In this thought-provoking episode of Brains, Bibles and Beyond!, we kick things off with our fan-favorite segment Stump the Theologian, where Joel tackles a surprisingly tricky question: How old were Jesus' disciples, really? Get ready for some historical context, theological insight, and maybe a few surprises.www.brainsandbibles.comwww.thinklikechrist.org
Episode Transcript
Well, all. Right.
So for our first segment, beforewe get started our interview,
you get. It.
We have our favorite segment of the day.
Oh boy. Stump the theologian.
Pressures on where we. All get to come with questions
to make Joel not look smart. All right, so the rules of the
(00:23):
game, if we can get a question that Joel cannot satisfactory
answer, we are winners. Very subjective, but yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's just something we do.
So today's question is, how old were the disciples?
At what point? Right now they're all over 2000
(00:45):
years old. I think, I think it's like when
they were with Jesus, like when he called them, they were how
old? All right, so between two to
three years is all that they're actually there together with,
you know, and John would have been the youngest 1.
And I don't have any sources on me or anything because it's off
(01:06):
the top of my head. But what I from my understand is
anywhere from like 13 to 16 years old, that would have been
John the young guy. And then Peter is the old guy.
And so he probably have been like in his 30s.
I think it was that old. Yeah, maybe, I mean it, it, it
could be like maybe even into maybe early 40s or something,
but you know, probably like a 30s.
(01:27):
So probably around Jesus age, a little bit older than Jesus as
far as his earthly ministry goes.
Yep. You think that's that's the
range basically. Think they're that old?
We know Peter was the only one that was mentioned to be
married, so we just all assume he was the oldest.
He definitely. Yeah.
Well, and he was the, you know, John beat him to the tomb
racing. Sure.
He was the younger guy and Peter's the older guy.
(01:48):
So it's Andrew then? I don't know they're.
Brothers, I just always assume they're all like around like,
you know, late teenage 1718 range.
But I don't just because wasn't wasn't that was that
traditionally when you pick yourrabbi when you're around like
17? Well, you know, you had to show
(02:10):
some promise within the educational system, and then
that kind of determined how goodof a rabbi you could even get.
Sure, but. You, in this case the rabbi,
picked them well. It has to be a mutual.
Little bit. Different, but typically it was
a great honor. You know, somebody, anybody came
to you and said, hey, come be mydisciple kind of thing.
It'd be like a hot dog, you know?
(02:32):
OK, so bottom line is you have no idea how old they were.
That's just the the best guess that I know.
It's like basically out there, but I just can't think of any
sources or anything, which is kind of scary.
So I think it's like the the young and old end and everyone
else is just kind of throwing the mix.
Someone, somewhere in the middle.
How did we know John was the youngest?
Just because he lived the longest.
(02:53):
It's been so long since I even looked at this but I just
remembered this in my head as like my conclusion.
All right, all right. I think we found a stomper then
he didn't know it off the top ofthe head without looking stuff
up. I think.
I think we have a win, guys. I think we have a win.
OK. All right, on to the interview.
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