A chronology of Jesus aims to establish a timeline for some of the events of the life of Jesus in the four canonical gospels. The Christian gospels were primarily written as theological documents rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus. However, it is possible to correlate the New Testament with non-Christian sources such as Jewish and Greco-Roman documents to estimate specific date ranges for the major events in Jesus' life.[1][2][3][4]
Two independent approaches can be used to estimate the year of birth of Jesus, one based on the nativity accounts in the gospels, the other by working backwards from the date of the start of his ministry. Most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.[5]
Three independent approaches to estimate the dates of the ministry of Jesus are: first, the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, second: the date of the building of the Jerusalem Temple and third, the date of the death of John the Baptist.[6][7][8][6][9][10][11] Scholars generally estimate that the ministry of Jesus began around 27-29 AD and lasted at least one year, and perhaps three years, or more.[8][6][12][13]
Diverse approaches have been used to estimate the date of the crucifixion of Jesus. One approach uses the attestations of non-Christian sources such as Josephus and Tacitus.[14][15] Another method works backwards from the historically well established trial of Apostle Paul in Achaea to estimate the date of his conversion.[16][17][18][16] Two independent astronomical methods have also been used, suggesting the same date, i.e. April 3rd, 33 AD.[19][20][21] Scholars generally assume that Jesus died between 30-36 AD.[22][16][8][23]
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The Christian gospels were written as theological documents rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.[1] The gospels were written primarily as theological documents in the context of early Christianity with the chronological timelines as a secondary consideration.[2] One manifestation of the gospels being theological documents rather than historical chronicles is that they devote about one third of their text to just seven days, namely the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem.[24]
Although the gospels do not provide enough details regarding exact dates, it is possible to draw from them a general picture of the life story of Jesus and to establish some date ranges regarding the major events in his life via correlations with non-Christian sources.[1][2][26] A number of historical non-Christian documents, such as Jewish and Greco-Roman sources, have been used in historical analyses of the existence of Jesus and his chronology.[27] Most critical historians agree that Jesus existed, regard events such as his baptism and his crucifixion as historical, and assume that approximate ranges for some of these events can be estimated.[3][28][29] However, as stated in John 21:25 the gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events in the life of Jesus.[30][31]
The year of birth of Jesus can be estimated using two independent approaches: one based on the nativity accounts in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the other by working backwards from the date of the start of his ministry, when according to the Gospel of Luke he was about thirty years old. Most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.[5]
Three independent approaches have been used to estimate the dates of the ministry of Jesus. One method relies on Luke 3:1-2's statement that the ministry of John the Baptist (which preceded that of Jesus) started in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.[6][7] Another approach is to correlate John 2:20's statement about the Jerusalem Temple being in construction for 46 years with the date of the building of the Second Temple.[8][6] A third method uses the date of the death of John the Baptist based on the writings of Josephus, and correlates it to Matthew 14:4.[9][10][11] Scholars generally estimate that the ministry of Jesus began around 27-29 AD and lasted one to three years.[8][6][12][13]
A number of approaches have been used to estimate the date of the crucifixion of Jesus. One approach uses the attestations of non-Christian sources such as Josephus and Tacitus.[14][32] Another approach works backwards from the historically well established trial of Apostle Paul in Corinth to estimate the date of his conversion, given that in the New Testament accounts Jesus' death takes place before this conversion.[16][17][18][16]
Two independent astronomical methods have also been used, suggesting the same date. One method goes back to Isaac Newton's calculation of the relative visibility of the crescent of the new moon between the Hebrew and Julian calendars.[33][19][34] The other method uses a lunar eclipse model and independently arrives at the same date, i.e. April 3rd, 33 AD.[20][21] Scholars generally assume that Jesus died between 30-36 AD.[22][16][8][23]
The two major, and independent, approaches to estimating the year of the birth of Jesus combine the accounts given in some of the Canonical gospels with non-biblical historical data to arrive at a date range, as discussed in the two sub-sections below. There are a wide range of more speculative theories, and some are discussed at the end of this article in the "other theories" section.
The "nativity-based" approach to estimating the year of birth of Jesus relies on the analysis of the nativity accounts (that only appear in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew) along with other corresponding historical data.[8][35]
Luke or Matthew do not mention a date or time of year for the birth of Jesus and Karl Rahner states that the authors of the gospels generally focus on theological elements rather than historical chronologies.[36] However, both Luke and Matthew associate Jesus' birth with the time of Herod the Great.[36]
Herod the Great, is generally believed to have died around 4 BC, implying that the birth of Jesus was not after that year.[35][36] Matthew 2:1 states that: "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king" and Luke 1:5 mentions the reign of Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus.[35] Matthew also suggests that Jesus may have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi and hence even older at the time of Herod's death.[37]
Many scholars see a contradiction in that Luke places the birth of Jesus during the Census of Quirinius, which took place in 6 AD, although Luke states the conception took place during the reign of King Herod — about 10 years earlier. Most scholars believe that Luke made an error in referring to the census but other scholars have attempted to reconcile its account with Matthew, ranging from a grammatical approach to the translation of the Greek word prote used in Luke to be read as "registration before Quirinius was governor of Syria" to archeological arguments and references to Tertullian that indicate that a "two step census" was performed, involving an early registration.[38][39] [40][41][42][43]
Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.[5] Other scholars assume that Jesus was born sometime between 7–2 BC.[44][45][46]
The ministry-based approach to estimating the year of birth of Jesus is independent of the nativity accounts and works backwards from the start of his ministry, based on the statement in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at that time.[22][8]
The section below discusses three independent approaches to estimating the dates of the ministry of Jesus: first by using the "fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius" in Luke 3:1-2, second via the reference in the dispute of Jesus and the Pharisees in John 2:20 ("Forty and six years was this temple in building, and you want to raise it up in three days?") and third by the reference of Flavius Josephus to the imprisonment and execution (Ant 18.5.2) of John the baptist by Herod Antipas.
The third reference (i.e. the execution of the Baptist in Matthew 14:6-12) relates to a time when Jesus had already started his ministry but the other two references relate to the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
The generally assumed date range for the start of the ministry of John the baptist based on the reference to the reign of Tiberius in Luke 3:1-2 are about 28-29 AD, with the ministry of Jesus following it shortly thereafter.[7][22][6][47][48] As discussed in the section below, based on the reference in John 2:13 to the Temple being in its 46th year of construction, scholarly estimates for Jesus' Temple visit in John 2:20 are around 27-29 AD, when Jesus was "about thirty years of age".[6][49]
By working backwards from the start of his ministry, some scholars estimate the year 28 AD to be roughly the 32nd birthday of Jesus and his year of birth to be around 6-4 BC.[22][8][47]
One method for the estimation of the date of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus is based on the Gospel of Luke's specific statement in Luke 3:1-2 about the ministry of John the Baptist which preceded that of Jesus:[6][7]
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the highpriesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
There are, however, two approaches to determining when the reign of Tiberius Caesar started.[50] The traditional approach is that of assuming that the the reign of Tiberius started when he became co-regent in 11AD, placing the start of the ministry of John the Baptist around 26 AD. However, some scholars assume it to be upon the death of his predecessor Augustus Caesar in 14 AD, implying that the ministry of John the Baptist began in 29 AD.[50]
The New Testament presents John the Baptist's ministry as the pre-cursor to that of Jesus and the Baptism of Jesus as marking the beginning of Jesus' ministry.[51][52][53] In his sermon in Acts 10:37-38, delivered in the house of Cornelius the centurion, Apostle Peter gives an overview of the ministry of Jesus, and refers to what had happened "throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached" and that Jesus had then gone about "doing good".[54]
The generally assumed dates for the start of the ministry of John the baptist based on this reference in the Gospel of Luke are about 28-29 AD, with the ministry of Jesus following it shortly thereafter.[7][22][6][47][55]
One method for estimating the start of the ministry of Jesus, without reliance on the Synoptic gospels is to relate the information in the Gospel of John (2:13 and 2:20) about the visit of Jesus to Herod's Temple in Jerusalem with historical data outside the gospels about dates of the construction of the Temple.[6][8][13]
John 2:13 states that Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem around the start of his ministry and in John 2:20 Jesus is told: "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and you want to raise it up in three days?".[8][6]
Herod's Temple in Jerusalem was an extensive and long term construction on the Temple Mount, with worship and religious rituals performed during the multi-decade building process, which was never fully completed, not even by the time that the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.[56][57][58] Having built entire cities such as Caesarea Maritima, Herod saw the construction of the Temple as a key, colossal monument.[57] The dedication of the initial temple (sometimes called the inner Temple) followed an 17 or 18 month construction period, just after the visit of Augustus to Syria.[56][51]
Josephus (Ant 15.11.1) states that the temple's reconstruction was started by Herod in the 18th year of his reign.[22][6][59] But there is some uncertainty about how Josephus referred to and computed dates, which event marked the start of Herod's reign, and whether the initial date should refer to the inner Temple, or the subsequent construction.[51][8][13] Hence various scholars arrive at slightly different dates for the exact date of the start of the Temple construction, varying by a few years in their final estimation of the date of the Temple visit.[51][13] Given that it took 46 years of construction, scholarly estimates for the Temple visit in the Gospel of John are around 27-29 AD.[8][6][12][13][60]
The visit of Jesus to the Temple is part of the Cleansing of the Temple episode and, while some scholars consider it the same episode as that towards the end of Jesus' ministry in the Synoptic gospels (Mark 11:15–19 {Matthew 21:12–17 and Luke 19:45–48), other scholars believe that these refer to two separate incidents, given that the Gospel of John includes more than one Passover.[61] The dating of the episode at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus provides support to the view that there were two separate visits to the Temple.[51][12]
In the Antiquities of the Jews, first century historian Flavius Josephus refers to the imprisonment and execution (Ant 18.5.2) of John the baptist by Herod Antipas and also mentions (Ant 18.5.4) how Herodias left her husband to marry Herod Antipas, in defiance of Jewish law.[9][10][11]
Most scholars view Josephus' accounts of the activities of John the Baptist as authentic.[9][62] Given that the marriage of Herod and Herodias is also mentioned in the gospels, Josephus establishes a key connection between the historical events he recorded and the approximate chronology of specific episodes that appear in the gospels.[9]
However, although both the gospels and Josephus refer to Herod Antipas killing John the Baptist, they differ on the details and motives, e.g. whether this act was a consequence of the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias (as indicated in Matthew 14:4, Mark 6:18), or a pre-emptive measure by Herod which possibly took place before the marriage to quell a possible uprising based on the remarks of John, as Josephus suggests in Ant 18.5.2.[25][63][64][65]
The exact year of the the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias is subject to debate among scholars.[10] While some scholars place the year of the marriage in the range 27-31AD, others have approximated a date as late as AD 35, but such a late date has much less support.[10] In his analysis of Herod's life, Harold Hoehner estimates that John the Baptist's imprisonment probably occurred around AD 30-31.[66] The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia estimates the death of the Baptist to have occurred about AD 31-32.[11]
Josephus stated (Ant 18.5.2) that the AD 36 defeat of Herod Antipas in the conflicts with Aretas IV of Nabatea was widely considered by the Jews of the time as misfortune brought about by Herod's unjust execution of John the Baptist.[67][68][65] Given that John the Baptist was executed before the defeat of Herod by Aretas, and based on the scholarly estimates for the approximate date of the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias, the last part of the ministry of John the Baptist and hence parts of the ministry of Jesus fall within the historical time span of AD 28-35, with the later year 35 having the least support among scholars.[69][10][68]
The imprisonment of John the Baptist relates to the ministry of Jesus via the episode Messengers from John the Baptist, as in Matthew 11:2-6 and Luke 7:18-23.[70][71] This episode takes place towards the end of the major Galilean ministry of Jesus, and prior to the key episode Confession of Peter which appears about half way through the gospel narratives, before Jesus starts his final journey to Jerusalem through Judea.[71][72]
All four Canonical gospels state that Jesus was crucified in Calvary during the prefecture of Pontius Pilate, the Roman who governed Judea.[73][74] In these gospel accounts (usually called "Jesus in Pilate's Court") Jesus was brought before Pilate in the praetorium in Jerusalem after his Sanhedrin trial and was crucified shortly thereafter.[73]
In the Antiquities of the Jews (written about 93 AD) Jewish historian Josephus, stated (Ant 18.3) that Jesus was crucified by Pilate, writing that:[75]
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, .... He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross ....
Josephus then stated that "the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." The statement by Josephus is generally considered a high quality historical reference by scholars and Josephus scholar Louis H. Feldman has stated that few have doubted the genuineness of Josephus' reference.[76][77]
Another reference to the crucifixion of Jesus was made early in the second century by Tacitus, generally considered one of the greatest Roman historians.[78][79] Writing in The Annals (c. 116 AD), Tacitus described the persecution of Christians by Nero and stated (Annals 15.44) that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus:[75][80][80]
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.
Tacitus was a patriotic Roman senator.[81][82] His writings shows no sympathy towards Christians or knowledge of who their leader was.[83][84][85] Scholars generally consider his reference to the execution by Pilate to be genuine, and of historical value an independent Roman source.[83][86][78][87]
By almost all historical accounts, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea from 26 AD until 36 AD, after which he was replaced by Marcellus, either in 36 AD or 37 AD, establishing the date of the death of Jesus prior to 37 AD.[88][89][90]
In the Gospel of Luke, while Jesus is in Pilate's Court, Pilate realizes that Jesus is a Galilean and thus is under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas.[91][92] Given that Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, Pilate decided to send Jesus to Herod to be tried.[91][92]
This episode is only described in the Gospel of Luke (23:7-15).[93][94][95][96] While some scholars have questioned the authenticity of this episode, given that it is unique to the Gospel of Luke, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states that it fits well with the theme of Luke should not be seriously questioned.[11]
Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, was born before 20 BC and was exiled in the summer of 39 AD following a lengthy intrigue involving Caligula and Agrippa I, the grandson of his father.[97][98] Although this episode provides a wider range date for the death of Jesus, it is in concord with the other estimates in that it indicates that Jesus' death took place before AD39.[99][100]
Another approach to estimating an upper bound for the year of death of Jesus is the estimation of the date of Conversion of Paul the Apostle, given that in the New Testament accounts Jesus' death takes place before this conversion.[16][17][18] Paul's conversion is discussed in both in the Letters of Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles, and in both accounts takes place after the death of Jesus.[101][16]
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians (15:3-8), Paul refers to his conversion after the death of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles includes three separate references to Paul's conversion experience in Acts 9, Acts 22 and Acts 26.[103][104]
The estimation of the year of Paul's conversion relies on a series of calculations that work backwards from the well-established date of his trial before Junius Gallio in Achaea Greece (Acts 18:12-17) around 51-52 AD, a date which gained historical credibility early in the 20th century following the discovery of four stone fragments as part of the Delphi Inscriptions, at Delphi across the Gulf from Corinth.[102][105]
Most historians estimate that Gallio (son of the Seneca the Elder) became proconsul between the spring of 51 AD and the summer of 52 AD, and that his position ended no later than 53 AD.[105][102][106][107] However, the trial of Paul is generally assumed to be in the earlier part of Gallio's tenure, based on the reference (Acts 18:2) to his meeting in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, who had been recently expelled from Rome based on Emperor Claudius' expulsion of some Jews from Rome, which is dated to 49-50 AD.[105][108]
According to the New Testament, Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth, approximately seventeen years after his conversion.[109][102] Galatians 2:1-10 states that Paul went back to Jerusalem fourteen years after his conversion, and various missions (at times with Barnabas) such as those in Acts 11:25-26 and 2 Corinthians 11:23-33 appear in the Book of Acts.[16][17] The generally accepted scholarly estimate for the date of conversion of Paul is 33-36 AD, placing the death of Jesus before this date range.[16][17][18]
In 1733, Isaac Newton became one of the first scientists to estimate the date of the crucifixion by calculating the relative visibility of the crescent of the new moon between the Hebrew and Julian calendars.[33][19] In chapter XI of the first Part I of Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel Newton stated that assuming "the passion was on friday the 14th day of the month Nisan", one could compute the exact date of the crucifixion because "the 14th day of Nisan always fell on the full moon next after the vernal Equinox". Using this line of reasoning, Newton calculated the date of the crucifixion as Friday, April 23, AD 34.[34] In the computations, Newton first narrowed the possible years to AD 33 and AD 34; and selected AD 34 by using a postponement rule from the modern Hebrew calendar.[34][19]
In time, a number of other scientists used similar methods of relating the Hebrew and Julian calendars with the version developed by J. K. Fotheringham becoming a standard by the middle of the 20th century.[33][110] Fotheringham dated the crucifixion in a similar manner.[111][112]
Using similar computations, in 1990 astronomer Bradley E. Schaefer arrived at the date, Friday, April 3, AD 33 for the crucifixion.[113] According to John Pratt, Fotheringham and Schaefer seem to have been unaware of Newton's computations.[19]
Writing in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1991, Pratt stated that Newton and Schaefer agreed on dates of lunar visibility, but not on the resulting date for the crucifixion. By working through Newton's calculations, Pratt rejected the claim that Newton selected April 23 because it happened to be St. George's day.[19] Pratt argued that Newton's reasoning was effectively sound, but included a minor, non-mathematical error at the end, given that the "postponement rule" from the modern Hebrew calendar was shown not to have been in use at the time over a century after Newton. Pratt suggested the year AD 33 as the accurate answer.[19] Humphreys and Waddington have supported Newton's approach to the reconstruction of the first century Jewish Calendar, and Humphreys has presented methods for how it can be confirmed with further calculations.[20][33]
Unlike scientist Colin Humphreys, who considers astronomy a viable method of dating biblical episodes, historian E. P. Sanders contends that astronomical analysis can neither prove nor disprove the chronology of Jesus.[114][115]
In the accounts of the crucifixion in the Synoptic Gospels, a period of darkness occurs (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44) on the first day of Passover beginning around noon ("the sixth hour") and continuing until 3 o'clock ("the ninth hour").[116] In the 6th century Aurelius Cassiodorus stated that the crucifixion occurred when there was a great eclipse the same year Sejanus became the consul with Tiberius, AD 31.[117][118]
Modern astronomers have debated the possibility of a solar eclipse during the crucifixion, but have generally raised objections to it.[119] Given that a solar eclipses only occur during the new moon phase, and that the 14th of Nisan always corresponds to a full moon, biblical scholars instead suggest that the the darkness may have been due to a storm of some kind and not to a solar eclipse.[120] Moreover, a solar eclipse takes about an hour for the moon to cover the sun, with total coverage lasting four to six minutes.[121][122]
In 1983, Humphreys and Waddington of Oxford University noted that the separate reference made by Apostle Peter in Acts 2:20 to a "moon of blood" is a term used for lunar eclipses as far back as 331 BC.[20][123] A lunar eclipse can last a few hours, total coverage lasting about an hour.[124] Humphreys and Waddington computed the Jewish calendar for the first century AD and also reconstructed the scenario for a lunar eclipse, and arrived at the conclusion that Friday, 3 April 33 AD was the date of the Crucifixion.[125] The lunar eclipse approach used for the determination of the date April 3rd 33 AD is totally independent and distinct from the Newton-like construction of the Jewish calendar, but arrives at the same date.[21]
According to the computations of Humphreys and Waddington, a lunar eclipse on Friday, April 3rd 33 AD, would have begun at 3:43 pm and would have reached its maximum at 5:15 pm, with approximately 60% of the moon eclipsed. A lunar eclipse on April 3rd 33 AD would finish at 6:50 pm.[125] In their view, the failure of any of the gospel accounts to refer to a lunar eclipse was likely the result of a scribe incorrectly amending a text to refer to a solar eclipse.[126] Although this model provides a date for the crucifixion which is consistent with the reconstruction of the Jewish calendar, and arrives at the same date as the modified Newton method, it does not address the preceding reference to the darkened sun in the gospels.[125][20]
Bradley E. Schaefer supports the year 33 AD using his own computations through the reconstruction of the Jewish calendar and does not deny the possibility of a lunar eclipse on that day; but he rejects the visibility that eclipse in Jerusalem based on his approach to computing "celestial glare".[127][128][129] Ruggles supports Schaefer's views and Gaskel has argued that a lunar eclipse during the day of the crucifixion could have received significant attention.[130][131]
The nativity accounts in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke do not mention a day for the birth of Jesus and Karl Rahner states that given that the gospels were written as theological documents they do not pay attention to such details.[36] Scholars such as E.P. Sanders consider the birth narratives non-historical and not a reliable method for determining the day of birth.[132]
Neither Luke nor Matthew mention a season for when Jesus was born. However, scholarly arguments regarding the realism of shepherds grazing their flock at night during the winter have taken place, both challenging a winter birth for Jesus, as well as defending it by relying on the mildness of winters in ancient Israel and rabbinic rules regarding sheep near Bethlehem before February.[133][134][135]
An indirect, and unsuccessful approach to determining the day of birth has been based on the statement in Luke 1:5-8 that John the Baptist, who was six months older than Jesus, was conceived around the time when his father, a priest in the division of Abijah, was on duty at the temple. The division of Abijah was the eighth among the 24 divisions to serve at the temple in strict order, one or possibly two weeks at a time. This has been used to argue for a birth date around The Feast of Tabernacles.[136][137] If one assumes that the schedule of divisions at the temple always assigned the first division on the first week of the Jewish calendar, and proceeds with one division per week, with three one-week breaks around major festivals (thus allowing each division to serve twice a year), the first course of Abijah would occur in mid-Sivan (late May to early June), and it can be deduced that Jesus was born in mid-Tishri (late September to early October), or right around the Feast of Tabernacles.[138] However, uncertainties regarding the exact schedule in place in 1st-century B.C. Israel are so substantial that the date derived this way is but one of multiple possibilities.[136] One important reason to doubt this "solution" is that, when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. during the fifth month of the Jewish calendar, the division of Jehoiarib (first in the cycle) was on duty.[139] It has recently been argued for a cycle that commenced each year on the first Saturday in Tishri (the seventh month), which would place the birth of Jesus in July or January.[140]
The day of birth of Jesus, celebrated as Christmas is based on a feast rather than historical analysis. In the 1st and 2nd centuries, the Lord's Day (Sunday) was the earliest Christian celebration and included a number of theological themes. In the 2nd century, the Resurrection of Jesus became a separate feast as Easter and in the same century Epiphany began to be celebrated in the Churches of the East on January 6.[141] The festival of the Nativity which later turned into Christmas was a 4th century feast in the Western Church notably in Rome and North Africa, although it is uncertain exactly where and when it was first celebrated.[142] John Chrysostom argued for a December 25th date in the late 4th century, basing his argument on the assumption that the offering of incense in Luke 1:8-11 was the offering of incense by a high priest on Yom Kippur (early October), and, as above, counting fifteen months forward. However, this was very likely a retrospective justification a choice already made rather than a genuine attempt to derive the correct birth date.[143]
Tradition (and the Synoptic Gospels) hold that the Last Supper took place on the first night of Passover, which is defined in the Torah as occurring after the daylight of the 14th of Nisan (Lev 23:5-6). However, the Gospel of John implies that at the time of the trial the Jewish leaders had not yet eaten the Passover meal[Jn. 18:28] and states just prior to his sentencing "Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour."[Jn. 19:14] This places the crucifixion on Nisan 14, since the law mandated the lamb had to be sacrificed between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm and eaten before midnight on Nisan 14.[144][145][146] This understanding fits well with Old Testament typology, in which Jesus entered Jerusalem to identify himself as the Paschal lamb on Nisan 10[Jn. Ex.] was crucified and died at 3:00 in the afternoon of Nisan 14, at the same time the High Priest would have sacrificed the Paschal lamb,[1 Cor. 5:7] [cf. Isa. 53:7-9] and rose before dawn the morning of Nisan 16, as a type of offering of the First Fruits.[1 Cor. 15:23] [cf. Lev. 23:9-14] However, "the day of preparation" has been seen to mean either the day before Passover or simply Friday; or both.[147]
The chronology presented by John has been viewed as problematic in reconciling with the Synoptic passages and the tradition in that the Last Supper was a Passover meal,[148] placing the crucifixion instead on Nisan 15. However, the apparent contradiction may be resolved by postulating differences in how post-exilic Jews reckoned time.[149] For Jesus and his disciples, the Passover could have begun at dawn Thursday, while for traditional Jews (following Leviticus 23:5), it would not have begun until dusk that same day.[150][151] Another potential solution is that Jesus chose to celebrate the Passover meal a day early with his disciples.[Mt. 26:18] [Lk. 22:15] [152][153]
A wide range of approaches to the chronology of Jesus have been suggested over the centuries, but have little support among modern scholars.
Maximus the Confessor, Eusebius, and Cassiodorus recorded the death of Jesus in 31 AD. The 3rd/4th century Roman historian Lactantius states that Jesus was crucified on a particular day in 29 AD, but that did not correspond to a full moon.[154]
Some commentators have attempted to establish the date of birth by identifying the Star of Bethlehem with some known astronomical or astrological phenomenon.[155] There are many possible phenomena and none seems to match the Gospel account.[156] 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).[157]
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