I had heard that some authors had come up with lists of possibilities as well as various number schemes, all of which fall short of a meaningful explanation in my opinion. I came to this conclusion after tabulating all the occurrences in the Gospels, cross referencing via a harmony of the Gospels, and then putting them in chronological order as best as can be done. There is no perfect chronology as the order of events between the Gospels is different at times. It appears that God wasn’t concerned with the timing of certain events at all times. But when it was important, the writers were inspired to record pertinent time markers.
The one list I was able to find was close, but some were counted twice where I count them once due to cross referencing. In the instance of the 10 lepers, all 10 lepers were counted, but I count only the one who was commended by Jesus. I will go into detail as I get to them.
This was a tough section to figure out. After much research on the internet and other sources, I found that there are arguments for and against using each of the synoptic Gospels as the primary source of the chronological order of events. Think of it this way – go back 20 or 30 years to some key events in your life. Now try to put them in the proper order exactly as they happened over a three year period. Nobody recorded these events as they happened so it had to be done by memory. What is important is that the Gospels tell us the teachings of Jesus. Overall the broad chronology is there, but at times the specifics may be out of order. The chronology does not affect the core message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
With that said, I may have a different order than someone’s favorite chronology, and in at least one case, I combined two people from one chronology since there were too many similarities to be separate. More details when that story is told.
I first heard of this list when someone referenced a book by Grant Jeffrey – Unveiling Mysteries of the Bible. In this book, a Lt. Col. R. Roberts is credited with creating a list of 153 people who were blessed in the four gospels. This list was created over 100 years ago and doesn’t include those who were blessed before Jesus was born. This list is also in Number in Scripture by E. W. Bullinger which was originally published in 1894 who specifically states that those who were blessed before Jesus was born weren’t included. I see this as a serious omission. Jesus was affecting people before He was born as evidenced by the fact that John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary showed up at her house. Then Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. So in my opinion, all those listed before Jesus was born should be included as well. This is a sure sign that life begins at conception.
The above will be a permanent part of the Intro page
153 Fish 