When Was Jesus Born?

Zechariah Israelite Priest + Elizabeth Conceived John

Division of Priests in Temple 

There are actually a few clues as to when Jesus was born. One of them has to do with Zechariah, Elizabeth, and the birth of John the Baptist.

In Luke's Gospel, he writes, "In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth" (Luke 1:5 ESV). 

Zechariah was an Israelite priest of the division of Abijah. He was of this class of priests who performed daily duties for a fixed period in the temple at Jerusalem. It explains the divisions of the sons of Aaron in 1 Chronicles where King David organized according to the appointed duties in their service.

"The divisions of the sons of Aaron were these. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children, so Eleazar and Ithamar became the priests. With the help of Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, David organized them according to the appointed duties in their service. Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar, they organized them under sixteen heads of fathers’ houses of the sons of Eleazar, and eight of the sons of Ithamar. They divided them by lot, all alike, for there were sacred officers and officers of God among both the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar" (1 Chronicles 24:1-5).

It goes on to state that the eighth lot fell to Abijah, which was Zechariah's division, out of the 24 lots. 

The Custom of the Priesthood

Then Luke states, "Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense" (Luke 1:8-10). 

They were praying outside at the hour of incense which would have happened at the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus, Moses writes that God states, "No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel" (Leviticus 16:17).

Then God states, “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you" (Leviticus 16:29). 

It says the priest would have made the atonement. Moses writes, "And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments" (Leviticus 16:32). 

This activity is based on what God had Aaron do in Exodus, which states, "And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations...Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD" (Exodus 30:7-8, 10). 

Zechariah along with the other priests did it twice a year for seven days. The writer of 1 Chronicles states states, "And their kinsmen who were in their villages were obligated to come in every seven days, in turn, to be with these" (1 Chronicles 9:25).

Elizabeth Conceived

Luke states that when Zechariah was done, he went home. He also mentions that after these days his wife Elizabeth conceived. He writes, "And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden" (Luke 1:23-24).

Elizabeth kept it quiet and concealed this fact entirely for five months. She said, "Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people" (Luke 1:25). The Lord took away her disgrace and loss of standing among the people because of her being barren (incapable of bearing children). This is from earlier in Luke where he states, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years" (Luke 1:7).  

Announcement of Jesus' Birth

Then the content of Luke's Gospel shifts to when the angel Gabriel announced Jesus' birth to Mary. Luke writes, "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary" (Luke 1:26-27).

The angel Gabriel states that Mary will conceive in her womb and bear a son and that she should call His name Jesus. According to Luke, he then says, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33).

Mary asks the angel how this would be since she was a virgin, and Gabriel mentions that the Holy Spirit would come upon her. The angel also mentions the power of the Most High would overshadow her, and therefore the child to be born would be called the Son of God and holy. Then the angel mentions, "And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren" (Luke 1:36).

Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). This idea of servant was an expression used by one of humble station in addressing one of a deity-God.

Mary Visiting Elizabeth

After this, Mary went to visit Elizabeth. Luke mentions this stating, "In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth" (Luke 1:39-40). Mary went with haste-which means swiftness of movement and action and done with speed. Then Luke states, "And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home (Luke 1:56). Jesus was born six months after this (going by a normal nine-month pregnancy).

Other Clues

The Vision of Daniel with the Decree and Cutting Off of Jesus

Daniel states, "I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him" (Daniel 7:13). 

One of these visions gave a clue to the timing of Jesus' arrival. Daniel says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an Anointed One, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an Anointed One shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed" (Daniel 9:25-26).

According to J. Warner Wallace, three things are clear from this prediction. The Messiah would come sometime after a decree was issued to build Jerusalem. The Messiah would then be cut off and have nothing and this would happen before the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed (Wallace, W. J., 2021, p. 67). 

Also, he refers to a passage in Ezekiel when he talks about weeks, which states, "And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year" (Ezekiel 4:6). 

Daniel also refers to a passage in Numbers that states, "According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure" (Numbers 14:34).

So, here is a break down:

69 weeks x 7 days which are years = 483 years

Jewish years had 360 days (Wallace, Person of Interest, p. 68).

483 years x 360 days per year = 173,880 days

In other words, Jesus would arrive 173,880 days after the decree of Jerusalem to rebuild it and before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. The destruction of the temple occurred in 70 A.D (Wallace, W. J., 2021, p. 68).

Daniel was taken to Babylon. The first verse of Daniel states, "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it" (Daniel 1:1). 

According to 2 Chronicles, "Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God" (2 Chronicles 36:6). 

His reign is also mentioned in 2 Kings, which states, "In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets. " (2 Kings 24:1-2).

According to a timeline published by Rose Publishing in 2017, the first exile of the Jews to Babylon was in 605 B.C. and it ended with all the Jews being exiled in 586 B.C. Cyrus the great of Persia allows the Jews to go back to Jerusalem in 538 B.C. with the temple being in 516 B.C. 

The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued when in Nehemiah it states, "In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence" (Nehemiah 2:1). Nehemiah began governorship of Judah (where Jerusalem was located) in 444 B.C. According to the Jewish calendar, the month of Nisan is considered to be March-April (The Jewish Calendar, n.d.). Based on this, Jesus would come between 444 B.C. and 70 A.D.

The Entry into Jerusalem

The prophet Zechariah comes into the picture in 520 B.C. He states, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9).

This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Matthew even quotes it, stating, "Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden'" (Matthew 21:5).

Jesus, during His entrance, even rebuked the Pharisees when they said, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples" (Luke 19:39). This was because the disciples were rejoicing and praising God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40). He publicly declared Himself to be the Messiah in this instance. According to J. Warner Wallace, this happened in March-April 33 A.D. (Wallace, W. J., 2021, p. 70).

Between 444 B.C. (when the decree happened) and 33 A.D. (when Jesus entered Jerusalem and a week later crucified) is 476 years.

476 years x 365 days/year (counting for leap years) = 173,140 days which is very close to 173,880 days. 

This means that Jesus came somewhere between 444 B.C. and 33 A.D. 

Caesar Augustus

Luke mentions the reign of Caesar Augustus. He states, "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria" (Luke 2:1-2). This involved a registration for taxes and other purposes.

Later on Luke says, "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7).

According to Wallace, Augustus created a service which transported messages, officials, and tax revenues from 30 B.C. to 25 B.C (Wallace, W. J., 2021, p. 19). This narrows it down even further from between 30 B.C. to 33 A.D.

"Quirinius was the governor of Syria, about 3 B.C. – 2 B.C., at the time of Christ’s birth" (Like the Master Ministries). That suggests that Jesus was born between 3 B.C.-2 B.C.

Possible Birth Month and Year

The new question is what part of the year did Zechariah serve his duties as a priest for a week?

It could have been nine weeks (based on Elizabeth's conceiving of John the Baptist and his priestly duty) after the new year (September-October) according to the Jewish calendar. 

It turns out that the seventh month is the start of the new year on the Jewish calendar when the Day of Atonement happened.

This would mean that Elizabeth was pregnant in November-December.

This would've had Mary conceive Jesus when Elizabeth was in her sixth month. This would've been May-June, which would've made the month of Jesus' birth to be January-February.

So, it might be possible that Jesus was born in January-February in 3-2 B.C. However, it is unknown the exact time of Jesus' birth. 

References

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). (2011). ESV Bible. https://www.esv.org/

The Jewish Calendar. (n.d.). Copyright 2022. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-jewish-calendar

Like the Master Ministries. (2022, December 9). When was Publius Quirinius governor of Syria? - Census in Luke 2:2. NeverThirsty. https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/when-was-publius-quirinius-governor-of-syria-luke-22/

Wallace, W. J. (2021). Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible. Zondervan Reflective.