1.1 Jesus’ Lifetime

Jesus Christ was about 30 years old when he began to teach and was crucified about three years later, at the age of 33, as we know it today.

On the other hand, there are also expert opinions that Jesus Christ was less than 50 years old at his crucifixion in Jerusalem.

As seen, in the ages before the spread of the AD system, the so-called “calendar year” (i. e., the continuous serial number of years beginning long before) was not known at all. The number of elapsed years between two events was significant. The answer to the question in which year the birth and the crucifixion of Jesus could have taken place was not even essential to the Christian Church for a long time.

In fact, the year of Jesus Christ’s birth is still only “conjectured” because, unfortunately, no reliable data about Jesus’ birth and youth are known.

We seem to know, for example, that his coming was foretold. And that there are beautiful legends about the circumstances of his birth.

Even it is not proven whether “Jesus of Nazareth” was born in Judea, in Betlehem (without th) near Jerusalem, or in Galilee, in the other Bethlehem (with th) that still exists today, next to Nazareth? Have a look at Google maps below:

According to some archaeologists, the area around Betlehem near Jerusalem (which was still inhabited at the time of the ancient Kingdom of Judah) was partially deserted and desolate during the Roman occupation. In contrast, the area around Bethlehem near Nazareth was fertile and densely populated long before and at the time of Jesus’ birth and still is today.

Presumably, the legends surrounding Jesus’ birth are (like legends in general) based on facts. In my observation, legends crystallise after several versions have been woven around keywords (such as the number 3); nevertheless, the true origin is usually obscured.

Legends, in themselves, cannot be the basis of historical evidence. On the other hand, they can contribute to proving if the base of the legends can be identified.

According to the legends, Jesus was the expected Messiah for the “Three Kings”, the “Wise Men from the Sunrise”, or others, “Magi” from the East. However, it is legitimate to ask why then is so little recorded about Jesus’ youth, his studies, his travels, and his life until he began teaching at the age of 30? It is reasonable to think that when Jesus became a famous healer, teacher, and prophet, his followers added miraculous stories (e.g., virgin birth) to his approximate date of birth, as happened with other great prophets who founded religions.

The early Christians originally celebrated the birthday of Jesus on 6 January, the “day of the three kings”, or, according to another interpretation, the day of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan (Epiphany). It was only in the early 4th century that the Church decided to celebrate the feast on 25 December, now Christmas Day.

It is generally believed today that this was the early Christian Church’s way of “covering up” the feast of lights of the faith of Mithras and the later Roman Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun). So luring the followers of the earlier religions to the newer Christian religion.

It is known that 25 December was initially the birthday of the Persian sun-god, Mithra.

According to recent research, Jesus was not born in AD1, but 7 years earlier, in 7BC. (7BC corresponds to “AD-6”, which in astronomy is simply -6; since there is no “zero” year in the AD system. The number zero was unknown in antiquity. The distance of the BC years from the AD years is obtained by the simple addition of the years with negative signs for the BC years, e.g. AD1-7BC = 1-(-6) = 1+6=7)

The year of Jesus’ birth, 7BC, was determined by the Hungarian Jesuit priest and astronomer Ágoston Teres (Gustav Teres), who died in 2007. Aurel Thewrewk Ponori, a well-known Hungarian astronomer, also came to this conclusion simultaneously. The Vatican tacitly accepted this scientific amendment.

In fact, we cannot be sure even nowadays

what year and what day Jesus was born, as I am going to show later.

Exiguus performed the calculation back to AD1 precisely 7 years earlier (AD525 instead of AD 532) than it would have been necessary for practice, even though the count could be done at most in a few weeks. And he made 7 years of error.

The double difference of 7 years seems to be a “strange coincidence”, of which we will come back later!

There are many ancient writings about the crucifixion of Jesus. Of the more than 200 ancient writings, only four were highlighted by the early Christian Church: The Gospels of Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke were accepted and canonised as a divine revelation; the others were considered apocryphal, forbidden.

Matthew and John were among the 12 apostles who heard the teachings of Jesus in the original. Mark was younger, recording the memories and opinions of the apostle Peter. Luke was Paul’s helper, companion, and disciple. Paul was not one of the 12 apostles and initially persecuted Jesus’ disciples as a believing Jew. It was only after Jesus’ resurrection, after their meeting on the “Damascus road”, that St Paul (earlier called Saul) was converted.

Whereas in St. Peter’s conception, Christianity was aimed at reforming the Jewish religion, Paul was the “chief ideologue” and most effective missionary to spread the Christian faith among the non-Jews.

According to the Gospels, the crucifixion of Jesus took place during the reign of Pontius Pilate in Judea (AD26-AD36), on the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan, on a Friday before Passover. (Passover is the Jewish Easter, Nisan 15-21; Nisan, see Explanations)

According to today’s accurate calendar converters, only in AD26, AD33, and AD36 do the date Nisan 14 fall on a Friday during this period. (Previously, it was calculated that Nisan 14 and Friday coincided in AD27, AD30, AD33, and AD36.)

Despite the many gospel accounts 
of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection, 
only this Nisan 14 Friday seems to be sure. 
The year of the crucifixion is uncertain. 
Today, AD33 is the most accepted year, 
but many scholars prefer AD36, and 
there are other opinions, too.

Alone because of these uncertainties around the dates of Jesus’ life, it is not to avoid that some people think of the possible mistakes of the AD time reckoning.