Probably there is no person who is not familiar with the chronology "from the Nativity of Christ", which is the starting point of our (new) era.
But is it really known in what year Christ was born and was this year the first?
A bit of history
The calculation of the date of birth of Christ from which the chronology goes was carried out at the beginning of the 6th century by the Roman abbot Dionysius the Small and, in the opinion of most scholars, it was performed erroneously.
The so-called "zero year" does not exist at all since for a long time zero was not at all common in culture.
Fragment of the German calendar of 1603.
In the New Testament itself, there is no direct reference to the date or time of the year of Jesus' birth, but the Gospels contain several clues:
Promotional video:
The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 2, verse 1) connects the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC. e.
The Gospel of Luke (chapter 1, verse 5) also says that Herod was on the throne shortly before Jesus was born. But it should be noted that the same Gospel connects the birth with the population census carried out by the ancient Roman politician Publius Sulpicius Quirinius at the behest of Caesar Augustus a decade later.
The Gospel of Luke (chapter 3, verse 23) says that Jesus was about 30 years old at the beginning of his ministry, which, together with other narrations of the same Gospel, indicates the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius (Tiberius) or 28 or 29 according to modern chronology.
Triptych Christmas. Gerard David, early 16th century.
By summarizing the gospel accounts with reliably known historical data, most scholars attribute the birth of Christ to the period between 7 and 4 BC. e., however, it is quite possible that this date could lie in a much wider range.
But is it possible to determine the date more precisely?
To estimate the year of Christ's birth, you can also try to establish the year of His crucifixion.
Most scholars agree that He was crucified in either AD 30 or AD 33. The New Testament says that the event took place during the prefecture of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, who is a historically accurate figure and was prefect from 26 to 36.
Christ before Pilate. Mihai Munkachi, 1881.
This is where the reliably known information is practically exhausted.
However, even astronomers tried to establish the coveted date or at least the year by analyzing the lunar movement and calculating the historical date of Easter.
The most likely dates obtained by this method are April 7, 30 AD and April 3, 33 AD.
Despite the fact that in a number of moments the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are sufficiently detailed for their time, they can hardly satisfy the requirements of modern historians, especially given the fact that many researchers do not consider the New Testament as a source of reliable historical data and for this reason do not consider them a reliable method for determining the date of the birth of Christ.
Rare icon Jesus Savior of mankind (Resurrection and Descent into Hell), 15th century.
But even if we consider everything said in the New Testament as real events, even then we will not find the date of birth of the Savior there.
In conclusion, it should be noted that a significant number of theologians consider the date of Christ's birth to be between 6 and 4 BC.