When Was Jesus Born?

Source : K-House eNews

December 21, 2004

Each year at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. After the New Year, we struggle to remember to add a
year as we date our checks, which should remind us that the
entire Western World reckons its calendar from the birth of
the One who changed the world more than any other before or
since. Yet, it is disturbing to discover that much of what
we have been taught about the Christmas season seems to be
more tradition than truth.

Most serious Bible students realize that Jesus was probably
not born on December 25th. The shepherds had their flocks in
open fields, which implies a date prior to October.
Furthermore, no competent Roman administrator would require
registration involving travel during the season when Judea
was generally impassable.

If Jesus wasn't born on December 25, just when was he born?
Although the Bible doesn't explicitly identify the birthday
of our Lord, many scholars have developed diverse opinions
as to the likely birthday of Jesus.

The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth,
and therefore the exact date was not preserved in festivals.
The first recorded mention of December 25th is in the
Calendar of Philocalus (AD 354), which assumed Jesus' birth
to be Friday, December 25th, AD 1. This was subsequent to
Constantine's Edict of Toleration in AD 313, which
officially ended the government-sanctioned persecution of
the Christians. The date of December 25th, which was
officially proclaimed by the church fathers in AD 440, was
actually a vestige of the Roman holiday of Saturnalia,
observed near the winter solstice, which itself was among
the many pagan traditions inherited from the earlier
Babylonian priesthood.

The year of Jesus' birth is broadly accepted as 4 BC,
primarily from erroneous conclusions derived from Josephus'
recording of an eclipse, assumed to be on March 13, 4 BC,
"shortly before Herod died." There are a number of problems
with this in addition to the fact that it was more likely
the eclipse occurred on December 29, 1 B.C. Considerable
time elapsed between Jesus' birth and Herod's death since
the family fled to Egypt to escape Herod's edict and they
didn't return until after Herod's death. Furthermore, Herod
died on January 14, 1 BC.

Tertullian (born about 160 AD) stated that Augustus began to
rule 41 years before the birth of Jesus and died 15 years
after that event. Augustus died on August 19, 14 AD, placing
Jesus' birth at 2 BC. Tertullian also notes that Jesus was
born 28 years after the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC, which
is consistent with a date of 2 BC.

Irenaeus, born about a century after Jesus, also notes that
the Lord was born in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus.
Since Augustus began his reign in the autumn of 43 BC, this
also appears to substantiate the birth in 2 BC.

Eusebius (264-340 AD), the "Father of Church History,"
ascribes it to the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus and
the 28th from the subjection of Egypt on the death of
Anthony and Cleopatra. The 42nd year of Augustus ran from
the autumn of 2 BC to the autumn of 1 BC. The subjugation of
Egypt into the Roman Empire occurred in the autumn of 30 BC.
The 28th year extended from the autumn of 3 BC to the autumn
of 2 BC. The only date that would meet both of these
constraints would be the autumn of 2 BC.

Another approach in determining the date of Jesus' birth is
from information about John the Baptist. Elisabeth, John's
mother, was a cousin of Mary and the wife of a priest named
Zacharias who was of the "course" of Abijah (Priests were
divided into 24 courses and each course officiated in the
Temple for one week, from Sabbath to Sabbath). When the
Temple was destroyed by Titus on August 5, 70 AD, the first
course of priests had just taken office. Since the course of
Abijah was the eighth course, we can track backwards and
determine that Zacharias would have ended his duties on July
13, 3 BC. If the birth of John took place 280 days later, it
would have been on April 19-20, 2 BC (precisely on Passover
of that year). John began his ministry in the 15th year of
Tiberius Caesar. The minimum age for the ministry was 30. As
Augustus died on August 19, 14 AD, that was the accession
year for Tiberius. If John was born on April 19-20, 2 BC,
his 30th birthday would have been April 19-20, 29 AD, or the
15th year of Tiberius. This seems to confirm the 2 B.C. date
and, since John was five months older, this also confirms
the autumn birth date for Jesus.

Elisabeth hid herself for five months and then the Angel
Gabriel announced to Mary both Elisabeth's condition and
that Mary also would bear a son who would be called Jesus.
Mary went "with haste" to visit Elisabeth, who was then in
the first week of her sixth month, or the fourth week of
December, 3 BC. If Jesus was born 280 days later it would
place the date of his birth on September 29, 2 BC. If Jesus
was born on September 29, 2 BC, it is interesting to note
that it was also the First of Tishri, the day of the Feast
of Trumpets (See also our briefing package on The Feasts of
Israel for more background).

Christians today tend to fight the ongoing secularization of
their holidays. Some have rejected anything to do with them,
saying they are not Biblically ordained. Others have tried
to go back to keeping the Jewish feasts instead. It should
be pointed out that the New Testament doesn't really ordain
anything other than the Lord's Supper. But it does not
prohibit it either, and under grace Christians are free to
honor different days if they wish.