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 | In what year was Jesus born? |
| In what month was Jesus born? |
| Prior predictions of Jesus' birth |
In What Year Was Jesus' Born?
The year of Christ's birth is unknown. The only available evidence relating to his birth is contained within the 50 or so gospels written by the early Christian movement. Of these, the four that made it into the official canon of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament), are most often cited -- Matthew and Luke, chapters 1 & 2. People have tried to approximate the time of Jesus' birth using various clues:
| POLITICAL LEADERS: Luke 1:5 states that Jesus was born when Herod was King of Judea. Luke 2:2 states that Jesus was born when Cyrenius (a.k.a. Quirinius) was also governor of Syria. Unfortunately, this appears to be an impossibility. The historical record shows that Herod was king from 37 until his death in 4 BCE. (A few scholars say 5 BCE). Quirinius was not governor of Syria at any time during this period. He came to power in 6 CE, a decade after Herod died. 1 |
| CENSUS/TAXATION: Luke 2:1-4 mentions that Jesus' birth occurred during
the time that Caesar Augustus had ordered all of the known world to be taxed. Luke said
that every person had to return to the city of his ancestors, to be registered and taxed.
Joseph went to Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. But this
universal census and tax never actually happened. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote a
very complete history of the Jews in Palestine. He does mention a census which was
conducted in Judea in 6 CE. But this was only a local census, not one that would enable
"all the world to be taxed." Its purpose was to count the male
population so that they could be taxed at a later time. And it triggered a major uprising
among the Jews, who regarded a census as against scripture and the will of God. He does
not refer to an earlier census and poll tax. At the time of Jesus' birth, the Jews were still subject to King Herod. Since Palestine was a client kingdom of Rome, only the king had powers of taxation in the land. 2 It was only in areas that were operated under direct Roman rule that Caesar Augustus could have taxed the citizens directly. There is no record of a mass migration of adults to their ancestral cities in order to be registered. It would have been totally impractical to hold a census in this way. The primitive transportation systems of the Roman Empire would have been totally inadequate to handle the flow of people. The entire empire would be largely shut down for many months while people were returning to their home towns. Even today, with airplanes, trains, busses and automobiles, it would not be practical to hold a census in this manner. |
| HEROD'S SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS: Matthew 2:16 describes King Herod's order that all of the boy infants who had not reached their second birthday in Bethlehem and vicinity were to be murdered. The date of that mass murder would give an approximate idea of Jesus' birth. Unfortunately for historians (and fortunately for the residents of the Bethlehem area) the killings never happened. If the children were killed, then historians of the era would have been certain to have recorded the event. Josephus would have been one. He wrote in great detail about even minor actions and decisions of Herod. The mass murder was never mentioned. |
Our present method of dates, which divide the past into AD (anno domine, the year of the Lord) and BC (before Christ), was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century. As the calendar has been more generally accepted among people of many religions, the terms AD and BC have been largely superceded by: CE (common era) and BCE (before the common era). Exiguus was a Christian monk whose name translates into English as "Denny the Dwarf." The best guess of most Biblical scholars is that Jesus was born between 4 and 7 BCE. Recently, a new suggestion of 1 BC has been put forth. So perhaps Denny was not as far off in his calculations as people have believed. 3
The 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus would appear to have already passed. Marcus Borg organized and hosted the "Jesus at 2000" seminar on the life of Jesus. It was held on 1996-FEB-8 to 10, the approximate date of the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' birth.
Sponsored link:
In What Month Was Jesus' Born?
The month and day of Jesus' birthday is also unknown. However, we can be fairly certain that it was not DEC-25.
| THE SHEPHERDS: Luke 2:8 mentions that shepherds were living in their fields keeping watch over their flocks during the nighttime (and, one would assume, also during the daytime.) This is a good indication that Jesus' birth did not happen in December when the flocks would have already have been moved from the fields to pens. They were only in the fields during the hotter months. There is a remark in the Talmud that flocks were put out to grass in March and brought in during the beginning of November. During the Jewish month of Heshvan (our October/November) the fall rains hit and the animals are penned up. At best, the passage narrows down the birth month to one of 7 months in the late spring, summer, or early fall. | ||||||||||||||
| Hilke Dokter 4 offers three indicators from the Bible that Jesus was born during the month of Tishri (September/October). | ||||||||||||||
| The month of Jesus birth can be calculated with reference to the conception of John the
Baptist:
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Predictions of Jesus' Birth
Isaiah 7:14 is frequently cited as pointing to Christ's birth - particularly at Christmas time. English Bibles differ subtlety in the translation of this verse. Some translations talk of a young woman becoming pregnant - not an unusual occurrence. Others imply that a virgin engaged in sexual intercourse and became pregnant - again not that unusual. Still others imply a miracle, by prophesizing that a woman was pregnant while still remaining a virgin.
As it happens, the ancient Greek translators of the Septuagint and similar translations made an ancient error. They translated the Hebrew word "almah" into the Greek "parthenos", which usually means a "virgin." "Almah" appears 9 other times in the Hebrew Scriptures; in each case it means "young woman" - a female who might have been a virgin or might have been sexually active. When the Hebrew scriptures referred to a virgin (and they do over 50 times) they always used the Hebrew word "betulah." 5 So, Isaiah was referring to a young woman becoming pregnant (a rather ordinary event) and not to a woman having conceived while still remaining a virgin (a miracle). During the Christian era, the passage has become so famous that many modern translators find it difficult to conform to the Hebrew original. Many duplicate the error of those ancient Greek translations.
The story in Isaiah 7:14 is unrelated to the birth of Jesus. 6 It describes a siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians about 715 BCE. The child that was born to the young woman at the time was a sign from God that the siege would be lifted and that Jerusalem would continue as before. The passage describes the child in terms that exclude Jesus as a possible candidate. The prophecy was fulfilled more than 700 years before the birth of Jesus.
Related essay on this web site:
| Where was Jesus born? |
References:
- A.N. Wilson, "Jesus", Sinclair-Stevenson, London, UK (1992), Pages 73-83. You can read reviews of this book or order it safely from Amazon.com
- Robin L. Fox, "The Unauthorized Version: Truth and fiction in the Bible," Knopf, New York, NY (1992) Review/order the book
- M. J. Borg, Ed., "Jesus at 2000," Westview Press, (1997), Page 2. Review/order the book
- Hilke Dokter, "The Messiah's True birth date" at: http://www.members.shaw.ca/hdokter
- J.S. Spong, "Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus", Harper San Francisco, CA, (1992), P. 74-79. Review/order the book
- Kenneth E. Nahigian, "A Virgin-Birth Prophecy?" at: http://www.mantis.co.uk/sceptical/2virgi93.html
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Copyright © 1997 to 2006, by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Last updated 2006-APR-16
Author: B.A. Robinson
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