Chronology of Jesus - Context and Overview

Context and Overview

See also: New Testament places associated with Jesus and Josephus on Jesus

The Christian gospels were written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age. One manifestation of the gospels being theological documents rather than historical chronicles is that they devote about one third of their text to just seven days, namely the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Although the gospels do not provide enough details regarding exact dates, it is possible to draw from them a general picture of the life story of Jesus and to establish some date ranges regarding the major events in his life via correlations with non-Christian sources. A number of historical non-Christian documents, such as Jewish and Greco-Roman sources, have been used in historical analyses of the existence of Jesus and his chronology. Virtually all modern historians agree that Jesus existed, and regard his baptism and his crucifixion as historical events, and assume that approximate ranges for these events can be estimated. However, as stated in John 21:25 the gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events in the life of Jesus.

The year of birth of Jesus can be estimated using two independent approaches: one based on the nativity accounts in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the other by working backwards from the date of the start of his ministry, when according to the Gospel of Luke he was about thirty years old. Most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC.

Three independent approaches have been used to estimate the dates of the ministry of Jesus. One method relies on Luke 3:1-2's statement that the ministry of John the Baptist (which preceded that of Jesus) started in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Another approach is to correlate John 2:20's statement about the Jerusalem Temple being in construction for 46 years with the date of the building of the Second Temple. A third method uses the date of the death of John the Baptist based on the writings of Josephus, and correlates it to Matthew 14:4. Scholars generally estimate that the ministry of Jesus began around 27-29 AD and lasted one to three years.

A number of approaches have been used to estimate the date of the crucifixion of Jesus. One approach uses the attestations of non-Christian sources such as Josephus and Tacitus. Another approach works backwards from the historically well established trial of Apostle Paul in Corinth to estimate the date of his conversion, given that in the New Testament accounts Jesus' death takes place before this conversion.

Two independent astronomical methods have also been used, suggesting the same date. One method goes back to Isaac Newton's calculation of the relative visibility of the crescent of the new moon between the Hebrew and Julian calendars. The other method uses a lunar eclipse model and independently arrives at the same date, i.e. 3 April 33 AD. Scholars generally assume that Jesus died between 30-36 AD.