In most countries of the world, including Russia, the church is separate from the state, but religious traditions have a huge impact on everyday secular life. One of the manifestations of this is the use of a Christian calendar that counts down from the birthday of Jesus Christ.
Chronology of the monk Dionysius
The beginning of the Christian chronology is associated with the name of the monk, theologian and chronicler Dionysius the Small. Little is known about his life. It appeared in Rome around 500 AD. and was soon appointed abbot of one of the Italian monasteries. He owns several theological works. The main work was Christian chronology, which was adopted in 525, although not immediately and everywhere. After long and difficult calculations, assuming that the 248 year of the Age of Diocletian corresponds to 525 A. D., Dionysius came to the conclusion that Jesus was born in 754 from the founding of Rome.
According to a number of Western theologians, Dionysius the Small made a mistake in his calculations for 4 years. According to the usual chronology, Christmas took place in 750 AD from the founding of Rome. If they are right, then our calendar is now not 2014, but 2018. Even the Vatican did not immediately embrace the new Christian era. In papal acts, the modern countdown is found from the time of Pope John XIII, that is, from the X century. And only the documents of Pope Eugene IV from 1431 date the years strictly from R. H.
Based on the calculations of Dionysius, theologians calculated that Jesus Christ was born in 5508 after, according to the biblical legend, the god of hosts created the world.
According to the royal will
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In Russian written sources of the late XVII - early XVIII centuries. scribes sometimes put a double date - from the creation of the world and from the birth of Christ. The transfer of one system to another is further complicated by the fact that the beginning of the new year was shifted twice in our country. In Ancient Russia, it was celebrated on March 1, which was the beginning of a new cycle of agricultural work. Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilievich in A. D. 1492 (in 7000 from the creation of the world) postponed the beginning of the new year to September 1, which was logical.
By this time, the next cycle of agricultural work was completed, the results of the working year were summed up. In addition, this date coincided with that adopted in the eastern church. The Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, having won a victory over the Roman consul Maxentius on September 1, 312, granted Christians complete freedom to practice their faith. The fathers of the first Ecumenical Council of the year 325 determined to start the new year from September 1 - the day of "commemorating the beginning of Christian freedom."
The second advance was made by Peter I in 1700 (7208 from the creation of the world). Along with the transition to a new era, he, by analogy with the West, ordered to celebrate the beginning of the new year on January 1.
Let's listen to the apostles and argue
In the texts of the four canonical Gospels there is not a single direct indication of the year when Christ was born (the text of the New Testament is quoted from the canonical synodal translation of "Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John." Thirteenth edition. St. Petersburg, 1885). The only indirect indication preserved in the Gospel of Luke: when Jesus began his ministry, he was "about 30 years old" (3.23). Jesus' exact age was apparently unknown to him.
In the same chapter, Luke reports that John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, began his sermon in the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (3.1). Well-developed ancient chronology took the year of the founding of Rome as the starting point of reference. All events in the history of the Roman Empire were tied to this conditional date. Christian chroniclers built the date of Christ's birth into this chronology system, starting from it the countdown of a new era.
Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero was born in 42 BC and died in 37 AD. He took the imperial throne in 14 AD. The Christian chronicler reasoned something like this. If Jesus was about 30 years old in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius, then this would correspond to 29 AD. That is, Christ was born in the first year A. D. However, this line of reasoning raises objections based on other timelines noted in the Gospels. The apostle Luke's caution in determining the age of Jesus allows deviations in one direction and the other. And along with this, the beginning of a new era can be shifted.
Let's try to apply the methods of the theory of testimony widely used in modern forensics to solve this complex problem. One of the provisions of the theory is that human fantasy is limited. A person can exaggerate something, underestimate something, distort something, collect real facts into unrealistic combinations. But he cannot come up with circumstances that are not in nature (the patterns of distortion of reality are described by psychology and applied mathematics).
In the Gospel, there are several references to events that in time were indirectly related to the date of the Nativity of Christ. If we manage to tie them to an absolute chronological scale, then it will be possible to introduce certain adjustments to the traditional date of R. Kh.
1. In the Gospel of John, the Jews said that during the interrogation before his execution, Jesus “is not yet fifty years old” (8.57). Traditionally, it is believed that Jesus was executed at the age of 33. It is strange that the Jews who saw Jesus could say about a young 33-year-old man that he is not fifty. Jesus may have looked older than he was supposed to be, or perhaps he was actually older.
2. The Gospel of Matthew directly states that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod (2.1).
The biography of Herod the Great is well known. He was born in 73 and died in April 4 BC. (750 g. Roman account). He became king of Judea in 37, although he nominally served as head of state since 40. He took possession of the throne with the help of Roman troops. Vindictive and ambitious, infinitely cruel and treacherous, Herod destroyed everyone in whom he saw rivals. Tradition ascribes to him the beating of infants two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding area upon receiving the news of the birth in this city of Jesus, king of Judah.
How reliable is this evangelist's message? Some church historians are inclined to consider him a legend on the basis that only Matthew reported about the beating of infants. The other three evangelists do not mention this heinous crime. Josephus Flavius, who knew the history of Judea well, did not mention a word about this event. On the other hand, there are so many bloody atrocities on the conscience of Herod that this could well have taken place.
Without dwelling on the assessment of the moral qualities of Herod, let us compare the date of his death with the date of birth of Jesus accepted in the Christian tradition. If the Savior was born in the first year C. E., how could Herod, who died 4 years B. C., organize the massacre of children in Bethlehem?
3. The evangelist Matthew writes about the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt due to the threat from Herod (2.1). This plot has been played up many times in Christian art. On the outskirts of Cairo, there is an ancient Christian temple, supposedly erected on the site where the house was, in which the Holy Family lived during their stay in Egypt. (The Roman writer Celsus also reports about the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt.) Then Matthew writes that the angel conveyed to Joseph the news that Herod had died and that it was possible to return to Palestine (2.20).
Again, there is a discrepancy between dates. Herod the Great died in 4 BC. If at this time the Holy Family lived in Egypt, then by the first year A. D. Jesus should have been a little over four years old.
4. The Evangelist Luke states (2.1) that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem on the eve of the birth of the Savior. It was caused by the need to participate in the census, which was conducted in Judea by order of Caesar Augustus and was organized by the procurator of Syria, Quirinius. At the present time, the fact of the census (but not all over the earth, as Luke wrote, but in Judea) is beyond doubt.
According to Roman tradition, population censuses were always conducted in newly conquered areas. They were purely fiscal in nature. After the final annexation to the empire of this area of Palestine in 6 AD. such a census was carried out. If you follow the exact text of the Gospel of Luke, then you have to admit that Jesus was born in 6 or 7 C. E.
And a star rose in the east
The Evangelist Matthew reports about a star that indicated to the Eastern wise men the time of Jesus' birth (2.2-10.11). This star, called the Bethlehem star, has firmly entered the religious tradition, literature, art, and the design of religious holidays in the name of the Nativity of Christ. Neither Mark, Luke, nor John report this celestial phenomenon. But it is possible that then the inhabitants of Judea really saw an unusual heavenly phenomenon. Historians of science are convinced that the astronomers of the Ancient East knew the starry sky very well and the appearance of a new object could not fail to attract their attention.
The mystery of the Star of Bethlehem has long been of interest to scientists. The search for astronomers and other representatives of the materialistic sciences was carried out in two directions: what is the physical essence of the Bethlehem star and when did it appear in the celestial spheres? Theoretically, the effect of a bright star could be generated either by the apparent convergence of two large planets in the sky, or by the appearance of a comet, or by the outbreak of a new star.
The comet's version was initially in doubt, because comets do not stand in one place for a long time.
Recently, a hypothesis has arisen that the Magi observed UFOs. This option does not stand up to criticism. Celestial objects, regardless of whether they are considered natural formations or the creation of the Higher Mind, always move in space, hovering only for a short time at one point. And the Evangelist Matthew reports that the Star of Bethlehem was observed for several days in one point of the firmament.
Nicolaus Copernicus calculated that around the first year A. D. within two days there was a visible approach of Jupiter and Saturn. At the beginning of the 17th century, Johannes Kepler observed a rare phenomenon: the paths of three planets - Saturn, Jupiter and Mars - intersected so that one star of unusual brightness was visible in the sky. Such a visible convergence of three planets happens every 800 years. Based on this, Kepler suggested that 1600 years ago a rapprochement took place and the Star of Bethlehem flashed in the sky. According to his calculation, Jesus was born in 748 Roman era (December 25, 6 BC).
Based on the modern theory of planetary motion, astronomers calculated the position of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn visible from Earth 2000 years ago. It turned out that in 7 BC. Jupiter and Saturn approached three times in the zodiacal constellation Pisces. The angular distance between them was reduced to one degree. But they did not merge into one bright point. Recently, American astronomers have established that in 2 BC. Venus and Jupiter are so close that it could seem as if a flaming torch flashed in the sky. But this event took place in June, and Christmas is traditionally celebrated in winter.
It was also recently established that in 4 BC, on the first day of the new year, which was then celebrated in spring, a new star flashed in the constellation Eagle. A pulsar is now being fixed at this point in the sky. Calculations showed that this brightest object was visible from Jerusalem towards Bethlehem. Like the entire starry sky, the object moved from east to west, which coincides with the readings of the Magi. It is likely that this star attracted the attention of the inhabitants of Judea as a unique and grandiose cosmic phenomenon.
The comet's version raises some objections, but modern astronomy does not completely reject it. The Chinese and Korean chronicles mention two comets that were observed in the Far East from March 10 to April 7, 5 BC. and in February 4 BC. In the work of the French astronomer Pingre "Cosmography" (Paris, 1783), it is reported that one of these comets (or both, if two messages refer to the same comet) were identified as early as 1736 with the Bethlehem star. Astronomers believe that the comet, visible in the Far East, could have been observed in Palestine.
If we proceed from this, then Christ was born in 5 or 4 BC. between February and March. Considering that he was preaching as a mature man, it is logical to assume that at that time he was not 33 years old according to the church canon, but closer to forty.
Comparing all the available information, one can make a fairly reasonable assumption that Jesus Christ was born in 4 BC. and today it is 2018. But, of course, revising the modern calendar is unrealistic.
Boris Sapunov, Valentin Sapunov