Vol 4/1
February
1999

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Profile: Bishop Colin's Millennium File

When was Jesus born?

It was not (we have to confess) in 1BC, 0BC, 0AD, or 1AD. The middle two of these never existed anyway. It is hardly likely that it was on 25 December or 31 December either.

Herod the Great died in 4 BC, so the birth of Jesus must have been before that. When the wise men came (see Matthew ch.2) it does not appear that the family were in a stable or similar emergency place, but had found better accommodation; and when Herod wanted to ensure he killed Jesus, he ordered the murder of children up to two years of age. There was then the flight into Egypt and a period there before Joseph and Mary heard of Herod's death.

All this would appear to point to around 8 or 7 BC as the time of Jesus' birth - though it could be later if Herod were in fact simply hoping to engulf a three-month-old child by his massacre of all up to two years of age.

As a check against this, there is a dating in Luke 3.1 which suggests that John the Baptist began his ministry in 28 AD; and, soon after, when Jesus began his public ministry, we are told he was 'about thirty years of age' (Luke 3.23).

If we take the fixed points we have seriously, then it looks as though he was a minimum of 31-32 years of age when he began, and a maximum of around 35-36. But the little hard information we have does tell a consistent story, and points very strongly to a simple telling of a known story, without artifice or the making up of detail to fill blanks.

If we accept this kind of account, then '2000' would seem to be more important as a point for checking computers than for acknowledging God's exact round number of years.

But we have in this wonderful and intangible chronological watershed what I have heard called 'a splendidly irrational symbol'.

2000 is a symbolic reminder of how we have counted our years from Jesus Christ as 'anno domini' - 'in the year of our Lord'. All the years are his - each one is an 'AD' one. But we may be in danger of forgetting, and here is our reminder.

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