Print Page - Jesus was born in 1 BC, according to the Bible

Hi brothers and sisters,

I was doing some Biblical research yesterday for my blog, because I was writing about Christmas Day. To my suprise, I found on Biblical grounds that Jesus must have been born in about 1 BC. This is surprising indeed, because when you read what the "scientists" have to say on this subject, it is always said that "the Bible doesn't tell us", but it was probably in 6-4 BC. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus).)

This 6-4 BC-date is based on Matthew 2:1 (Jesus was born in the days of Herod the king). If Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, who lived until 4 BC, He must have been born in 4 BC or some years before that. (Joseph was in Egypt until the death of Herod, Matthew 2:15.) The son of Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, who reigned from 4BC to 6 AD, is mentioned in Luke 2:22, so it is certain from the Bible that Jesus was not born during the reign of Herod Archelaus.

Now there is the possibility of course that Herod the Great didn't die at all in 4 BC. In fact, this can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great#Death (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great#Death). Josephus said that Herod the Great died after a lunar eclipse. The problem is, there was no full lunar eclipse in 4 BC, but there was one in 1 BC. However, Josephus is not a part of the Bible so both the 4 BC and the 1 BC dates could potentially be wrong. Only the Bible is right all the time!

Now there is another Biblical way to date in what year Jesus was born. Luke 3:1 says that the word of God came to John the Baptist in the fifteenth year of Roman emperor Tiberius. And according to Luke 3:23, Jesus was about thirty years old at that time. Now wordly history teaches us that Tiberius began reigning in 14 AD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius)), and to be frank this date seems a lot more reliable than that of the death of Herod, who wasn't that important in the Roman Empire. This means that Jesus was thirty years old in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, which is 14+15=29 AD. So according to the Bible, Jesus was born in 29-30=1 BC (the year zero doesn't exist). And He became an one year old in 1 AD.

Now here is a quote from my blog explaining some details (http://kingjamesbibleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/was-jesus-born-on-christmas-day.html (http://kingjamesbibleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/was-jesus-born-on-christmas-day.html)):

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People wrongfully believe that the fifteenth year of emperor Tiberius was the year in which John the Baptist began preaching. This is based on a misunderstanding of what the "word of God" means. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1), so according to Luke 3:1, 3, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, Jesus went to John the Baptist.

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This is in accordance with the account Luke gives in the third chapter of his gospel. There is no reason to believe that the "O generation of vipers" sermon (Luke 3:7) and the questions of the publicans (verse 12) and the baptism of Jesus Christ (verse 21) and Jesus being thirty years old (verse 23) didn't all happen on the same day (with the exception of the flash forward of John being in prison in verse 19-20). This also follows from the accounts in Matthew 3 and Mark 1.

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Assuming that there are several years between the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1), the baptism of Jesus and Jesus being thirty years old (Luke 3:23) is like assuming that a person who says "I went to France. I was twenty years old." means that several years went on between him going to France and being twenty years old. It makes no sense at all and yet when they sell it to you as "science", you believe it like it came from the Bible.

So it seems from the Bible that is now 2010 years after the birth of Christ after all. Well, this seems to suprisingly easy that I might have made an error somewhere, so if you don't agree or if you have some other information, please tell me.

Love in Christ,
freelygive

ChristiansUnite Forums

Theology => Bible Study => Topic started by: freelygive on December 23, 2010, 01:29:38 PM