When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.?
How the divide between B.C. and A.D. was calculated
When was Jesus born? This predella panel from an altarpiece by Mariotto Albertinelli (1474–1515) depicts the newborn baby Jesus flanked by Joseph and Mary. In which year was Jesus born—B.C. or A.D.? The evidence suggests he was born in 4 B.C. or before. Photo: John G. Johnson Collection, 1917, courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In which year was Jesus born?
While this is sometimes debated, the majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before. This is because most date the death of King Herod the Great to 4 B.C. Since Herod played a major role in the narrative of Jesus’ birth (see Matthew 2), Jesus would have had to be born before Herod died.
This begs the question: How could Jesus have been born in B.C.—“before Christ”?
The terms B.C. and A.D. stand for “before Christ” and “anno Domini,” which means “in the year of the Lord.” These terms are used to mark years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars—with the birth of Jesus as the event that divides history. In theory, all the years before Jesus’ birth receive the label B.C., and all those after his birth get A.D. If Jesus had been born in 1 A.D., these designations would be completely accurate.
However, as mentioned above, it seems most likely that Jesus was born in 4 B.C. or earlier. How then did the current division between B.C. and A.D. come to be?
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Ben Witherington III of Asbury Theological Seminary examines the calendar division in his Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus,” published in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He identifies the monk Dionysius Exiguus, who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., as the originator of the B.C. and A.D. calendar (based on when he calculated Jesus was born):
Dionysius was born in Scythia Minor, which means somewhere in Romania or Bulgaria, and he lived from about 470 to 544 A.D. He was a learned monk who moved to Rome and became well known for translating many ecclesiastical canons from Greek into Latin, including the famous decrees from the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. Ironically, he also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics. I say ironically because what he is most famous for is the “Anno Domini” calculations that were used to number the years of both the Gregorian and the adjusted Julian calendars.
Although we are not exactly sure how he came to this conclusion, Dionysius dated the consulship of Probius Junior, who was the Roman Consul at the time, to “525 years after ‘the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ’”—meaning 525 years after Jesus’ birth, that is, 525 A.D. Because of Dionysius’s calculations, a new calendar using B.C. and A.D. was born. The terms B.C.E (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) also use this calendar.
Even though Dionysius Exiguus calculated his date for the year in which Jesus was born in the sixth century, it was not until the eighth century that it became widespread. This was thanks to the Venerable Bede of Durham, England, who used Dionysius’s date in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Learn more about when Jesus was born and Dionysius Exiguus’s calculations for B.C. and A.D. in Ben Witherington III’s Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus” in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Subscribers: Read the full Biblical Views column “The Turn of the Christian Era: The Tale of Dionysius Exiguus” by Ben Witherington III in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on November 29, 2017.
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Modern Astronomy quickly and accurately answers the questions as to when Jesus was conceived, born, the arrival of the magi and his crucifixion. The Book of Genesis tells us that God uses the heavens to notify mankind of seasons and as Signs.
On June 17th 2B.C. the planets Venus-Love and Jupiter-King conjoined to create the brightest object ever seen in the night sky. This is the date Jesus was born in a cave converted into a stable adjacent to the Ge-Ruth Chimham Inn in Bethlehem. This was the ancient ancestral home of David. The shepherds visited that same night.
The Magi saw the conjunction and relying on their prophet Daniel, waited through the heat of summer and left from Babylon to Jerusalem in October. They were now following the Wandering Star Jupiter as it retrograded an astounding three times. The 900 mile trip took three months. They arrived at Herod’s palace just as Jupiter retrograded its third and last time. This occurred Dec 25th 2 B.C. They visited Jesus in a home and left. Herod had the children of Bethlehem murdered three days later. Herod died exactly one year later on Dec 28th 1 B.C. We can know this for certain as Josephus tell us that Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. And there was an eclipse on the 28th. of 1 B.C. Before 1544, all notes as to the date Herod died read 1 B.C. after 1544, all manuscripts read he died in 4 B.C. But it is clear that the older recorded date of 1B.C. is correct.
If we run the astronomical software back 9 months from June of 2B.C. we see in September of 3 B.C. Mary met with Gabriel and conceived. This month coincides will Yom Kippur when the Jews pray for redemption from sin.
If we run the software forward to 33 A.D., Jesus is 33 years old but would have turned 34 in June. He was crucified and put in tomb on Friday, April 3rd. Our astronomical software shows that at sun set on April 3rd, 33A.D. a Blood Moon rose over Israel.