From my understanding of the Bible and its teaching, it seems that it doesn’t explicitly disclose the ages of any of the original twelve disciples of Jesus. Nonetheless, we can make several conjectures based on the passages and cultural context.
First and foremost, according to Scripture, Jesus was roughly 30 years old at the dawn of His public ministry (Luke 3:23). In Jewish tradition, disciples or students were mostly younger than their teacher, which leads us to believe that the disciples, too, were probably under 30. Jesus addressing them as “little children” could possibly hint at their comparative youthfulness.
Secondly, it is essential to point out that many of the disciples, including James and John, were fishermen by trade. In fact, the latter duo left their father and boat to heed Jesus’s call (Matthew 4:21–22). This signifies that they were of age to engage in full-time work, suggesting that they were at least in their late adolescence, capable of going after a rabbi.
Thirdly, Peter, another disciple, was already wedded when he chose to follow Jesus, this we gather from Matthew 8:14, where his sick mother-in-law is mentioned. This gives us a lower limit for Peter’s age at the time; he must have been at least mid-way through his teens.
The later years of the disciples also give us an insight into their probable ages. John, the longest-lived among them, according to church tradition, succumbed over six decades after his walk with Jesus. Even if John were in his 90s when he passed, he would have been no older than 30 during his time with Jesus. Given that he was entrusted with the responsibility of Jesus’s mother (John 19:26–27), he must have been at least 20 during the crucifixion.
Fast-forward to three decades later, and Peter, now in his 60s, referred to himself as an elderly man. It is safe to infer that Peter was likely between his late 20s to early 30s when with Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew, written 30–40 years post-resurrection, hints at Matthew being in his 20s when following Jesus on earth.
Customarily, Jewish boys start religious training at age 5, continuing till 12 or 13. Intelligent and spiritually inclined boys would then seek a rabbi for mentorship, patterning their lives after him till they turned 30, when they could take on pupils of their own. A young man’s discipleship training under a rabbi usually started from age 13 through 15. If Jesus’s followers conformed to this pattern, some of them could have been as young as 13 and still in their teenage years when Jesus lived, died, rose, and ascended.
While the Bible does not provide exact ages, it is probable that all of Jesus’s disciples were between the ages of 13 and 30 when they followed Him. This projection accommodates a range, with John possibly the youngest and Peter one of the eldest, considering his marital status.
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