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Chronology of Jesus
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The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels (which allude to various contradictory dates for several events). Relating those externally known events to the chronology in the gospels themselves produces the following reconstructed chronology.
When correlated with external secular sources, the accounts of the four canonical gospels describe something like the following outline:
See Historicity of Jesus and Historical Jesus for an exploration of the factuality of the gospels and the results of attempts to apply historical methodology to understanding the life of Jesus.
chronology of Jesus is linked to a number of Jewish festivals.
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Encyclopedia
The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels (which allude to various contradictory dates for several events). Relating those externally known events to the chronology in the gospels themselves produces the following reconstructed chronology.
When correlated with external secular sources, the accounts of the four canonical gospels describe something like the following outline:
See Historicity of Jesus and Historical Jesus for an exploration of the factuality of the gospels and the results of attempts to apply historical methodology to understanding the life of Jesus.
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Chronology of Jesus
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Biblical Timeline
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Introduction
The chronology of Jesus is linked to a number of Jewish festivals. There are numerous references to specific times, people, and places in the four canonical gospels, but only a few tie events to a specific year, leaving exact timing uncertain and perhaps impossible to ascertain definitively. For example, the specific years of Jesus's birth, and death are not known. Some events and dates given can be cross-referenced to other sources, such as the tenure of rulers and high priests. The gospels do, however, provide clear references to specific days of the year associated with the yearly Jewish festivals, and provide much evidence to build upon.
In brief, the primary events in Jesus' life are believed to have occurred around these times:
c. 8 BCE – Suggested birth (earliest estimate based on Matthew)
c. 5 BCE/4 BCE – Herod the Great's death
c. 6 – Suggested birth (latest), Census of Quirinius
c. 26/27 – Suggested death (earliest), Pontius Pilate appointed governor of Iudaea Province
c. 28/29 – John the Baptist begins mission in "15th year of Tiberius"
c. 36/37 – Suggested death (latest), Pilate removed from office
Birth
Year of birth
Our only sources of information on Jesus' birth are the gospels of Matthew and Luke of the Bible, which provide two different accounts of the nativity. Matthew describes the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem, when Jesus has already been born. Subsequently, King Herod orders the "Massacre of the Innocents" - the killing of all male children in Bethlehem aged two years and under; the family of Jesus flee to Egypt and return after Herod's death while Jesus is still a child. This implies that Jesus could have been up to two years old by the time of the massacre, which would have taken place some time, perhaps some years, before the death of Herod in 4 BCE.
Luke on the other hand relates the birth to the Census of Quirinius which took place in 6 CE, although also implying that the conception took place during the reign of King Herod.
Numerous commentators have attempted to establish the date of birth identify the Star of Bethlehem with some known astronomical or astrological phenomenon. There are, however, too many possible phenomena to single out one of them with certainty, and none seems to match the Gospel account exactly. Raymond E. Brown, having studied the various astronomical explanations, concluded: "no astronomical record exists of what is described in Matthew". Many scholars regard the star as a literary invention of the author of the Gospel of Matthew, to claim fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy (Numbers 24:17)..
Because both Gospel accounts seem to assume that the birth took place some time before the death of Herod, most historians assume that Jesus was probably born around 4 BCE or slightly before.
In the 6th century, Dionysius Exiguus made the birth date of Jesus the basis for his chart of Easter dates. Dionysius' labeled the years since Jesus' birth Anno Domini (meaning "in the year of the Lord" in Latin), which is now abbreviated "AD". Later the abbreviation "BC", which stands for Before Christ was added. Dionysius' estimate is generally thought to be inaccurate; "although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before AD 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating".
Day of birth
Determining the exact day of Jesus' birth is even more problematic than the year. Some say that the birth could not have happened in the deep winter, because the Bible says that shepherds spent the night outdoors with their flocks when Jesus was born (Luke 2:8).
November/January
Mediterranean climates such as Judea's have mild winters reaching their coolest in late February. Thus December nights can be quite balmy and warm enough to graze sheep. Moreover, December/January would have been an ideal time to graze sheep to take advantage of the winter rains. During the hot months, conditions can be quite barren and the grasses dry. But the end of December was the time when the perennial grasses began to turn green again and the annual grasses had sprouted anew. Thus, climatically the ecclesiastical practice of placing Christ's birth between December 25 and January 6 is possible. Controversy over whether Christmas ought to be celebrated on December 25 or January 6 underscores the perceived importance of the day of Christ's birth and the determination of church fathers to be accurate.
It is believed that Christmas' date was chosen to take advantage of the imperial holiday of the birth of the Sun God Mithras, more specifically Sol Invictus, which coincided with the "return of the sun" after the shortest day of the year. According to this theory, the reason was to replace the popular pagan holiday with a Christian celebration of holy communion. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia states: "Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date."
Kislev 25, 3757 AM is reported in error as the Julian date of November 25, 5 BCE, not December 25, 5 BCE. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE the Jews of the Diaspora used a rule-based calendar of the Pharisees to calculate dates, this being formalized into the present fixed calendar by Maimonides in 1178 CE. Extending this calendar back to 5 BCE does not adjust for the precession of the equinoxes, and this gives dates too early according to the Vernal Equinox and beginning of spring.
Extending the present fixed calendar back to Nisan 1, 3756 AM, which precedes the birth of Jesus and yields the bogus November 25, 5 BCE date, is March 9, 5 BCE. This is too early before the equinox and is actually Adar II. Nisan 1 shifted a month and actually began on April 6, 5 BCE.
By contrast, in today’s 19-year metonic cycle Jewish calendar, the earliest that Nisan 1 appears is on March 12 in 2016 CE. This date is by the Gregorian calendar, which has adjusted for the precession of the equinoxes. If the new moon was observed as early as March 9 it would have been Adar II, additionally declared that month because of the premature state of the corn crop and fruit trees (Sanhedrin 2:2)
Early Christians sought to calculate the date of Christ's birth based on the idea that Old Testament prophets died either on an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. They reasoned that Jesus died on an anniversary of his conception, so the date of his birth was nine months after the date of Good Friday, either December 25 or January 6.
At least as early as 354 CE, Jesus' birth was celebrated on December 25 in Rome, according to Chronography of 354. Other cities had other traditional dates. The history of Christmas is closely associated with that of the Epiphany. If the currently prevailing opinion about the compilation of the gospels is accepted, the earliest body of gospel tradition, represented by Mark no less than by the primitive non-Marcan document (Q document) embodied in the first and third gospels, begins, not with the birth and childhood of Jesus, but with His baptism; and this order of accretion of gospel matter is faithfully reflected in the time order of the invention-of feasts. The church in general adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany, and before the 5th century there was no consensus as to when it should come in the calendar, whether on January 6 or December 25.
The earliest identification of 25 December with the birthday of Jesus is in a passage, otherwise unknown and probably spurious, of Theophilus of Antioch (171-183), preserved in Latin by the Magdeburg centuriators, to the effect that the Gauls contended that as they celebrated the birth of the Lord on the December 25, whatever day of the week it might be, so they ought to celebrate Easter on 25 March when the resurrection occurred.
The next surviving mention of December 25 is in Hippolytus' (c. 202) commentary on Daniel. Jesus, he says, was born at Bethlehem on December 25, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of Augustus. This passage also is almost certainly interpolated. In any case he mentions no feast, nor was such a feast congruous with the orthodox ideas of that age. As late as 245, Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Jesus "as if he were a king Pharaoh." Thus it was important to the early Christians not to have indecorous parties on that day, but to keep it a time of devotion, reflection, and communion.
The first early mention of December 25 is in a Latin chronographer of 354 CE, first published in complete form by Mommsen. It runs thus in English: "Year I after Christ, in the consulate of Augustus Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born on 25 December, a Friday and 15th day of the new moon." Here again no festal celebration of the day is attested.
October
Another argument , that relies only on dates named in the Bible, places Jesus' birth on the 15th day of the seventh Jewish month during Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. This is based on the time when Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, was ministering in the temple, and received an announcement from God of a coming son. The Bible states that Zecariah's term of ministry was in the "eighth course of Abia", a period dated according to Hebrew calendar in the Old Testament. If John was conceived soon after, and Jesus' conception was six months after John, then Jesus was born during the first day of the feast of the tabernacles. This is an engimatic reference because the Gospel of John introduces Jesus in this manner: "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (KJV). The word used for "dwelt" literally means "tabernacled" - i.e. God's Word became flesh and put his tent up among ours.
Other Dates
There were many speculations in the 2nd century about the date of Jesus' birth. Clement of Alexandria, towards its close, mentions several such, and condemns them as superstitions. Some chronologists, he says, alleged the birth to have occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the 25th of Pachon, the Egyptian month (May 20). These were probably the Basilideans. Others set it on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi (19th or 20 April). Clement himself sets it on November 17, 3 BCE
The same symbolic reasoning led Polycarp (before 160) to set his birth on Sunday, when the world's creation began, but his baptism on Wednesday, for it was the analogue of the sun's creation. On such grounds certain Latins as early as 354 may have transferred the human birthday from January 6 to December 25 and is by the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his compilation, termed Natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered Sun. (Under the Julian Calendar, the winter solstice occurs on December 24, so starting with December 25, the days begin to get longer again.) Cyprian invokes Christus Sol verus, Ambrose Sol novus noster, and such rhetoric was widespread. The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6, accused the Romans of sun-worship and idolatry, contending with great probability that the feast of 25 December had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus and its readings by Artemon to commemorate the natural birth of Jesus. Ambrose, On Virgins, writing to his sister, implies that as late as the papacy of Liberius 352 - 356, the Birth from the Virgin was feasted together with the Marriage of Cana and the Feeding of the 4000, which were never celebrated on any other day but January 6.
Chrysostom, in a sermon preached at Antioch on December 20, 386 or 388, says that some held the feast of December 25 to have been held in the West, from Thrace as far as Cádiz, from the beginning. It certainly originated in the West, but spread quickly eastwards. In 353 - 361 it was observed at the court of Constantius II. Basil of Caesarea (died 379) adopted it. Honorius, emperor (395 - 423) in the West, informed his mother and brother Arcadius (395 - 408) in Byzantium of how the new feast was kept in Rome, separate from January 6, with its own troparia and sticharia. They adopted it, and recommended it to Chrysostom, who had long been in favour of it. Epiphanius of Crete was won over to it, as were also the other three patriarchs, Theophilus of Alexandria, John II of Jerusalem, Flavian I of Antioch. This was under Pope Anastasius I, 398 - 400.
John or Wahan of Nice, in a letter printed by François Combefis in his Historia monoizeii tarurn, affords the above details. The new feast was communicated by Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople (434 - 446), to Sahak, Catholicos of Armenia, about 440. The letter was betrayed to the Persian king, who accused Sahak of Greek intrigues, and deposed him. However, the Armenians, at least those within the Byzantine pale, adopted it for about thirty years, but finally abandoned it together with the decrees of Chalcedon early in the 8th century. Many writers of the period 375 - 450, e.g. Epiphanius, Cassian, Asterius, Basil, Chrysostom and Jerome, contrast the new feast with that of the Baptism as that of the birth after the flesh, from which we infer that the latter was generally regarded as a birth according to the Spirit. Instructive as showing that the new feast travelled from West eastwards is the fact (noticed by Usener) that in 387 the new feast was reckoned according to the Julian calendar by writers of the province of Asia, who in referring to other feasts use the reckoning of their local calendars. As early as 400 in Rome an imperial rescript includes Christmas among the three feasts (the others are Easter and Epiphany) on which theatres must be closed.
Start of Ministry
According to the gospel of Luke (Luke 3:1-2), John the Baptist started his ministry in the "15th year of Tiberius". This is one of the few events in the New Testament for which any clear indication of the year of occurrence is given. Tiberius was emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 CE. All gospel accounts have Jesus beginning his own ministry after John had begun his. Accordingly, the earliest year either John or Jesus could have begun his own ministry would be, if Luke is accurate, the year 29 CE. However, one source, Tertullian (died 230), in Adversus Marcionem xv, expresses a Roman tradition that placed the crucifixion in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar, lending support for an earlier date of 26 CE. Josephus implies that Herod Antipas had John the Baptist put to death around 32 CE.
Death
Day of death
Tradition holds that the Last Supper took place on the first night of Passover, which is defined in the Torah as occurring after the day of the 14th of Nisan . In the Biblical calendar, a new day begins after sunset, rather than at midnight as in the modern western calendar. However, in order to determine the Gregorian date of Jesus' death, one needs to know the year, because the 15th of Nisan – corresponding to one of the first two full moons after Vernal Equinox – can occur on any date in late March or April in the western calendar.
All Gospels agree that Jesus died and was taken off the cross on the day before the Jewish sabbath (Friday before sunset), around the time of Passover, (the Jewish calendar counts the day as beginning with the evening). However, before the year 500, the calendar was changed yearly to align with astronomical observations. Therefore, it is not possible to state on which day of the week the 14 of Nisan occurred for any year before 500 without historical documents that attest to a particular day of the week.
More precise calculation of Jesus' date of death is complicated by apparent inconsistencies in the reports in the Synoptic Gospels as compared to the Gospel of John. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper is generally interpreted to be the Passover meal. In this case Passover would have started on Thursday night. This is highly problematic from a historical standpoint — the first day of Passover is a holy day for Jews, during which no work can be performed and many rituals of Shabbat are observed, so many events described by the Gospels (particularly, the trial and the execution) could not have taken place.
According to John, however, the Passover meal was to be eaten on the last evening before Jesus was crucified, so that the Last Supper was eaten on the evening of the 14th of Nisan and the crucifixion was on the 14th during the following daylight, with Jesus dying approximately at the same time that the lambs for the Passover were being slaughtered in Herod's Temple of Jerusalem — around 3 PM ("at the ninth hour"), so that the Jews could celebrate the Passover that evening (starting Friday night).
According to Orthodox theology, the Last Supper celebrated on Thursday evening was not the Jewish Passover meal. This can be seen from the Biblical text [reference required] itself since Jesus gave a piece of (leavened) bread to Judas Iscariot, which would have been a direct violation of Jewish Passover regulations, also since, as the article mentions, Jesus dies the next day at the same time that the Passover lambs are slaughtered (no Passover meal without Passover lamb). Instead, Jesus as God's Passover Lamb puts an end to the old (presumably the Mosaic covenant) and institutes a New Covenant, according to Supersessionism, called the Christian Eucharist, see also New Wine into Old Wineskins and Figs in the Bible.
Year of death
The most important information attested to in all the Gospels is that Jesus' death occurred under the administration of Pontius Pilate. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing in the 1st century, also reports that Jesus was was executed during the governorship of Pilate. Pontius Pilate held his position from 26–36 CE, during which the only years in which Nisan 14 fell on a Friday were 27 CE, 33 CE, 36 CE, and possibly also 30 CE (depending on when the new moon would have been visible in Jerusalem). Different scholars have defended all of these dates. Maximus Monachus, Eusebius, and Cassiodorus recorded the death of Jesus in 31 CE. The 3rd/4th century Roman historian Lactantius (himself a Christian) gives that Jesus was cruxified "In the latter days of the Emperor Tiberius, in the consulship of Ruberius (sic) Geminus and Fufius Geminus, and on the tenth of the kalends of April, as I find it written". The date corresponds to 11 April 29 CE.
The most commonly cited dates are 7 April 30 CE and 3 April 33 CE. In the Gospel of Luke, it is stated that Jesus was "about 30 years old" (Luke 3:23) when he started his public ministry, which would seem to support one of these dates. However, if Jesus' birth was in 6 BCE, then this points to the beginning of the public ministry some time around 26 CE.
Another fact to be considered is Luke's statement that John the Baptist's ministry began in the fifteenth year of the reign of emperor Tiberius (Luke 3:1-2). Tiberius' reign began after Augustus' death on 19 August 14 CE, placing John's appearance in 28 or 29 CE by official Roman reckoning (counting August 14 CE to August 15 CE as the first year), too late for the beginning of Jesus's ministry as calculated above. On the other hand, Tertullian writes in his Adversus Marcionem of a Roman tradition that placed the crucifixion in the twelfth year of Tiberius' rule, i.e. 25 or 26 CE.
Evidence in the Gospel of John points to three separate Passovers during Jesus' ministry, which would tip the scales toward 33 CE. This is strengthened by details of the "reign" of Sejanus in Rome. Sejanus had ordered the suppression of the Jews throughout the empire, and after his death (in 31 CE), Tiberius repealed those laws (in 32 CE). This would fit with the Gospel accounts that seem to indicate that Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus, but was forced into it by the Jewish leaders, see Responsibility for the death of Jesus.
Nonetheless, proponents of the year 30 CE point out that Tiberius had become co-regent emperor several years before the death of Augustus, making it possible that the beginning of his reign would have been counted from 11 or 12 CE, putting the beginning of John's ministry in about 26 CE. This is consistent with the "about 30 years old" statement in the Gospel of Luke as well.
See also
External links
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