[3] When was Jesus born? By calculating the temple’s age, Herod…

What year was Jesus born? How to calculate it.

Home > Jesus Christ – real and historical > [3] When was Jesus born

Jesus Christ has changed history and many millions of people, not just in Israel, but the whole world, so when was Jesus born?

Jesus Christ was born around 6 B.C. to 1 A.D., but the actual birth date of Jesus Christ is not known exactly, although by analysing certain events we can narrow the date down.

This article looks at the story of when Jesus was born.

Jesus’ enemies couldn’t fault his life, nor deny his miracles. They couldn’t stop the massive crowds from following him.

The bottom line was that they wanted him dead because they were jealous of his impact on the crowds, and they were scared that their ‘reign’ would come to an end and that the Romans would crush the Jews.

1. Our yearly calendar is based on when Jesus was born.

But the calculation by Dionysius Exiguus, a monk (tradition refers to him as an abbot), got it slightly wrong.

The calendar era is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus, with AD counting years from the start of this epoch and BC denoting years before the start of the era.
There is no year zero in this scheme; thus the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC.
This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, but was not widely used until the 9th century.

‘Anno Domini’ Wikipedia ²

Dionysius Exiguus arrived in Rome at about the time Pope St. Gelasius I died in 496 A.D. He stayed as a scholar at Rome.
In 525 A.D., at the request of Pope St. John I, he prepared the calendar, which was a modified Alexandrian computation (95-year tables evolved by the patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria) based on Victorius of Aquitaine’s 532-year cycle.
He was a theologian, mathematician, and astronomer and was well versed in the Holy Scriptures and in canon law. ³

2. What month was Jesus born in?

In trying to calculate a definite month for when Jesus was born, we could use this calculation and deduce that it was somewhere around September:

…we can approximate the month of Jesus’ birth to be around the time of Tishri (mid to late September).
To arrive at this date, start at the conception of John the Baptist, Sivan (June),
count forward six months to arrive at Gabriel’s announcement of the conception of Jesus, Kislev (December),
then count forward nine more months, the time it takes for human gestation, to reach Tishri (September), when Jesus was born.”

‘When was Jesus born?’ BibleInfo ⁴

How was this calculation made?
Why was John the Baptist’s conception put as Sivan (May/June)?
Luke tells us:

Now while he [Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father] was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.”

Luke 1:8-9 ESV

In Matthew Henry’s commentary on Luke 1:8, he wrote:

And then if Dr Lightfoot reckon, with the help of the Jewish calendar, that this course of Abia fell on the seventeenth day of the third month, the month Sivan, answering to part of May and part of June, it is worth observing that the portions of the law and the prophets which were read this day in synagogues were very agreeable to that which was doing in the temple; namely, the law of the Nazarites (Numbers 6), and the conception of Samson, Judges 13″

‘Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged’ in One Volume. By Matthew Henry. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1820.

When John the Baptist’s mother (Elizabeth) was in her sixth month of pregnancy, an angel told Mary that she was going to conceive a baby (Jesus) even though she was a virgin.
So at that point, Mary went to see Elizabeth in November/December (six months after Sivan, which was May/June):

And the angel answered her,
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.
And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
For nothing will be impossible with God.’
And Mary said,
‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’
And the angel departed from her.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into cathe hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.”

Luke 1:35-41 ESV

So Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Most High overshadowed Mary at about the time she visited Elizabeth in November/December.
So, by counting nine more months to Jesus’ birth, it could be August or September.

3. What year was Jesus born according to current thinking?

Many theologians assume the date to be 6, 5 or 4 B.C. ⁵

While this is sometimes debated, the majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before.**
This is because most date the death of King Herod the Great to 4 B.C.

‘When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.?’ by Megan Sauter Biblical Archaeology Society ⁶

** “Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before.” So they are putting the birth of Jesus in 6, 5 or 4 B.C. But, as we will see later, the date of Herod’s death is now questionable and not reliable.

So how can the correct year of Jesus’ birth now be calculated?

4. Historical clues to put a date on Jesus’ Birth.

We will now make some calculations based on certain historical facts, these being:

• The Crucifixion
• Jesus’ baptism
• The temple’s age
• King Herod’s reign
• The Roman census

Although some of these events do not have definitive dates, a reasonable assumption can be made to enable us to calculate the year Jesus was born.

Also, the Bible gives us a lot of information on when John the Baptist started his public ministry.
Shortly after this, Jesus would have been 30 years of age when he also started his public ministry. (Thirty was the starting age to start an important serving office in Israel – this is discussed later).

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Luke 3:1-3 ESV

• (i) ‘fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar’ = 29 A.D. ⁷
• (ii) ‘Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea’ = 26/27 to 36/37 A.D. ⁸
• (iii) ‘Herod being tetrarch of Galilee’ = c. 4 B.C. to c. 39 A.D. ⁹
• (iv) ‘his brother Philip tetrarch’ = 4 B.C. to 34 A.D. ¹⁰
• (v) ‘Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene’ = ‘we have no indisputable evidence of this tetrarch Lysanias’¹¹
• (vi) ‘high priesthood of Annas’ = 6 A.D. to unknown, about 40 A.D. ¹²

So, to interpret those results:

• (i) Tiberius Caesar: 29 A.D. minus 30 years (Jesus’ age on starting public ministry) = 1 B.C.
• (ii) Pontius Pilate: 26 to 37 A.D. The year 29 A.D. falls within his reign.
• (iii) Herod: c. 4 B.C. to c. 39 A.D. The year 29 A.D. also falls within his reign.
• (iv) Philip tetrarch: 4 B.C. to 34 A.D. Again, the year 29 A.D. falls within his reign.
• (v) Lysanias tetrarch: There are no known dates.
• (vi) Annas: 6 A.D. to about 40 A.D.

So, taking the dates of Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, and Annas, minus 30 years for Jesus’ age, the result comes out as 4, 3, 2, 1 B.C., 1, 2 A.D. and so on.

The date for when John the Baptist started his public ministry, and Jesus was 30 years of age, is very close to 29 A.D. because that is the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

That would make Jesus’ birth to be 2 or 1 B.C.

Let’s now look at other key events to calculate when Jesus was born:

5. Counting back from the crucifixion: When was Jesus born?

We could put a year on Jesus’ birth by counting back from his crucifixion:
Contemporary scholars put the most likely date of the crucifixion of Jesus on the fourteenth of Nisan (7 April) 30 A.D.
Another preferred date among scholars is Friday, April 3, 33 A.D.

Jesus had to be crucified sometime between 26 and 36 A.D. – the years when the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, ruled Judea. ¹³

Taking the information above into consideration along with this verse:

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.”

Luke 3:23 NIV

If Jesus’ crucifixion was in 30 A.D. with three and a half years of ministry, the timescale would look like this:

• 30 A.D. April: crucifixion.
• 26 A.D. September: Jesus’ baptism (30 years old).
• 4 B.C. April or September: Jesus was born.

If Jesus’ crucifixion was in 31 A.D. with three and a half years of ministry, the timescale would look like this:

• 31 A.D. April: crucifixion.
• 27 A.D. September: Jesus’ baptism (30 years old).
• 3 B.C. April or September: Jesus was born.

But if his crucifixion was in 33 A.D. with three and a half years of ministry, the timescale would look like this:

• 33 A.D. April: crucifixion.
• 29 A.D. September: Jesus’ baptism (30 years old).
• 1 B.C. April or September: Jesus was born.

There is a very interesting article suggesting Wednesday 25th April 31 AD for Jesus’ crucifixion:

A Passover on Wednesday is the only day of the week that works with all Biblical accounts of the crucifixion.
Yahshua was in the grave “three days and three nights” Matthew 12:40.
From Wednesday just before sunset [even] to Saturday just before sunset [even] is three days and three nights.
The fact that the day following Yahshua’s crucifixion was a Sabbath (Mark 15:42, Luke 23:52-54, & John 19:31) does not prove He was crucified on a Friday.
According to the Law of Moses, the day following Passover (which is also the first day of the feast of unleavened bread) is also, always a Sabbath day of rest to be observed like the 7th day weekly Sabbath no matter what day of the week it falls on. (See Leviticus 23:4-8, Numbers 28:16-18, and take special notice of John 19:31 again.
The Sabbath immediately following Yahshua’s crucifixion was no ordinary Sabbath.)
Understanding that it was a Wednesday Passover and crucifixion also solves apparent conflicts in the Gospel records.
In Luke 23:55,56 it says that the women (Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James) went and prepared anointing spices and oils BEFORE the Sabbath.
In Mark 16:1 it says that they bought them AFTER the Sabbath!
The answer lies is in the fact that there are two different Sabbaths being referred to here.
The women both bought and prepared the spices on the same day.
The day of the week was Friday.
When Mark says they bought the spices AFTER the Sabbath, the Sabbath he is referring to was the special Thursday Sabbath …
the first day of unleavened bread that followed the day of Passover.
When Luke says they prepared the spices and then rested the Sabbath, the Sabbath he is referring to is Saturday …
the weekly Sabbath.
There is also proof found in Matthew 28:1 that there were two Sabbaths.
Most Bible translations render this word “Sabbath” in the singular because translators, believing the traditional Friday crucifixion scenario, couldn’t make any sense of the fact that the Greek manuscripts all render this word in the plural.
This fact can be verified by anyone with a Greek interlinear translation or Greek lexicon.”

‘Passover dates 26-34 A.D.’ by Intercontinental Church of God ¹⁴

Yes, I did check to see if Matthew 28:1 is plural, and it is!
Jesus’ crucifixion in 31 A.D. would make his birth about 3 B.C.

So we’ve got a date between 1 and 4 B.C. for Jesus’ birth.

6. Counting back from Jesus’ baptism to find when he was born.

If we take the fact that Jesus was “about 30 years of age” at the start of his ministry (Luke 3:23), that would mean that he got baptised by John the Baptist at this time, which Luke tells us is:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar…”

Luke 3:1 NIV

Here is the logic of Tiberius’ reign and Jesus’ baptism:

as far as is known, ancient sources always counted Tiberius’ reign as commencing after the death of Augustus.
(…surviving coins and inscriptions also reckon Tiberius’ reign from either January 1 or August 19, A.D. 14.)
The reckoning of Tiberius’ fifteenth year as A.D. 29 is confirmed by John 2:13, 20, 23.
Jesus’ first Passover following his baptism, which should have occurred in A.D. 30 if Jesus was baptized in the summer of A.D. 29.”

‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann ¹⁵

Scholars estimate this year at about 28–29 A.D., when Jesus got baptised and started his public ministry.
So if we give Jesus’ age as 30 at the start of his ministry, by working backwards from this, then Jesus would have been born in 1-2 B.C.
Or if we give Jesus’ age as 32 at the start of his ministry, then working backwards from this, Jesus would have been born in 3-4 B.C.

But John P. Pratt makes some very good points:

Christ made a point of fulfilling the law of Moses in every detail (Mat. 5:17), which would have included beginning his public ministry at age 30 (Num. 4:3).
He apparently began his public ministry at the Passover in A.D. 30 (after his baptism) because:
1) his first miracle was done rather secretly “not many days” before that Passover (John 2:9-13);
2) at that time he said, “mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4), suggesting that the time for his public ministry had not arrived because he was not yet thirty; and
3) he then openly taught and did miracles at Passover (John 2:23), implying that he was then thirty.
If so, Christ was born in the spring of 1 B.C., on or shortly before Passover.“

‘Yet Another Eclipse for Herod’ by John P. Pratt ¹⁶

To say that Jesus started his public ministry at the age of 30 is very reasonable because the book of Numbers specifies 30 as the youngest age to serve the Lord at the Tabernacle:

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
‘Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans and their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who can come on duty, to do the work in the tent of meeting.’ “

Numbers 4:1-3 ESV

This would make the date 1 to 2 B.C. for Jesus’ birth.

7. By calculating the temple’s age: When was Jesus born?

This date is independently confirmed by the Jews in the temple at the time Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables, as recorded by the Apostle John:

They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ “

John 2:20 NIV

So the Temple was 46 years old when Jesus began his ministry during Passover, which corresponds to around 28–29 A.D. according to scholarly estimates.

In John 2:20, Jesus’ opposition notes ‘this temple has been built for forty-six years.’
Josephus reports that Herod began the Temple in the year that Caesar came to Syria and that this was ten years after the Battle of Actium (Ant. 15.354; War 1.398–399.
Actium was fought on September 2, 31 B.C.).
Therefore, the temple construction began sometime after the spring of 20 B.C.
The temple building itself was completed in one year and six months—in late 19 or, more likely, in 18 B.C. (Ant. 15.421; the rest of the temple precincts were completed after eight years of work [12 B.C.], Ant. 15:420.)
Thus, the forty-sixth anniversary of the completion of Herod’s temple would have occurred in late A.D. 28 or 29.
If it was in A.D. 29 the following Passover would have been in spring, A.D. 30.

‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann

If we give Jesus’ age as 30 at that point, by working backwards from this, then Jesus would have been born in 1-2 B.C.

Using the temple’s age gives a date of 1 to 2 B.C. for Jesus’ birth.

8. Calculating King Herod’s reign to find when Jesus was born.

Both Luke and Matthew associate Jesus’ birth with the time of Herod the Great:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.”

Matthew 2:1 NIV

Jesus could have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi because Herod ordered the murder of all boys up to the age of two years.

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”

Matthew 2:16 NIV

• c. 4 B.C. (Now uncertain; see below) King Herod died.
  So if Herod died in 4 B.C., then Jesus could have been born in 5-6 B.C.
• The traditional date of King Herod’s death was 1 B.C.
• A modern theory favours the traditional date of Herod’s death: ¹⁸
  Filmer ¹⁹ and Steinmann ²⁰ propose that Herod died in 1 B.C. and that his heirs backdated their reigns to 4 or 3 B.C. to assert an overlapping with Herod’s rule and bolster their legitimacy. (The kingdom was split between 3 of his sons: Antipas, Archelaus and Philip.)
  January eclipse of 1 B.C.
  December eclipse of 1 B.C.
  If Herod died in 1 B.C. Jesus could have been born in 2-4 B.C.

One problem in dating Herod’s death has been the dates given in Josephus’ Antiquities. It has now been found that the date has changed over the years:

In 1995 David W. Beyer reported to the Society of Biblical Literature his personal examination in the British Museum of forty-six editions of Josephus’ Antiquities published before 1700 among which twenty-seven texts, all but three published before 1544 read ‘twenty-second year of Tiberius,’ while not a single edition published prior to 1544 read ‘twentieth year of Tiberius.’
Likewise in the Library of Congress five more editions read the ‘twenty-second year,’ while none prior to 1544 records the ‘twentieth year.’
It was also found that the oldest versions of the text give variant lengths of the reign for Philip of 32 and 36 years. But if we allow for a full thirty-seven-year reign, then ‘the twenty-second year of Tiberius’ (A.D. 35/36) points to 1 B.C. (1 year B.C. + 36 years A.D. = 37 years) as the year of the death of Herod.
Therefore, it now appears as if Filmer’s conjecture was correct.
Philip reigned from 1 B.C. until his death in A.D. 36
Since Philip received the tetrarchy upon the death of his father, it would appear that Herod died no earlier than 1 B.C.”

‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann ²¹

Dave Armstrong confirms this and adds another observation:

There are also ongoing scholarly disputes about the manuscripts of Josephus. Twenty-seven texts of Antiquities from before 1544 indicate that Herod died later than usually supposed: in 1 B.C. or maybe A.D. 1.
This would ‘move’ the date of Jesus’ birth to 3 or 2 B.C.: which is the most common date stated by many early Church fathers, such as Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus of Rome, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Origen.
Another argument that can be made is the date of coins issued by Herod the Great’s successors. The evidence shows that none can be dated before A.D. 1. These coins were controlled by Rome and only after Herod the Great’s death could such coins be issued.”

‘Conjunctions, the Star of Bethlehem and Astronomy’ By Dave Armstrong. National Catholic Register. ²²

So this points to Herod’s death being about 1 B.C., and Jesus could have been born in 2-4 B.C.

In Josephus’ account, Herod’s death was preceded by a lunar eclipse and followed by Passover.
A partial eclipse best observed from the west coast of Africa, took place on March 13, 4 B.C., about 29 days before Passover.
Whilst this eclipse has been suggested as the one referred to by Josephus, there were other eclipses during this period, with proponents of 5 B.C. and the two eclipses of 1 B.C. occurring January 10, being the most spectacular total lunar eclipse and December 29, another only partial eclipse.”

‘Herod the Great’ Wikipedia ²³

Here are some more thoughts on Herod’s death being 1 B.C.:

All early Christian sources place the birth of Jesus after Passover in 4 B.C., with most of them placing it in sometime in late 3 or early 2 B.C.
Since Jesus was born before the death of Herod according to Matt 2:1–19, these sources imply that Herod died after 4 B.C…
These challenges led Finegan to abandon the Schürer consensus to endorse a date of 3/2 B.C. for the birth of Christ and a date of 1 B.C. for the death of Herod in the revised edition of his ‘Handbook of Biblical Chronology’.
In keeping with the information supplied by Josephus, this revised end date for Herod’s reign is chosen to align Herod’s death with a total eclipse of the moon on January 10, 1 B.C., about twelve weeks before the Passover on April 11 that year.”

‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann

And finally, to conclude this section, in Josephus’ account, Herod’s death was preceded by a lunar eclipse and followed by Passover. ²⁴

A partial eclipse best observed from the west coast of Africa took place on March 13, 4 B.C., about 29 days before Passover. ²⁵
Other eclipses during this period include proponents of 5 B.C. and the two eclipses of 1 B.C., occurring January 10, being the most spectacular total lunar eclipse and December 29, another only partial eclipse. ²⁶

John P. Pratt makes a very good observation about the lunar eclipse; he asks:

So why did Josephus include Herod’s eclipse but no others?
An obvious answer is that the eclipse was widely observed and then associated with the executions.
If so, then the eclipse occurred in the early evening.
…the eclipse of December 29, 1 B.C. fits this criterion very well. The full moon was nearly half eclipsed when it could first be seen rising in the east above the distant mountains about twenty minutes after sunset.
It would not have been seen much before that time, even without the mountains, due to sky brightness.
At first the eclipsed half of the full moon would have been invisible, then it would have appeared dimly lit, and finally the characteristic reddening of the eclipsed portion would have become noticeable.
The umbral phase continued for about an hour after first visibility.
Note that a partial eclipse is more easily seen at moonrise than a total because totality delays first visibility (the entire moon is in the ‘invisible’ portion) and the shape of the missing portion would have made it obvious that it was an eclipse, especially to the Judeans who used the moon to indicate the day of the month and who expected a full moon.
Of the candidates to be Herod’s eclipse, the December 29, 1 B.C. eclipse was the most likely to have been widely observed.
If December 29, 1 B.C. is correct, then Herod died in early A.D. 1 rather than early 1 B.C.
In the next section, this paper discusses how an A.D. 1 death date for Herod might explain all of the historical evidence…
It allows Christ to have been born during the census begun in Judea in 2 B.C. and hence to be about 30 in A.D. 29, both in agreement with Luke’s account.
It also allows an ample three months for all the events that would not fit into one month in 4 B.C.”

‘Yet another eclipse for Herod’ The Planetarian, vol. 19, no. 4, Dec. 1990, pp. 8–14.

9. Calculating when the census was to find when Jesus was born

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)”

Luke 2:1-2 NIV

The Jewish historian Josephus in his book Antiquities of the Jews (written c. A.D. 93) gives the census as sometime between 6–7 A.D.
But Herod died many years before this, so most scholars discount this census.
Tertullian believed (writing two centuries later) that there were several censuses done under Saturninus (he died 100 B.C.), so more may have been carried out in Caesar Augustus’ time.
Some biblical scholars and commentators believe that the text in Luke can be read as ‘registration before Quirinius was governor of Syria’.

Until recently, no empire-wide enrolment (Luke 2:1) was known that would have been required of Joseph and Mary;
The commonly cited taxation of 8 B.C. applied only to Roman citizens.
Now Martin has identified it as a combined census and oath of allegiance to Augustus in 3-2 B.C., perhaps related to the bestowal of the title “pater patriae” (father of thy country) by the senate on Feb. 5, 2 B.C. ²⁷
Josephus records that over 6,000 Pharisees refused to pledge their good will to Caesar (about a year or so before Herod died), ²⁸ probably referring to that oath because the census would have recorded how many refused.
Orosius (a fifth century historian) clearly links an oath to the registration at the birth of Christ:
‘[Augustus] ordered that a census be taken of each province everywhere and that all men be enrolled. So at that time, Christ was born and was entered on the Roman census list as soon as he was born. This is the earliest and most famous public acknowledgment which marked Caesar as the first of all men and the Romans as lords of the world … that first and greatest census was taken, since in this one name of Caesar all the peoples of the great nations took oath, and at the same time, through the participation in the census, were made part of one society.’ ²⁹
He identified the time of the census using two Roman systems that both agree to indicate 2 B.C. ³⁰
This implies a lower limit for Herod’s death of 2 B.C.”

‘Yet Another Eclipse for Herod’ by John P. Pratt

So the census gives a date around 2 B.C. for Jesus’ birth.

10. Conclusion on when Jesus was born.

Taking the evidence of the crucifixion, Jesus’ baptism, the temple’s age, King Herod’s reign and the Roman census, we can make these assumptions:

• The details in Luke 3 show that Jesus was born in 2 or 1 B.C.
• Counting back from the crucifixion gives between 4 and 1 B.C.
• Counting from Jesus’ baptism (if he was 30 years old) gives 1-2 B.C.
• Calculating the temple’s age (if Jesus was 30 years old) gives 1-2 B.C.
• Looking at King Herod’s death, Jesus’ birth could be from 4 B.C. to 2 B.C. (The 2 B.C. date is based on the earliest, more reliable editions of Josephus’ Antiquities).
• Calculating when the census happened makes Jesus’ birth around 2 B.C.

So, 2 B.C. is the highest contender for Jesus’ birth because it appears in all six criteria.

More articles:
Jesus’ childhood and birth. God’s new work before miracles…
Timeline leading up to Jesus Christ
Evidence of Jesus Christ – Non-Christian
Jews and Jesus – Judaism’s perspective
Turin Shroud and Sudarium of Oviedo
The Star of Bethlehem: when was it? Planets or a star?

11. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

References and credits – open in new tabs:

1. ‘An exhibit at Christus Biblical Gardens, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Birth of Jesus Christ.’ RG 82: Tennessee Department of Conservation Photograph Collection, 1937-1976 ↩

2. ‘Anno Domini’ Wikipedia ↩

3. ‘Dionysius Exiguus – canonist’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. ↩

4. ‘When was Jesus born?’ BibleInfo ↩

5. Dunn, James DG (2003). “Jesus Remembered”. Eerdmans Publishing: 344 ↩

6. ‘When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.?’ by Megan Sauter Biblical Archaeology Society ↩

7. ‘Tiberius – Roman emperor’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. Updated 2 January 2024 ↩

8. ‘Pontius Pilate’ Wikipedia last edited on 27 January 2024 ↩

9. ‘Herod Antipas – ruler of Galilee’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. Updated by Melissa Petruzzello 1 January 2024 ↩

10. ‘Philip the Tetrarch’ Wikipedia last edited on 26 January 2024 ↩

11. ‘Is Luke’s reference of “Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene” a Biblical mistake? BibleAsk. 23 October 2018. ↩

12. ‘Annas’ Wikipedia last edited on 26 January 2024. ↩

13. ‘What Do Jews Believe About Jesus?’ My Jewish Learning. ↩

14. ‘Passover dates 26-34 A.D.’ by Intercontinental Church of God  ↩

15. ‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann ↩

16. ‘Yet Another Eclipse for Herod’ by John P. Pratt ↩

17. ‘Seated King, Probably Herod ca. 1300–1350’ O.A. Public Domain ↩

18. ‘Herod the Great and Jesus: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence’ by Gerard Gertoux ↩

19. Filmer, W. E. ‘Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great’, Journal of Theological Studies ns 17 (1966), 283–298. ↩

20. Steinmann, Andrew. ‘From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology’ (St. Louis: Concordia, 2011), pp. 235–238. ↩

21. ‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ by Andrew E. Steinmann ↩

22. ‘Conjunctions, the Star of Bethlehem and Astronomy’ By Dave Armstrong. National Catholic Register. 21 December 2020. ↩

23. ‘Herod the Great’ Wikipedia ↩

24. Josephus, Antiquities, 17.6.4 ↩

25. “Lunar eclipse of March 13, 4 BCE”. ↩

26. “Catalog of Lunar Eclipses: -0099 to 0000”. eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov. ↩

27. Res Gestae 35; Ovid, Fasti 2.129.  ↩

28. Ant. XVII.ii.4. ↩

29. Orosius, Adv. Pag. VI.22.7, VII.2.16; trans. by Deferrari, R.J. The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C.: Catholic U. Press, 1964), vol. 50, p. 281, 287. ↩

30. A.U.C. 752 = Augustus’ 42nd year = 2 B.C. (Adv. Pag. VI.22.1, VI.22.5, VII.2.14). ↩