What year was Jesus Christ born?
Our calendar counts years from the birth of Jesus, yet the commentators who work through the dates conclude that the count itself is a few years late. The question then splits into two: what can be worked out from history, and what does Scripture actually care to tell us?
Herod Fixes the Window
Matthew places the birth "in the days of Herod the king" (Matthew 2:1). One writer notes that the wording ties the event to a reign rather than to a year:
J. N. DarbyIt should read, "But Jesus having been born in the days of Herod the king"; this would indeed leave the time purposely vague.
Working from the reign of the emperor Augustus, an older chronologist quoted approvingly narrows it to the close of Herod's life:
J. N. DarbySince, therefore, only fourteen years passed from the nativity of Christ to the death of Augustus, etc., we must reckon that Christ was not born but in the last years of Herod.
Why The Calendar Slipped
The man who set up our numbering made an error that has never been corrected. William Kelly traces it, and lists the years different scholars have proposed instead:
William KellyDionysius the Little, at the beginning of the sixth century, reckoned the year of the Birth as 753, after the foundation of Rome; but it is certain that Herod died, as stated above, in 750. Hence three or four years have to be deducted from 753; and so 749, i.e., 4 "B.C.," as Ellicott; whilst 5 "B.C." is taken as the date by Godet for the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Kepler, however, who has been followed by Alford, calculated that the Nativity took place in 6 "B.C."
So commentators differ: 4, 5 or 6 B.C., depending on which anchor point is trusted. The reckoning also carries forward to the end of His life:
The Bible TreasuryNow, most chronologists are agreed that His birth took place at least four years earlier than our common era, A.D., and that His death occurred in the month Nisan, A.D. 29. This, indeed, is contrary to the prevailing custom of dating the crucifixion A.D. 33.
How Much Precision Is Worth
Edward Dennett accepts the common figure while warning against building anything on it. His reason is drawn from the prophecy in Daniel 9, which speaks of a coming Messiah without naming a year:
Edward DennettThis calculation takes, what indeed is now commonly accepted, the year 4 B.C. for the birth of Christ and consequently 29 A.D. for His crucifixion. But nothing whatever is gained by this attempt at numerical accuracy; and we cannot but believe that the expression "unto Messiah the Prince" is indefinite, for the reason that the Messiah, as here foretold, would be rejected by those to whom He came.
Which Season Of The Year
The day is not given either, and the only scriptural thread available starts with Zacharias, the priest whose turn of temple service is recorded before John the Baptist's birth:
J. N. DarbyTo find Christ's birth, you can only begin with Zacharias in the order of the priests in the course of Abia, and if you can reckon that through, it would put Christ's birth at a totally different time of the year. Anniversaries are part of human nature.
Kelly reckons it through and lands on the same conclusion, well away from midwinter:
William KellyIt probably took place in the autumn (Sept.), about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34), under the Full Moon, five months after the birth of the Baptist, which would be about Passover.
The Dating God Gives
Scripture supplies no year, but it does name the moment in its own terms — after every test of man had run its course:
Michael HardtAbout 2000 years ago, when He was born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:1 and Lk 2:4-7). This is the point in time God calls 'the fullness of time' (Gal. 4:4). Man had been tested in every possible way — and had failed completely. This is when God sent His Son and spoke in Him, through (or 'in') His person (Heb. 1:1.2).
And whatever the exact figure, the birth itself became the world's zero point:
A. J. PollockIt was His birth in the humble stable of the inn at Bethlehem that has divided time into two parts in the reckoning of the civilised nations of the world... The letters B.C. stand for Before Christ; the letters A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin, in the year of our Lord), stand for After Christ.
Summary
- Reign, not year. Matthew anchors the birth to Herod's days, and the wording leaves the time deliberately vague.
- Off by four. Dionysius fixed the date at 753 from Rome's founding, but Herod died in 750 — so most reckon 4 B.C., with 5 B.C. and 6 B.C. also argued.
- Precision gains nothing. Dennett grants 4 B.C. and A.D. 29 for the crucifixion, then says no profit comes from the arithmetic.
- Autumn, not December. Counting from Zacharias' priestly course points to a different season — Kelly suggests September, near the Feast of Tabernacles.
- God's own date. Scripture gives no year but calls it "the fullness of time": man fully tested, fully failed, and then the Son sent.