According to your textbook, what are the dates for Jesus’ birth and death?
Jesus’ birth is one of the most remarkable and glorious activities to ever take place on earth. There has always been speculation surrounding the exact birth date of our Lord and Savior. December 25th has been assigned and universally recognized as the birth of Christ. According to the text, although no definitive concensus was met to explicitly state when Jesus was born, it is a toss-up between Matthew’s account of Jesus birth and Luke’s account. Based on Matthew 2:1, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethleham of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem…” in juxtaposition Luke 1:5 has nothing to do with Jesus’ birth, but rather John the Baptist’s. [1]
What are the critical datum we use to attain these dates?
Moreover, the text settles on the notion that Jesus birth was possibly around 4 BC. More specifically the text states, “Both the Western Church (December 25) and the Eastern Church (January 6) celebrate the birth of Jesus in the winter. None of the NT data is inconsistent with a mid-winter date. If the traditional dates approximate the actual date of Jesus’ birth, Jesus was probably born in the winter of either 7-6 BC, 6-5 BC, or 5-4 BC, with a 5 BC date for Jesus’ birth being perhaps the most likely” (Kostenberger, The Cradle, The Cross, and the Crown, 139).
Similar to the contestation over Jesus’ birth; his death is no option. According to the bible and common knowledge Jesus started his ministry when he was 30 years and it lasted roughly 3 years with his crucifixion which led to his death and finally his resurrection. It is acknowledged that, “Jesus was probably born between 6 and 4 BC… and began his public ministry around AD 29. His ministry apparently lasted about three and a half years and included three or four Passover celebrations.