Jesus’ Birth Year – Herod and the Wise Men (Series: When Was Jesus Born?)

Let’s make sure one thing is clear right away. Jesus was not born in year 0. We can say this with confidence, because there was no “year 0”. Between the 25th of December 1BC and the 25th of December 1AD there is only one year, not two. So just forget the whole 0 thing.

Of course, in those days no one used any of these years – there were various systems for numbering years, but this one was invented by Dionysius Exiguus several hundred years after Christ. So he gets the “blame” for miscalculating, as we shall see.

So when was Jesus born? 1 BC? 1 AD? Well, a quick search online will tell you the common answer – between 4 and 6 BC. How in the world did we get there?

It’s fairly simple (even if it may be wrong, but more on that later).

We know that Jesus was born in the days of King Herod (Matthew 2:1). Based on evidence from the Jewish historian Josephus, modern historians tend to date Herod’s death at 4 BC.

Now remember, when the magi came to find Jesus, King Herod got a little jealous and decided to kill all the baby boys in the area –

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
Matthew 2:16

See that? “According to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.” So – Jesus was born 2 years earlier, right? And so if Jesus was born 2 years before Herod died, that brings us to 6 BC. Done deal.

Except – not quite. There are some problems with this theory, and some counter-evidence, which leads some scholars today to believe that Herod actually died in 1 BC – and that Jesus Himself was born in 1 BC.

Let’s look at one example. Josephus tells us that there was a lunar eclipse, Herod died, and then there was the Passover. Yes, there was a lunar eclipse in 4 BC – but only a partial one. Plus, it was only 29 days before Passover – and Josephus seems to suggest quite a list of things that Herod did in that time – apparently too many to fit in such a short period.

Any other eclipses? Yes, there are – most notably in – you guessed it – in 1 BC. But this one was earlier – with more time before the Passover – and it was a full eclipse, easily visible from Jerusalem.

The arguments and counter-arguments go on and on – trust me. But without going into too many, one question you might ask is – what about the wise men? Didn’t they arrive 2 years after Jesus was born? If so, even if Herod died in 1 BC, we still have to go back to 3 BC, don’t we?

All this is based on the words “according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men”. What does that mean, exactly?

First, if Herod was so furious, and he knew that the baby had been born about 2 years earlier, why risk an error by only killing babies up to two years of age? What if Jesus was actually 2 years and a week old?

Ok, maybe Jesus was a year and a half old. And doesn’t the Bible indicate that Jesus was now a “child” living in a “house” (Matthew 2:11)?

First of all, I doubt that Mary and Joseph would have spent a second night in the same place, among the animals. This could have been as early as the next day, as far as the house is concerned. (Actually, the Bible doesn’t say that Jesus was born in a stable or a cave – it’s entirely possible that they were already in a “house”, in an area reserved for animals – not unusual, even today, in some parts of the world).

What about the fact that Jesus was a “child” and not a “baby”? Actually, child is just a general term – it can refer to an older child, or a baby. The same word is used in Luke 1:59 of John when he was 8 days old!

The wise men could easily have arrived a month or two after Jesus was born, leaving time for travel. A furious and jealous Herod could easily have killed every baby 2 years old and younger just to be thorough – just in case the wise men hadn’t noticed the star right away, or had been delayed in understanding its meaning. We just don’t have enough information to assume a two year gap.

In fact, does it make sense that the remarkable story of the shepherds, and the testimonies in the temple, had not reached Herod within two years? Or even his religious advisors? And why would Joseph and Mary remain in Bethlehem as visitors for months and months?

It seems very possible that the wise men immediately responded to the miraculous star, and that they hurried to Jerusalem within a few weeks of Jesus’ birth. During this time, Jesus’ family went to the temple and back (not a long distance). Shortly after returning, they met the wise men, and because of the angel’s warning Jesus’ family then fled to Egypt, but didn’t need to stay long, because Herod died shortly afterwards. With no reason to return to Bethlehem, the family returned home to Nazareth.

We’ll talk a little more about the year of Jesus’ birth in the next post in this series. In reality, we could take a year of blog posts just on this to investigate all of the various aspects. The point of this post is just to introduce the issue – and point out that it’s entirely possible that Dionysius Exiguus wasn’t as far off as some people think.