One cannot ignore that the dating of years used by Dionysius Exiguus, who developed the Anno Domini system to replace the Ab Urbe Condita, Anno Mundi, and Anno Martyrum systems, was off on his dating of our Lord's life. The Nativity historically occurred anywhere between 6 BC and 4 AD because of Exiguus' faulty calendar computation. Exiguus has been glorified (canonized) by the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Hi Elwin. I disagree that they were off. I believe recent research has proven they are providentially correct after all. Our Lord did really die on the Passover date of the year we now call 33 A.D.
Our Lord certainly lived about 33 1/2 years. We can know this from Scripture itself, where it says (1) Our Lord was around 30 years old when He began His Ministry. And (2) Three Passovers elapsed during His Ministry, which means it was slightly over 3 years, probably roughly around 3 1/2 years.
Now, there are only two dates scholars have proposed for Our Lord's Crucifixion. Either (1) 30 A.D. or (2) 33 A.D. Why is Our Lord's date of death important? Because most who believe Our Lord was crucified in 33 A.D. agree He was born in 2 B.C. or 1 B.C. Only those who believe He was crucified in 30 A.D. claim that He was actually born in 4 B.C. or 6 B.C. or even earlier.
Next, we have further pieces of information from St. Luke. (1) St. Luke tells us Our Lord began His Ministry "in the fifteenth year of Tiberius". Tiberius is well known to have begun his reign in the year we now call 14 A.D, as
Wiki says. Therefore, the fifteenth year of Tiberius is 29 A.D. That means the A.D. 30 date for the crucifixion is out. It is too early and doesn't allow for 3 years of Our Lord's Preaching, Teaching and Miracles.
Your thoughts? God Bless.
An article on the subject below:
https://onepeterfive.com/dates-years-birth-death-christ/"With some historical calculations, we can see that Nisan 14 (the Jєωιѕн Passover date) fell on April 3 in 33 A.D. Therefore, the time of Our Lord’s crucifixion and death was April 3, 33 A.D. at 3:00 P.M. (ninth hour)
First Things has a similar calculation.
Live Science considers also the earthquake St. Matthew (27:54) reports.
Similarly, with Our Lord’s crucifixion date fixed, we can work backward to see when Our Lord Jesus was born.
How? Since if Christ Our Lord was 30 around 29 or 30 A.D. and died in 33 A.D. after 30 years of life and a further three and a half years of ministry, it is evident He could not have been born in 4 B.C. or any time earlier, but only in 1 B.C. or 2 B.C. If He was 33 on Nisan 14, 33 A.D., as we have seen, He was born in 1 B.C. if born before April, or in 2 B.C. if born after April. Since He was born in December, as we will see, He was born in 2 B.C."