Cn. Calpurn. Piso. 8. Cn. Sent. Staurninus (?) 9. Aelius Lamia. 10. L. Pompon. Flaccus.
11. L. Vitellius. 12. P. Petronius. 13. C. Vibius Marsus. 14. C. Cass. Longinus. 15. C. U.
Quadratus. 16. [Domitius Corbulo. 17. C. Itius (conjoined).] 18. Cestius Gallus. 19. C.
Lic. Mucianus.
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 wit h, 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 12t h 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