How the divide between B.C. and A.D. was calculated
In which year was Jesus born?
While this is sometimes debated, the majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before. This is because most date the death of King Herod the Great to 4 B.C. Since Herod played a major role in the narrative of Jesus’ birth (see Matthew 2), Jesus would have had to be born before Herod died.
This begs the question: How could Jesus have been born in B.C.—“before Christ”?
The terms B.C. and A.D. stand for “before Christ” and “anno Domini,” which means “in the year of the Lord.” These terms are used to mark years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars—with the birth of Jesus as the event that divides history. In theory, all the years before Jesus’ birth receive the label B.C., and all those after his birth get A.D. If Jesus had been born in 1 A.D., these designations would be completely accurate.
However, as mentioned above, it seems most likely that Jesus was born in 4 B.C. or earlier. How then did the current division between B.C. and A.D. come to be?
Ben Witherington III of Asbury Theological Seminary examines the calendar division in his Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus,” published in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He identifies the monk Dionysius Exiguus, who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., as the originator of the B.C. and A.D. calendar (based on when he calculated Jesus was born):
Dionysius was born in Scythia Minor, which means somewhere in Romania or Bulgaria, and he lived from about 470 to 544 A.D. He was a learned monk who moved to Rome and became well known for translating many ecclesiastical canons from Greek into Latin, including the famous decrees from the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. Ironically, he also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics. I say ironically because what he is most famous for is the “Anno Domini” calculations that were used to number the years of both the Gregorian and the adjusted Julian calendars.
Although we are not exactly sure how he came to this conclusion, Dionysius dated the consulship of Probius Junior, who was the Roman Consul at the time, to “525 years after ‘the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ’”—meaning 525 years after Jesus’ birth, that is, 525 A.D. Because of Dionysius’s calculations, a new calendar using B.C. and A.D. was born. The terms B.C.E (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) also use this calendar.
Even though Dionysius Exiguus calculated his date for the year in which Jesus was born in the sixth century, it was not until the eighth century that it became widespread. This was thanks to the Venerable Bede of Durham, England, who used Dionysius’s date in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Learn more about when Jesus was born and Dionysius Exiguus’s calculations for B.C. and A.D. in Ben Witherington III’s Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus” in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Subscribers: Read the full Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus” by Ben Witherington III in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
How Early Christians Viewed the Birth of Jesus
East Meets West: The Uncanny Parallels in the Lives of Buddha and Jesus
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on November 29, 2017.
Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update.
Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access Membership. Get your print subscription to BAR and your online access to the BAS Library—as well as FREE online talks and Travel/Study discounts. Start your journey into the biblical past today!
Modern Astronomy quickly and accurately answers the questions as to when Jesus was conceived, born, the arrival of the magi and his crucifixion. The Book of Genesis tells us that God uses the heavens to notify mankind of seasons and as Signs.
On June 17th 2B.C. the planets Venus-Love and Jupiter-King conjoined to create the brightest object ever seen in the night sky. This is the date Jesus was born in a cave converted into a stable adjacent to the Ge-Ruth Chimham Inn in Bethlehem. This was the ancient ancestral home of David. The shepherds visited that same night.
The Magi saw the conjunction and relying on their prophet Daniel, waited through the heat of summer and left from Babylon to Jerusalem in October. They were now following the Wandering Star Jupiter as it retrograded an astounding three times. The 900 mile trip took three months. They arrived at Herod’s palace just as Jupiter retrograded its third and last time. This occurred Dec 25th 2 B.C. They visited Jesus in a home and left. Herod had the children of Bethlehem murdered three days later. Herod died exactly one year later on Dec 28th 1 B.C. We can know this for certain as Josephus tell us that Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. And there was an eclipse on the 28th. of 1 B.C. Before 1544, all notes as to the date Herod died read 1 B.C. after 1544, all manuscripts read he died in 4 B.C. But it is clear that the older recorded date of 1B.C. is correct.
If we run the astronomical software back 9 months from June of 2B.C. we see in September of 3 B.C. Mary met with Gabriel and conceived. This month coincides will Yom Kippur when the Jews pray for redemption from sin.
If we run the software forward to 33 A.D., Jesus is 33 years old but would have turned 34 in June. He was crucified and put in tomb on Friday, April 3rd. Our astronomical software shows that at sun set on April 3rd, 33A.D. a Blood Moon rose over Israel.
“When you tell me that you love me? Hi’codexcom God’son Jesus Christ please help me forcasting in my life’.what about the my future standing mission’;answer me better reganted in all by my self.
according to the Bible jeremiah 52:31Jehoiachin Released
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed Jehoiachin Released
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed .If Mary conceived Jesus on the sixth month and we are told that Jesus was born like any other human being which means he had to undergo nine months in her mother stomach how did they arrived at 25 december and yet we are not told from the Bible . can you help me?
“If Mary conceived Jesus on the sixth month” – your comment.
Please read the account about Elizabeth as it was in ‘her sixth month’ gestation that Mary became pregnant, not the lunar calendar ‘sixth month’. It gets a bit complicated but an important fact about her husband Zechariah gets missed. He was a priest of the ‘division of Abijah’ and they have 2 regular terms at the Temple during the year. (Luke 1) They were the 8th division and from the start of Nisan (mid-March) to 8 weeks later (mid-May) was when Zechariah had a visit from Gabriel that, though they were old and childless, they would have a son. He returns home for a week as he had to return to Jerusalem for an all-priest session for Shavuot (Pentecost), which now makes it mid-June. We don’t know exactly when Elizabeth became pregnant, but the account says within ‘some days’. June therefore is a possible starting point for her 5 months of seclusion. (Luke 1:24). Then it says (Luke 1:26) ‘In her sixth month’ that the angel Gabriel visits Mary and Mary goes to visit Elizabeth for 3 months. Mary then returns home and has Jesus 6 months later. What month approximately is that? Wouldn’t it be about September? It was after all about 15 months Jesus was born from when Elizabeth became pregnant. Weren’t the shepherds still in the field as the rains of October/November had not yet started?
The year is another issue. Jesus was about 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius (29 AD), so that would put Jesus’ birth in the fall of 2 BC not 4 BC.
Peace
Percy
According to modern astronomy, Jesus was born June 17th 2B.C. during the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. The Magi left Babylon on Oct and followed the wandering star Jupiter as it retrograded 3 times. The final time it appeared to stop was over Bethlehem. This occurred, according to astronomical software on Dec 25h 2 B.C. If we back up the software six months from His birth we have Sept 17th 3B.C. This was the conception date of Mary and in the sky the vision John saw actually appeared over Israel/Judah. Jesus was crucified April 3rd, 33 A.D. He was 33 years old but would have turned 34 in June. He was placed in His tomb Friday April 3rd and astronomy shows that a full Blood Moon rose over Israel at sunset.
Mary’s conception date was cited by John in Revelation concerning a vision he had. He saw a “great wonder in the sky”. We know by way of modern astronomy that Jesus was born June 17h 2B.C. during the conjunction of Jupiter (King planet) and Venus (planet of love). So all we need to do is back up the software 9 months. We clearly see that the ‘wonder’ John saw in the sky actually occurred over Israel on Sept 17th of 3 B.C. This would mean it occurred during the season of Rosh Hashanah. Most probably during the feast of Yom Kippur when the Jews pray for salvation from sin. Yom Kippur is also the only feast that involves the sacrifice of an animal for sin. It is also the only time that the High Priest takes the blood of this sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles it on the Ark of the Covenant. This is seen as a propitiation for the sins of the people. Mystery solved using science in conjunction with Scripture. There, that was easy!
Modern astronomy has solved this topic once and for all. We clearly see the conjunction of Venus (planet of love) and Jupiter (King planet) on June 17th 2B.C. This was when Jesus was born. The Magi saw this, made plans and left in Oct for their 900 mi journey due West to Jerusalem They knew to look for a sign over Judah from the writings of Daniel their Chief Magi. The trip at 15 miles per day took 3 months. They were now following Jupiter which made 3 incredible retrogrades. It appeared to stop and then move in the opposite direction. The first retrograde was late Oct, the 2nd late Nov and the third on Dec 25th 2B.C. when the Magi arrived with their gifts! Scripture actually states that the Star “stopped over Bethlehem”. This is why we celebrate Christmas on this date as it was the first celebration of the birth of Christ. Up until 1544 ‘all’ manuscripts state that Herod died in 1 B.C. All manuscripts after 1544 state he died in 4B.C. Why this change of date is unexplained. However, Josephus stated Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. Astronomy shows us, with no chance of error, that here was an eclipse of the moon Dec 28th 1 B.C. So the pre 1544 date is correct and, this date for his agonizing death was fitting as it occurred on the one year anniversary of the killing of the children of Bethlehem one year earlier on apparently Dec 28th 2B.C. Case closed!
He was born on October1 evening. He died at the age of 331/2 years old, do your calculations.
If you would enjoy watching some interesting videos on when was Jesus born, go to YouTube and search Jonathan Cahn – When was Jesus born? He gives a convincing prediction of March 20, 6 BC (the first day of Nisan, 3753).
Jesus was born 2 November 1 AD (Julian). On that day, before sunrise, arose a 4 planet grouping (Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter) in direct fulfilment of Numbers 24:17. A Sceptre. Also Revelation 12: A woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet…on the same snapshot! Stellarium, artwork on, atmospheric effects on. As place I chose Shiraz (near Persepolis, Persia) as hometown of the magi. After 4 BC you say? By careful consideration of the facts presented by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 17.6 7 8 9) the 13 March 4BC was the wrong lunar eclipse. Try 16 October 4 AD! Construct a Natural Jewish Calendar first. As it was before Hillel II invented his calendar in 358/9. All calendar calculators obey Hillel, and are useless in constructing ancient (pre-358) calendars. Bear in mind that the Hillel rules did not exist pre- 358! The magii saw the first visibility of Jupiter early morning 28 Oct 1 AD (the 7th day of the feast of Tabernacles) and arrived in Jerusalem 3 or 4 April 3 AD (just before Passover) in time to see a Jupiter station. (The star they had seen in its rising, stood still? Mat 2). Herod died 7 Kislev (8 Dec 4 AD), an exact fit date to the Josephus narrative.
1 January 1 AD was a Saturday …(GEDCOM Date Calculator, and FOURMILAB Calendar Calculator)
So many thoughts shared or trolled. So much confusion!
Like so many others, I too have sought the answer boggled between calendars, ultimately resorting to the calendar of the Bible; the Hebrew Calendar. For ease, however, I’ll use the BCE/CE references familiar to more of us.
The answers we seek can be found in the Bible. Starting, for the purposes of this discussion, with the book of Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27. Visa versus speak of the end of the captivity in Babylon, the death of Jesus on the cross, Amber look forward to the second Advent. Looking at verse 25 of Daniel 9, I have read the works of scholars put into the commands of three kings Darius, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes.
Moving to the book of Ezra chapter 7 verse 11 King Artaxerxes gave Azurá the priest, describe, expert in the words of the commandments of the Lord, release to carry the word of God to Jerusalem; (Daniel chapter 9 verse 25: no therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command/word to restore and Bill Jerusalem there she’ll be seven weeks and 62 weeks.) Ezra, and a group of release the captives started their journey to Jerusalem in 445 B.C.E. With Ezra carrying forth The word of God which is generally excepted to be the book of Deuteronomy, this initiated the 69 weeks (483 years) projected in the book of Daniel to of the death of Jesus. Daniel chapter 9 verse 6 projects that the Messiah she’ll be cut off, but not for Himself.
Countind forward 483 years from Ezra’s travel In 445 B C E takes us to the year that Jesus died on the cross: 26 CE. This year matches perfectly with the Hebrew calendar’s Dating of the Passover and the death of Jesus The sacrificial lamb on Friday (14 Nissan on the Hebrew Calendar).
We know that Jesus was 33 years old when he died on the cross. Counting backwards those 33 years would give us The year of Jesus birth at 8 B.C.E. It makes one wonder if Jesus died on his birthday.
There’s a whole lot more to the detail of this study that I’ve been through over the past few years but that would be far too much for this short offering of my opinion based on the word of God in the Bible when Jesus was born.
Too many corrections to make; typing by voice command doesn’t work for me.
One correction that must be made is that Ezra traveled in 458 BCE not 445.
Sorry about that!
We now know that Jesus died 3 April 33 CE. This was the ‘middle’ of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy, or 3.5 years from when he was baptized. The start of the ‘order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem’ (not the Temple) was to Nehemiah in the 20th year of Artaxerxes and the evidence for that it too lengthy for this answer, but the date that James Ussher came up with was 455 BCE. It is about the history of Thucydides and the flight of Themistocles to the court of Artaxerxes who had lately come to the throne.
This is all very interesting and I suppose it is of vital importance to many. However, whether it was 4,3,2, or 1 BC is always speculation based upon the known and the unknown. What is known is that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and was bodily raised again from the dead and is alive today sitting at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He had completed the purpose of His incarnation which was to bring the availability of salvation to all who would believe. Just as we do not know the exact date of His birth, we also do not know the date He will return for His church (the Body of Christ). What we do know is that we had better be ready for according to Scripture, if you refused to believe there will be no second chance. Get ready!
It seems odd that you seem so sure that Herod died in 4BC and not 1BC as some have now concluded. As you know, Josephus mentions an eclipse of the moon before Herod’s death which then came before Passover. In between he is said to have done a number of things. There was a partial eclipse on March 12/13 in 4 BC only 29 days before Passover. The total lunar eclipse in 1 BC was on Jan9/10 allowing plenty of time for Herod to do what Josephus says he did before this death. The 4BC date seems to be based on calculations from when he started his full reign, and on the start of rule of his three sons after he died. But the start of his full reign has been questioned, and on one of the sons it seems a copyist error changed what Josephus said was 22 to 20 years. It also seems that all early Christian commentators placed the birth of Jesus around 3-2BC. Can you really be so sure, then, that 4BC is the date of the death of Herod? Schurer, who calculated the date 4BC in the 19th century, will surely not have had so accurate tools to date the lunar eclipses as accurately as we now can?.
Good answer. One note is that there was another eclipse, though partial, 1 year later (29 Dec 1BC). The difference was the January eclipse was in the middle of the night straight up, when everybody was in bed. The later December eclipse was as the moon rose in early evening and everybody in Israel would have seen it. (Stellarium can be used to see the difference).
PC
http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
Yep the Holy See at the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) messed up JESUS’ real birth date. He was born on 6/6/6 BC Julian and was 12 years old on AD 6/6/6 Julian doing business. We know that Christmas Day is really 6/1/6 BC Julian being John the Baptist’s birthday. Here quick fix: Celebrate John the Baptist’s real birthday Christmas Day with Lucifer’s.
Gregorian Calendar 25th December 7 BC
Revelation beast One’s birth date
6/1/6 BC (day/month/year)
John the Baptist
Gregorian Calendar 24th May 6 BC
Revelation beast Two’s birth date
6/6/6 BC (day/month/year)
Jesus the Christ
Germanicus Julius Caesar
Yeshua has confirmed his Nativity to have been on a Sunday → “Sunday is the day of the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection…”, Assumption of the Virgin, Syriac version Book IV.”; “I came into being on the eighth day, which is the day of the Lord”, The Epistle of the Apostles, Coptic version.
A.D. 1 began correctly on a Sunday. Calculating back from the day that you read this post and integrated with intercalary days, Dionysius’s calendar began at midnight Sunday, on January 1st → Apocrypha Syriaca: Transitus Mariae; ‘He was in her womb until the Second Kanun (Syriac calendar month conterminous with January) on its sixth (hour – midnight) on the first day of the week, the Holy Day…’
Yeshua has confirmed this particular Sunday to have been on the day that Augustus Caesar gave peace to the Roman Empire — “I was born the same day on which Augustus Caesar gave peace to the Roman world.” The Archko Volume, Pilate’s Report.
Roman Historian Dio Cassius has Gaius making peace with Phraates king of Parthia in early A.D 1. Treaties were inaugurated under the auspices of Caesar and formalized in a ritual to their deity Janus at midnight on January 1.
Yeshua’s word is in lambent concordance with the inauguration of peace for the Roman world as given under the auspices of Augustus Caesar in the year A.D. 1, begun at midnight on January 1st → The Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ has the Gates of Janus being closed at the time of Jesus’ birth and Orosius, priest, historian and theologian has chronicled the temple doors closing at the time of Jesus’ birth.
Dionysius’ calendar aligns with the ceremony of the closing of the doors of the Roman deity Janus incorporating the inauguration of peace for the Roman world at midnight January 1st A.D. 1.
Why is this site still using the out-dated BC and AD?
No reputable scholar has used these for at least 2 years.
BTW, “Herod” was a dynastic title like Caesar and Pharaoh. The “Herod” at the time of Christ’s birth was Herod Archelaus; he was deposed that same year (after the “slaughter of the innocents” in Bet Lechem) and died in exile in 18 CE. When did the “holy family” return from Egypt after Herod [Archelaus] died? When Yehoshu’a was 12 years old (18 CE – 6 CE = 12 years). Herod the Great had nothing to do with Christ’s birth; he was long dead. I even verified what the “star of Bet Lechem” was with our local planetarium and provided a screenshot with my research. The “wise men from the East” of the “sect” called The Way (HaDerech) lived in the desert wilderness of Qumran — 15 miles away as the crow flies.
Yochanan studied there; see Luke 1:80. He wasn’t just roaming around aimlessly in the desert; he was “the voice crying out in the (desert) wilderness (of Qumran).” That phrase is employed in multiple DSS manuscripts as well as several verses in the Bible. Titus Flavius Josephus (né Yosef ben Matityahu), a self-described Pharisee, coined the derogatory term Essenes (=pious ones). He claimed to have studied at Qumran, but he lied!
There was also a documented solar eclipse in Jerusalem (which requires a new moon) when Christ was crucified on Pesach (Passover) in 36 CE — just as the Scriptures state. That event occurred on 14 Abib on the third day of the week. His ministry was NOT 3-1/2 years in duration; Biblical “scholars” fail to recognize Pesach Sheni (Second Passover) as is documented in Torah; see Numbers 9:10-14. He died incarnate at age 29.
BAS still refuses to approve my post containing my high-level research on this topic; it will forever be held hostage “awaiting moderation.” The truth is found in the Lucan account and corroborated with the calendar in the DSS. Readers will never get the whole truth from BAS (or their local church or synagogue). Elisheba (Elizabeth) was six months pregnant in the sixth month, and Tsekharya (Zecharias) was a Levite of the division of Abiyah (Abijah). Christ was born during the census of Quirinius in 6 CE — as is clearly stated in the Lucan account. Those three facts form the baseline; everything else is easy to deduce from 4Q319-4Q321.
Shema Yisrael!
Hmmm? Passover always occurs at full moon, not new moon. Nisan 14 is the meal then a week of celebration from the 15th of Nisan. Solar eclipses only occur at the start of a month.
And, Peter, when we alleged “secularists” employ BCE/CE, it is because we refuse to perpetuate the lies of the RCC and especially that of Dionysius Exiguus, who created this bogus BC/AD year accounting as well as the Gregorian calendar and falsified Easter Tables. The Most High marks time through “weeks of years” or jubilees. Maybe you should research 4Q319 in addition to the calendrical documents in 4Q320 and 4Q321. Even the Samaritan vs. Masoretic versions of the Torah differ by a century by the time of Enoch — the seventh from Adam, so even Israelites don’t know with absolute certainty what the correct AM year is. Plus, they have followed the Babylonian calendar since the time of their captivity. Their fourth month is named after the Babylonian deity Tammuz (Du’uzu); that’s an abomination!
Why won’t BAS print the truth? Yet, the drivel from these other posters is allowed. The Book of Luke and the calendar from the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) clearly state the month, day, day of the week, and year of Yochanan’s (John’s) conception as well as Yehoshu’a’s (Joshua’s) conception and birth. I provided the evidence how these two sources corroborate the following:
* Yochanan was conceived on the 22nd day of the twelfth month on the first day of the week in 4 CE.
* Yehoshu’a was conceived on the 22nd day of the sixth month on the first day of the week on the Feast of New Oil in 5 CE — exactly six months from Yochanan’s conception.
* Yehoshu’a was born during the census of Quirinius on the 15th day of the third month on the first day of the week on the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) in 6 CE — exactly 38 weeks from His conception. Sidebar: This is when the “sect” called The Way (HaDerech) in Acts and the DSS made new covenants. Christ’s birth ushered in the ultimate New Covenant! Josephus, a self-described Pharisee (and we know what Christ thought of them in the Eight Woes of Matthew 23), coined the derogatory term “Essenes” (=pious ones).
Why is BAS afraid of the truth?
The excuse by the secularists for using the term “Common Era” is that it is more inclusive and internationally acceptable than “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” which refer to one specific religion, but this is hypocrisy. To which culture is the the dating common? Not to Jews, not to Muslims, not to Hindus, not to Buddhists, not to Taoists, not to Shintoists, in fact only to Christians who have given to the world a dating system divided by the most important event in history – the Incarnation, God dwelling in a human form.
So, far from respecting all peoples, these secularists are at one and the same time trying to remove Christ from world-wide consciousness and insulting all other religions, cultures, and peoples by imposing on them a Western system which they are expected to accept as “common.”
You’re wrong.
Julius Caesar died before the first Leap Day was supposed to be intercalated, the priests in Rome mistakenly adding it to the end of February after the 3rd year rather than the 4th year, and this mistake continued through a total of 36 years, during which 12 leap days — rather than just 9 — had been added. This was 3 too many, and so Augustus called for this mistake to be rectified by ceasing to add Leap Day for a number of years. He ought to have waited until 3 cycles of 4-year chunks of Time had transpired before re-activating the every-4th-year leap cycle again, however he jumped the gun by making the year AUC 757 the first one with a Leap Day after that hiatus of more than a decade. Caesar’s calendar — if it had been implemented properly — would have had the years AUC 712, 716, 720, 724, etc. all be 366-day Leap Years, all such years having numbers evenly divisible by 4, you’ll notice.
But the priests mistakenly made the years AUC 711, 714, 717, 720, 723, etc. into 366-day leap years, with AUC 744 being the last leap year when Augustus put a stop to it. He should have resumed it so that AUC 760 would be the first leap year after the hiatus, since ‘760’ is evenly divisible by ‘4’, as Caesar had intended.
But Augustus, instead, made AUC 757 the 1st leap year of what could be thought of as the 1st cycle of the ‘Augustan’ era, the 4th year counting from AUC 754.
It wasn’t until centuries later that ‘Little Dennis’ retro-calculated December 25 of the year AUC 753 as the day on which Jesus was born, the newly-styled ‘Christian’ era then starting with the year the Romans called AUC 754. It was renamed ‘AD 1’, of course, but the Leap Year cycle — resumed after a delay of 13 years — was the defining element insofar as calculating Leap Day was concerned. After the fact, of course, it became apparent that under the Christian re-numbering of the years, each Leap Year once again followed the rule that Leap Year numbers were evenly divisible by 4, as Caesar had originally intended.
The Roman priests botched it, with Caesar’s assassination preventing him from overseeing the proper implementation of his Leap Year rule. Augustus ‘fixed’ the problem — but only imperfectly, as his next ‘first’ leap year ought to have been in AUC 760, rather than AUC 757.
But all this calendrical confusion predated the Christian re-numbering of years by about 500 years. Your Christianity-centric views are due to an ignorance of how the Julian Calendar progressed from its creation in AUC 708-to-709 through the years of confusion culminating in the new ‘Augustan’ 4-year-cycle of AUC 754-to-757 . . . which was re-numbered 500 or so years later to be deemed AD 1-to-4.
The idea that Herod died in 4BC and therefore Jesus was born before that comes from Josephus’ mention of a solar eclipse a little before Herod’s death and there was an eclipse early that year. However Josephus mentions a number of events between the eclipse and the Passover, far too many to fit the time available. On the other hand there was also an eclipse earlier in the year in 1BC which does provide time for those events. Moreover 2BC was the 25th anniversary of Caesar Augustus’ power-grab to de facto emperor and he DID call for a registration throughout the whole Roman Empire of those who had any claim to regal authority so that in registering they were accepting Augustus’ over-arching authority. Far from being a “taxation” it was a tax-free year as far as Empire taxes were concerned. This registration also explains the role of Quirinius in Syria in that year. So Jesus’ birth was in 2BC, Herod died in 1BC and “Luke” writing in 58-60AD was a brilliant historian. You’ll find full details in “The Star that Astonished the World” (which can be read online by the late Ernest L Martin at http://www.askelm.com/star/index.asp
abysmal ignorance of the Hebrew Calculated Calendar, as followed by the
Hebrew (Levite) priesthood in both First and Second temples at Jerusalem.
majority of such ignorance has prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church, though
certainly not all of it. the fact that traditionally Seth was the considered originator
of the Lunar-Solar calendar of the Hebrews should provide considerable insight
into the past, and how it is that the Jewish Year remains so far behind the actual
years since Adm and Eve. But far beyond that is the accuracy of the Hebrew Calculated Calendar…..it surpasses any other known calendar on the planet.
The birth of the Messiah can be calculated two ways. First believe that God’s word is true then know that the monk Dennis the Small did not know Hebrew or understand that God’s Word was written to the Hebrews and His chosen had customs very foreign to the Romans. Dennis made his calculations on knowing the Messiah was 33 years old when crucified and the Sabbath was on the 7th day of the week. Therefore he said to us that Passover had to be on the sixth day of the week during 33 CE. Not knowing the Jewishness of God’s word Dennis did not realize when reading Mark, Luke and John in the Latin Vulgate that the “preparation day” God’s chosen was for the first day of Matzah (Feast of unleavened bread) which the Pharisees called a High Sabbath. However the Latin Vulgate in Leviticus 23 only calls two of God’s appointed times a Sabbath, the 7th day of the week a Sabbath for God and Yom Kippur (day of atonement) a Sabbath for us. Knowing this it becomes a matter of math and using the only consistent calendar in our history, the Hebrew Biblical calendar, starting with the birth in the year 3756 in the month of Etanim (Tishri in the Hebrew civil calendar or the seventh month) on the 15th day also known as the first day of Sukkot. Then the resurrection happened in the year 3790 (30 CE) during the month of Aviv which is also know as Nisan or the 1st month. Then the Talmud in Yoma 39B tells us that the sin sacrifice was not accepted on Yom Kippur by God forty times (note that Josephus also reference these forty years). Then approximately 10 months later on the 9th of Av in the year 3830 (70 CE) the temple was destroyed. You can also calculate this by using Luke 1 and starting with the year 3755, the beginning of the Messianic movement. By knowing the Jewishness of God’s Word you can tell what are certain days. This is a very simple explanation for a very complex problem. Most answers to our questions are in what is called today the “Old Testament”
This is ignorance, Jesus was not part of Herod , Herod killed his own children not children of Jewish family to kill the Messiah. You need to look into the history books.
While secularists will prefer Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE), I choose to consider BCE as Before Christian Era and CE as Christian Era. Perhpas they should have considered different initials (I don’t think they intended a dual meaning for the initials)!
Actually, they may have intended so the designations could be read as desired: Christians and non-Christians alike but kept it quiet.
Modern Astronomy quickly and accurately answers the questions as to when Jesus was conceived, born, the arrival of the magi and his crucifixion. The Book of Genesis tells us that God uses the heavens to notify mankind of seasons and as Signs.
On June 17th 2B.C. the planets Venus-Love and Jupiter-King conjoined to create the brightest object ever seen in the night sky. This is the date Jesus was born in a cave converted into a stable adjacent to the Ge-Ruth Chimham Inn in Bethlehem. This was the ancient ancestral home of David. The shepherds visited that same night.
The Magi saw the conjunction and relying on their prophet Daniel, waited through the heat of summer and left from Babylon to Jerusalem in October. They were now following the Wandering Star Jupiter as it retrograded an astounding three times. The 900 mile trip took three months. They arrived at Herod’s palace just as Jupiter retrograded its third and last time. This occurred Dec 25th 2 B.C. They visited Jesus in a home and left. Herod had the children of Bethlehem murdered three days later. Herod died exactly one year later on Dec 28th 1 B.C. We can know this for certain as Josephus tell us that Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. And there was an eclipse on the 28th. of 1 B.C. Before 1544, all notes as to the date Herod died read 1 B.C. after 1544, all manuscripts read he died in 4 B.C. But it is clear that the older recorded date of 1B.C. is correct.
If we run the astronomical software back 9 months from June of 2B.C. we see in September of 3 B.C. Mary met with Gabriel and conceived. This month coincides will Yom Kippur when the Jews pray for redemption from sin.
If we run the software forward to 33 A.D., Jesus is 33 years old but would have turned 34 in June. He was crucified and put in tomb on Friday, April 3rd. Our astronomical software shows that at sun set on April 3rd, 33A.D. a Blood Moon rose over Israel.
“When you tell me that you love me? Hi’codexcom God’son Jesus Christ please help me forcasting in my life’.what about the my future standing mission’;answer me better reganted in all by my self.
according to the Bible jeremiah 52:31Jehoiachin Released
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed Jehoiachin Released
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed .If Mary conceived Jesus on the sixth month and we are told that Jesus was born like any other human being which means he had to undergo nine months in her mother stomach how did they arrived at 25 december and yet we are not told from the Bible . can you help me?
“If Mary conceived Jesus on the sixth month” – your comment.
Please read the account about Elizabeth as it was in ‘her sixth month’ gestation that Mary became pregnant, not the lunar calendar ‘sixth month’. It gets a bit complicated but an important fact about her husband Zechariah gets missed. He was a priest of the ‘division of Abijah’ and they have 2 regular terms at the Temple during the year. (Luke 1) They were the 8th division and from the start of Nisan (mid-March) to 8 weeks later (mid-May) was when Zechariah had a visit from Gabriel that, though they were old and childless, they would have a son. He returns home for a week as he had to return to Jerusalem for an all-priest session for Shavuot (Pentecost), which now makes it mid-June. We don’t know exactly when Elizabeth became pregnant, but the account says within ‘some days’. June therefore is a possible starting point for her 5 months of seclusion. (Luke 1:24). Then it says (Luke 1:26) ‘In her sixth month’ that the angel Gabriel visits Mary and Mary goes to visit Elizabeth for 3 months. Mary then returns home and has Jesus 6 months later. What month approximately is that? Wouldn’t it be about September? It was after all about 15 months Jesus was born from when Elizabeth became pregnant. Weren’t the shepherds still in the field as the rains of October/November had not yet started?
The year is another issue. Jesus was about 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius (29 AD), so that would put Jesus’ birth in the fall of 2 BC not 4 BC.
Peace
Percy
David Hocking said 2 BC also.
According to modern astronomy, Jesus was born June 17th 2B.C. during the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. The Magi left Babylon on Oct and followed the wandering star Jupiter as it retrograded 3 times. The final time it appeared to stop was over Bethlehem. This occurred, according to astronomical software on Dec 25h 2 B.C. If we back up the software six months from His birth we have Sept 17th 3B.C. This was the conception date of Mary and in the sky the vision John saw actually appeared over Israel/Judah. Jesus was crucified April 3rd, 33 A.D. He was 33 years old but would have turned 34 in June. He was placed in His tomb Friday April 3rd and astronomy shows that a full Blood Moon rose over Israel at sunset.
Mary’s conception date was cited by John in Revelation concerning a vision he had. He saw a “great wonder in the sky”. We know by way of modern astronomy that Jesus was born June 17h 2B.C. during the conjunction of Jupiter (King planet) and Venus (planet of love). So all we need to do is back up the software 9 months. We clearly see that the ‘wonder’ John saw in the sky actually occurred over Israel on Sept 17th of 3 B.C. This would mean it occurred during the season of Rosh Hashanah. Most probably during the feast of Yom Kippur when the Jews pray for salvation from sin. Yom Kippur is also the only feast that involves the sacrifice of an animal for sin. It is also the only time that the High Priest takes the blood of this sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles it on the Ark of the Covenant. This is seen as a propitiation for the sins of the people. Mystery solved using science in conjunction with Scripture. There, that was easy!
Modern astronomy has solved this topic once and for all. We clearly see the conjunction of Venus (planet of love) and Jupiter (King planet) on June 17th 2B.C. This was when Jesus was born. The Magi saw this, made plans and left in Oct for their 900 mi journey due West to Jerusalem They knew to look for a sign over Judah from the writings of Daniel their Chief Magi. The trip at 15 miles per day took 3 months. They were now following Jupiter which made 3 incredible retrogrades. It appeared to stop and then move in the opposite direction. The first retrograde was late Oct, the 2nd late Nov and the third on Dec 25th 2B.C. when the Magi arrived with their gifts! Scripture actually states that the Star “stopped over Bethlehem”. This is why we celebrate Christmas on this date as it was the first celebration of the birth of Christ. Up until 1544 ‘all’ manuscripts state that Herod died in 1 B.C. All manuscripts after 1544 state he died in 4B.C. Why this change of date is unexplained. However, Josephus stated Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. Astronomy shows us, with no chance of error, that here was an eclipse of the moon Dec 28th 1 B.C. So the pre 1544 date is correct and, this date for his agonizing death was fitting as it occurred on the one year anniversary of the killing of the children of Bethlehem one year earlier on apparently Dec 28th 2B.C. Case closed!
He was born on October1 evening. He died at the age of 331/2 years old, do your calculations.
If you would enjoy watching some interesting videos on when was Jesus born, go to YouTube and search Jonathan Cahn – When was Jesus born? He gives a convincing prediction of March 20, 6 BC (the first day of Nisan, 3753).
Jesus was born 2 November 1 AD (Julian). On that day, before sunrise, arose a 4 planet grouping (Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter) in direct fulfilment of Numbers 24:17. A Sceptre. Also Revelation 12: A woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet…on the same snapshot! Stellarium, artwork on, atmospheric effects on. As place I chose Shiraz (near Persepolis, Persia) as hometown of the magi. After 4 BC you say? By careful consideration of the facts presented by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 17.6 7 8 9) the 13 March 4BC was the wrong lunar eclipse. Try 16 October 4 AD! Construct a Natural Jewish Calendar first. As it was before Hillel II invented his calendar in 358/9. All calendar calculators obey Hillel, and are useless in constructing ancient (pre-358) calendars. Bear in mind that the Hillel rules did not exist pre- 358! The magii saw the first visibility of Jupiter early morning 28 Oct 1 AD (the 7th day of the feast of Tabernacles) and arrived in Jerusalem 3 or 4 April 3 AD (just before Passover) in time to see a Jupiter station. (The star they had seen in its rising, stood still? Mat 2). Herod died 7 Kislev (8 Dec 4 AD), an exact fit date to the Josephus narrative.
1 January 1 AD was a Saturday …(GEDCOM Date Calculator, and FOURMILAB Calendar Calculator)
So many thoughts shared or trolled. So much confusion!
Like so many others, I too have sought the answer boggled between calendars, ultimately resorting to the calendar of the Bible; the Hebrew Calendar. For ease, however, I’ll use the BCE/CE references familiar to more of us.
The answers we seek can be found in the Bible. Starting, for the purposes of this discussion, with the book of Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27. Visa versus speak of the end of the captivity in Babylon, the death of Jesus on the cross, Amber look forward to the second Advent. Looking at verse 25 of Daniel 9, I have read the works of scholars put into the commands of three kings Darius, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes.
Moving to the book of Ezra chapter 7 verse 11 King Artaxerxes gave Azurá the priest, describe, expert in the words of the commandments of the Lord, release to carry the word of God to Jerusalem; (Daniel chapter 9 verse 25: no therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command/word to restore and Bill Jerusalem there she’ll be seven weeks and 62 weeks.) Ezra, and a group of release the captives started their journey to Jerusalem in 445 B.C.E. With Ezra carrying forth The word of God which is generally excepted to be the book of Deuteronomy, this initiated the 69 weeks (483 years) projected in the book of Daniel to of the death of Jesus. Daniel chapter 9 verse 6 projects that the Messiah she’ll be cut off, but not for Himself.
Countind forward 483 years from Ezra’s travel In 445 B C E takes us to the year that Jesus died on the cross: 26 CE. This year matches perfectly with the Hebrew calendar’s Dating of the Passover and the death of Jesus The sacrificial lamb on Friday (14 Nissan on the Hebrew Calendar).
We know that Jesus was 33 years old when he died on the cross. Counting backwards those 33 years would give us The year of Jesus birth at 8 B.C.E. It makes one wonder if Jesus died on his birthday.
There’s a whole lot more to the detail of this study that I’ve been through over the past few years but that would be far too much for this short offering of my opinion based on the word of God in the Bible when Jesus was born.
Too many corrections to make; typing by voice command doesn’t work for me.
One correction that must be made is that Ezra traveled in 458 BCE not 445.
Sorry about that!
We now know that Jesus died 3 April 33 CE. This was the ‘middle’ of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy, or 3.5 years from when he was baptized. The start of the ‘order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem’ (not the Temple) was to Nehemiah in the 20th year of Artaxerxes and the evidence for that it too lengthy for this answer, but the date that James Ussher came up with was 455 BCE. It is about the history of Thucydides and the flight of Themistocles to the court of Artaxerxes who had lately come to the throne.
This is all very interesting and I suppose it is of vital importance to many. However, whether it was 4,3,2, or 1 BC is always speculation based upon the known and the unknown. What is known is that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and was bodily raised again from the dead and is alive today sitting at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He had completed the purpose of His incarnation which was to bring the availability of salvation to all who would believe. Just as we do not know the exact date of His birth, we also do not know the date He will return for His church (the Body of Christ). What we do know is that we had better be ready for according to Scripture, if you refused to believe there will be no second chance. Get ready!
no you don’t know that
It seems odd that you seem so sure that Herod died in 4BC and not 1BC as some have now concluded. As you know, Josephus mentions an eclipse of the moon before Herod’s death which then came before Passover. In between he is said to have done a number of things. There was a partial eclipse on March 12/13 in 4 BC only 29 days before Passover. The total lunar eclipse in 1 BC was on Jan9/10 allowing plenty of time for Herod to do what Josephus says he did before this death. The 4BC date seems to be based on calculations from when he started his full reign, and on the start of rule of his three sons after he died. But the start of his full reign has been questioned, and on one of the sons it seems a copyist error changed what Josephus said was 22 to 20 years. It also seems that all early Christian commentators placed the birth of Jesus around 3-2BC. Can you really be so sure, then, that 4BC is the date of the death of Herod? Schurer, who calculated the date 4BC in the 19th century, will surely not have had so accurate tools to date the lunar eclipses as accurately as we now can?.
Good answer. One note is that there was another eclipse, though partial, 1 year later (29 Dec 1BC). The difference was the January eclipse was in the middle of the night straight up, when everybody was in bed. The later December eclipse was as the moon rose in early evening and everybody in Israel would have seen it. (Stellarium can be used to see the difference).
PC
http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
Yep the Holy See at the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) messed up JESUS’ real birth date. He was born on 6/6/6 BC Julian and was 12 years old on AD 6/6/6 Julian doing business. We know that Christmas Day is really 6/1/6 BC Julian being John the Baptist’s birthday. Here quick fix: Celebrate John the Baptist’s real birthday Christmas Day with Lucifer’s.
Gregorian Calendar 25th December 7 BC
Revelation beast One’s birth date
6/1/6 BC (day/month/year)
John the Baptist
Gregorian Calendar 24th May 6 BC
Revelation beast Two’s birth date
6/6/6 BC (day/month/year)
Jesus the Christ
Germanicus Julius Caesar
Yeshua has confirmed his Nativity to have been on a Sunday → “Sunday is the day of the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection…”, Assumption of the Virgin, Syriac version Book IV.”; “I came into being on the eighth day, which is the day of the Lord”, The Epistle of the Apostles, Coptic version.
A.D. 1 began correctly on a Sunday. Calculating back from the day that you read this post and integrated with intercalary days, Dionysius’s calendar began at midnight Sunday, on January 1st → Apocrypha Syriaca: Transitus Mariae; ‘He was in her womb until the Second Kanun (Syriac calendar month conterminous with January) on its sixth (hour – midnight) on the first day of the week, the Holy Day…’
Yeshua has confirmed this particular Sunday to have been on the day that Augustus Caesar gave peace to the Roman Empire — “I was born the same day on which Augustus Caesar gave peace to the Roman world.” The Archko Volume, Pilate’s Report.
Roman Historian Dio Cassius has Gaius making peace with Phraates king of Parthia in early A.D 1. Treaties were inaugurated under the auspices of Caesar and formalized in a ritual to their deity Janus at midnight on January 1.
Yeshua’s word is in lambent concordance with the inauguration of peace for the Roman world as given under the auspices of Augustus Caesar in the year A.D. 1, begun at midnight on January 1st → The Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ has the Gates of Janus being closed at the time of Jesus’ birth and Orosius, priest, historian and theologian has chronicled the temple doors closing at the time of Jesus’ birth.
Dionysius’ calendar aligns with the ceremony of the closing of the doors of the Roman deity Janus incorporating the inauguration of peace for the Roman world at midnight January 1st A.D. 1.
Why is this site still using the out-dated BC and AD?
No reputable scholar has used these for at least 2 years.
BTW, “Herod” was a dynastic title like Caesar and Pharaoh. The “Herod” at the time of Christ’s birth was Herod Archelaus; he was deposed that same year (after the “slaughter of the innocents” in Bet Lechem) and died in exile in 18 CE. When did the “holy family” return from Egypt after Herod [Archelaus] died? When Yehoshu’a was 12 years old (18 CE – 6 CE = 12 years). Herod the Great had nothing to do with Christ’s birth; he was long dead. I even verified what the “star of Bet Lechem” was with our local planetarium and provided a screenshot with my research. The “wise men from the East” of the “sect” called The Way (HaDerech) lived in the desert wilderness of Qumran — 15 miles away as the crow flies.
Yochanan studied there; see Luke 1:80. He wasn’t just roaming around aimlessly in the desert; he was “the voice crying out in the (desert) wilderness (of Qumran).” That phrase is employed in multiple DSS manuscripts as well as several verses in the Bible. Titus Flavius Josephus (né Yosef ben Matityahu), a self-described Pharisee, coined the derogatory term Essenes (=pious ones). He claimed to have studied at Qumran, but he lied!
There was also a documented solar eclipse in Jerusalem (which requires a new moon) when Christ was crucified on Pesach (Passover) in 36 CE — just as the Scriptures state. That event occurred on 14 Abib on the third day of the week. His ministry was NOT 3-1/2 years in duration; Biblical “scholars” fail to recognize Pesach Sheni (Second Passover) as is documented in Torah; see Numbers 9:10-14. He died incarnate at age 29.
BAS still refuses to approve my post containing my high-level research on this topic; it will forever be held hostage “awaiting moderation.” The truth is found in the Lucan account and corroborated with the calendar in the DSS. Readers will never get the whole truth from BAS (or their local church or synagogue). Elisheba (Elizabeth) was six months pregnant in the sixth month, and Tsekharya (Zecharias) was a Levite of the division of Abiyah (Abijah). Christ was born during the census of Quirinius in 6 CE — as is clearly stated in the Lucan account. Those three facts form the baseline; everything else is easy to deduce from 4Q319-4Q321.
Shema Yisrael!
Hmmm? Passover always occurs at full moon, not new moon. Nisan 14 is the meal then a week of celebration from the 15th of Nisan. Solar eclipses only occur at the start of a month.
And, Peter, when we alleged “secularists” employ BCE/CE, it is because we refuse to perpetuate the lies of the RCC and especially that of Dionysius Exiguus, who created this bogus BC/AD year accounting as well as the Gregorian calendar and falsified Easter Tables. The Most High marks time through “weeks of years” or jubilees. Maybe you should research 4Q319 in addition to the calendrical documents in 4Q320 and 4Q321. Even the Samaritan vs. Masoretic versions of the Torah differ by a century by the time of Enoch — the seventh from Adam, so even Israelites don’t know with absolute certainty what the correct AM year is. Plus, they have followed the Babylonian calendar since the time of their captivity. Their fourth month is named after the Babylonian deity Tammuz (Du’uzu); that’s an abomination!
Why won’t BAS print the truth? Yet, the drivel from these other posters is allowed. The Book of Luke and the calendar from the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) clearly state the month, day, day of the week, and year of Yochanan’s (John’s) conception as well as Yehoshu’a’s (Joshua’s) conception and birth. I provided the evidence how these two sources corroborate the following:
* Yochanan was conceived on the 22nd day of the twelfth month on the first day of the week in 4 CE.
* Yehoshu’a was conceived on the 22nd day of the sixth month on the first day of the week on the Feast of New Oil in 5 CE — exactly six months from Yochanan’s conception.
* Yehoshu’a was born during the census of Quirinius on the 15th day of the third month on the first day of the week on the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) in 6 CE — exactly 38 weeks from His conception. Sidebar: This is when the “sect” called The Way (HaDerech) in Acts and the DSS made new covenants. Christ’s birth ushered in the ultimate New Covenant! Josephus, a self-described Pharisee (and we know what Christ thought of them in the Eight Woes of Matthew 23), coined the derogatory term “Essenes” (=pious ones).
Why is BAS afraid of the truth?
The excuse by the secularists for using the term “Common Era” is that it is more inclusive and internationally acceptable than “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” which refer to one specific religion, but this is hypocrisy. To which culture is the the dating common? Not to Jews, not to Muslims, not to Hindus, not to Buddhists, not to Taoists, not to Shintoists, in fact only to Christians who have given to the world a dating system divided by the most important event in history – the Incarnation, God dwelling in a human form.
So, far from respecting all peoples, these secularists are at one and the same time trying to remove Christ from world-wide consciousness and insulting all other religions, cultures, and peoples by imposing on them a Western system which they are expected to accept as “common.”
You’re wrong.
Julius Caesar died before the first Leap Day was supposed to be intercalated, the priests in Rome mistakenly adding it to the end of February after the 3rd year rather than the 4th year, and this mistake continued through a total of 36 years, during which 12 leap days — rather than just 9 — had been added. This was 3 too many, and so Augustus called for this mistake to be rectified by ceasing to add Leap Day for a number of years. He ought to have waited until 3 cycles of 4-year chunks of Time had transpired before re-activating the every-4th-year leap cycle again, however he jumped the gun by making the year AUC 757 the first one with a Leap Day after that hiatus of more than a decade. Caesar’s calendar — if it had been implemented properly — would have had the years AUC 712, 716, 720, 724, etc. all be 366-day Leap Years, all such years having numbers evenly divisible by 4, you’ll notice.
But the priests mistakenly made the years AUC 711, 714, 717, 720, 723, etc. into 366-day leap years, with AUC 744 being the last leap year when Augustus put a stop to it. He should have resumed it so that AUC 760 would be the first leap year after the hiatus, since ‘760’ is evenly divisible by ‘4’, as Caesar had intended.
But Augustus, instead, made AUC 757 the 1st leap year of what could be thought of as the 1st cycle of the ‘Augustan’ era, the 4th year counting from AUC 754.
It wasn’t until centuries later that ‘Little Dennis’ retro-calculated December 25 of the year AUC 753 as the day on which Jesus was born, the newly-styled ‘Christian’ era then starting with the year the Romans called AUC 754. It was renamed ‘AD 1’, of course, but the Leap Year cycle — resumed after a delay of 13 years — was the defining element insofar as calculating Leap Day was concerned. After the fact, of course, it became apparent that under the Christian re-numbering of the years, each Leap Year once again followed the rule that Leap Year numbers were evenly divisible by 4, as Caesar had originally intended.
The Roman priests botched it, with Caesar’s assassination preventing him from overseeing the proper implementation of his Leap Year rule. Augustus ‘fixed’ the problem — but only imperfectly, as his next ‘first’ leap year ought to have been in AUC 760, rather than AUC 757.
But all this calendrical confusion predated the Christian re-numbering of years by about 500 years. Your Christianity-centric views are due to an ignorance of how the Julian Calendar progressed from its creation in AUC 708-to-709 through the years of confusion culminating in the new ‘Augustan’ 4-year-cycle of AUC 754-to-757 . . . which was re-numbered 500 or so years later to be deemed AD 1-to-4.
The idea that Herod died in 4BC and therefore Jesus was born before that comes from Josephus’ mention of a solar eclipse a little before Herod’s death and there was an eclipse early that year. However Josephus mentions a number of events between the eclipse and the Passover, far too many to fit the time available. On the other hand there was also an eclipse earlier in the year in 1BC which does provide time for those events. Moreover 2BC was the 25th anniversary of Caesar Augustus’ power-grab to de facto emperor and he DID call for a registration throughout the whole Roman Empire of those who had any claim to regal authority so that in registering they were accepting Augustus’ over-arching authority. Far from being a “taxation” it was a tax-free year as far as Empire taxes were concerned. This registration also explains the role of Quirinius in Syria in that year. So Jesus’ birth was in 2BC, Herod died in 1BC and “Luke” writing in 58-60AD was a brilliant historian. You’ll find full details in “The Star that Astonished the World” (which can be read online by the late Ernest L Martin at http://www.askelm.com/star/index.asp
abysmal ignorance of the Hebrew Calculated Calendar, as followed by the
Hebrew (Levite) priesthood in both First and Second temples at Jerusalem.
majority of such ignorance has prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church, though
certainly not all of it. the fact that traditionally Seth was the considered originator
of the Lunar-Solar calendar of the Hebrews should provide considerable insight
into the past, and how it is that the Jewish Year remains so far behind the actual
years since Adm and Eve. But far beyond that is the accuracy of the Hebrew Calculated Calendar…..it surpasses any other known calendar on the planet.
The birth of the Messiah can be calculated two ways. First believe that God’s word is true then know that the monk Dennis the Small did not know Hebrew or understand that God’s Word was written to the Hebrews and His chosen had customs very foreign to the Romans. Dennis made his calculations on knowing the Messiah was 33 years old when crucified and the Sabbath was on the 7th day of the week. Therefore he said to us that Passover had to be on the sixth day of the week during 33 CE. Not knowing the Jewishness of God’s word Dennis did not realize when reading Mark, Luke and John in the Latin Vulgate that the “preparation day” God’s chosen was for the first day of Matzah (Feast of unleavened bread) which the Pharisees called a High Sabbath. However the Latin Vulgate in Leviticus 23 only calls two of God’s appointed times a Sabbath, the 7th day of the week a Sabbath for God and Yom Kippur (day of atonement) a Sabbath for us. Knowing this it becomes a matter of math and using the only consistent calendar in our history, the Hebrew Biblical calendar, starting with the birth in the year 3756 in the month of Etanim (Tishri in the Hebrew civil calendar or the seventh month) on the 15th day also known as the first day of Sukkot. Then the resurrection happened in the year 3790 (30 CE) during the month of Aviv which is also know as Nisan or the 1st month. Then the Talmud in Yoma 39B tells us that the sin sacrifice was not accepted on Yom Kippur by God forty times (note that Josephus also reference these forty years). Then approximately 10 months later on the 9th of Av in the year 3830 (70 CE) the temple was destroyed. You can also calculate this by using Luke 1 and starting with the year 3755, the beginning of the Messianic movement. By knowing the Jewishness of God’s Word you can tell what are certain days. This is a very simple explanation for a very complex problem. Most answers to our questions are in what is called today the “Old Testament”
This is ignorance, Jesus was not part of Herod , Herod killed his own children not children of Jewish family to kill the Messiah. You need to look into the history books.
While secularists will prefer Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE), I choose to consider BCE as Before Christian Era and CE as Christian Era. Perhpas they should have considered different initials (I don’t think they intended a dual meaning for the initials)!
Actually, they may have intended so the designations could be read as desired: Christians and non-Christians alike but kept it quiet.