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1 Peter 3:15 "...always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, that those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame"
there's this story where the time of the year comes when peter needs to pay the temple tax and asks Jesus if he should pay it. Jesus tells him to go take the first fish he catches and cut up the fish's belly. inside will be a coin that is worth the entire sum.
the bible never mentions anything about any other disciples needing to pay the tax or coming along with peter.
because if i was a disciple and peter got a coin from Jesus to pay tax, i'd be totally ticked.
oh and only people over 21 had to pay the tax. so likely (imho) the disciples except for peter were all under 21.
and peter was married, too. i spotted that the other day.
from my reading, too, i understand that the kind of people who followed teachers like that were almost always young.
that's the thing, the disciples didn't write gospels, mostly. matthew wrote it quite a while later in his life, if i remember correctly. mark and luke, they may have met Jesus but never followed Him around, from what i understand.
It's funny, I've heard all the amazing things the deciples did in their time, but I never stopped to think about little details like their age. Thanks for pointing that out Sam!
Well first of all, just because the Bible doesn't mention it that doesn't mean it didn't happen. And it may just not have happened. Not to prove or disprove, just something to keep in mind.
So I agree at least Peter must have been over twenty-one. I couldn't find anything about an age for paying taxes, so I'll take your word for it. I do know that you weren't "of age" until you were about thirty or forty! and you couldn't speak/teach in public untily you were around thirty.
This means that definitely Peter and John must have been older (Acts 4:1, they were both teaching). Also, Matthew was a tax collector, so he might also have been older (and Judas handled the money???).
Apparently fishing was a younger, stronger man's job, and at least four (including Peter) were fishermen (Luke 5).
Anyway, what an encouraging thought - that we are young as they were! Even if they weren't all teens like us, culturally they were at about the same level, since maturity didn't come til later. That's so awesome; thanks for helping us look at those things we just skim over in a different light Sam!!!
that's great, verya, good points and oustanding research. you're right, btw. and the temple tax being for 21 year olds, that's just historical basis, not the bible.
actually i have read that john was most likely 12 or 13 years old during jesus' public ministry! wow! but i don't hink i believe that it's that much. probably close. we know from the book of revelation that it was written at the very very earliest at 70 AD and almost certainly later. people didn't live to be that old back then, so with a little math john has to be pretty young during jesus' ministry. actually everywhere i read said that john was the youngest disciple, and i haven't figured out yet why that's true.
all very interesting though. teenagers played a very different role in that culture, i think.
I don't know how old John was compared to the other disciples, besides that he was the youngest, but he was also the only disciple to not be martyred. So, he could have been five years younger than the rest and still have lived longer because everybody else was martyred before they could reach a really old age.
Just a thought.
oh, the five years younger was just a random number used for the example.
Sorry Sam. I tend to do that, but it all makes sense in my head, well at the time it did:) Now that I look at it, it does seem really random. Sorry lol
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hey, I thought that was pretty cool... after I figured out that the subject and post did not make one complete sentence.
*whistles all star bridge*
But how do we know that? God is so cool, the ways he works. I wonder how old they were when the wrote the Gospels.
there's this story where the time of the year comes when peter needs to pay the temple tax and asks Jesus if he should pay it. Jesus tells him to go take the first fish he catches and cut up the fish's belly. inside will be a coin that is worth the entire sum.
the bible never mentions anything about any other disciples needing to pay the tax or coming along with peter.
because if i was a disciple and peter got a coin from Jesus to pay tax, i'd be totally ticked.
oh and only people over 21 had to pay the tax.
so likely (imho) the disciples except for peter were all under 21.
and peter was married, too. i spotted that the other day.
from my reading, too, i understand that the kind of people who followed teachers like that were almost always young.
that's the thing, the disciples didn't write gospels, mostly. matthew wrote it quite a while later in his life, if i remember correctly. mark and luke, they may have met Jesus but never followed Him around, from what i understand.
But wasn't John older than Peter?
I have to go...but I need to think about this.
Haha, I had to figure it out to. Actually, didn't but then you did . . .
It's funny, I've heard all the amazing things the deciples did in their time, but I never stopped to think about little details like their age. Thanks for pointing that out Sam!
Ok, so I've done a little research.
Well first of all, just because the Bible doesn't mention it that doesn't mean it didn't happen. And it may just not have happened. Not to prove or disprove, just something to keep in mind.
So I agree at least Peter must have been over twenty-one. I couldn't find anything about an age for paying taxes, so I'll take your word for it. I do know that you weren't "of age" until you were about thirty or forty! and you couldn't speak/teach in public untily you were around thirty.
This means that definitely Peter and John must have been older (Acts 4:1, they were both teaching). Also, Matthew was a tax collector, so he might also have been older (and Judas handled the money???).
Apparently fishing was a younger, stronger man's job, and at least four (including Peter) were fishermen (Luke 5).
Anyway, what an encouraging thought - that we are young as they were! Even if they weren't all teens like us, culturally they were at about the same level, since maturity didn't come til later. That's so awesome; thanks for helping us look at those things we just skim over in a different light Sam!!!
that's great, verya, good points and oustanding research. you're right, btw.
and the temple tax being for 21 year olds, that's just historical basis, not the bible.
actually i have read that john was most likely 12 or 13 years old during jesus' public ministry! wow!
but i don't hink i believe that it's that much. probably close.
we know from the book of revelation that it was written at the very very earliest at 70 AD and almost certainly later.
people didn't live to be that old back then, so with a little math john has to be pretty young during jesus' ministry. actually everywhere i read said that john was the youngest disciple, and i haven't figured out yet why that's true.
all very interesting though.
teenagers played a very different role in that culture, i think.
Yes, I guess I just had it in my mind since John lived the longest, that he was the oldest. screwed up, huh? Anyway, that's really cool!
I don't know how old John was compared to the other disciples, besides that he was the youngest, but he was also the only disciple to not be martyred. So, he could have been five years younger than the rest and still have lived longer because everybody else was martyred before they could reach a really old age.
Just a thought.
oh, the five years younger was just a random number used for the example.
wait, what?
sorry, lucy, you totally lost me.
Sorry Sam. I tend to do that, but it all makes sense in my head, well at the time it did:) Now that I look at it, it does seem really random.
Sorry
lol
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