Year of Jesus's Birth

[mikesw]

I see the year most likely is AD30. This has been the most common that I have heard. It also meshes well with the chronology I created based mostly on Herod Agrippa's death in AD44 while working backwards for a year of the famine visit of Gal 2 along with Paul's 14 years after conversion. The 14 years is treated as calendar years where, in our calendars someone started a job in Dec 28,2001 who then in Jan 3 2005 can say "I've been with the company 5 years." My thought is that this snippet of the chronology fits so closely together that it probably is right. By comparison if Paul said 20 years, that would not fit well in the such a time line nor would 8 years create any decent insight into such a chronology.

Does anyone have sources of discussion they like on this?

 

[mikesw]

There were weird views like Jesus only being in ministry starting in AD29 and dying in AD30. That was through AI which seemed to give only the skeptics' views.

 

[mikesw]

The timing element of the first year of ministry is based on the mention of the 15th year of Tiberias Caesar who is said to have begun his reign in 14 AD (Luke 3:1). Our normal counting puts this as the year 29 AD. However, the counting mentioned before lets this be seen as the beginning of (or within) 28AD. If the beginning of 28AD, this then is close to Jesus being around 30 (Luke 3:23).

A view of the year as 29AD appears on the following website:

What are the dates of Tiberius Caesar's reign?

This Q&A is answers the question, "What are the dates of Tiberius Caesar's reign?" based on what the Bible says in Luke 3:1.

www.neverthirsty.org

With the 28 AD period, we may then find him having a 2.5 year ministry. I have always heard it as 3 years. The number of years does not seem a big concern -- but certainly if reduced to 1.5 years would seem to be too short for the passover events mentioned -- but I'm assuming those.

The assignment to 28AD and the way of counting the reign of Tiberias Caesar makes this fit with the chronology of Paul in Gal 2 where Herod Agrippa dies in 44AD.

 

[atpollard]

Most scholars estimate that Jesus was born between 6 and 4 BC. This is based on historical clues, particularly the reign of King Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC. The original calendar, which designates Jesus's birth as the start of year 1 AD, was developed later and contains inaccuracies.

• King Herod's death:
  The Gospel of Matthew places Jesus's birth during King Herod's reign, and historical evidence shows that Herod died in 4 BC. Therefore, Jesus must have been born before this date.

• Roman census:
  The Gospel of Luke mentions a census during the time of Jesus's birth, which historical records connect to a census under Quirinius around 6 to 5 BC.

• Calendar inaccuracies:
  The BC/AD system was created in the 6th century AD, and the monk who created it made a calculation error, placing the birth of Jesus in 1 AD instead of the actual date a few years earlier.

 

[mikesw]

Oops. I had a mismatch between the title and the content. It seems pretty close to 4BC for the birth. I should have asked about the year of his death as the one I was more interested in.