Birth of Jesus of Nazareth

Took place at: Bethlehem of Judea

note: Both infancy narratives name Bethlehem. Some historians think the birthplace was Nazareth and that Bethlehem was named to fulfil Micah 5:2; that view is recorded here as the reason this claim is "submitted", not settled.

Claim status: submitted, awaiting review

• supports The Gospel according to Matthew, chapters 1 to 2 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), Matthew 2:1

  In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea...

• supports The Gospel according to Luke, chapters 1 to 3 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), Luke 2:4-7

  Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem... and she gave birth to her firstborn son.

Occurred before: the death of Herod the Great

herod death usual reading: spring 4 BC: Josephus puts an eclipse of the moon shortly before the death and a Passover shortly after; the eclipse of 13 March 4 BC fits, and Herod's 37-year reign counted from 40 BC ends in 4 BC

what it gives: an upper limit: the birth is no later than early 4 BC on this reading

Claim status: submitted, awaiting review

• supports The Gospel according to Matthew, chapters 1 to 2 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), Matthew 2:1, 2:16-19

  born in Bethlehem of Judea in the time of King Herod... When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt

• supports The Gospel according to Luke, chapters 1 to 3 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), Luke 1:5

  In the days of King Herod of Judea...

• supports Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 17 (William Whiston translation, 1737), Antiquities 17.167, 17.191, 17.213

  And that very night there was an eclipse of the moon. ... he died ... having reigned, since he had procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven.

• gives context Herod's Death, Jesus' Birth and a Lunar Eclipse, whole article

  The traditional view ties Herod's death to the lunar eclipse of March 13, 4 BC; John A. Cramer argues for the eclipse of December 29, 1 BC (or January 10, 1 BC).

Alternative dating: Herod died in early 1 BC, so the birth could be as late as 2 BC or 1 BC

status note: minority view (Cramer; earlier Caspari and Riess); recorded so the range is honest about what is argued, not to endorse it

Claim status: submitted, awaiting review

• mentions Herod's Death, Jesus' Birth and a Lunar Eclipse, letters by John A. Cramer, 2014 and 2015

  Cramer calls the 4 BC eclipse "far and away the least likely one" to have been seen and remembered, and concedes "the precise date [is] forever open".

Occurred during: a registration ordered by Caesar Augustus while Quirinius governed Syria

the problem: Josephus places the census of Quirinius in AD 6, after Archelaus was removed, ten years after Herod's death. A birth both under Herod and during that census is impossible as the sources stand; historians either take Luke to be mistaken, or read "first registration" as an earlier one, or doubt Josephus's date. Chronum records the conflict rather than picking a side.

Claim status: submitted, awaiting review

• supports The Gospel according to Luke, chapters 1 to 3 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), Luke 2:1-2

  In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

• contradicts Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 17 (William Whiston translation, 1737), Antiquities 18.1-2 (Quirinius sent to Syria after the banishment of Archelaus, AD 6)

  Josephus dates the census under Quirinius to the year Archelaus was deposed, AD 6.

Calendar note: Year 1 of the Anno Domini count (AD 1) falls several years after the birth it was meant to mark

how: Dionysius Exiguus drew up an Easter table in AD 525 counting years "from the incarnation of our Lord". How he fixed the starting year is not recorded; whatever his method, it lands AD 1 after Herod's death. Nobody at the time wrote down the birth year, and the error was never corrected because the count had spread.

Claim status: submitted, awaiting review

• supports Dionysius Exiguus (encyclopedia entry), entry on Dionysius Exiguus

  Dionysius introduced the practice of counting years from the Incarnation in his Easter table of 525.

• supports Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, chapter on the historical setting, as reported by ABC News 2012-11-23

  "The calculation of the beginning of our calendar - based on the birth of Jesus - was made by Dionysius Exiguus... The actual date of Jesus' birth was several years before."

• gives context Chronology of Jesus (summary of the scholarly literature), section on the date of birth

  Most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.