinner there in his honour. Marta served the meal, and El‘azar was among those at the table with him. 
 
12:12-13 The next day, the large crowd that had come for the festival heard that Yeshua was on his way into Yerushalayim. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Deliver us!”

The Problem with Verse 6:4

Verse 6:4 says:- Now the Judean festival of Pesach was coming up. That one verse is the sole basis upon which the Christian argument in favour of 3 to 3½ ministry is based. However, when considered alongside all the other Mo’adim recorded in the Gospel of Yochanan we find the chronological sequence matches completely that found in Torah. Therefore, for the Mo’ed in verse 6:4 to have been Pesach is totally illogical.
 
Torah states that three times each year all men of Isra’el were to go to Yerushalayim to observe a specified agricultural festivals as appointed times of YHVH. It is mentioned in Sh’mot (Exodus) 23:14-17 then Sh’mot 34:23-24 and finally D’varim (Deuteronomy) 16:16 where YHVH spells out those three appointed times which were to occur as follows:-
 
“Three times a year all your men are to appear in the presence of ADONAI your God in the place which he will choose — at the festival of Matzah, at the festival of Shavu‘ot and at the festival of Sukkot. They are not to show up before ADONAI empty-handed.
 
When we put that sequence together we find that all the verses in Yochanan’s Gospel refer to these festivals and we see the chronological pattern in the ministry of Yeshua, which was also centred around those three festivals. It must also be noted that in D’varim the first festival mentioned as Matzah, while in the Gospel of Yochanan it is referred to as Pesach. They are one and the same spring festival, as Pesach always falls on the 1st day of Matzah:-​

The Sequence of the Mo’adim

The annual sequence of the seven Mo’adim in Torah follow an unchanging pattern, which we see reflected by Yochanan in his record of Yeshua’s ministry, in following verses:-
 
2:13 It was almost time for the festival of Pesach in Y’hudah, so Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. 2:23 Now while Yeshua was in Yerushalayim at the Pesach festival, there were many people who “believed in his name” when they saw the miracles he performed. 5:1-3 After this, there was a Judean festival; (Shavuot) and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. 5:9-10 Now that day was Shabbat (before Shavuot), so the Judeans said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! It’s against Torah for you to carry your mat!” 
6:4 Now the Judean festival of “Pesach” (Yom Teruah) was coming up. 7:1-3 After this, Yeshua travelled around in the Galil, intentionally avoiding Y’hudah because the Judeans were out to kill him. But the festival of Sukkot in Y’hudah was near; so his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go into Y’hudah, so that your talmidim can see the miracles you do. 7:37 Now on the last day of the festival, Hoshanah Rabbah [7th day of Sukkot] Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! 10:22-23 Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. 11:55 The Judean festival of Pesach was near, and many people went up from the country to Yerushalayim to perform the purification ceremony prior to Pesach. 12:1-2 Six days before Pesach, Yeshua came to Beit-Anyah, where El‘azar lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead; so they gave a dinner there in his honour. Marta served the meal, and El‘azar was among those at the table with him. 12:12-13 The next day, the large crowd that had come for the festival heard that Yeshua was on his way into Yerushalayim. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Deliver us!”
 
In these verses we see immerge a 13-month period - Pesach, Shavuot, Yom Teruah, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Pesach. The six events mentioned cover just one annual cycle and include all three agricultural festivals in the correct sequence.
​
So, by changing just one word in verse 6:4 from Pesach to Yom Teruah, the whole sequence of events recorded in Yochanan’s Gospel indicate that Yeshua’s teaching ministry lasted, from the turning of water into wine, about one week before Pesach 29 CE lasted until his death at Pesach 30 CE, just thirteen months later. There is clearly no reason for his earthly ministry to have lasted 3-3½ years as portrayed by the Christian world. But it is only when the Gospels are read in conjunction with the Tanakh can we really see the true message in its Hebraic context.
​"This essay was written by Graeme Purdie – Founder of Talmidei Yeshua Messianic Ministry of NZ and may only be shared in full and must include this citation at all times. All scriptural references, unless stated otherwise, have been taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029 www.messianicjewish.net."

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