Date of the birth of Jesus#Date of Herod's death

The nativity accounts in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke do not mention a date or time of year for the birth of Jesus.{{efn|name=MainlineScholars}} Karl Rahner states that the authors of the gospels generally focused on theological elements rather than historical chronologies.{{sfn|Rahner|1975|p=731}}

Both Luke and Matthew associate Jesus' birth with the time of Herod the Great.{{sfn|Rahner|1975|p=731}} Matthew 2:1 states that "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king". He also implies that Jesus could have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi, because Herod ordered the murder of all boys up to the age of two years (Massacre of the Innocents), "in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi" Matthew 2:16.{{sfn|Freed|2001|p=119}} In addition, if the phrase "about 30" in Luke 3:23 is interpreted to mean 32 years old, this could fit a date of birth just within the reign of Herod, who died in 4 BC according to most scholars.{{sfn|Barnes|1968|pp=204–209}}{{sfn|Bernegger|1983|pp=526–531}}{{sfn|Gelb|2013|p=140}}{{sfn|Martin|1989|pp=93–94}}{{sfn|Schürer|Vermès|Millar|1973|p=328}}{{sfn|Steinmann|2009|pp=1–29}}

Luke 1:5 mentions the reign of Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus.{{sfn|Niswonger|1992|p=121–124}} This Herod died in 4 BC. Luke 2:1-2 also places the birth during a census decreed by Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governing Judah. Some interpreters of Luke determine that this was the Census of Quirinius, which the Jewish historian Josephus described as taking place {{circa|AD 6}} in his book Antiquities of the Jews (written {{circa|AD 93}}),{{sfn|Rahner|1975|p=731}} by indicating that Cyrenius/Quirinius began to be the governor of Syria in AD 6 and a census took place during his tenure sometime between AD 6–7.{{efn|name=FlavJoe}}{{sfn|Kokkinos|1989|pp=133-165}}{{sfn|Evans|1973|pp=24-39}}{{efn|name=MoreScholars}} Since Herod died a decade before this census, most scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.{{sfn|Dunn|2003|p=344}}{{sfn|Niswonger|1992|p=121–124}}{{sfn|Rahner|1975|p=731}} On the other hand, a census was not a unique event in the Roman Empire. For example, Tertullian argued that a number of censuses were performed throughout the Roman world under Sentius Saturninus at the same time.{{sfn|Evans|1973|pp=24-39}}{{sfn|Kokkinos|1989|pp=133-165}}{{sfn|Rhees|2007|loc=Section 54}} Some biblical scholars and commentators believe the two accounts can be harmonized,{{sfn|Archer|1982|p=366}}{{sfn|Bruce|1984|pp=87–88}} arguing that the text in Luke can be read as "registration before (πρώτη) Quirinius was governor of Syria", i.e., that Luke was actually referring to a completely different census, though this understanding of the Greek word has been rejected by scholars.{{efn|name=Vermes}}

File:Brooklyn Museum - The Pharisees Question Jesus (Les pharisiens questionnent Jésus) - James Tissot.jpg, {{circa|1890}}]]

Another approach to estimating the year of birth is based on an attempt to work backwards from the point when Jesus began preaching, using the statement in Luke 3:23 that he was "about 30 years of age" at that time.{{sfn|Köstenberger|Kellum|Quarles|2009|p=114}} Jesus began to preach after being baptized by John the Baptist, and based on Luke's gospel John only began baptizing people in "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" (Luke 3:1–2), which scholars estimate would place the year at about AD 28–29.{{sfn|Köstenberger|Kellum|Quarles|2009|p=114}}{{sfn|Freedman|Myers|2000|p=249}}{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=67–69}}{{sfn|Novak|2001|pp=302–303}}{{sfn|Hoehner|1977|pp=29–37}} By working backwards from this, it would appear that Jesus was probably born no later than 1 BC.{{sfn|Maier|1989|pp=113–129}}{{sfn|Köstenberger|Kellum|Quarles|2009|p=114}}{{sfn|Novak|2001|pp=302–303}} Another theory is that Herod's death was as late as after the January eclipse of 1 BC{{Cite web |last1=Revillo |first1=Juan |last2=Keyser |first2=John |title=Did Herod the 'Great' Really Die in 4 BC? |url=https://www.hope-of-israel.org/herodsdeath.html |website=Hope of Israel Ministries}} or even AD 1{{Cite web |title=Where Was Jesus Born? |url=http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2005/1008/print/ |website=Koinonia House}} after the eclipse that occurred in 1 December BC.{{Cite web |last=Pratt |first=John |title=Yet Another Eclipse for Herod |url=http://www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=a_pratt1990 |website=International Planetarium Society}}

Luke's date is independently confirmed by John's reference in John 2:20 to the Temple being in its 46th year of construction when Jesus began his ministry during Passover, which corresponds to around 27–29 AD according to scholarly estimates.{{sfn|Scarola|1998|pp=61-81}}

Most scholars regard the Star of Bethlehem account to be a pious fiction, of literary and theological value, rather than historical. Nonetheless, attempts have been made to interpret it as an astronomical event, which might then help date Jesus' birth through the use of ancient astronomical records, or modern astronomical calculations. The first such attempt was made by Johannes Kepler who interpreted the account to describe a great conjunction."Kepler, De Vero Jesu Christi, Mediatoris Nostri, Natali Anno, in Astronomi Opera Omnia, vol. 4, 178." Other astronomical events have been considered, including a close planetary conjunction between Venus and Jupiter in 2 BC.

Most scholars concerning the date of Herod's death follow Emil Schürer's calculations published in 1896, which revised a traditional death date of 1 BC to 4 BC.Schürer, Emil. A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 5 vols. New York, Scribner's, 1896.Marshall, Taylor. The Eternal City (Dallas: St. John, 2012), pp. 35–65Steinmann, Andrew. From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology (St. Louis: Concordia, 2011), pp. 235–238Barnes, Timothy David. "The Date of Herod's Death", Journal of Theological Studies ns 19 (1968), 204–219Bernegger, P. M. "Affirmation of Herod's Death in 4 B.C.", Journal of Theological Studies ns 34 (1983), 526–531 Two of Herod's sons, Archelaus and Philip the Tetrarch, dated their rule from 4 BC,Josephus, Wars, 1.631–632. though Archelaus apparently held royal authority during Herod's lifetime.Josephus, Wars, 2.26. Philip's reign would last for 37 years, until his death in the traditionally accepted 20th year of Tiberius (AD 34), which implies his accession as 4 BC.Hoehner, Harold. Herod Antipas, (Zondervan, 1980) p. 251

In 1998, David Beyer published that the oldest Latin manuscripts of Josephus’s Antiquities have the death of Philip in the 22nd year of Tiberius (and not the 20th year, as shown in later editions of the Antiquities). In the British Library, there is not a single manuscript prior to AD 1544 that has the traditionally accepted 20th year of Tiberius for the death of Philip. This evidence removes the main obstacle for a later date of 1 BC for the death of Herod.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=David |title=Chronos, Kairos, Christos II: Chronological, Nativity, and Religious Studies in Memory of Ray Summers |date=1998 |publisher=Mercer University Press |isbn=978-0-86554-582-3 |editor-last=Vardaman |editor-first=Jerry |pages=85–96 |chapter=Josephus Reexamined: Unraveling the Twenty-Second Year of Tiberius |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mWnYvI5RdLMC&pg=PA93}} Beyer's arguments have been questioned by Raymond Jachowski, who argued that Beyer only used ill-attested Latin translations instead of the original Greek manuscripts, some of which date to the 13th and 11 centuries.{{Cite journal |last=Jachowski |first=Raymond J. |date=2015 |title=The Death of Herod the Great and the Latin Josephus: Re-Examining the Twenty-Second Year of Tiberius |url=https://www.academia.edu/19833193 |journal=Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism |volume=11 |pages=9–18}} Nevertheless, other scholars support the traditional date of 1 BC for Herod's death,Edwards, Ormond. "Herodian Chronology", Palestine Exploration Quarterly 114 (1982) 29–42Keresztes, Paul. Imperial Rome and the Christians: From Herod the Great to About 200 AD (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1989), pp. 1–43{{cite journal |year=1989 |editor1-last=Vardaman |editor1-first=Jerry |editor2-last=Yamauchi |editor2-first=Edwin M. |title=The Nativity and Herod's Death |journal=Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan |pages=85–92}}Finegan, Jack. [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/not/2009/00000051/00000001/art00001 Handbook of Biblical Chronology], Rev. ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998) 300, §516. and argue that his heirs backdated their reigns to 4 or 3 BC to assert an overlapping with Herod's rule and bolster their own legitimacy, something that had already been done by a few rulers before them.Filmer, W. E. "Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great", Journal of Theological Studies ns 17 (1966), 283–298.

The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had been used in older Easter tables, as he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.{{sfn|Blackburn|Holford-Strevens|2003|p=767}} The last year of the old table, Diocletian Anno Martyrium 247, was immediately followed by the first year of his table, Anno Domini 532. When Dionysius devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year—Dionysius himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior", which was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ".[https://web.archive.org/web/20161226031734/http://hbar.phys.msu.ru/gorm/chrono/paschata.htm Nineteen year cycle of Dionysius] Introduction and First Argumentum. Thus, Dionysius implied that Jesus' incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the specific year during which his birth or conception occurred. "However, nowhere in his exposition of his table does Dionysius relate his epoch to any other dating system, whether consulate, Olympiad, year of the world, or regnal year of Augustus; much less does he explain or justify the underlying date."{{sfn|Blackburn|Holford-Strevens|2003|p=778}}

Bonnie J. Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1 as the year Dionysius intended for the Nativity or Incarnation. Among the sources of confusion are:{{sfn|Blackburn|Holford-Strevens|2003|pp=778–79}}

• In modern times, Incarnation is synonymous with the conception, but some ancient writers, such as Bede, considered incarnation to be synonymous with the Nativity.
• The civil or consular year began on 1 January, but the Diocletian year began on 29 August (30 August in the year before a Julian leap year).
• There were inaccuracies in the lists of consuls.
• There were confused summations of emperors' regnal years.

It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesus's birth. One major theory is that Dionysius based his calculation on the Gospel of Luke, which states that Jesus was "about thirty years old" shortly after "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" (AD 28/29), and hence subtracted thirty years from that date, or that Dionysius counted back 532 years from the first year of his new table.{{cite journal |last=Teres |first=Gustav |date=October 1984 |title=Time computations and Dionysius Exiguus |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=177–88 |bibcode=1984JHA....15..177T |doi=10.1177/002182868401500302 |s2cid=117094612}}Tøndering, Claus, [https://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/years.php The Calendar FAQ: Counting years] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924142100/https://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/years.php|date=24 September 2021}}{{cite book |last=Mosshammer |first=Alden A |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0umDqPOf2L8C&pg=PA347 |title=The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0191562365 |pages=319–56}} This method was probably the one used by ancient historians such as Tertullian, Eusebius or Epiphanius, all of whom agree that Jesus was born in 2 BC, probably following this statement of Jesus' age (i.e. subtracting thirty years to AD 29).{{Cite book |last=Finegan |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUzSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA345 |title=The Handbook of Biblical Chronology |date=2015 |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |isbn=978-1-61970-641-5 |pages=345 |language=}} Alternatively, Dionysius may have used an earlier unknown source. The Chronograph of 354 states that Jesus was born during the consulship of Caesar and Paullus (AD 1), but the logic behind this is also unknown.

It has been speculated by Georges Declercq that Dionysius' desire to replace Diocletian years with a calendar based on the incarnation of Jesus was intended to prevent people from believing the imminent end of the world.Declercq, Georges(2000). "Anno Domini. The Origins of the Christian Era" Turnhout, Belgium{{page needed|date=March 2021}} At the time, it was believed by some that the resurrection of the dead and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the world based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Jesus was born in the year 5500 (5500 years after the world was created) with the year 6000 of the Anno Mundi calendar marking the end of the world.Wallraff, Martin: Julius Africanus und die Christliche Weltchronik. Walter de Gruyter, 2006Mosshammer, Alden A. (2009). The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era. Oxford University Press, pp. 254, 270, 328 Anno Mundi 6000 (approximately AD 500) was thus equated with the end of the worldDeclercq, Georges (2000). Anno Domini. The Origins of the Christian Era. Turnhout Belgium{{page needed|date=March 2021}} but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius written in the 9th century makes extensive use of the Anno Passionis (AP) dating system which was in common use as well as the newer AD dating system. The AP dating system took its start from 'The Year of The Passion'. It is generally accepted by experts there is a 27-year difference between AP and AD reference.Halsall, Guy (2013). Worlds of Arthur: Facts & Fictions of The Dark Ages. Oxford University Press, pp. 194–200.

Pope Benedict XVI states that Dionysius Exiguus committed an error.{{cite web |last=Pollak |first=Sorcha |date=22 November 2012 |title=Pope Benedict Disputes Jesus' Date of Birth |url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/22/pope-benedict-disputes-jesus-date-of-birth/ |access-date=9 August 2023 |website=Time}}{{cite book |author=Pope Benedict XVI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VynVcob27GkC&pg=PT74 |title=Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4081-9454-6 |pages=61–62 |quote=is therefore to be placed a few years earlier |access-date=9 August 2023}}

Similarities between the Yeshu mentioned in some rabbinic literature and the Christian Jesus have led some researchers to speculate that the former is a reference to the latter. (See for example Jesus in the Talmud.){{cite book|last=Ilan|first=Tal|author-link=Tal Ilan|title=Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity Part I: Palestine 330 BCE–200 CE (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 91)|page=129|publisher=J.C.B. Mohr|location=Tübingen, Germany|year=2002}}{{cite book|last=Stern|first=David|author-link=David H. Stern|title=Jewish New Testament Commentary|pages=4–5|publisher=Jewish New Testament Publications|location=Clarksville, Maryland|year=1992}} This opinion is disputed however, as Yeshu also can mean "may his name and memory be blotted out", probably used as a damnatio memoriae to censor certain names.Howard, George, Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, Mercer University Press, 1998. Howard cites Krauss, Das Leben Jesu, p 68 It is claimed in the Talmud that Yeshu was born during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled from 103 BC to 76 BC. Furthermore, Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a mention Yeshu taking refuge in Egypt during Alexander's persecution of Pharisees (88-76 BC). Therefore, it can be assumed the Yeshu of the Talmud was born after 103 BC but before 88 BC. Hagigah 2:2 also depicts Yeshu similarly, while also claiming that Yeshu became an apostate during his refuge in Egypt.{{cite web|title=Mishnah Chagigah 2:2|website=www.sefaria.org|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Chagigah.2.2|quote=Passages in Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a refer to an individual named Yeshu in this event, stating this happened during their period of refuge in Egypt during the persecutions of Pharisees 88–76 BCE ordered by Alexander Jannæus. The incident is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud in Chagigah 2:2 in more detail but there the person in question is not given any name.|access-date=20 February 2024}}

The Talmudic claim that Yeshu was born c. 103 – 88 BC is also repeated in the Toledot Yeshu, an 11th-century Jewish text,{{efn|In 1903, G.R.S. Mead, a well known theosophist, published Did Jesus Live 100 BC?, which treated the {{transliteration|he|Toledot Yeshu}} as sufficiently authentic and reliable to postulate, on the basis of its mention of historic figures such as Queen Helene, that Jesus actually lived a century earlier than commonly believed.}}{{sfn|Mead|1903|pp=258-280}} which implies that this belief was held by at least some Jews at that time. Baring-Gould (page 71) points out that the Wagenseil version of the Toledot Yeshu incorrectly names the Queen as Helene and describes her as the widow of Alexander Jannaeus who died in 76 BC.{{cn|date=February 2024}} (her name was in fact Salome Alexandra, and she died in 67 BC). The Yeshu of the Toledot Yeshu clearly refers to Jesus of Nazareth, and there is no possibility that he is another person named Yeshu because the tract was specifically written as a response to the claims of the canonical gospels. It circulated widely in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages as a Jewish response to the Christian account.{{cite book | first=Robert E. | last=Van Voorst | title=Jesus outside the New Testament | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8028-4368-5 | page=124 | quote=This is likely an inference from the Talmud and other Jewish usage, where Jesus is called Yeshu, and other Jews with the same name are called by the fuller name Yehoshua, "Joshua"}}{{cite book|last=Schäfer|first=Peter|title=Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah|page=211f|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|year=2002|isbn=0-691-09068-8}} A 15th-century Yemenite version of the text is titled {{transliteration|he|Maaseh Yeshu}}, or the "Episode of Jesus"—in which Jesus is described as being the son of either Joseph or Pandera—repeats the same claim about the date when Yeshu lived.{{cite web|title=Story of Jesus (Maaseh Yeshu)|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Story_of_Jesus|quote="At this saying, he was very much distraught and went and told the matter to Shimon, the son of Shetaḥ." It should be noted here that this Shimon would have been a very old man at the time when Jesus' mother conceived of him. For he served as President and Judge of the court at Jerusalem under the Hasmonaean king, Alexander Janneus, in the year 67 BCE, as also in subsequent years. He is a well-known personage in Jewish sources.}} However, scholarly consensus generally sees the Toledot Yeshu as an unreliable source for the historical Jesus.{{efn|According to Van Voorst, "It may contain a few older traditions from ancient Jewish polemics against Christians, but we learn nothing new or significant from it". However, Jane Schaberg contends that the Toledot lends weight to the theory that Mary conceived Jesus as the result of being raped.See Van Voorst, op. cit.}}

In the third century, the precise date of Jesus's birth became a subject of great interest, with early Christian writers suggesting various dates. Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote:

{{blockquote|There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord's birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [20 May]{{nbsp}}... Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [20 or 21 April].McGowan, Andrew, [http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/ How December 25 Became Christmas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214085336/http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/ |date=14 December 2012 }}, Bible History Daily, 12 February 2016.}}

There are two main hypotheses as to the choice of 25 December.{{cite book |last1=English |first1=Adam C. |title=Christmas: Theological Anticipations |date=14 October 2016 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-3933-2 |pages=70–71 |language=English}}{{sfn|Talley|1991|pp=88–91}}Roll, Susan K. Toward the Origins of Christmas. Peeters Publishers, 1995, p. 9

Various factors contributed to the choice of 25 December as Jesus's birthday, although theology professor Susan Roll wrote in 1995: "No liturgical historian{{nbsp}}... goes so far as to deny that it has any sort of relation with the sun, the winter solstice and the popularity of solar worship in the later Roman Empire."Roll, p. 107 25 December was the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar. The Calendar of Antiochus of Athens, {{circa}} 2nd century AD, marks 25 December as the "birthday of the Sun".{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Roger |title=The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=209-210, 254}} The following century, from AD 274, the Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of {{lang|la|Sol Invictus}}, the 'Invincible Sun') was held on 25 December.

The earliest evidence of Jesus's birth being marked on 25 December is the Chronograph of 354, also called the Calendar of Filocalus.The manuscript reads, VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae. ("[https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_12_depositions_martyrs.htm The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122221633/http://tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_12_depositions_martyrs.htm |date=November 22, 2011 }}", The Tertullian Project. 2006.){{cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Larsen |editor1-first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Handbook of Christmas |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=7-10 |chapter=The Dating of Christmas}}{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2002 |title=Christmas and its cycle |encyclopedia=New Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |edition=2nd |volume=3 |pages=550–557}}{{Cite news |last=Hyden |first=Marc |title=Merry Christmas, Saturnalia or festival of Sol Invictus? |url=https://times-herald.com/news/2021/12/merry-christmas-saturnalia-or-festival-of-sol-invictus |work=Newnan Times-Herald |date=20 December 2021 |access-date=17 February 2023 |quote=Around 274 ADᵃ, Emperor Aurelian set December 25—the winter solstice at the time—for the celebration of Sol Invictus who was the 'Unconquered Sun' god. 'A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from 6 January to 25 December so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday', reads an excerpt from Biblical Archaeology. / Could early Christians have chosen 25 December to coincide with this holiday? 'The first celebration of Christmas observed by the Roman church in the West is presumed to date to [336 AD]', per the Encyclopedia Romanaᵃ, long after Aurelian established Sol Invictus' festival. |language=en |archive-date=26 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226210422/https://times-herald.com/news/2021/12/merry-christmas-saturnalia-or-festival-of-sol-invictus |url-status=dead }}
(a) {{cite encyclopedia |title=Sol Invictus and Christmas |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/invictus.html |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Romana |language=en}} Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336. A passage in one version of Commentary on the Prophet Daniel, originally written around AD 204 by Hippolytus of Rome, identifies 25 December as Jesus's birth date, but this passage is considered a much later interpolation.

Later in the fourth century, some Christian writers acknowledged that Christmas coincided with the winter solstice, and saw the lengthening days after the winter solstice as symbolizing the Light of Christ entering the world. In a late fourth-century sermon, Saint Augustine said:

{{blockquote|He [Jesus] was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase.St Augustune, Sermon 192, in St Augustine: Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons, translated by Sr Mary Sarah Muldowney. Catholic University of America Press, 1984, p. 34Augustine, [http://www.dec25th.info/Augustine's%20Sermon%20192.html Sermon 192] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161125175806/http://dec25th.info/Augustine%27s%20Sermon%20192.html |date=November 25, 2016 }}.}}

The Christian treatise {{lang|la|De solstitiis et aequinoctiis conceptionis et nativitatis Domini Nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae}} ('On the solstice and equinox conception and birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist'),{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_WHCk9tyaNoC&pg=PA114|title=Introduction to Christian Liturgy|isbn=978-1-4514-2433-1|last1=Senn|first1=Frank C.|year=2012|publisher=Fortress Press |access-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231223014/https://books.google.com/books?id=_WHCk9tyaNoC&pg=PA114|archive-date=31 December 2015|url-status=live}} from the second half of the fourth century,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MXPEMbpjoAC&pg=PA87 |first=Susan K. |last=Roll |title=Towards the Origin of Christmas |publisher=Kok Pharos Publishing |year=1995 |isbn=978-90-390-0531-6 |page=87, cf. note 173 |access-date=9 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210409211313/https://books.google.com/books?id=6MXPEMbpjoAC&pg=PA87 |archive-date=9 April 2021 }} is the earliest known text dating John's birth to the summer solstice and Jesus's birth to the winter solstice.{{cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Larsen |editor1-first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Handbook of Christmas |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=7–10 |chapter=The Dating of Christmas}}Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-19-280290-3}}), article "Christmas". The author says that the lengthening days after midwinter and shortening days after midsummer reflects John's remark that "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease" ({{bibleverse|John|3:30|NRSV}}).{{cite book |last1=Nothaft |first1=C. Philipp |title=Medieval Latin Christian Texts on the Jewish Calendar |date=2014 |publisher=Brill |page=187}} Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta concludes: "It is cosmic symbolism{{nbsp}}... which inspired the Church leadership in Rome" to choose the winter solstice as the birthday of Jesus and the summer solstice as that of John, "supplemented by the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception".{{sfn|Hijmans|2024|p=1027}}

25 December was also nine months after 25 March, a date chosen as Jesus's conception (the Annunciation) and the date of the spring equinox on the Roman calendar.{{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-206-7 |page=39 |language=en |quote=The March 25 date, which tied together the beginning of Mary's pregnancy and the incarnation of God in Jesus as occurring nine months before Christmas (December 25), supplied the rationale for setting the beginning of the ecclesiastical and legal year. ... Both the Anglicans and the Lutherans have continued to observe the March 25 date for celebrating the Annunciation.}}

File:ChristAsSol.jpg, an apparently Christian tomb in the Vatican Necropolis. Most scholars believe it depicts Jesus as the sun god Sol / Helios.Hijmans (2009), p. 570: "To explain the presence of Sol in a Christian mausoleum, scholars suggested that in this case he was not Sol, but Christ depicted in the guise of Sol as the New Light and the Sun of Justice. In the words of Lawrence: 'This is the Sun God, Sol Invictus, but also Christ the light of the world' ... Sol in mausoleum M has become the image of choice to illustrate the gradual ascendency of Christianity in the third century AD and in particular of its appropriation of Roman imagery for Christian purposes. ... While Perler, Wallraff, and others differ on details of the meaning of this Sol-Christ, all agree on the basic Christian interpretation and the identity of Sol as Christ".{{cite book |last1=Jensen |first1=Robin Margaret |title=Understanding Early Christian Art |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |page=42}}]]

Based on this winter solstice link, the "History of Religions hypothesis" or "Substitution theory"{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Maxwell |title=Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year |date=2016 |publisher=Liturgical Press |pages=289-290}} proposes the Church chose 25 December as the birthday of Jesus ({{lang|la|dies Natalis Christi}})Kelly, p. 80 to appropriate the Roman festival of the birthday of the Invincible Sun ({{lang|la|dies Natalis Solis Invicti}}), held on the same date.Bradshaw, Paul F., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrVDmaXP6HEC "Christmas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109153143/https://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_SCM_Dictionary_of_Liturgy_and_Wo.html?id=ZrVDmaXP6HEC |date=9 January 2017 }}, The New SCM Dictionary of Liturgy of Worship, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd., 2002.{{cite book |last1=Forsythe |first1=Gary |title=Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |page=141}} It honored the sun god Sol Invictus, and some scholars hold that it was instituted by the Emperor Aurelian in AD 274. In Rome, this yearly festival was celebrated with thirty chariot races. Christmas thus emerged during "the peak of state-supported sun worship" in the Empire,Roll, p. 108 where most Christians lived. As noted above, the earliest evidence for Christ's birth being marked on 25 December dates from sixty years after Aurelian.

In AD 362, the Emperor Julian wrote in his Hymn to King Helios that the {{lang|la|Agon Solis}} (sacred contest for Sol) was a festival of the sun, instituted by Emperor Aurelian, held at the end of the {{lang|la|Saturnalia}} in late December.{{cite book |last1=Elm |first1=Susanna |title=Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |page=287}}{{cite book |last1=Remijsen |first1=Sofie |title=The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=133}} Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says: "This celebration would have formed a welcome addition to the seven-day period of the {{lang|la|Saturnalia}} (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts." Around AD 200, Tertullian had berated Christians for taking part in, and even adopting, the pagan {{lang|la|Saturnalia}} festival.{{cite book |last1=Graf |first1=Fritz |title=Roman Festivals in the Greek East: From the Early Empire to the Middle Byzantine Era |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=77, 152}}

At the time when Christmas emerged, some Christian writers likened Jesus to the Sun and referred to him as the 'Sun of Righteousness' ({{lang|la|Sol Justitiae}}) prophesied by Malachi.{{bibleverse||Malachi|4:2|ESV}}.

The Christian treatise {{lang|la|De solstitiis et aequinoctiis}}, from the late fourth century AD, associates Jesus's birth with the "birthday of the sun" and Sol Invictus:

{{blockquote|Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December ... the eighth before the calends of January [25 December] ... But they [the pagans] call it the 'birthday of the invincible one' (Invictus). But who then is as invincible as our Lord who defeated the death he suffered? Or if they say that this is the birthday of the sun, well He Himself is the Sun of Justice.Hijmans, Steven, "Sol Invictus, the winter solstice, and the origins of Christmas", in: Mouseion III (2003), pp. 379–380{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1908 |title=Christmas |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |last=Martindale |first=Cyril Charles |volume=3}}}}

Early in the fifth century, Maximus of Turin said in a Christmas sermon:{{blockquote|People frequently call this day of the Lord's birth 'the new sun' ... even the Jews and pagans agree to the name. This should willingly be accepted by us, since with the rising of the Savior there is salvation not only for the human race, but even the brilliance of the sun itself is renewed.Roll, pp. 160–161}}

In a mid fifth century Christmas sermon, Pope Leo I admonishes Christians who bow their heads to the Sun as they enter Old St. Peter's Basilica. In another Christmas sermon, he rebukes those "who hold the pernicious belief that our celebration today seems to derive ... from, as they say, the rising of the 'new sun'". Susan Roll writes that "this testimony to the deep-rootedness and continued popularity of the civil sun-cult" has been put forward as evidence of the Substitution theory.Roll (1995), pp. 152–154

The theory is mentioned in an annotation of uncertain date added to a manuscript by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe wrote:

{{blockquote|It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries, the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.Cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155}}

In the 17th century, Isaac Newton, who was coincidentally born on 25 December, suggested the date of Christmas was chosen to correspond with the winter solstice.Newton, Isaac, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16878/16878-h/16878-h.htm Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918001221/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16878/16878-h/16878-h.htm |date=18 September 2012 }} (1733). Ch. XI. A sun connection is possible because Christians considered Jesus to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied in Malachi 4:2: "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall." In 1743, German scholar Paul Ernst Jablonski argued the date was chosen to correspond with the {{lang|la|Natalis Solis Invicti}}.{{cite book

|last=Roll

|first=Susan K.

|title=Toward the Origins of Christmas

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MXPEMbpjoAC

|publisher=Peeters Publishers

|year=1995

|page=130

|isbn=978-90-390-0531-6

|access-date=20 June 2015

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102172541/https://books.google.com/books?id=6MXPEMbpjoAC&printsec=frontcover

|archive-date=2 November 2015

|url-status=live

}} The hypothesis was first developed substantially by Hermann Usener,{{cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Larsen |editor1-first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Handbook of Christmas |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=4–5 |chapter=The Dating of Christmas}}Hermann Usener, Das Weihnachtsfest. In: Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, part 1. Second edition. Verlag von Max Cohen & Sohn, Bonn 1911. a fellow German scholar, in 1889 and adopted by many scholars thereafter.

Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta says that in recent years "a fair number of scholars" have abandoned the idea that the date was chosen to appropriate the pagan festival.{{sfn|Hijmans|2024|pp=1010–1011}} He agrees that the Church chose the date because it was the winter solstice, but he argues that, "While they were aware that pagans called this day the 'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas."{{sfn|Hijmans|2024|p=1027}} Hijmans says: "while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a {{em|religious}} celebration of Sol on that day {{em|antedated}} the celebration of Christmas."{{cite book |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/33490806/Hijmans-Sol-The-Sun-in-the-Art-and-Religions-of-Rome |first=S.E. |last=Hijmans |title=The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome |isbn=978-90-367-3931-3 |page=588 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510231050/http://www.scribd.com/doc/33490806/Hijmans-Sol-The-Sun-in-the-Art-and-Religions-of-Rome |archive-date=10 May 2013 |year=2009 }} Thomas Talley argues that Aurelian instituted the {{lang|la|Dies Natalis Solis Invicti}} partly to give a pagan significance to a date he argues was already important for Christians.{{sfn|Talley|1991|pp=88–91}} According to C. Philipp E. Nothaft, a professor at Trinity College Dublin, though the history of religions hypothesis "is nowadays used as the default explanation for the choice of 25 December as Christ's birthday, few advocates of this theory seem to be aware of how paltry the available evidence actually is".{{cite journal |last1=Nothaft |first1=C. Philipp E. |title=Early Christian Chronology and the Origins of the Christmas Date |journal=Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy |date=2013 |volume=94 |issue=3 |page=248 |doi=10.2143/QL.94.3.3007366 |publisher=Peeters|quote=Although HRT is nowadays used as the default explanation for the choice of 25 December as Christ's birthday, few advocates of this theory seem to be aware of how paltry the available evidence actually is.}}

{{further|Chronology of Jesus}}

File:Louis Duchesne (1843-1922).jpg

The "Calculation hypothesis", suggests that 25 December was chosen because it was nine months after a date chosen as Jesus's conception (the Annunciation): 25 March, the Roman date of the spring equinox. The hypothesis was first proposed by French priest and historian Louis Duchesne in 1889.Roll, pp. 88–90; Duchesne, Louis, Les Origines du Culte Chrétien, Paris, 1902, 262 ff{{cite web |author=Andrew McGowan |url=http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/ |title=How December 25 Became Christmas |magazine=Bible Review & Bible History Daily |publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society |access-date=24 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214085336/http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/ |archive-date=14 December 2012 |url-status=live }} The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought remarks that the "calculations hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before Aurelian's decree".{{cite encyclopedia |last=Tucker |first=Karen B. Westerfield |article=Christmas |editor-first1=Adrian |editor-last1=Hastings|editor-link1=Adrian Hastings |editor-first2=Alistair |editor-last2=Mason |editor-first3=Hugh |editor-last3=Pyper |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ognCKztR8a4C&pg=PA114 |title=The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-860024-4 |page=114}}

In AD 221, Sextus Julius Africanus suggested 25 March, the traditional spring equinox, as the day of creation and of Jesus's conception; the Christian Church came to celebrate as the Feast of the Annunciation.{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Joseph F. |title=The Origins of Christmas |date=2014 |publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=9780814648858 |page=76 }} While this implies a birth in December and possibly on the 25th,Nothaft (2013), pp. 263–264. "That Africanus was the source for a nativity on 25 December cannot be demonstrated with certainty, but the evidence is such that this possibility should be taken very seriously." Africanus did not offer a birth date for Jesus,Hijmans, S.E., Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome, 2009, p. 584. "[Several authors] claim that as early as 221 Julius Africanus calculated the date as December 25 in his fragmentarily preserved Chronicle, but provide no reference. Wallraff, who directed the project that recently produced the first critical edition of all preserved fragments of the corpus of Julius Africanus (Wallraff 2007), has kindly informed me that he does not know of any such calculation by Africanus". and was not an influential writer at the time.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Joseph F. |title=The Origins of Christmas |publisher=Liturgical Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8146-2984-0 |page=60}} Online here [http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/159111.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219095613/http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/159111.pdf|date=19 February 2017}}. Thomas C. Schmidt argues that Hippolytus of Rome dated the birth of Jesus on 25 December. According to Schimdt, Hippolytus in his Canon placed the conception of Jesus during the feast of Passover. Since Hippolytus also wrote in his Chronicon that Jesus was born exactly nine months after the anniversary of the world’s creation (which he also believed to have occurred during a Passover and on 25 March), this would imply that in Hippolytus' thought Jesus was born on 25 December.{{cite journal |title=Calculating December 25 as the Birth of Jesus in Hippolytus’ Canon and Chronicon |journal=Vigiliae Christianae |last=Schmidt |first=Thomas C. |url=https://tcschmidtblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/schmidt-calculating-december-25-as-the-birth-of-jesus-in-hippolytus1.pdf |volume=69 |issue=5 |pages=542–563 |year=2015 |doi=10.1163/15700720-12341243 |issn=1570-0720}}

Some early Christians marked Jesus's crucifixion on a date they deemed equivalent to the 14th of Nisan, the day before Passover in the Hebrew calendar. This feast was referred to as the {{lang|la|Quartodeciman}} (Latin for 'fourteenth'). Some early Christian writers equated the 14th of Nisan with the equinox on 25 March, and made the date of his conception or birth the same as that of his death.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR0Nyt3bi_MC&pg=PA99|title=Historical Dictionary of Catholicism|isbn=978-0-8108-5755-1|last1=Collinge|first1=William J.|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press |access-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231223014/https://books.google.com/books?id=LR0Nyt3bi_MC&pg=PA99|archive-date=31 December 2015|url-status=live}}Roll, p. 87 Duchesne conjectured that Jesus was thought to have been born and died on the same day, so lived a whole number of years, "since symbolic number systems do not permit the imperfection of fractions". However, he admitted that this theory is not supported by any early Christian text.Roll, p. 89: "Duchesne adds{{nbsp}}[...] a conjecture which he does not support by direct reference to any patristic author or text: that Christ must have been thought to have lived a whole number of years, since symbolic number systems do not permit the imperfection of fractions{{nbsp}}[...] But Duchesne was forced to admit that: "this explanation would be the more readily received if we could find it fully stated in some author. Unfortunately we know of no text containing it"."

Adam C. English, professor of religion at Campbell University, has argued for the veracity of 25 December as Jesus's date of birth.{{cite book |last1=English |first1=Adam C. |title=Christmas: Theological Anticipations |date=14 October 2016 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-3933-2 |pages=70–71 |language=English|quote=First, we should examine the biblical evidence regarding the timing of the conception.{{nbsp}}[...] The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, husband of Elizabeth and father of John the Baptizer, on the day he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense (Luke 1:9) Zechariah belonged to the tribe of Levi, the one tribe especially selected by the Lord to serve as priests. Not restricted to any one tribal territory, the Levite priests dispersed throughout the land of Israel. Nevertheless, many chose to live near Jerusalem in order to fulfill duties in the Temple, just like Zechariah who resided at nearby Ein Karem. Lots were cast regularly to decide any number of priestly duties: preparing the altar, making the sacrifice, cleaning the ashes, burning the morning or evening incense. Yet, given the drama of the event, it would seem that he entered the Temple sanctuary on the highest and holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. There, beside the altar of the Lord, a radiant angel gave news of the child to be born to Elizabeth. The date reckoned for this occurrence is 24 September, based on computations from the Jewish calendar in accordance with Leviticus 23 regarding the Day of Atonement. According to Luke 1:26, Gabriel's annunciation to Mary took place in the "sixth month" of Elizabeth's pregnancy. That is, Mary conceives six months after Elizabeth. Luke repeats the uniqueness of the timing in verse 36. Counting six months from 24 September we arrive at 25 March, the most likely date for the annunciation and conception of Mary. Nine months hence takes us to 25 December, which turns out to be a surprisingly reasonable date for the birthday.{{nbsp}}[...] In Palestine, the months of November mark the rainy season, the only time of the year sheep might find fresh green grass to graze. During the other ten months of the year, animals must content themselves on dry straw. So, the suggestion that shepherds might have stayed out in the fields with their flocks in late December, at the peak of the rainy season, is not only reasonable, it is most certain.}} The Gospel of Luke{{Bibleverse|Luke|1:26|KJV}} says that John the Baptist's conception was foretold to Zechariah when he was serving as a priest at the Temple in Jerusalem. It further says that Jesus's conception was announced when John's mother was sixth months pregnant. English suggests that John was conceived on Yom Kippur, and dates this to the autumn equinox the year before Jesus's birth. He thus dates Jesus's conception to the following spring equinox and concludes that Jesus was born on 25 December. According to Normand Bonneau, earlier Christians also conjectured this.{{cite book |last1=Bonneau |first1=Normand |title=The Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape |date=1998 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-2457-9 |page=114 |language=English|quote=The Roman Church celebrates the annunciation of March 25 (the Roman calendar equivalent to the Jewish fourteenth Nisan); hence Jesus' birthday occurred nine months later on December 25. This computation matches well with other indications in Luke's gospel. Christians conjectured that the priest Zechariah was serving in the temple on the Day of Atonement, roughly at the autumnal equinox, when the angel announced to him the miraculous conception of John the Baptist. At her annunciation, Mary received news that Elizabeth was in her sixth month. Sixth months after the autumnal equinox means that Mary conceived Jesus at the vernal equinox (March 25). If John the Baptist was conceived at the autumnal equinox, he was born at the summer solstice nine months later. Thus even to this day the liturgical calendar commemorates John's birth on June 24. Finally, John 3:30, where John the Baptist says of Jesus: "He must increase, but I must decrease", corroborates this tallying of dates. For indeed, after the birth of Jesus at the winter solstice the days increase, while after the birth of John at the summer solstice the days decrease.}}

Susan Roll says the calculation hypothesis is historically the minority opinion on the origin of Christmas, but was "taught in graduate liturgy programs as a thoroughly viable hypothesis".Roll (1995), p. 88 Critics of the theory, such as Bernard Botte, believe that the calculations are merely attempts by early Christians to retroactively justify the winter solstice date.Roll, pp. 93, 141 Hieronymus Engberding, a supporter of the theory, also conceded that the calculations were most likely devised after the fact, to justify a date already established and to highlight "God's interlocking plan".Roll, p. 92 Susan Roll questions whether "ordinary Christians in the third and fourth centuries [were] much interested in calculations with symbolic numbers in fantasy-combinations".Roll, p. 105 Likewise, Gerard Rouwhorst believes it is unlikely that feasts emerged purely "on the basis of calculations by exegetes and theologians", arguing "For a feast to take root in a community more is needed than a sophisticated computation".{{cite book |last1=Rouwhorst |first1=Gerard |title=Rituals in Early Christianity |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |chapter=The origins and transformations of early Christian feasts |page=43}}

File:Govert Flinck - Aankondiging aan de herders.jpg, 1639. The presence of the shepherds is important in determining the date of Jesus's birth.]]

Despite the modern celebration of Christmas in December, neither the Gospel of Luke nor Gospel of Matthew mention a season for Jesus' birth. Scholarly arguments have been made regarding whether shepherds would have been grazing their flock during the winter, with some scholars challenging a winter birth for Jesus,{{Cite web |url=https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/when-was-jesus-born |title=When was Jesus born? |website=Bibleinfo.com|language=en |access-date=1 December 2017}} and some defending the idea by citing the mildness of winters in Judea and rabbinic rules regarding sheep near Bethlehem before February, not January.{{sfn | Niswonger | 1992 | p=121–124}}{{sfn | Morris | 1988 | p=93}}{{sfn | Freed | 2001 | pp=136-137}}

The Qur'an, which is the source of Islamic tradition tells the story of Mary and the birth of Jesus (known in Islam as 'Īsā: Messenger of God) most prominently in Chapter 19. According to verse 19:25, during labor Mary was told to shake a palm tree so that ripe dates would fall off. This description, combined with the ripening period of dates places the birth of Jesus somewhere between June and October, with later times being more likely due to dates falling off easily. In the hadith compilation Tuhaf al-Uqul, the sixth imam, Jafar As Sadiq says the following when approached about the birth of Jesus during Christmas: "They have lied. Rather, it was in the middle of June. The day and night become even [equal] in the middle of March." The "middle of June" that does not necessarily refer to the fifteenth of June but it is in reference to a day near the summer equinox. As Sadiq mentions the spring equinox, which takes place near the middle of March, to make a point about the equal length of the day and night, and consequently points out, by antithesis, that of summer.{{Cite web |last=Muhammad |first=Bilal |date=16 January 2020 |title=A Green Christmas: Jesus' Birthdate in the Islamic Tradition |url=https://bliis.org/essay/jesus-birth-islam/ |access-date=28 December 2022 |website=Berkeley Institute for Islamic Studies}}

{{Div col|colwidth=25em}}

• Adoration of the shepherds
• Anno Domini
• Ante Christum Natum
• Baptism of Jesus
• Christ myth theory
• Chronology of Jesus
• Common Era
• Detailed Christian timeline
• Dionysius Exiguus
• Gospel harmony
• Historical Jesus
• Historicity of Jesus
• Jesus in Christianity
• Life of Jesus in the New Testament
• Timeline of the Bible
• Venerable Bede
• Talmud's claim that Jesus was born before 88 BCE

{{Div col end}}

{{notelist|refs=

{{efn|name=MainlineScholars|{{harvnb | Rahner | 1975 | p=731}} states that the gospels do not, in general, provide enough details of dates to satisfy the demands of modern historians. Most mainline scholars do not see the Luke and Matthew nativity stories as historically factual; Marcus Borg in {{harvnb| Borg | Wright | 2009 | p=179}} states, "I (and most mainline scholars) do not see these stories as historically factual."

{{harvnb | Funk | Jesus Seminar | 1998 | p=499}} state, "There is very little in the two infancy narratives that reflects historical reminiscence." For this reason, they do not consider them a reliable method for determining Jesus' date of birth. See also {{harvnb|Sanders|1993|pp=85-88}} }}

{{efn|name=MoreScholars|{{harvnb|Brown|1978|p=17}} notes that "most critical scholars acknowledge a confusion and misdating on Luke's part". See for example, {{harvnb|Dunn|2003|p=344}} Similarly, {{harvnb|Gruen|1996|p=157}}, {{harvnb|Vermes| 2006|p=96}}, {{harvnb|Davies|Sanders|1984|p=}}, {{harvnb|Brown| 1977|p= 554}}, {{harvnb|Harvey|2004|p=221}}, {{harvnb|Meier|1991|p=213}}, {{harvnb|Millar|1990|pp=355–381}}, and A. N. Sherwin-White, pp. 166, 167.{{Full citation needed|date=June 2022}} }}

{{efn|name=FlavJoe|{{harvnb| Josephus|1854|loc= Book 18, Chapters 1–2}} indicates that the census under Cyrenius (another form of the name "Quirinius") occurred in the 37th year after Octavian's (i.e., Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus') victory over Marcus Antonius at the Battle of Actium, which secular historical records date to 2 September 31 BC. Therefore 31 BC + 37 years which is AD 6–7. Most scholars therefore believe Luke made an error when referring to the census.{{harv|Archer|1982|p=366}} }}

{{efn|name=Vermes|In the words of {{harvnb|Vermes|2006|pp=28–30}} these arguments have been rejected by the mainstream as "exegetical acrobatics", springing from the assumption that the Bible is inerrant,{{harv|Novak|2001|pp=296–297}} and most scholars have concluded that Luke's account is an error.{{harv|Brown|1978|p=17}} }}

}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal|title=Common Errors in 'Star of Bethlehem' Planetarium Shows|last= Mosley|first= J. |journal=The Planetarian|issue= Third Quarter|date= 1981|url= https://www.ips-planetarium.org/general/custom.asp?page=a_mosley1981}}

}}

{{refbegin|2|indent=yes}}

• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbi00arch/page/366 |title=Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties |last=Archer |first=Gleason Leonard |date=April 1982 |publisher=Zondervan Pub. House |isbn=978-0-310-43570-9 |location=Grand Rapids, Mich. |author-link=Gleason Leonard Archer}}
• {{cite journal | last=Barnes| first=T. D. | title=The Date of Herod's Death | journal=The Journal of Theological Studies | publisher=Oxford University Press (OUP) | volume=XIX | issue=1 | date=1 April 1968 | issn=0022-5185 | doi=10.1093/jts/xix.1.204 | pages=204–209}}
• {{cite book | last=Beckwith | first=R.T. | title=Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies | publisher=Brill | series=Arbeiten Zur Geschichte Des Antiken Judentums Und Des Urchristentums, Bd. 33 | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-391-04123-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6j-fDxGEeGIC&pg=PA72}}
• {{cite journal | last=Bernegger| first=P. M. | title=Affirmation of Herod's Death in 4 B.C | journal=The Journal of Theological Studies | publisher=Oxford University Press (OUP) | volume=34 | issue=2 | year=1983 | issn=0022-5185 | doi=10.1093/jts/34.2.526 | pages=526–531|jstor=23963471}}
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• {{cite book | last=Bruce | first=Frederick Fyvie | title=The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? | publisher=InterVarsity Press | year=1984 | isbn=978-0-87784-691-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XeiIAAAAMAAJ }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Chapman |first1=John |title=On an Apostolic Tradition that Christ was baptized in 46 and crucified under Nero |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |date=1907 |volume=8 |issue=32 |jstor=23949148 |page=591 |issn=0022-5185 |language=}}
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• {{cite book | last=Funk | first=R.W. | author2=Jesus Seminar | title=The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus | publisher=HarperSanFrancisco | series=A Polebridge press book | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-06-062979-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fg1CAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA499 |author1-link=Robert W. Funk|author2-link=Jesus Seminar}}
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• {{cite book | last=Hoehner | first=H.W. | title=Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ | publisher=Zondervan Publishing House | series=Contemporary evangelical perspectives | year=1977 | isbn=978-0-310-26211-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z-NcR7fVSIC&pg=PA29|author-link=Harold Hoehner}}
• {{cite book | author=Josephus | editor= W. Whiston | title=The Works of Flavius Josephus: Comprising the Antiquities of the Jews, a History of the Jewish Wars, and Life of Flavius Josephus, Written by Himself | publisher=Jas. B. Smith & Company | year=1854 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E5dCAAAAYAAJ }}
• {{cite book | editor1-last=Vardaman |editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Yamauchi | editor2-first=E.M. | title=Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan | publisher=Eisenbrauns | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-931464-50-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCBBY_O88uYC | chapter=Crucifixion in A.D. 36: The Keystone for dating the birth of Jesus|first=Nikos|last= Kokkinos}}
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• {{cite book | editor1-last=Vardaman |editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Yamauchi | editor2-first=E.M. | title=Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan | publisher=Eisenbrauns | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-931464-50-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCBBY_O88uYC | chapter=The Nativity and Herod's Death|first=Ernest L.|last= Martin}}
• {{cite book|last=Mead|first= George R.S.|title=Did Jesus Live 100 BC?|date=1903|location= London|publisher= Theosophical Publ'g Society) |url= https://archive.org/details/didjesuslive100b00meaduoft}}
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{{refend}}

{{refbegin|2|indent=yes}}

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{{refend}}

• [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08377a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia (1910): Chronology of the Life of Jesus Christ]

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Category:Chronology

Birth of Jesus

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