Board index ‹ Jesus

[Grimace]

When was Jesus born/die? I can't find a straight answer, I'm curious.

[jimwalton]

It's impossible to pinpoint without a standardized calendar and with some fluid historical markers recorded for us. Most people now believe Jesus was born in about 6 BC, give or take. It could have been anywhere from 5-7 BC (though some scholars put it more like 2-4, or even at "1"). (The creators of the Julian calendar, that we use, and base our AD and BC on, were wrong in their calculations.) And Jesus was almost certainly born in the fall, most likely around Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The shepherds were out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and that is most likely a spring or fall scenario in Bethlehem.

We celebrate on December 25 because that's when the winter solstice is. Most Christmas traditions say that the early Romans always had celebrations at the winter solstice, so the Christians decided to get in on the deal and celebrate Christmas then because they could get away with it. And it stuck. Now, millennia later, we still celebrate on Dec. 25. The Russians, however, celebrate Christmas on January 5 or 6. In any case, Jesus was most likely born in the fall in 5 or 6 BC. Herod the Great, who tried to kill the baby Jesus by sending soldiers to Bethlehem to slaughter all the babies, died in 4 BC (according to our current knowledge, and is most likely accurate), so Jesus was born before that, and was probably younger than 2 at the time.

(There is a fascinating possible connection between Jesus's birth and Sukkot—the Feast of the Ingathering of the Harvest. If it's true, he might have been conceived by the Holy Spirit on Hanukkah [the Light of the World] in December, six months after John the Baptist was conceived, which may have been on Passover. Nine months later Jesus is born on the first day of Sukkot [perhaps even in a tent erected for the occasion], the Feast of Tabernacles (see John 1.14). The tent symbolized their slavery in Egypt, and here Jesus is born in the most humble of stations. Sukkot also commemorates the Exodus—the freeing of the people from slavery.

Sukkot might also help to explain why there was no room in any inns—the city and even the small towns were swollen with pilgrims. Psalm 118.25 was the traditional reading: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

If this is so, then Jesus might have been born on the first day of Sukkot and circumcised on the last day of the 8-day festival, Shemini Atzeret—a day of celebration and joy [here the child of the covenant, Jesus, marked with the sign of the covenant, circumcision]—the time of slavery is over, and the day of freedom has come!

> December 25

Hardly anyone thinks he was born in December. I did read an article once giving a case for it, but most scholars don't buy that. It is based on the theory that Josephus speaks of Herod's death as taking place shortly after a lunar eclipse. This is traditionally identified as March 13, 4 BC (but this eclipse was visible only very late that night in Judea and was only a partial eclipse). The next lunar eclipses in Judea were both in 1 BC, with the one on December 29 being a possible reference point for Josephus. If that were the case, Jesus could have been born between 1-2 BC. The problem with this theory is that that other historical facts weigh against that interpretation. Herod's death in 4 BC fits all the known facts better.

A scholar named Kurt Simmons says that "according to the 1 BC theory, the magi would have had to arrive before Herod left Jerusalem for the mineral spring beyond Jordan, probably sometime after the rabbis' execution (according to Josephus), and therefore toward the middle of February in 1 BC. ... So if the magi arrived after the presentment of Lk. 2.22, but before Herod left Jerusalem and travelled to the mineral springs at Callirrhoe (Josephus) in February, and if he executed the rabbis at the full moon (Jan 9/10, 1 BC), and if Herod died shortly before Passover, that puts the birth of Christ right around December 25." It's an interesting theory, but who knows.

> When did he die?

Luke indicates Jesus was 30 years old when he began his ministry, though such age indications are always approximate in the Bible, often fluid, and sometimes even symbolic. Jewish custom required men to be at least 30 before being a public teacher, so the indication of "30" may just mean that he fit the category, not that he was literally 30. For instance, Indonesians (even in the modern era) identify ages based on how much experience or wisdom the person was accorded by the community. A man who is 35 could be introduced as being 50—the number identifies his status as a wise person who should be listened to and heeded. It had nothing to do with his actual age. The numbers have rhetorical value, not quantification value.

So saying, we don't really know when Jesus died. We assume Jesus was in public ministry for 3 years since that's the chronology and calendar of the Gospels. But we know the Gospels don't include everything and weren't written to follow Jesus chronologically. If Jesus was born in 6 BC and was 33 when he died, obviously that would be in about AD 28. Most scholars, as far as I know, put his death in about AD 30 though.