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Now if we multiply 483 biblical years by 360 days per year
we obtain 173,880 days. This is the number of days from the decree to
the week in which Messiah would die. We had to perform this calculation
in order to convert the 483 biblical years into our calendar which is
the Gregorian calendar. Now we want to determine how many Gregorian years
these days represent. Since there are 365.2421896698 days in a Gregorian
year we will divide the 173,880 days by 365.2421896698 and we discover
that the 483 biblical years equals 476 years and 25 days in our current
calendar.
Next we count 476 years and 25 days from the date of the
decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which is 1 Nisan 444 B.C. (or
5 March 444 B.C. in our calendar) we arrive at 10 Nisan 33 A.D (or 30
March A.D. 33). Note, that there is only one year from 1 B.C. to A.D.
1 and not two years. This means that Daniel 9:25-26a predicts that the
Messiah was to be “cut-off” or die after 10 Nisan A.D. 33.
When Did Jesus Die? Now we ask, “When
did Jesus Christ die?” We will start by determining when He was
born, then how long He lived, and finally when he died. It has been commonly
believed and taught that Jesus was born in 6 B.C. or 4 B.C. But recent
facts indicate that He most likely was born in 2 B.C. We derive this
conclusion from historical data, the gospels, and from the statements
recorded by the early church fathers who agree that Jesus was born about
2 B.C.
Those who believe that Jesus was born in 6-4 B.C. do so
because they believe that Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. Herod the Great
was the king who was alive at the time that Jesus was born. He was the
one who killed the children under 2 years of age in Matthew 2. Jack Finegan
has recently published a monumental book that strongly indicates Herod
the Great did not die in 4 B.C. but around 1 B.C.[1] Herod’s death
occurred just after a full lunar eclipse. Josephus and astronomy support
this claim. He also suggests that the governor Quirinius of Luke 2:2
reigned in 3-2 B.C.[2]
If we look at the reigns of other kings, governors, and the tenure of Israel’s chief priests around the time Jesus lived, we discover that Jesus had to be
born sometime around 3-2 B.C. Early church fathers such as Eusebius, Hippolytus of Rome, Irenaeus, Julius Africanus, Origin, and Tertullian all claimed that Jesus was born about
3-2 B.C. The Jewish historian Josephus also adds his weight to the date. Collectively, this information suggests that Jesus was born 3-2 B.C.
References:
 1. Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Hendrickson Pub., 1998, p. 301. |
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