Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

To my knowledge, the Bible offers no indication of their ages. However, I would say that it would be reasonable to assume that they would have been approximately the same age as Jesus (who, as Luke indicates, was "about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23) when He began His ministry).

They would not have been much younger than that, since they were all engaged in various occupations prior to being called by Jesus. It also seems to me that older people might have been inclined to look down on or discount them if they had been too much younger than Jesus.

Nor (in my opinion) would they have been appreciably older than Jesus, since Jesus expected them to go into all the world and preach the gospel, which would have taken a considerable amount of time and effort in those days. If the apostles had been much older than Jesus, they would not have been physically suited for the rigors of such travel, or for the long career of evangelism that Jesus appeared to expect of them.

Also, in speaking to Peter (John 21:18), Jesus made reference to "when you were young" (which implies that that time was in the past) and "when you are old" (which implies that that time was yet in the future). This says to me that Peter (and, by inference, the rest of the apostles) were neither markedly young nor old. Again, this points (in my opinion) to them being about the same age as Jesus, with some perhaps being slightly younger, and some slightly older.

June 08 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report