This is the difficulty:  the solution turns upon an alteration in the construction of the Greek.  Saint Luke’s words in the original are allowed, by the general opinion of learned men, to signify, not “that Jesus began to be about thirty years of age,” but “that he was about thirty years of age when he began his ministry.”  This construction being admitted, the adverb “about” gives us all the latitude we want, and more especially when applied, as it is in the present instance, to a decimal number; for such numbers, even without this qualifying addition, are often used in a laxer sense than is here contended for.*

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* Livy, speaking of the peace which the conduct of Romulus had procured to the state, during the whole reign of his successor (Numa), has these words:  “Ab illo enim profectis viribus datis tautum valuit, ut, in quaaraginta deiade annos, tutam proem haberet:”  yet afterwards in the same chapter, “Romulus,” he says, “septera et triginta regnavit annos.  Numa tres et quadraginta.” (Liv.  Hist. c. i. sect. 16.) _________

III.  Acts v. 36.  “For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves:  who were slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nought.”

Josephus has preserved the account of an impostor of the name of Theudas, who created some disturbances, and was slain; but according to the date assigned to this man’s appearance (in which, however, it is very possible that Josephus may have been mistaken), (Michaelis’s Introduction to the New Testament [Marsh’s translation], vol. i. p. 61.) it must have been, at the least, seven years after Gamaliel’s speech, of which this text is a part, was delivered.  It has been replied to the objection, (Lardner, part i. vol. ii. p. 92.) that there might be two impostors of this name:  and it has been observed, in order to give a general probability to the solution, that the same thing appears to have happened in other instances of the same kind.  It is proved from Josephus, that there were not fewer than four persons of the name of Simon within forty years, and not fewer than three of the name of Judas within ten years, who were all leaders of insurrections:  and it is likewise recorded by this historian, that upon the death of Herod the Great (which agrees very well with the time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, and with his manner of stating that time, “before these days”) there were innumerable disturbances in Judea. (Antiq. 1. 17, c. 12. sect. 4.) Archbishop Usher was of opinion, that one of the three Judases above mentioned was Gamaliel’s Theudas; (Annals, p. 797.) and that with a less variation of the name than we actually find in the Gospel, where one of the twelve apostles is called, by Luke, Judas; and by Mark, Thaddeus. (Luke vi. 16.  Mark iii. 18.) Origen, however he came at his information, appears to have believed that there was an impostor of the name of Theudas before the nativity of Christ. (Orig. cont Cels. p. 44.)