Note: As we move into connecting the Gregorian calendar to the Biblical calendar, we must account for the fact that the Gregorian year runs from winter to winter, while the Biblical year runs from spring to spring. Therefore, a Biblical year would run, for example, from spring of 29 AD to spring of 30 AD. This means that two events that occur in the same year as recorded today might be happening in two different Biblical years and vice versa.

For simplicity’s sake, I will break the Gregorian year into four quarters: Q1 will be January through March, Q2 will be April through June, Q3 will be July through September, and Q4 will be October through December. I will refer to Q1 as happening at the end of one Biblical year and Q2 as happening at the beginning of the next, even though a Biblical year rarely ends at exactly the end of March. Note that Passover always happens just after the beginning of a Biblical year (as seen in Exodus 12).

Note: During the Babylonian domination, the Jews adopted the Babylonian name for the first month of the Hebrew calendar year, “Nisan” (Esther 3:7). I will therefore use the name “Nisan” from this point forward to refer to the Hebrew month “Abib,” which was previously the designation for the first month.

Calculations

3918 / 29 AD – 30 AD: John the Baptist begins his ministry

3918 / 30 AD (Q1): Jesus is baptized

3918 / 30 AD (Q1): Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness while being tempted by Satan

3918 / 30 AD (Q1): Jesus renames Simon to Peter

3918 / 30 AD (Q1): Jesus calls Philip

3918 / 30 AD (Q1): Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana

3919 / 30 AD (Nisan): Jesus cleanses the Temple for the first time

3919 / 30 AD – 31 AD: Jesus ministers in Judea while John continues baptizing

3919 / 30 AD – 31 AD: John is imprisoned

3919 / 30 AD – 31 AD: Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee

3919 / 30 AD – 31 AD: Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John

3919 / 30 AD – 31 AD: Jesus chooses the twelve apostles

3920 / 31 AD – 32 AD: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead

3921 / 32 AD (Nisan): Jesus is anointed

3921 / 32 AD (Nisan): Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly

3921 / 32 AD (Nisan): Jesus cleanses the Temple for the second time

3921 / 32 AD (Nisan): Jesus is crucified

3921 / 32 AD (Nisan): Jesus rises from the dead

The Gospels have to be carefully compared to each other to construct the exact sequence of events during Jesus’ ministry. Particularly helpful are Luke’s decision to put the events he recounts in sequential order, according to Luke 1:1-4 (as opposed to, say, Matthew, who might follow the Jewish pattern of recounting a sequence of events, then returning to an earlier event to fill in more detail), as well as John’s mentions of Jewish feasts (especially Passover) throughout his Gospel.

John the Baptist’s first ministry ground was the region around the Jordan (Luke 3:3), which led to Jews from around Judea coming to be baptized in the Jordan. Jesus was also baptized, and immediately Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days (Mark 1:12). The three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all then move quickly to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee after John the Baptist was imprisoned, but the Gospel of John does not. Instead, we see some events that occurred before John’s imprisonment.

First, the interrogation of John by the emissaries of the Pharisees occurred just as Jesus was returning from the 40 days in wilderness, for Jesus came by where John was the next day, and John proclaimed Jesus the Son of God (John 1:29).

Jesus then called Philip as a disciple and renamed Simon to Peter, but this was not when Jesus called Peter and Andrew; instead, Matthew and Mark both put the calling of Peter and Andrew and James and John after the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Matthew 4:12, 18-22; Mark 1:14-20).

A few days after Jesus returned from His temptation, He went to the wedding in Cana (John 2:1), then went down to Capernaum, stayed there a short while (John 2:12), and then went up to Jerusalem for the Passover. With travel time included, this means the wedding must have happened right at the end of the Biblical year before the first Passover recorded in the Gospel of John (John 2:13). This also means Jesus’ baptism and 40 days of temptation happened relatively late in the Biblical year, in Q1 of the Gregorian year.

During that first Passover (which would have happened just after the beginning of the next Biblical year, in Nisan/Q2 of the same Gregorian year), Jesus cleansed the Temple for the first time. We then see in John 3:22-24 that after that Passover, Jesus began His ministry in Judea, not Galilee, before John was imprisoned (John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim).

Jesus traveled to Galilee via Samaria in John 4. John 4:44 mentions Jesus testifying that “a prophet has no honor in his own country,” which is possibly a reference to His initial rejection by Nazareth and relocation to Capernaum as described in Luke 4:16-30 (briefly referenced also in Matthew 4:13). John 4:54 indicates that this represented a shift in Jesus’ ministry from Judea to Galilee, so it was in the same Biblical year as the first cleansing of the Temple that John was imprisoned and that Jesus shifted his focus to Galilee (because this all happened before John recorded a second Passover).

Note: The rejection of Jesus at Nazareth in Mark 6:1-6 was probably a second rejection He experienced after visiting Nazareth again once His ministry in Galilee had been underway for a while. This second time His townsfolk did not attempt to murder Him but were still offended at Him.

John 5 mentions a later feast of that Biblical year, and then John 6:4 mentions a second Passover. Around the time of that Passover, most of Jesus’ disciples abandoned Him, but the twelve did not (John 6:66-70). This means Jesus had already called all the twelve and named them apostles (Luke 6:13) before the end of that first full Biblical year.

The remainder of Jesus’ ministry would have occurred in the Biblical year following that second Passover. The resurrection of Lazarus would have happened toward the end of that year, and then Mary the sister of Lazarus anointed Jesus with spikenard six days before the third recorded Passover (John 11:55; 12:1). Because the Passover was observed on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan/Abib (Leviticus 23:5), Mary would have anointed Jesus shortly after the beginning of the Biblical year of Jesus’ crucifixion. The triumphal entry, the second cleansing of the Temple, the crucifixion, and the resurrection all would have occurred right after the anointing.

Because we’ve already determined that Jesus was crucified in 3921, we can determine that He was baptized in late 3918 and connect the Biblical years to these events accordingly. But how do we know which Gregorian year this happened in?

Well, Luke 3:1 says that John began preaching in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius became emperor in August of 14 AD, which would be in the middle of the Jewish year running from spring of 14 AD to spring of 15 AD. Therefore, John the Baptist began preaching somewhere between spring of 29 AD and spring of 30 AD.

We have already established that Jesus was baptized very shortly before the end of a Biblical year. If we assume that Jesus was baptized the same Biblical year John the Baptist began preaching, we can conclude He must have been baptized very early in 30 AD. Therefore, John would probably have begun preaching in Q3 or Q4 of 29 AD, and Jesus would have been crucified right after Passover in 32 AD.

Note: While it is theoretically possible that Jesus could have been baptized at the beginning of 31 AD (especially if John started preaching in early 30 AD) or even a later year, the narrative doesn’t support the idea that John spent that long preaching around the Jordan. We know that John was planning to move around to other locations, so he wouldn’t want to spend almost a year in one location, and it doesn’t make sense that he would be preaching to people to come to a baptism that wasn’t scheduled for another nine or ten months.

Furthermore, there is no chronological data anywhere that illustrates a gap (on the contrary, the lack of any clarifying data about years between the start of John’s ministry and the baptism of Jesus implies they occurred in the same Biblical year). The idea that John preached for a few months in 29 AD, did a mass baptism (culminating with Jesus being baptized), and then moved on to the next location makes the most sense.

Finally, it doesn’t make sense that it would take more than a year for the Jews to send emissaries to John to ask about his baptism. A few months would be the right length of time for John’s preaching to gain momentum, for the Jews to hear about John’s preaching and decide what to do about it, and for the emissaries to reach him.

3884 / 6 BC (Nisan): Jesus is born

3884 / 6 BC (December): The wise men visit Jesus

According to The Conversation’s analysis of the astrological information in the Gospel of Matthew (Can astronomy explain the biblical Star of Bethlehem?), Jesus was born on April 17 of 6 BC (which was shortly after Passover and therefore right at the beginning of the Biblical year that ran from 6 BC to 5 BC), while the star in the east stood over Jesus’ home on December 19 of 6 BC. Jesus would have therefore been eight months old when the wise men visited Him.

Given the lack of any form of telecommunication in that day, it would have been at least a few weeks, possibly a month or two, before Herod decided that he had been for sure deceived by the wise men, instead of them simply being delayed in returning. Jesus would therefore have almost crossed His first Jewish New Year line when Herod decided to massacre the male children in the region of Bethlehem. Given that that process would have taken a few weeks at the very least, Herod decided to slaughter any child under the age of two (Matthew 2:16), just to make sure Jesus wouldn’t escape if He happened to turn one year old while the slaughter was underway.

Note: Both Matthew 2 and Luke 1 put Jesus’ birth during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC, while Luke 2 seems to put the birth of Jesus during the census of Quirinius, which happened in 6 AD. I am satisfied with the explanation put forward by David Armitage (Detaching the Census: An Alternative Reading of Luke 2:1-7), which holds that Luke 2:1-5 is a narrative digression establishing why Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

In his analysis, he demonstrates that this passage does not claim that Jesus was born during the census, but rather that during the days John the Baptist was growing up, in 6 AD, Joseph went with Mary, the woman who had previously birthed her firstborn while she was his betrothed, to Bethlehem, the same place where Jesus was born and placed in a manger during the days of Herod. According to him, Luke 1:80-2:7 should be translated as below (note that the author argues that Jesus was not born in a commercial inn, but rather in a temporary living space made for Joseph and Mary in the private residence of some of Joseph’s relatives):

“The child grew and was strengthened in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. As it happens, it was during that time that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to register all the Roman world (this was the first registration, when Quirinius was governor of Syria), and everyone went – each into their own town – to be registered. Joseph also went up: out of Galilee, away from the town of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s town (which is called Bethlehem) because he was from the house and family of David; he went to be registered with Mary (she who was his betrothed when she was pregnant). Now, it transpired that the days were completed for her to give birth when they were in that place, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was insufficient space for them in their lodging place.”

Taking Armitage’s explanation into account (especially his argument that Jesus was born in the home of some of Joseph’s relatives, not a commercial inn), I believe we can reconstruct the circumstances of Jesus’ conception and early years fairly accurately:

1. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth (Luke 2:39) and got betrothed there.
2. Because Nazareth was a backwater town (as Nathanael said in John 1:46, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”), Joseph wanted to plant his new family in Bethlehem, a more prosperous and reputable town, where he also had relatives and therefore a support system. He thus went to Bethlehem after the betrothal to build a home for them (possibly on the property of his relatives). While building, he was staying in a small room (“accommodation”) in the house of his relatives, which was connected to the living area for the animals.
3. While Joseph was in Bethlehem, Mary became pregnant. She quickly (Luke 1:39) went to stay with her relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:36), who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:26; Luke 1:36), to conceal her pregnancy from her friends and neighbors. She stayed with Elizabeth three months (Luke 1:56), at which time John would have been born and Mary would have found it rude to stay any longer, so she went home.
4. By then, Mary would have been showing, and everyone would know she was pregnant. Word of this would reach Joseph in Bethlehem, at which point, figuring that she had cheated on him in his absence, he decided to divorce her (Matthew 1:18-19). However, an angel told him she had not been unfaithful to him, so he decided to stay betrothed to her (Matthew 1:20-24). This would have led to rumors amongst the Nazarenes that either the couple had had premarital sex before Joseph left to go to Bethlehem (or during a trip home to Nazareth) or that Mary had cheated on Joseph while he was away building a home for her.
5. Joseph probably took Mary to Bethlehem as she was nearing full term, since he was close to completing the new family home and wanted her settled in Bethlehem when the baby came. He probably figured he had enough time to complete the home before she gave birth, but he was wrong. She ended up birthing Jesus while they were staying in Joseph’s temporary accommodation, which was so small that they had to put Jesus in a manger in the animal area when He was born (Luke 2:7).
6. With Jesus born, Joseph had no choice but to slow down or stop work on the family home and help take care of the baby, especially because they were stranded in his temporary accommodation during Mary’s uncleanness. They circumcised Jesus on the eighth day, waited until 40 days after His birth (Luke 2:22-24; see Leviticus 12:1-4), then went to Jerusalem to present their son to the Lord and offer the appropriate sacrifice.
7. Joseph apparently decided that it would be easier if Mary was situated in Nazareth while he finished the family home, so they went back to Nazareth (Luke 2:39).
8. Joseph then returned to Bethlehem, finished the family house, and moved Mary and Jesus to Bethlehem.
9. When Jesus was eight months old, the wise men visited them in Bethlehem, at their “house” (Matthew 2:11). When they left, an angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt, which he did (Matthew 2:13-14). Even though they were poor, the gifts of the wise men would have enabled them to survive while sojourning in Egypt.
10. After Herod’s death, Joseph intended to take his family back to Bethlehem, but because of his fear of Herod’s son Archelaus, he took them to their original hometown of Nazareth instead (Matthew 2:22-23). This would have been very difficult for them, as not only was Nazareth a poor place with minimal economic opportunities, but the rumor mill had no doubt been spinning in their absence about the circumstances of Jesus’ birth.
11. Joseph visited Bethlehem with Mary in 6 AD to be registered during the census of Quirinius.

3896 / 7 AD (Nisan): Jesus astonishes the teachers in the Temple (Luke 2:41-42)

3914 / 25 – 26 AD: Jesus becomes a rabbi

According to Luke 3:23, Jesus was “about thirty years of age” when He “began.” This beginning, however, could not possibly have been His baptism or the beginning of His miraculous ministry. After all, Herod died in 4 BC, so even if you don’t accept The Conversation’s astrological analysis, we know Jesus couldn’t have been born later than 5 BC at the latest. As already stated, the earliest John the Baptist could have begun preaching was in 29 AD, so that’s a stretch of at least 33 years.

A better explanation is that Jesus became a rabbi when He was thirty (I will discuss the significance of Luke saying “about thirty” in a later section). We know from John 1:38 that Jesus was already a rabbi when He was baptized and was apparently pretty well known. The readiness with which the apostles abandoned their livelihoods and jumped at the chance to be His disciples suggests that He had been a rabbi for a while and had probably created a longing within many of the faithful Jews around Him to be called by Him.

If Jesus was indeed born right at the beginning of the year that spanned from 6 BC to 5 BC, that year would be 3884, and He would have become a rabbi in 3914, which spanned from 25 AD to 26 AD. Thus, Jesus was in his mid-thirties during the years of his miraculous ministry, finally dying and rising from the dead at the age of 37.

This makes sense of John 8:57, when the Jews say to Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” If Jesus was close to 40, such that the Jews, who didn’t know exactly how old He was, knew that He could be slightly under or slightly over 40, them saying He was not yet 50 would be appropriate. If He was in his early 30s, they would have said, “You are not yet forty years old.”

Note that the seven years encompassing 3914 to 3920 were the 70^th Week of Years of Daniel 9.

Commentary

In the parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13:6-9, the owner of a fig tree laments that he has been seeking fruit from a fig tree for three years and wants to cut it down. However, the keeper of his vineyard wants to keep nourishing it for the third year, then check on it after the year is over. This parable matches Jesus’ miraculous ministry: Jesus was searching for fruit from Israel from 3918 to 3920, then waited until 3921, at which point, just before being crucified, He saw a fig tree bearing no fruit and cursed it (Matthew 21:18-19), thereby declaring that Israel the nation was unfruitful and was to be replaced by the Church.

This matches Luke 13:31-33, where Jesus says, “Go, tell that fox [Herod], ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.” Jesus seems to have said this in His first full year of ministry, 3919, in which case, “today” was 3919, “tomorrow” was 3920, and the “third day / day following” would be 3921, when He was perfected.