Chronology of Jesus
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- See also: Gospel harmony
The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels (which allude to various dates for several events). Relating those externally known events to the chronology in the gospels themselves produces the following reconstructed chronology.
When correlated with external secular sources, the accounts of the four canonical gospels describe something like the following outline:
- Jesus was born between 8 BC and the AD 6 Census of Quirinius; some have attempted to date a possible Star of Bethlehem;
- he was baptised by John the Baptist at the start of John's ministry, which Luke 3:1-2 places in the "15th year of Tiberius" (emperor of Rome from AD 14 to 37);
- his ministry lasted around three years in the Gospel of John;
- he was executed by Pontius Pilate, the governor of Iudaea province between AD 26 and 36; some have attempted to date the crucifixion from a possible Crucifixion eclipse, most calculate possible years that Nisan 14 or 15 (the spring full moon) could have fallen on a Friday;
- he was raised from the dead by God "on the third day", appeared to the disciples and others; and according to Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, and John 20:17, ascended to heaven.
Many of the specific dates here involve some guesswork; the issues are discussed more fully below.
See Historicity of Jesus and Historical Jesus for an exploration of the factuality of the gospels and the results of attempts to apply historical methodology to understanding the life of Jesus.
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[edit] Introduction
The chronology of Jesus is linked to specific Jewish festivals. There are numerous references to specific times, people, and places in the four canonical gospels. There are, however, only a few references that tie events to a specific year, leaving exact timing uncertain and perhaps impossible to ascertain definitively. For example, the specific years of Jesus's birth, death, and age at death are not known. Some events and dates given can be cross-referenced to other known sources, such as the dates of tenure for rulers and high priests. The gospels do, however, provide clear references to specific days of the year associated with the yearly Jewish festivals, and provide much evidence to build upon. Some consider that the material unique to each gospel further complicates the discernment of one, harmonized chronology. However, others consider the unique material crucial to narrowing down the possible chronological timings. Of course, some commentators have questioned the historicity of the canonical gospels (see Historicity of Jesus).
In brief, the primary events in Jesus' life are believed to have occurred around these times:[1]
-
- c. 8 BC – Suggested birth (earliest estimate)
- c. 5 BC/4 BC – Herod the Great's death
- c. 6 – Suggested birth (latest), Census of Quirinius
- c. 26/27 – Suggested death (earliest), Pontius Pilate appointed governor of Iudaea Province
- c. 28/29 – John the Baptist begins mission in "15th year of Tiberius" (Luke 3:1-2)
- c. 36/37 – Suggested death (latest), Pilate removed from office[2]
[edit] Birth
[edit] Year of birth
- See also: Nativity of Jesus and Census of Quirinius
Our only sources of information on Jesus' birth are the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which provide two different accounts of the nativity. Matthew describes a "Massacre of the Innocents" under Herod the Great, which Jesus's parents avoid through a Flight into Egypt. Luke dates the event to the Census of Quirinius which took place in 6 AD, although also implying that the conception took place during the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 BC.
Numerous commentators have attempted to establish the date of birth identify the Star of Bethlehem with some known astronomical or astrological phenomenon.[3] There are, however, too many possible phenomena to single out one of them with certainty, and none seems to match the Gospel account exactly. Raymond E. Brown, having studied the various astronomical explanations, concluded: "no astronomical record exists of what is described in Matthew".[4] Others suggest that the star was a literary invention of the author of the Gospel of Matthew, to claim fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy (Numbers 24:17).[5].
In the 6th century, Dionysius Exiguus made the birth date of Jesus the basis for his chart of Easter dates. Dionysius' labeled the years since Jesus' birth Anno Domini (meaning "in the year of the Lord" in Latin), which is now abbreviated "AD". Later the abbreviation "BC", which stands for Before Christ was added. Dionysius' estimate is generally thought to be inaccurate; "although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating".[6]
[edit] Day of birth
Determining 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). [7]
[edit] November/January
Mediterranean climates such as Judea's have mild winters reaching their coolest in late February. [2] Thus December nights can be quite balmy and warm enough to graze sheep. Moreover, December/January would have been an ideal time to graze sheep to take advantage of the winter rains. During the hot months, conditions can be quite barren and the grasses dry. But the end of December was the time when the perennial grasses began to turn green again and the annual grasses had sprouted anew. Thus, climatically the ecclesiastical practice of placing Christ's birth between December 25 and January 6 is possible. Controversy over whether Christmas ought to be celebrated on December 25 or January 6 underscores the perceived importance of the day of Christ's birth and the determination of church fathers to be accurate.
It is believed that Christmas' date was chosen to take advantage of the imperial holiday of the birth of the Sun God Mithras, more specifically Sol Invictus, which coincided with the "return of the sun" after the shortest day of the year. According to this theory, the reason was to replace the popular pagan holiday with a Christian celebration of holy communion. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia states: "Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date."[8]
According to one tradition[citation needed], Jesus was born during Hanukkah (25 Kislev into the beginning of Tevet). Under the old Julian calendar, the popular choice of 5 BC for the year of Jesus' birth would place 25 Kislev at November 25.
Early Christians sought to calculate the date of Christ's birth based on the idea that Old Testament prophets died either on an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. They reasoned that Jesus died on an anniversary of his conception, so the date of his birth was nine months after the date of Good Friday, either December 25 or January 6. Additional calculations are made based on the six-year almanac of priestly rotations, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some believe that this almanac lists the week when John the Baptist's father served as a high priest. As it is implied that John the Baptist could only have been conceived during that particular week, and as his conception is believed to be tied to that of Jesus, it is claimed that an approximate date of December 25 can be arrived at for the birth of Jesus. However, most scholars (e.g. Catholic Encyclopedia in sources) believe this calculation to be unreliable as it is based on a string of assumptions.
The apparition of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah, announcing that he was to be the father of John the Baptist, was believed to have occurred on Yom Kippur. This was due to a belief (not included in the Gospel account) that Zechariah was a high priest and that his vision occurred during the high priest's annual entry into the Holy of Holies. If John's conception occurred on Yom Kippur in late September, then his birth would have been in late June (the traditional date is June 24). If John's birth was on June 24, then the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, said by the Gospel account to have occurred three month's before John's birth, would have been in late March. (Tradition fixed it on March 25.) The birth of Jesus would then have been on December 25, nine months after his conception. As with the previous theory, proponents of this theory hold that Christmas was a date of significance to Christians before it was a date of significance to pagans.
At least 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 December 25.
The earliest identification of 25 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 25 March when the resurrection occurred.
The next surviving 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." Thus it was important to the early Christians not to have indecorous parties on that day, but to keep it a time of devotion, reflection, and communion.
The first early 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 25 December, a Friday and 15th day of the new moon." Here again no festal celebration of the day is attested.
[edit] October
Another argument (Reference[not in citation given]), that relies only on dates named in the Bible, places Jesus' birth on the 15th day of the seventh Jewish month during Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. This is based on the time when Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, was ministering in the temple, and received an announcement from God of a coming son. The Bible states that Zecariah's term of ministry was in the "eighth course of Abia", a period dated according to Hebrew calendar in the Old Testament. If John was conceived soon after, and Jesus' conception was six months after John, then Jesus was born during the first day of the feast of the tabernacles. This is an engimatic reference because the Gospel of John introduces Jesus in this manner: "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (KJV). The word used for "dwelt" literally means "tabernacled" - i.e. God's Word became flesh and put his tent up among ours. (Reference)
[edit] Other Dates
There were 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 20 April). Clement himself sets it on November 18, 3 B.C.
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 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 25 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 François 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 according 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.
[edit] Start of Ministry
According to the gospel of Luke (Luke 3:1-2), John the Baptist started his ministry in the "15th year of Tiberius". This is one of the few events in the New Testament for which any clear indication of the year of occurrence is given. Tiberius was emperor of Rome from AD 14 to 37. All gospel accounts have Jesus beginning his own ministry after John had begun his. Accordingly, the earliest year either John or Jesus could have begun his own ministry would be, if Luke is accurate, the year AD 29. However, one source, Tertullian (died 230), in Adversus Marcionem xv, expresses a Roman tradition that placed the crucifixion in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar, lending support for an earlier date of AD 26.
[edit] Death
[edit] Day of death
Tradition holds that the Last Supper took place on the first night of Passover, which is defined in the Torah as occurring on the 14th of Nisan (Lev 23:5). However, in order to determine the Gregorian date of Jesus' death, one needs to know the year, because the 15th of Nisan – corresponding to one of the first two full moons after Vernal Equinox – can occur on any date in late March or April in the western calendar.
All Gospels agree that Jesus died and was taken off the cross on the day before the Jewish sabbath (Friday before sunset), around the time of Passover, (the Jewish calendar counts the day as beginning with the evening). However, before the year 500, the calendar was changed yearly to align with astronomical observations. 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.
More precise 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 appears to have taken place on Thursday after sunset, making it the 15th of Nisan, with the crucifixion on the next day, Friday, still the 15th of Nisan. In this case Passover would have started on Thursday night. This is highly problematic from historical standpoint - first day of Passover is a holy day for Jews, during which no work can be performed and many rituals of Shabbat are observed, so many events described by Gospels (particularly, the trial and the execution) could not have taken place.
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, with Jesus dying approximately at the same time that the lambs for the Passover were being slaughtered in Herod's Temple of Jerusalem -- around 3 PM ("at the ninth hour"), so that the Jews could celebrate the Passover that evening (starting Friday night).
Various attempts have been made to harmonize the two reports. One 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.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus says that the "the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." If this is interpreted in a strictly literal way, a Wednesday crucifixion might be indicated.[9]
According to Orthodox theology, the Last Supper celebrated on Thursday evening was not the Jewish Passover meal. This can be seen from the Biblical text [reference required] itself since Jesus gave a piece of (leavened) bread to Judas, which would have been a direct violation of Jewish Passover regulations, also since, as the article mentions, Jesus dies the next day at the same time that the Passover lambs are slaughtered (no Passover meal without Passover lamb). Instead, Jesus as God's Passover Lamb puts an end to the old and institutes a New Covenant, according to Supersessionism, called the Christian Eucharist.
[edit] Year of death
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, during which the only years in which Nisan 14 fell on a Friday were 27, 33, 36, and possibly also 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" (Luke 3:23) 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 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 (Luke 3:1-2). Tiberius' reign began after Augustus' death on August 19, 14, 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, see Responsibility for the death of Jesus.
Nonetheless, proponents of the year 30 point out that Tiberius had become co-regent emperor several years before the death of Augustus, making it possible that the beginning of his reign would have been counted from 11 or 12, putting the beginning of John's ministry in about 26. This is consistent with the "about thirty years old" statement in the Gospel of Luke as well.
[edit] References
- ^ John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, v.1, ch. 11.
- ^ Josephus' Antiquities 18.4.2: "But when this tumult was appeased, the Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome, to answer before the emperor to the accusations of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome Tiberius was dead."
- ^ For example, astronomer Michael Molnar identified April 17, 6 BC as the likely date of the Nativity, since that date corresponded to the heliacal rising and lunar occultation of Jupiter, while it was momentarily stationary in the sign of Aries; according to Molnar, to knowledgeable astrologers of this time, this highly unusual combination of events would have indicated that a regal personage would be (or had been) born in Judea. Michael R. Molnar, "The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi," Rutgers University Press, 1999.
- ^ Raymond E. Brown, 101 Questions and Answers on the Bible, Paulist Press (2003), page 79.
- ^ Joseph J. Walsh, Were They Wise Men or Kings?, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001), p. 40
- ^ Doggett. (1992). "Calendars" (Ch. 12), in P. Kenneth Seidelmann (Ed.) Explanatory supplement to the astronomical almanac. Sausalito, CA: University Science Books. ISBN 0-935702-68-7.
- ^ Paul L. Maier, In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church, Kregel Publications (1998), p28
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas
- ^ Good Friday is a Myth; Jesus Died on a Wednesday!! by Roy A. Reinhold
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1910): Chronology of the Life of Jesus Christ
- Catholic.org Chronology of Jesus
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