It is surprising that the New Testament gives the account of Jesus’ birth in only two of the four Gospels. Matthew establishes the significance of His birth from the perspective of Old Testament prophecies, while Luke begins with the birth of John the Baptist several months earlier. Luke, the medical doctor and historian, also deems it important to connect Jesus’ birth with an event in secular history, so an estimate may be made of the year.

(Luke 2.1-2) identifies a census taken throughout the Roman Empire during the reign of Caesar Augustus, by Cyrenius (also Quirinius) when he was governor of Syria. It was taken at the time of Jesus’ birth and was the very reason why Joseph and Mary had to make the trip from their hometown of Nazareth to Bethlehem over 100 miles to the South (Luke 2.3-7). There is no direct historical record of this particular census, but a first century historian by the name of Josephus recorded that Cyrenius did conduct another census in either AD 6/7.

This date bears on the subject because the Romans tended to conduct a census about once every 14 years, making 8/7/6 BC a likely time frame for a preceding one. Since Jesus could not have been born at the late dates of AD 6/7 for reasons that will become obvious in a moment, the earlier one would have to be the one in view in the Luke text. This would also be consistent with the fact that there was a change of Syrian legates in 7 BC, prompting the need for a census in that year or soon thereafter. It is also supported by another statement made in (Acts 5.37) citing a "Judas of Galilee" who rose up in the days of "the census", and drew away many people after him. Secular history records that this incident occurred around 8/7/6 BC, so there is general agreement with the date obtained from Roman practice and the connection of Cyrenius’ name with both.

Finally, another piece of circumstantial evidence comes from an unlikely source. Astronomical records show that there were conjunctions of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the years 7-6 BC. In 7 BC, the world saw a triple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in an event occurring only once every 125 years. Then early in 6 BC, Jupiter and Saturn grouped close to the planet Mars, a configuration repeated only once every 805 years. Later in the spring of 6 BC Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn also formed an unusually close grouping. Ancient astrologers believed that the area of the sky named Pisces where these conjunctions occurred contained signs pertinent to the Hebrew nation, so it is possible that the "Magi", blending a knowledge of Old Testament prophecies about a Messiah with heavenly observations (Numbers 24.17), were led to seek the predicted king in the Land of Israel.

For whatever reason, Matthew records that some wise men (Magi) did in fact make a long trip from the East to Jerusalem with the question,

Unfortunately they came to the wrong man with this question, for they assumed incorrectly that Herod, then king of Judea, would also be eagerly awaiting the coming of this Messiah. If they had known a little more about "Herod the Great" as he fancied himself, they would have realized that he was far more interested in selfishly preserving his own position than in paying obeisance to some supposed "Messiah". Indeed, the Bible indicates that Herod was not "eager" but rather "troubled". He immediately summoned his advisors on matters of theology who quickly cited the Old Testament prophet Micah, who predicted that Messiah would surely be born in Bethlehem.

Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem with instructions to report back this "King’s" location when they had found Him.

Just as the unspoken intent of this subterfuge would be obvious to us, so it was to the Magi. They understood that Herod likely planned to kill Jesus, not worship Him. When this was confirmed to them in a dream after they had visited Joseph, Mary, and Jesus who were then living in a house in Bethlehem, they did not retrace their steps to inform Herod but returned another way to their native homeland. Herod was subsequently informed of their actions, probably only a short time later, and took steps to carry out his dastardly deed. He used the information given to him by the Magi concerning the time of the "star", and had all of the babies in Bethlehem two years old and younger killed (Matthew 16-18). Of course in this way he calculated that Jesus would have to be among them.

Now the sequence of events just recounted provides another estimate for the date of Jesus’ birth, because Josephus recorded that Herod died in April of 4 BC. Yet sometime before he died, he had calculated that Jesus might already be two years old. Therefore by this reasoning, Jesus could have been born no later than 6 BC. Consequently, all of these facts repeatedly point to 7/6 BC as the most probable date for the birth of Jesus.

REDEMPTIVE PLAN