When Was Jesus Born ?

[youngmoigle]

I've just posted this on another forum where people were looking for information to use in debates with Christians...


No matter which biblical text a Christian may use to calculate the year of Christ's birth, you can instantly find another three texts that contradict it:

Matthew (2:1) says Jesus was born while Herod was King of Judea and, since Herod ruled from 37BC to 4BC, it is clear that the Nativity occurred during this period. The experts who accept Matthew's story have guessed that perhaps Jesus was born in 6BC.

In Luke (2:2), however, we are told that Jesus was born at the time of the census when Quirinius was Governor of Syria - and the historical record shows that this occurred in 6AD.

But the same Luke also tells us (in Luke 3:1-23) that John started baptising in 29AD, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” when Jesus was “about thirty” – which means that Jesus was born in about 1BC.

But when we turn to John 8:57 we discover that “The Jews said unto him (Jesus), Thou art not yet fifty years old.” It’s a fairly vague statement, but surely they’ve got to be talking about someone over forty (and probably closer to forty-five), in which case Jesus could have been born as early as 15BC.

[Seamus]

At the Catholic school I attended I was taught no one knows exactly when Jesus was born,but the most likely dates are 4BCE or 7BCE. I always thought this rather odd,believing someone would have asked Mary the year of his birth and written it down.

My understanding is 7 BCE is the most widely accepted date [amongst Catholics].


From Wiki:

The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology) for the events of the life of Jesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus) depicted in the four canonical gospels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospels) (which allude to various contradictory dates for several events). Relating those externally known events to the chronology in the gospels themselves produces the following reconstructed chronology.
When correlated with external secular sources, the accounts of the four canonical gospels describe something like the following outline:


Jesus was born (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus) either around 6-4 BCE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era) or 6/7 CE;
Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_Jesus) during John's ministry, which according to Luke 3:1-2 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20Luke&verse=3:1-2&src=%21) began in the "15th year of Tiberius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius)" (around 28/29 CE)[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus#cite_note-0) and may have lasted up until CE 32;[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus#cite_note-1)
Jesus' ministry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Jesus) lasted around one year, according to the Synoptic Gospels, or three years according to the Gospel of John (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John);[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus#cite_note-2)
Jesus was executed by Pontius Pilate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate), the governor of Iudaea province (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iudaea_province) between 26 and 36 CE;
Jesus was raised from the dead by God "on the third day", appeared to the disciples and others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_appearances_of_Jesus); and according to Mark 16:19 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20Mark&verse=16:19&src=%21), Luke 24:51 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20Luke&verse=24:51&src=%21), and John 20:17 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&verse=20:17&src=%21), ascended to heaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_of_Jesus).