How close was Jesus and john in age?

Answer 1

It depends upon which John you mean. John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin, and Luke's gospel tells us that he was just a few months older than Jesus so that if Jesus was around 30 when he began his mnistry, John would have been also around 30 or 31. However, John the Apostle and writer of the fourth gospel was much younger than the 30-year-old Jesus, probably no more than a teenager. This is born out by several Bible passages, not least the following: 1. When John and his brother James were called by Jesus they left their father Zebedee's fishing boat to join him. At a time when age expectancy was no more than 45 or so, this meant that Zebedee was young and strong enough to work as a fisherman putting him at no more than 35 or so. This would mean that John could not be more than 15 or 16 years of age. 2. Similarly, we hear of a passage where James and John's mother was asking Jesus about where her boys would sit when Jesus came to 'his kingdom'. These words, from a pushy mother, were hardly the words of an elderly lady talking about her already mature sons. 3. James and John were known by a nickname - the 'Sons of Thunder', which suggests that ther were typical beligerent teenagers out to impress. 4. Finally, we know that John's gospel was the last to be written - at around 80 - 90AD or so. This means that John, if already old at the time of Jesus would not have been alive by 90AD to have written his gospel (he would have been way past 100) whereas if he had been a teenager at the time of Christ he could easily have survived into his 70s or 80s to write his account.