Appendix 6 | Table
of Contents | Appendix 8
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Alfred Edersheim
1883
Appendix 7
ON THE DATE OF THE NATIVITY OF
OUR LORD
(Book II. ch. 3. and other
passages).
So much, that is generally accessible, has of late been written
on this subject, and such accord exists on the general question, that
only the briefest statement seems requisite in this place, the space at our
command being necessarily reserved for subjects which have either not been
treated of by previous writers, or in a manner or form that seemed to make a
fresh investigation desirable.
At the outset it must be admitted, that absolute certainty is
impossible as to the exact date of Christ's Nativity - the precise year even,
and still more the month and the day. But in regard to the year, we possess such
data as to invest it with such probability, as almost to amount to
certainty.
1. The first and most certain date is that of the death of
Herod the Great. Our Lord was born before the death of Herod, and, as we
judge from the Gospel-history, very shortly before that event. Now the year of
Herod's death has been ascertained with, we may say, absolute certainty, as
shortly before the Passover of the year 750 A.U.C., which corresponds to about
the 12th of April of the year 4 before Christ, according to our common
reckoning. More particularly, shortly before the death of Herod there was a
lunar eclipse (Jos. Ant. xvii. 6. 4), which, it is astronomically
ascertained, occurred on the night from the 12th to the 13th of March of the
year 4 before Christ. Thus the death of Herod must have taken place between the
12th of March and the 12th of April - or, say, about the end of March (comp.
Ant. xvii. 8. 1). Again, the Gospel-history necessitates an interval of, at the
least, seven or eight weeks before that date for the birth of Christ (we have
to insert the purification of the Virgin - at the earliest, six weeks after the
Birth - The Visit of the Magi, and the murder of the children at Bethlehem,
and, at any rate, some days more before the death of Herod). Thus the Birth of
Christ could not have possibly occurred after the beginning of February 4 b.c., and most likely several weeks
earlier. This brings us close to the ecclesiastical date, the 25th of December,
in confirmation of which we refer to what has been stated in vol. i. p. 187,
see especially note 3. At any rate, the often repeated, but very superficial
objection, as to the impossibility of shepherds tending flocks in the open at
that season, must now be dismissed as utterly untenable, not only for the
reasons stated in vol. i. p. 187, but even for this, that if the question is to
be decided on the ground of rain-fall, the probabilities are in favour of
December as compared with February - later than which it is impossible to place
the birth of Christ.
2. No certain inference can, of course, be drawn from the
appearance of 'the star' that guided the Magi. That, and on what grounds, our
investigations have pointed to a confirmation of the date of the Nativity, as
given above, has been fully explained in vol. i. ch. vi... (see specially p.
213).
3. On the taxing of Quirinius, see vol. i. pp. 181, 182.
4. The next historical datum furnished by the Gospels is
that of the beginning of St. John the Baptist's ministry, which, according to
St. Luke, was in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and when Jesus was 'about
thirty years old' (St. Luke iii. 23). The accord of this with our reckoning of
the date of the Nativity has been shown in vol. i. p. 264.
5. A similar conclusion would be reached
by following the somewhat vague and general indication furnished in St. John
ii. 20.
6. Lastly, we reach the same goal if we follow the historically
somewhat uncertain guidance of the date of the Birth of the Baptist, as
furnished in this notice (St. Luke i. 5) of his annunciation to his father,
that Zacharias officiated in the Temple as on of 'the course of Abia' (see here
vol. i. p. 135). In Taan. 29 a we have the notice, with which that of
Josephus agrees (War vi. 4. 1. 5), that at the time of the destruction of the
Temple 'the course of Jehoiarib,' which was the first of the priestly courses,
was on duty. That was on the 9-10 Ab of the year 823 A.U.C., or the 5th
August of the year 70 of our era. If this calculation be correct (of which,
however, we cannot feel quite sure), then counting 'the courses' of priests
backwards, the course of Abia would, in the year 748 A.U.C. (the year before
the birth of Christ) have been on duty from the 2nd to the 9th of October. This
also would place the birth of Christ in the end of December of the following
year (749), taking the expression 'sixth month' in St. Luke i. 26, 36, in the
sense of the running month (from the 5th to the 6th month, comp. St. Luke i.
24). But we repeat that absolute reliance cannot be placed on such
calculations, at least so far as regards month and day. (Comp. here generally Wieseler,
Synopse, and his Beiträge.)
Appendix 6 | Table
of Contents | Appendix 8
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