_Evidence of St Luke's Gospel_ (iii. 23).--At the time of his baptism
Jesus was [Greek: archomenos osei etoi triakonta], of which words two
opposite misinterpretations must be avoided: (i.) [Greek: archomenos]
does not mean (as Valentinian interpreters thought, Iren. 11. xxii. 5
[xxxiii. 3]; so also Epiphanius, _Haer._ li. 16) "beginning to be thirty
years" in the sense of "not yet quite thirty," but "at the beginning of
His ministry," as in Luke xxiii. 5; Acts i. 22, x. 37; (ii.) [Greek:
osei etoi triakonta] does not mean "on attaining the full age of thirty,
before which he could not have publicly taught," for if there was by
Jewish custom or tradition any minimum age for a teacher, it was not
thirty, but forty (_Bab. Talm_. ed. 1715, fol. 19 _b_; Iren. _loc
cit_.). St Luke's phrase is a general one, "about thirty years old," and
cannot be so pressed as to exclude some latitude in either direction.