Jesus

Jesus (Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs), also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, is Christianity's central figure, both as Messiah and, for most Christians, as God incarnate. In Islam he is regarded as a very important prophet.

Birth, death, and resurrection chronology

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Brief timeline of Jesus

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of important years from empirical sources.

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In Christianity, the most detailed information about Jesus' birth and death is contained in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. There is considerable debate about the details of Jesus' birth even among Christian scholars. Few, if any, scholars claim to know either the year or the date of his birth or of his death.

Related Topics:
Gospel of Matthew - Gospel of Luke

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Based on the accounts in the Gospels of the shepherds' activities, the time of year depicted for Jesus' birth could be spring or summer. However, as early as 354, Roman Christians celebrated it following the December solstice in an attempt to replace the Roman pagan festival of Saturnalia. Before then, Jesus' birth was generally celebrated on January 6 as part of the feast of Theophany, also known as Epiphany, which commemorated not only Jesus' birth but also his baptism by John in the Jordan and possibly additional events in Jesus' life.

Related Topics:
354 - December - Solstice - Saturnalia - January 6 - Theophany - Epiphany - Baptism - John - Jordan

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In the 248th year of the Diocletian Era (based on Diocletian's ascension to the Roman throne), Dionysius Exiguus attempted to pinpoint the number of years since Jesus' birth, arriving at a figure of 753 years after the founding of Rome. Dionysius then set Jesus' birth as being December 25 1 ACN (for "Ante Christum Natum", or "before the birth of Christ"), and assigned AD 1 to the following year—thereby establishing the system of numbering years from the birth of Jesus: Anno Domini (which translates as "in the year of the Lord"). This system made the then current year 532, and almost two centuries later it won acceptance and became the established calendar in Western civilization due to its championing by the Venerable Bede.

Related Topics:
Diocletian - Era - Dionysius Exiguus - Rome - December 25 - 1 ACN - 1 - Anno Domini - Lord - 532 - Venerable Bede

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However, based on a lunar eclipse that Josephus reports shortly before the death of Herod the Great, the birth of Christ would have been some time before the year 4 BC/BCE. This estimate itself relies on the historicity of the story in the Gospel of Matthew involving Herod around the time of Jesus' birth. Having fewer sources and being even further removed in time from the authors of the New Testament, details surrounding Jesus' birth are regarded, even by many believers, as less likely to be historical fact, and therefore establishing a reliable birth date is particularly difficult.

Related Topics:
Lunar eclipse - Herod the Great - 4 BC/BCE - Story

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As for Jesus' death, the exact date is also unclear. The Gospel of John depicts the crucifixion just before the Passover festival on Friday 14 Nisan, called the Quartodeciman, whereas the synoptic gospels describe the Last Supper, immediately before Jesus' arrest, as the Passover meal on Friday 15 Nisan. Further, the Jews followed a lunisolar calendar with phases of the moon as dates, complicating calculations of any exact date in a solar calendar. According to John P. Meier's A Marginal Jew, allowing for the time of the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate and the dates of the Passover in those years, his death can be placed most probably on April 7, 30 or April 3, 33 or March 30, 36.

Related Topics:
Nisan - Quartodeciman - Synoptic gospels - Last Supper - Passover - Lunisolar calendar - Procurator - Pontius Pilate - April 7 - 30 - April 3 - 33 - March 30 - 36

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Hyam Maccoby and other scholars have pointed out that several details of the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem—the waving of palm fronds, the Hosanna cry, the proclamation of a king—are connected with the Festival of Sukkot or Tabernacles, not with Passover. It is possible that the Entry (and subsequent events, including the Crucifixion and Resurrection) in historical reality took place at this time—the month of Tishri in the autumn, not Nisan in the spring. There could have been confusion due to a misunderstanding, or a deliberate change due to doctrinal points.

Related Topics:
Hyam Maccoby - Hosanna - Sukkot - Tabernacles - Tishri

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