At the start of Jesus Christ's ministry, as recorded in Luke 4:16-17, He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and, as was His custom, entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, opened it, and found the place where it was written, crafting His own message from multiple sections of Isaiah, including chapters 61, 58, and possibly 42. His words resonated with the themes of the Jubilee year, which was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement, suggesting that this day aligns more closely with the beginning of His ministry than Pentecost. A Day of Atonement start would indicate His ministry lasted 3½ years, fitting prophetic timelines more consistently. In Luke 4:24-29, after reading, He spoke further, declaring that no prophet is accepted in his own country and citing examples of Gentiles being blessed during times of hardship for Israel. This provoked wrath among the synagogue attendees, who thrust Him out of the city and led Him to a cliff with the intent to throw Him down, a method paralleling the Jewish tradition of pushing the azazel goat over a cliff on the Day of Atonement, further supporting this day as the likely setting. Their deliberate choice of this execution method over stoning underscores the connection to the cultural practices of that specific holy day. Additionally, the requirement for men to appear before God at the place He chose during pilgrimage feasts like Pentecost, as noted in Exodus 23:17, Exodus 34:23-24, and Deuteronomy 16:16, suggests that zealous men from Nazareth would have been in Jerusalem for Pentecost, not in their local synagogue. In contrast, the Day of Atonement was not a pilgrimage feast, allowing them to remain in Nazareth, which aligns with the presence of an indignant crowd ready to act against Him. This further supports the notion that the start of His ministry occurred on the Day of Atonement rather than Pentecost.

Jesus Christ began His ministry in Galilee shortly after His temptation in the wilderness and the imprisonment of John the Baptist. In Mark 1:14-15 He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, announcing that the time had been fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand while calling hearers to repent and believe the gospel. These statements identified the foundational features of His work: the declaration of the kingdom as its goal and the required response of repentance and belief from those who would join Him. In Luke 4:16-21, on the Sabbath in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read from Isaiah 61:1-2, inserting a phrase from Isaiah 58:6 and omitting the reference to the day of vengeance. He declared that the scripture was fulfilled that day in the hearing of those present. The reading presented His mission statement in fuller detail. He stated that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He had been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. These two passages function as additive parallels. Mark 1 supplies the concise announcement of the kingdom and the call to repentance and belief, while Luke 4 expands the description of the preaching of the gospel itself. Both confirm that His ministry fulfilled the appointed time and prophecy. Through the reading He identified Himself as the Anointed One, the Messiah, sent with divine authority to begin resetting all things to God's intended order by rescuing and freeing those who were spiritually poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, and oppressed.