The meaning clearly is, that the age of thirty marked the transition point from youth to maturity. and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, [ affirming ] that John conveyed to them that information.31413141 With respect to this extraordinary assertion of Irenæus, Harvey remarks: The reader may here perceive the unsatisfactory character of tradition, where a mere fact is concerned.