{{Jesus}} The chronology of Jesus is heavily contested and impossible to ascertain exactly, with many contesting what days, months, and years major events in Jesus' life occurred in, even assuming that they occurred at all (see historicity of Jesus). Due to a miscalculation made by Dionysius Exiguus in 525, it was long held that Jesus was born in the year 1 BC, making the following year, AD 1, the first throughout which he was alive—hence the anno domini dating system.
In brief, the primary events in Jesus' life are believed to have occurred around these times:
Biblical Timeline
editc. 6 BC -
c. 5 BC -
- Visit by shepherds : Bethlehem
- Presentation at the Temple : Jerusalem
- Visit by the Magi : Bethlehem
- Escape to Egypt : Nile Delta
- Return to Nazareth : Lower Galilee
c. 4 BC -
- Herod the Great's death
- John the Baptist born.
c. 1 AD -
- Suggested birth : Bethlehem
c. 6 AD -
- Suggested birth (Latest). Quirinius census
c. 7 AD -
- Visit to temple as a boy : Jerusalem
c.25 AD -
c.26 AD / 27AD -
c.26 AD -
c.27 AD -
- Talks to Samaritan woman : Samaria
- Turning water into wine at the wedding feast ("first miracle") : Cana
- Heals nobleman's son: Cana
- 4 fishermen become followers : Sea of Galilee
- Heals Peter's mother-in-law : Capernaum
- Town attempts to kill Jesus : Nazareth
- First preaching trip : Galilee
- Matthew joins Jesus : Capernaum
- Suggested death (Earliest) : Golgotha
c.28 AD -
- Chooses 12 disciples : Capernaum
- Ministry begins : Galilee
- Preaches "Sermon on the Mount" : Capernaum
- Sinful woman anoints Jesus : Capernaum
- Travels through Galilee : Galilee
- Teaches parables about kingdom : Galilee
- Calms the storm : Sea of Galilee
- Jairus's daughter back to life : Capernaum
- Sends disciples to preach and heal : Capernaum
- John the Baptist killed by Herod : Machaerus
c.29 AD -
- Feeds 5,000 people : Bethsaida
- Walks on water : Bethsaida
- Travels to Tyre (Lebanon)/Sidon
- Feeds 4,000 people : Tyre (Lebanon)/Sidon
- Peter states Jesus is "Son of God" : Tyre (Lebanon)/Sidon
- States soon he will die : Caesarea Philippi
- Transfigured : Caesarea Philippi
- Pays temple taxes : Capernaum
- Attends the Feast of the Tabernacles : Jerusalem
- Heals a man who was born blind : Jerusalem
c.30 AD -
- Second preaching trip : Galilee
- Begins last trip : Jerusalem
- Blesses little children : Jordon
- Talks to rich and young man : Jordon
- Tells about death and resurrection : Jordon
- Heals blind Bartimaeus : Jericho
- Talks to Zacchaeus : Jericho
- Visits Martha and Mary : Bethany
- Raises Lazarus from the dead : Bethany
- The Triumphal Entry : Jerusalem
- Curses the fig tree : Jerusalem
- Cleanses the temple : Jerusalem
- Authority of Jesus questioned : Jerusalem
- Teaches in the temple : Jerusalem
- Anointed : Bethany
- The plot against Jesus : Bethany
- The Last Supper : Bethany
- Comforts the disciples : Bethany
- Gethsemane : Bethany
- Possible Arrest and trial : Bethany
- Possible Crucifixion and death : Golgotha
- The burial of Jesus : Joseph's Tomb
- The empty tomb : Jerusalem
- Mary Magdalene : Jerusalem
- Appears to the two travelers : Emmaus
- Appears to 10 disciples : Jerusalem
- Appears to the 11 disciples : Jerusalem
- Talks with some disciples : Sea of Galilee
- Possible Resurrection : Mount of Olives
c.33 AD -
- Suggested death (Friday, April 3rd, 3:00 pm). [1]
- Possible Resurrection : Mount of Olives
c.36 AD -
- Suggested death (Latest);
- Possible Resurrection : Mount of Olives
c.36 / 37 AD - Pilate removed from office.
Birth
editYear of birth
editRelying on the Gospels for determining Jesus' year of birth is problematic, because they offer two accounts that chronologists find incompatible. The Gospel of Matthew states that Jesus was born while Herod the Great was still alive, and that Herod ordered the slaughter of infants that were two years old and younger (Matt. 2:16). However, the Jewish historian Josephus reports a lunar eclipse shortly before the death of Herod. Astronomers have pinpointed that eclipse to the year 4 BC, which would imply that Herod died in that year as well (contra Dionysius Exiguus). Thus, many chronologists conclude that the year 6 BC is the most likely year of Jesus' birth. Consequently, Jesus would have been about four to six years old in the year AD 1.
On the other hand, Luke's account places Jesus' birth during a census conducted under the governorship of Quirinius, who, according to Josephus, conducted the census in AD 6. In order to reconcile the two Gospel accounts, some have suggested that Josephus was mistaken, that Quirinius had a separate period of rule under Herod, or that Josephus reported the date of the completion of the census rather than of the entire duration of it. In any case, the actual date of his birth remains historically unverifiable.
In recent years, East Asian historians have attempted to match the birth of Jesus with special events in their history. They found that, according to the oldest record of the Comet Halley during the Han Dynasty, "The comet heads east with its tail pointing west at night, and was appearing in the sky for more than 70 days" in 6 BC. This has been suggested as an independent record of the "Star" described in Matthew 2. If accepted, this suggestion would place the birth date of Jesus in summer rather than winter. Modern astronomers calculate the closest date for the perihelion of Halley's comet to have been October of 12 BC, so if the mentioning of a Star are accurate and refers to a comet at all, it is likely based on the sighting of a different comet.
In the 6th century, Dionysius Exiguus proposed making the birth date of Jesus the basis for the calendar. However, he miscalculated the death of Herod by several years. Years reckoned by Dionysius' system are labeled "BC" and "AD", which stand for Before Christ and Anno Domini (meaning "in the year of the Lord" in Latin).
Day of birth
editDetermining the exact day of Jesus' birth is even more problematic than the year. Some say that the birth could not have happened in the deep winter, because the Bible says that shepherds spent the night outdoors with their flocks when Jesus was born (Luke 2:8), though others dispute this as insufficient evidence of the season.
Originally, Christmas' date was set to correspond with the Roman festival of the birth of the Sun God Mithras, which coincided with the "return of the sun" after the shortest day of the year. As early as A.D. 354, Jesus' birth was celebrated on December 25 in Rome. Other cities had other traditional dates. The history of Christmas is closely associated with that of the Epiphany. If the currently prevailing opinion about the compilation of the gospels is accepted, the earliest body of gospel tradition, represented by Mark no less than by the primitive non-Marcan document (Q document) embodied in the first and third gospels, begins, not with the birth and childhood of Jesus, but with His baptism; and this order of accretion of gospel matter is faithfully reflected in the time order of the invention-of feasts. The church in general adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany, and before the 5th century there was no consensus as to when it should come in the calendar, whether on January 6, or March 25, or December 25.
The earliest identification of the 25th of December with the birthday of Jesus is in a passage, otherwise unknown and probably spurious, of Theophilus of Antioch (171-183), preserved in Latin by the Magdeburg centuriators, to the effect that the Gauls contended that as they celebrated the birth of the Lord on the December 25, whatever day of the week it might be, so they ought to celebrate Easter on the 25th of March when the resurrection occurred.
The next mention of December 25 is in Hippolytus' (c. 202) commentary on Daniel. Jesus, he says, was born at Bethlehem on December 25, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of Augustus. This passage also is almost certainly interpolated. In any case he mentions no feast, nor was such a feast congruous with the orthodox ideas of that age. As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Jesus "as if he were a king Pharaoh." The first certain mention of December 25 is in a Latin chronographer of A.D. 354, first published in complete form by Mommsen. It runs thus in English: "Year I after Christ, in the consulate of Augustus Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 25th of December, a Friday and 15th day of the new moon." Here again no feastal celebration of the day is attested.
There were, however, many speculations in the 2nd century about the date of Jesus' birth. Clement of Alexandria, towards its close, mentions several such, and condemns them as superstitions. Some chronologists, he says, alleged the birth to have occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the 25th of Pachon, the Egyptian month (May 20). These were probably the Basilidian gnostics. Others set it on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi (19th or 20th of April). Clement himself sets it on November 17, 3 B.C. The author of a Latin tract, called the De Pascha computus, written in Africa in 243, sets it by private revelation, ab ipso deo inspirali, on March 28. He argues that the world was created perfect, flowers in bloom, and trees in leaf, therefore in spring; also at the equinox, and when the moon just created was full. Now the moon and sun were created on a Wednesday. The 28th of March suits all these considerations. Jesus, therefore, being the Sun of Righteousness, was born on the 28th of March.
The same symbolic reasoning led Polycarp (before 160) to set his birth on Sunday, when the world's creation began, but his baptism on Wednesday, for it was the analogue of the sun's creation. On such grounds certain Latins as early as 354 may have transferred the human birthday from January 6 to December 25, which was then a Mithraic feast and is by the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his compilation, termed Natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered Sun. (Under the Julian Calendar, the winter solstice occurs on December 24, so starting with December 25, the days begin to get longer again.) Cyprian invokes Christus Sol verus, Ambrose Sol novus noster, and such rhetoric was widespread. The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6, accused the Romans of sun-worship and idolatry, contending with great probability that the feast of the 25th of December had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus and its readings by Artemon to commemorate the natural birth of Jesus. Ambrose, On Virgins, writing to his sister, implies that as late as the papacy of Liberius 352 - 356, the Birth from the Virgin was feasted together with the Marriage of Cana and the Feeding of the 4000, which were never celebrated on any other day but January 6.
Chrysostom, in a sermon preached at Antioch on December 20, 386 or 388, says that some held the feast of December 25 to have been held in the West, from Thrace as far as Cádiz, from the beginning. It certainly originated in the West, but spread quickly eastwards. In 353 - 361 it was observed at the court of Constantius II. Basil of Caesarea (died 379) adopted it. Honorius, emperor (395 - 423) in the West, informed his mother and brother Arcadius (395 - 408) in Byzantium of how the new feast was kept in Rome, separate from January 6, with its own troparia and sticharia. They adopted it, and recommended it to Chrysostom, who had long been in favour of it. Epiphanius of Crete was won over to it, as were also the other three patriarchs, Theophilus of Alexandria, John II of Jerusalem, Flavian I of Antioch. This was under Pope Anastasius I, 398 - 400.
John or Wahan of Nice, in a letter printed by Combefis in his Historia monoizeii tarurn, affords the above details. The new feast was communicated by Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople (434 - 446), to Sahak, Catholicos of Armenia, about 440. The letter was betrayed to the Persian king, who accused Sahak of Greek intrigues, and deposed him. However, the Armenians, at least those within the Byzantine pale, adopted it for about thirty years, but finally abandoned it together with the decrees of Chalcedon early in the 8th century. Many writers of the period 375 - 450, e.g. Epiphanius, Cassian, Asterius, Basil, Chrysostom and Jerome, contrast the new feast with that of the Baptism as that of the birth after the flesh, from which we infer that the latter was generally regarded as a birth accoding to the Spirit. Instructive as showing that the new feast travelled from West eastwards is the fact (noticed by Usener) that in 387 the new feast was reckoned according to the Julian calendar by writers of the province of Asia, who in referring to other feasts use the reckoning of their local calendars. As early as 400 in Rome an imperial rescript includes Christmas among the three feasts (the others are Easter and Epiphany) on which theatres must be closed.
Death
editYear of death
editThe understanding of the Gospels is difficult to reconcile with the tradition that holds the Last Supper took place on the first night of Passover, which is defined in the Torah as occurring on the 14th of Nisan. Furthermore, at that time, the date of Passover was set by the court in Jerusalem based upon testimony of witnesses. It was not until AD 500 that the calendar was changed to base the holiday's date on calculation. Therefore, it is not possible to state on which day of the week the 14 of Nisan occurred for any year before 500 without historical documents that attest to a particular day of the week.
Assuming the validity of the chronology of John, the most important information attested to in all the Gospels is that Jesus' death occurred under the administration of Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate held his position from 26–36, and the only years in which Nisan 14 fell on a Friday are 27, 33 and 36, and possibly in 30, depending on when the new moon would have been visible in Jerusalem. Different scholars have defended all of these dates.
The most commonly cited dates are April 7, 30 and April 3, 33. In the Gospel of Luke, it is stated that Jesus was about 30 years old when he started his public ministry, which would seem to support one of these dates. However, if Jesus' birth was in 6 BC, then this points to the beginning of the public ministry some time around AD 26.
Another fact to be considered is Luke's statement that John the Baptist's ministry began in the fifteenth year of the reign of emperor Tiberius. Tiberius' reign began on Augustus' death on August 19, 14 AD, placing John's appearance in 29 by official Roman reckoning (counting 14 as an accession year and 15 as the first full year), too late for the beginning of Jesus's ministry as calculated above. On the other hand, Tertullian writes in his Adversus Marcionem of a Roman tradition that placed the crucifixion in the twelfth year of Tiberus' rule.
Evidence in the Gospel of John points to three separate Passovers during Jesus' ministry, which would tip the scales toward 33. This is strengthened by details of the reign of Sejanus in Rome. Sejanus had ordered the suppression of the Jews throughout the empire, and after his death in 32, Tiberius had repealed those laws. This would fit with the Gospel accounts that seem to indicate that Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus, but was forced into it by the Jewish leaders.
Nonetheless, proponents of the year 30 point out that Tiberius was already co-regent emperor several years before the death of Augustus, making it possible that the beginning of his reign would be counted from 11 or 12, which would put the beginning of John's ministry in about AD 26. This is consistent with the "thirty years old" statement in the Gospel of Luke as well.
Book of Daniel prophecy
editOne other source which has been used in attempts to find the date is the prophecies of the Book of Daniel. In the Seventy Weeks Prophecy, chapter 9, verse 25, Daniel states, according to the most likely interpretation, that from the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem until the city is fully rebuilt will be forty-nine years, and from that point until the coming of the Messiah there would be 434 years. Some time later, the Messiah would then be executed.
According to the Old Testament, there were three separate decrees issued by the Persian kings. Based on the reckoning of Ptolemy, the first decree, described at the end of 2 Chronicles and also at the beginning of the Book of Ezra, was issued by Cyrus around 537 BC. Two other dates have been recorded in Biblical writings: the one issued to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and the one issued to Nehemiah in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. Which Artaxerxes was being referred to is unknown, as there were three separate kings named "Artaxerxes". Nehemiah's decree is generally agreed to have been written sometime between 446 and 444 BC, depending on the method used to calculate the dates, and Ezra's decree may have been made either during the reign of Artaxerxes I (459-457 BC) or that of Artaxerxes II (398-397 BC).
The event designating Christ's "coming" has also been disputed. The birth, baptism, Transfiguration, and entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday have all been suggested. The birth year of Jesus is generally now rarely held to be accurate, since it is too early for the chronology set by the prophecy to work.
Using Nehemiah's decree, counting 483 solar years would result in the range AD 37–39, probably too late for any event in Jesus' life. If Ezra's decree is dated from the reign of the first Artaxerxes, Jesus' coming would be in the range AD 25–27. If, as it is usually held by proponents, this is when the Baptism occurred, the result would be a date of AD 30 for the Crucifixion.
On the other hand, Revelation and Daniel both imply that the Great Tribulation would last three and a half years, and elsewhere in these books it is stated that the exact length would be 1,260 days. This would imply a year of 360 days. Ezra's decree gives a date of AD 18–20 for the first Artaxerxes and AD 79–80 for the second range in the reign of Artaxerxes II. Both of these dates are way outside of Pontius Pilate's procuratorship. Instead, counting from Nehemiah's decree produces the range AD 31–33. If either the Transfiguration (AD 31 or 32) or Triumphant Entry (AD 33) is used as the event signalling Jesus' coming, AD 33 would be the date implied for the crucifixion. Hence, prophecy leaves no conclusive information unless an event can be agreed to as Christ's coming or a correct decree date can be determine.
Day of death
edit
Calculation of Jesus' date of death is complicated by apparent inconsistencies in the reports in the Synoptic Gospels as compared to the Gospel of John. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper is clearly a Passover meal, and so would have taken place on a Thursday, the 15th of the Jewish month of Nisan (the Jewish calendar counts the day as beginning with the evening), with the crucifixion on the next day, Friday, still the 15th of Nisan.
According to John, however, the Passover meal was to be eaten on the last evening before Jesus was crucified, so that the Last Supper was eaten on the evening of 14th of Nisan and the crucifixion was on the 14th, at the same time that the lambs for the Passover were being slaughtered in the Temple of Jerusalem, so that the Jews could celebrate the Passover that evening. Various attempts have been made to harmonize the two reports. Perhaps the most likely theory is that Jesus, knowing he was to be dead at the appointed time for the Passover meal, chose to hold the Passover meal with his disciples a day early, thus holding to the account of John. Some scholars have recently suggested rejecting Thursday as the day of the Last Supper and support a non-Passover Last Supper on Tuesday or Wednesday, thus providing more time for the events that occurred between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Yet others say that the Last Supper was indeed on the Passover, but nonetheless on the evening of the 13th/14th, as according to certain historical writings some Jews celebrated Passover starting on the fourteenth for eight days.