Heidegger's Bible Handbook: Harmony of the Gospels: The Beginning and End of Christ's Ministry

5. In order rightly to establish that harmony, the true computation of the time of the ministry of Christ is to be investigated, and that time is to be distributed into certain years. The general bounds of the ministry of Christ, namely, His Baptism and ascension into Heaven.

Moreover, in order to more correctly fix that harmony, both the true computation of the time of the ministry of Christ is to be investigated: and it is also to be considered in what manner that whole time is able to be distributed into certain years. And indeed, the Scripture notes the bounds, or limits, of this ministry in a general way, when it was begun, and when it was finished. For, Saint Peter, in Acts 1:21, 22, thus distinguishes the εἰσέλευσιν καὶ ἐξέλευσιν, the going in and the going out, of Christ’s ministry: all the time that the Lord went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that day that He was taken up from us. And in Acts 10:37-41, Beginning from Galilee, after the Baptism which John preached: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing…whom they slew…. Him God raised up on the third day, and shewed Him openly…to chosen witnesses. Therefore, the beginning of the ministry of Christ is to be taken from the Baptism of John, since in that, He, consecrated by the heavenly voice of God the Father, and anointed by the Holy Spirit,[1] was sent to preach the Gospel, Luke 4:18, beginning from that time ποιεῖν τε καὶ διδάσκειν, to do and to teach, Acts 1:1, and continuing in the same office until the time of His ἀναλήψεως, taking up,[2] to Heaven.

[1] See Luke 3:22, and Matthew 3:16, 17; Mark 1:10, 11. [2] Acts 1:2: “Until the day in which he was taken up (ἀνελήφθη), after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen…”