Comments on: What year was Jesus born, when did he die, and does it matter?

By: Ps Jon Ventham

Ps Jon Ventham — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:55:43 +0000

Jesus was born on the Feast of Tabernacles (Sept/Oct) in 3 BC.
He commenced His ministry at age 30 and was executed on a cross at age 33.

I feel it does matter, and quite a lot – the parallels to the OT if for no other reason.
the OT contains the ‘shadows’ of Christ whereas the NT contains the substance – which is basically the message of Hebrews.

Example of a Shadow was when Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mt Moriah -

and Isaac was not as we assume a lad of 12 or 15 yrs of age but he was a grown man in his early 30’s –
and all the Jewish writings and paintings of that event depict that.

That event is described in Genesis 22
In Gen 23v1 there is the description of Sarah’s death and it reveals her age and thus it can be calculated that Isaac’s age at the sacrifice was 33
this mountain was the very same mountain where another Son was sacrificed at age 33.
for Golgotha is the highest point of Mt Moriah

in the Shadow, as Abraham was about to bring the death blow down upon Isaac

‘he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, its head caught in a thicket of thorns.

what a shadow of the event that occurred 1850 years later when God’s Son, His head surrounded by a crown of thorns was sacrificed …

‘behold the Ram of God who takes away the sin of the world’

By: Eclectic Christian

Eclectic Christian — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:33:09 +0000

Nice one Gary!

By: Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:29:09 +0000

My theory: Theophilus received the autograph of Luke and then proceeded to do what rich politicians do best: fudge the numbers a bit.

Just kidding.

By: ScottL

ScottL — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:28:26 +0000

Very interesting article. I read this in the new ESV Study Bible:

‘According to Josephus, Quirinius was governor of Syria a.d. 6–7 and conducted a census in a.d. 6 (which Luke is aware of and mentions in Acts 5:37). But this cannot be the census Luke is referencing here, since it occurred after the death of Herod the Great in 4 b.c., and it is known that Jesus was born during Herod’s reign (cf. Matt. 2:1; Luke 1:5). Various plausible solutions have been proposed. Some interpreters believe that because “governor” (participle of Gk. hēgemoneuō) was a very general term for “ruler,” it may be that Quirinius was the administrator of the census, but not the governor proper. Another solution is to translate the verse, “This was the registration before Quirinius was governor of Syria” (see ESV footnote), which is grammatically possible (taking Gk. prōtos as “before” rather than “first”; the Greek construction is somewhat unusual on any reading). This would make sense because Luke would then be clarifying that this was before the well-known, troublesome census of a.d. 6 (Acts 5:37).’

Some more interesting things to consider around these dates of Christ’s birth and age at crucifixion.

By: mikelioso

mikelioso — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:27:56 +0000

Thanks! Wikipedia is a favorite of mine, professors get up in arms about using it as a source, so I always do my initial research there then track down all their sources.

By: Eclectic Christian

Eclectic Christian — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:40:29 +0000

Hi Mike.

Google pointed me to a bunch of sites including wikipedia with a start date of 20-19 B.C.

Mike Bell

By: mikelioso

mikelioso — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:14:56 +0000

Good article. I think the idea of an older Jesus might be picking up steam. I don’t know where Luke got his information. He seems to want to be thorough and official so I doubt he’s just making up numbers, but he may be mistaken or uniformed. Or he could be right since all his dates add up. But that would mean the king of the nativity story would be Herod Archelaus, who wasn’t really a king. That would mean that Matthew was incorrect. And it would make those passages in John seem a bit odd. The mention in Luke of King Herod of Judea (luke 1:5) may be a mistake on his part of either what his title was or chronology. But Luke seems well informed on his Imperial history, so it may be that the material he had for Mary and Zecharias songs, used the King Herod time frame, but his own research pointed to the AD 6 date. I have my reasons for beliving Matthew and John over Luke for the particulars of Jesus’ life though. If you have time to respond I would love to know where and how you came up with your dates for the Temples construction. Every one has different dates!