• ESPAÑOL: Un Eclipse Lunar ¿Proporciona una pista sobre en qué año nació Jesús?

There is an interesting article on the Bible Archaeology Society website where several scholars and physicists wrote letters to the editor debating the various issues surrounding the year that Jesus Christ was born.

Historically, Christ’s birth was defined by the change of eras from BC to AD. AD referred to the Latin phrase ‘Anno Domini’, which translated means ‘Year of the Lord’ and BC stood for ‘Before Christ’. These two terms have since been changed to remove the religious connotation to CE which stands for Common Era and BCE which stands for Before Common Era.

When we study the issue of what year Christ was born, it is best answered with well, we are pretty sure the Lord wasn’t born at the turn of the era, from BC to AD. In other words, Jesus wasn’t born in the first year of what became known as the AD era.

If that is the case, when was Christ born?

We know from both Luke 1:5 and Matthew 2:1 that Herod the Great, who was half-Jew, was still alive and Rome’s client king of Judea the year Christ was born.

Since Herod was born around 72 BC, he would have been in his late sixties or early 70s at the time of Christ’s birth, so towards the end of his life.

Many believe that Jesus was born in either 4 BC or 1 BC, and they come to this conclusion based on comments that Josephus made about the death of Herod.

Several pointed out that Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian, provided two clues in his books, Antiquities and The Jewish Wars about when Herod the Great died.

First, Josephus stated that Herod died near the time of a lunar eclipse and secondly, it took place just before the start of a Jewish Passover.

John Cramer, a Physics professor at Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University wrote that four lunar eclipses took place within a period that would potentially fall within the time frame of Herod’s death:

• Sept. 15, 5 BC;
• March 13, 4 BC;
• Jan. 10, 1 BC, and
• Dec. 29, 1 BC.

Presuming that Jesus was born the same year that Herod the Great died, the most commonly accepted year for Christ’s birth is 4 BC. There was a solar eclipse on March 13 of that year, and that also fits with Josephus’ reference to the Jewish Passover that occurs in the spring.

The next most commonly accepted date is Dec. 29, 1 BC. This date is argued because the 4 BC lunar eclipse was only a partial eclipse and did not take place until late in the night. Because of these two factors, it was not that well known.

However, the ones that occurred in 1 BC were more prominent. The first that took place in January was in fact a full eclipse, but took place late at night.

Cramer adds that though the second one that year was only a partial lunar eclipse, it occurred just after 6 pm and would have been widely seen. He also adds that what makes this second one so intriguing, is that it occurred on Dec. 29, 1 BC, just two days before what would historically become known as the change of era from BC to AD marking Christ’s birth.

Though this certainly adds an interesting twist to the Dec. 29, 1 BC date, many of the commenters point to several other factors that support 4 BC as the year of Christ’s birth.

As just one of many examples that were cited, we know that when Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided among his three sons, explains Jeffrey R. Chadwick from the Jerusalem Center of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies.

Herod’s son, Archelau, was removed from his position by Rome in 6 AD. It is also specifically stated that this took place ten years after his father’s death. Counting back, that would put Herod’s death at 4 BC.