Surprising Corrections to Calculate the Year of Jesus’ Birth and Death

Ever wonder how and when the sequence of years up to the current year 2025 was established? You might be surprised to learn that a monk by the name of Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century was responsible. Dionysius wished to calibrate the year that our Lord’s birth occurred, doing so more than five hundred years after Christ’s birth.

Dionysius accessed various letters and manuscripts from a variety of sources to extract critical information that he used to establish that year. He dated the year he calculated for our Lord’s birth as 1 AD. The AD are the first letters of the Latin words “Anno Domini”, which translates to “in the year of our Lord.” This year was subsequently used to reorder our entire system of tracking time and in the process splitting history in two.

Calculuation For the Year of Jesus’s Birth

It was an admirable effort, but modern exegesis has determined that his calculations were off by approximately five to six years. A critical piece of information which serves to undermine Dionysius’ calculations was the year in which King Herod died. The date of his death was nearly four years prior to Jesus’ birth as calculated by Dionysius. This information was discovered in the writings of Flavius Josephus, a noted first century Jewish historian.

Also contained in the writings of Josephus, is the fact that King Herod spent the last six months of his life in Jericho for health related reasons. These six months must therefore be added to this four year time difference noted above. For we know from Matthew’s infancy narrative, that the Magi appeared before Herod in Jerusalem, which would have been sometime before he departed for Jericho.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem, but to return home by another route. As a result, Herod ordered the death of all male children two years old or younger living in Bethlehem. These two years encompassed the timing of the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, as revealed to Herod by the Magi. Presumably these two years included some cushion of time to ensure that the Christ child did not escape the sword.

If we assume the star’s appearance occurred at six months to one year prior to the Magi’s encounter with Herod, we need to add this additional time to the four years and six months already calculated. This leaves us with just the period of time between Herod’s meeting with the Magi and his departure for Jericho to consider.

If we make a supposition that this time period was one year, then the calculated time for the earliest year of Christ’s birth would be computed as follows; four years plus six months plus one year plus this additional one year. For an aggregate of six and a half years. Since Jesus was born in December of 1 AD pursuant to Dionysius’ calculation, the six and a half year difference produces 6 BC as Christ’s likely birth.

If we exclude this one year period between the meeting with the Magi and Herod’s departure for Jericho, as it is purely a supposition, and reduce the appearance of the star to six months rather than a year we arrive at 4 BC as the year of Christ’s likely birth.

Calculation for the Year of Jesus’ Death

Most people were taught that Jesus was born in 1 AD and died in 33 AD, at the age of 33. Assuming we use 5 BC, being the mid-point of 4 and 6 BC, as the year of his birth, did he actually die at the age of 33 in 29 AD? Luke’s Gospel, which gives important details concerning the timing of Jesus’ baptism, as well as numerous non-biblical historical sources support a later date for his death. Let’s examine the basis for a later date and whether a year for his death can be reasonably established.

One important fact that needs to be understood and considered in discussing this matter, is that for the Jewish people each day began at sunset and ended just prior to the following day’s sunset. As a result, Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples and was crucified and died on the same Jewish day. This happened to be the fourteenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan (originally called Abib) in the Jewish calendar. The very day prescribed by God that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed and eaten.

The three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke reveal that the celebration of Passover by Jesus and his disciples that year, which we more commonly call the Lord’s Supper, occurred on a Thursday evening. We know this because Jesus’ crucifixion occurred on a Friday afternoon before the Jewish Sabbath commenced at sunset that evening.

Accordingly, we can determine within a reasonable timeframe of the late-20 AD to mid-30 AD period, the years that the fourteenth day of Nisan fell on the Jewish day that commenced at sunset on a Thursday.

It occurred only in 30 AD and 33 AD. So which of these years is the more plausible one? For that we must consider the likely commencement and duration of Jesus’ public ministry.

Jesus began his public ministry very soon after his baptism by John the Baptist. St Luke gives great detail as to when John the Baptist began his mission of preparing the way of the Lord.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis , and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert (Lk 3: 1-2).

The timing of when these men were in these stated positions support the baptism of Jesus, shortly after John began his ministry, in January of 27 AD. Jesus would have been 31 years old when he commenced his public ministry, assuming he was born in 5 BC. If Jesus died in 30 AD he would have celebrated four Passovers during his public ministry, which covered a period of three years and three months.

In John’s Gospel, there are clear references to three Passovers, corresponding to three different years. The first is found in chapter 2 (Jn 2: 13-23), the second is found in chapter 6 (Jn 6:4) and the third is the Passover of Christ’s passion and death.

If Jesus only celebrated three Passovers with his disciples during his public ministry and was baptized in 27 AD, he would have died in 29 AD. But the fourteenth day of Nisan that year fell on a Tuesday/Wednesday and not a Thursday/Friday. Thus, ruling out that year as a possible year of his death.

A reference to a possible fourth Passover is found in chapter 5 (Jn 5:1). This passage from John’s Gospel states:

After this, there was a (the) feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem (Jn 5:1).

Early manuscripts of John’s Gospel use either “a” or in some cases “the” in describing this feast of the Jews. Biblical scholars are nearly unanimous in the view that if the correct reference is “the” then this feast would have been Passover.

In addition, we know from chapter 5 of John’s Gospel that Jesus performed a miracle on this feast which happened to occur on a Sabbath. This fact would rule out Pentecost, as that feast always occurred on the day following the Sabbath.

The feast of Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the offering of sheafs of barley. This was done on the day following the Passover Sabbath. These fifty days would result in Pentecost likewise falling on a day after a Sabbath as well. It was on Pentecost that the first fruits of the wheat harvest were offered to God by the priests on behalf of the people. In which case this feast is most likely Passover.

Thus, we can account for four separate Passover celebrations during Jesus’ public ministry in John’s Gospel. This then fits neatly into Jesus’ death occurring in 30 AD. So Jesus was likely born in 5 BC and likely died in 30 AD at the age of 34 and several months.

So why is all of this relevant to our faith? For one, we can better understand Jesus’ life and can refute charges, made by those who do not believe in Christ using erroneous information, to set the record straight with more accurate information. But for me it’s grounding my faith in the life of Christ within the context of a deeper historical perspective!

The principal source of information contained in this article can be found in an appendage to the book entitled “The Navarre Bible St Mark”