Date of the birth of Jesus
The date of the birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources and the evidence is too incomplete to allow for consistent dating.[1] However, most biblical scholars and ancient historians believe that his birth date is around 4 to 6 BC.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Two main approaches have been used to estimate the year of the birth of Jesus: one based on the accounts in the Gospels of his birth with reference to King Herod's reign, and the other by subtracting his stated age of "about 30 years" when he began preaching.
Aside from the historiographical approach of anchoring the possible year to certain independently well-documented events mentioned in Matthew and Luke, other techniques used by believers to identify the year of the birth of Jesus have included working backward from the estimation of the start of the ministry of Jesus[8] and assuming that the accounts of astrological portents in the gospels can be associated with certain astronomical alignments or other phenomena.[9]
The common Christian traditional calendar date of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 AD, although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded.[10] The day or season has been estimated by various methods, including the description of shepherds watching over their sheep.[11] In the third century, the precise date of Jesus's birth was a subject of great interest, with early Christian writers suggesting various options.[12] Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote:
The early Christian writer Lactantius wrote "the east is attached to God because he is the source of light and the illuminator of the world and he makes us rise toward eternal life". It is for this reason that the early Christians established the direction of prayer as being eastward, towards the rising sun.[14] A late fourth-century sermon by Saint Augustine explains why the winter solstice was a fitting day to celebrate Jesus's birth:
Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta wrote: "It is cosmic symbolism ... which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as the birthday of Christ, and the northern solstice as that of John the Baptist, supplemented by the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception."[16] The Christian treatise De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae ('On the solstice and equinox conception and birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist'),[17] from the second half of the fourth century,[18] dates John's birth to the summer solstice and Jesus's birth to the winter solstice.[19][20]
Year of birth[edit]
Nativity accounts[edit]
The nativity accounts in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke do not mention a date or time of year for the birth of Jesus.[a] Karl Rahner states that the authors of the gospels generally focused on theological elements rather than historical chronologies.[6]
Both Luke and Matthew associate Jesus' birth with the time of Herod the Great.[6] Matthew 2:1 states that "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king". He also implies that Jesus could have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi, because Herod ordered the murder of all boys up to the age of two years (Massacre of the Innocents), "in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi" Matthew 2:16.[21] In addition, if the phrase "about 30" in Luke 3:23 is interpreted to mean 32 years old, this could fit a date of birth just within the reign of Herod, who died in 4 BC according to most scholars.[22][23][24][25][26][27]
Luke 1:5 mentions the reign of Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus.[11] This Herod died in 4 BC. Luke 2:1-2 also places the birth during a census decreed by Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governing Judah. Some interpreters of Luke determine that this was the Census of Quirinius, which the Jewish historian Josephus described as taking place c. AD 6 in his book Antiquities of the Jews (written c. AD 93),[6] by indicating that Cyrenius/Quirinius began to be the governor of Syria in AD 6 and a census took place during his tenure sometime between AD 6–7.[b][28][29][c] Since Herod died a decade before this census, most scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.[2][11][6] On the other hand, a census was not a unique event in the Roman Empire. For example, Tertullian argued that a number of censuses were performed throughout the Roman world under Sentius Saturninus at the same time.[29][28][30] Some biblical scholars and commentators believe the two accounts can be harmonized,[31][32] arguing that the text in Luke can be read as "registration before (πρώτη) Quirinius was governor of Syria", i.e., that Luke was actually referring to a completely different census, though this understanding of the Greek word has been rejected by scholars.[d]