"The time is fulfilled"

"When Christ entered upon his mission, immediately after His
baptism, He came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled." Mark1:14,15. This must mark the fulfillment of some definite period, or it would not be asserted that "the time is fulfilled." The time here fulfilled can be none other than that given in Dan.9:25: "Unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks," 483 years.

We are therefore correct in saying that this is the period 

that reaches to his baptism.

 

Christ was six months younger than John the Baptist, and is generally considered to have entered upon his ministry six months later; both of them commencing their work, according to the law of the priesthood, when they were thirty years of age. 

Of Christ, Luke says expressly that at the time of his baptism He began to be about thirty years of age. Luke3:23. Now John entered upon His ministry, as Luke informs us (3:1), in the fifteenth year of

Tiberius Caesar. 

Tiberius was the successor of Augustus, who reigned to A.D. 14. The date of Augustus' death is indisputably fixed by means of the great lunar eclipse soon after, Sept.27, which served to quell the mutiny of the Pannonian legions, and to induce them to swear fidelity to Tiberius, as recorded by Tacitus, Anal.1:28, and Dio.lib.57, p.604. But the reign of Tiberius is to be reckoned, according to Prideaux, Dr. Hales, Lardner, and others, from his elevation to the throne to reign jointly with Augustus his step-father, in August, A.D. 12, two years before the death of the latter. The fifteenth
year of Tiberius would therefore be from August, A.D. 26, to August, A.D. 27. 

 

If John commenced in the spring in the latter portion of the fifteenth

year of Tiberius, it would bring the commencement of Christ's ministry in the autumn of A.D. 27, the very point where the 483 years of Dan.9 expire. 

The length of Christ's ministry. This may be quite accurately determined by enumerating the passovers which he attended. There were but four of these as recorded in John2:13; 5:1; 6:4; and 13:1. At the last of these he was crucified.. This would make the duration of his ministry three years and a half. Thus, if he commenced in the autumn of A.D. 27, he would preach six months before his first passover in the spring of 28. His second passover would be in the spring of 29, His third in the spring of 30, and His fourth in the spring of 31, when He was crucified.

 

This would correspond exactly to the prophecy; 

for He was to confirm the
covenant with many for one week, seven years, and in the midst, 

or middle, of the week, he was to be cut off, and cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.

 

This he did when he expired upon the cross, three and one-half years from the commencement of his ministry; and during the remainder of the week He confirmed the covenant through his apostles. Heb.2:3. Dr. Hales, vol. i. p. 94, quotes Eusebius, A.D. 300, as saying: "It is recorded in history, that the whole time of our Savior's teaching and working miracles was three years and a half, which is the half of a week [of years]. This John the evangelist will represent to those who critically attend to his gospel."

Uriah Smith