WHEN WAS JESUS BORN Most of the early accounts we have of which year people have thought Jesus was born in are either 3, 2 or 1BC and later theories are usually between 8BC to AD8. To determine the year of Jesus birth it helps to know when the reign of Augustus began but there is some uncertainty about which year it was and when in the year his rule began and whether the writer means in the year or after the year which is not always agreed upon, so each one needs to be examined individually and carefully. The following list may need adjustment. According to Bickerman the Era of Actium began in 31BC and the Era of Augustus in 30BC. (Chronology, p73) 
                                     4BC
The Alogi (AD180) "fortieth year of Augustus" (Finegan, Chronology, p228)
                                     3BC
Irenaeus (cAD130-200) says "about the 41st year of" Augustus (Against Heresies 3:21:3, A-N Vol 1 p452)
Cassiodorus Senator (cAD490-585) "consuls C.Lentulus and M.Messala", "in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus" (Finegan p229)
                                    2BC
Clement of Alexandria (AD150-215) 194y 4m 13d before the death of Commodus "in the 28th year of Augustus" (Stromata Book 1, Ch 21, A-N Vol 2, p333)
Tertullian (AD145-220) "in the 41st year of Augustus, 28th after Cleopatra" (Answer to the Jews Ch 8, A-N, Vol 3 p159-60) [JETS 3BC]
Hippolytus of Thebes, 42nd or 43rd year of Augustus (Finegan p228)
Hippolytus of Rome (AD170-236) "-in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus,-" (Commentary on Daniel, 4:23, Finegan p325)
Eusebius of Caesarea (AD260-340) "It was the 42nd year of Augustus' reign,and the 28th after the subjugation of Egypt and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra," (1:4:1-10, Penguin, p17)
Epiphanius of Salamis (AD315-403) 42nd year of Augustus (the year Augustus & Silvanus were consuls) 28th year of Cleopatra. (Panar'n Haer', 2:1 and 51:22) (Augustus did not serve as consul during all these days but gave it to another. Dio 55:9:5)
Paulus Orosius (AD415) - in the forty second year of Augustus, 752nd year of Rome. (Post-Nicene Series, History Against the Pagans, R J Deferrari, p787-8) [Cat' 937.103]
                                     1BC
Dionysus Exiguus of Rome.
                                     AD1
The Chronographer of AD354 "in the consulate of Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born-" (The Untold Story p7)

AUGUSTUS Caius Octavius is said to have been born on August 23 in 63BC, Dio Cassius says he was born in September. (55:7) Suetonius also says September (Book 2, Ch 5, Loeb p129 and "The Deified Augustus", Ch 31, p171) He was called Sebaste or Sebastus in Greek. He was appointed to the triumvirate on November 27 in 43BC (Brit '94, Augustus). He conquered Antony at the battle of Actium near Greece on September 2 in 31BC. The senate gave him the title Augustus (majestic) in 27BC, and he died on August 19 in AD14, (Suetonius 2:19, Loeb p283) In his book of achievements (Res Gestae) probably written late in AD13, Augustus says that this was his 37th year of tribunician power, and that he had been princeps senatus for 40 years. Counting from 27BC. (Most considered Augustus rule began from the death of Julius Ceasar)
SUETONIUS: says Julius Caesar was killed on March 15 in 44BC. (Book 1, Loeb p111). He says Augustus died on August 19 being 75 years old. (p129) (From August 23rd in 63BC Augustus was almost 76 years old)
JOSEPHUS: says Augustus lived for 77 years (Ant 18:2:2). The actual Roman calendar was in some disarray in 63BC but using the Hebrew calendar the first year was the period from when Augustus was born, which is said to have been August 23 in 63BC until the beginning of Nisan in 62BC followed by 75 complete Hebrew years and the period from Nisan 1 in AD14 until August 19 was his 77th year. Josephus says that his reign was 57 years 6 months and 2 days. (Wars 2:9:1) Counting back from the death of Augustus on August 19th in AD14 for 57y 6m 2d we arrive at February 17 in 44BC which is 1 month minus 2 days before Julius Caesar was killed, but this dating is according to the corrected Julian calendar. According to the Hebrew calendar the death of Augustus on Sunday August 19 in AD14 was the 4th of Av, (or Elul) counting back for 57 years 6 months 2 days we arrive at the 2nd day of Adar 2, which was Wednesday March 22 in 44BC (O/S). Josephus also says Augustus shared his rule with Antony for 14 years. (14 years before the battle of Actium Sept 2 in 31BC is September 2 in 45BC, 6 1/2 months before Julius Caesar died) but again counting the number of  Hebrew years, the period from the death of Julius Caesar on (O/S) Wednesday March the 15th which was the 24th day of Adar 1, makes the 14th year to have been between March 28 in 31BC until the end of the battle of Actium on Tuesday Sept 2 (The date according to the Pontiffs erronius calendar. On the Julian O/S calendar this is Tuesday Sept 3.) Elul the 12th.
THEOPHILUS: (AD168) says Augustus reigned for 56 years 4 months 1 day (A-N, Vol 2, p120) All we can do with this is subtract it from when he died on August 19, AD14, which gives the start of his reign as April 18th 43BC.
TERTULLIAN: (AD145-220) says Cleopatra reigned 20 years and 5 months and that she reigned with Augustus 13 years, (As she is said to have killed herself on 17 Mesore, Tuesday 12 August in 30BC (O/S), this was Tuesday 10 August on the Pontiffs erroneous calendar that was in use at the time. It appears that she began her reign in March 50BC, and that she began the shared rule with Augustus in August of 43BC. Her children Helios and Selene are said to have ruled for 18 days until Saturday August 30, 30BC O/S. See T C Skeat, Journal of Roman Studies, 1953 p98). Augustus reigned 43 years after Cleopatra, his empire was 56 years. Christ was born when Augustus had been reigning 28 years, and survived for 15 years after Christ was born. (Answer to the Jews, Book 7, Ch 8, A-N Vol 3, p159-160) (Tertulian confirms that Augustus reigned alone after the death of Cleopatra for 43 years until he died in August AD14, if his reign was 56 years, then he also began his reign in August 43BC at about the time he turned 20 years of age. Augustus says in Res Gestae that he was 19 when he gathered his army together. Tertullians dating suggests that Jesus was born in August of 2BC and agrees that Augustus died in August of AD14, 15 years later, and the 41st year would be the year beginning on August the 12th in 3BC and ending on August the 12th in 2BC, which is the same as the 28th year following the death of Cleopatra.)
DIO CASSIUS: (AD150-235) says Augustus "lived seventy-five years, ten months, and twenty-six days (he had been born on the twenty third of  September), and having been sole ruler, from the time of his victory at Actium, forty-four years, lacking thirteen days." (Dio 56:29-30, Loeb Vol 7 p65-69) Dio confirms that "the years of his reign are properly reckoned from that day", from September 2 in 31BC. (Book 51, LCL p3-5) By saying this, Dio seems to imply that he was aware of some who had improperly reckoned the years of Augustus.
CLEMENT: of Alexandria (AD153-193-217) says Augustus ruled for 43 years, (Counting backwards makes August 30BC the start of his reign) but he also says others say Augustus reigned 46 years 4 months 1 day - (The Stromata, Book 1, Ch 21, A-N,Vol 2, p333) making April 13th, 33BC the start of the reign, (but he may have meant 56 years, the same as Theophilus and meaning from April in 43BC) He also says that "our Lord was born in the 28th year, when first the census was ordered to be taken in the reign of Augustus". "-there are those who - say that it took place IN the twenty-eighth year of Augustus"  which may mean the 28th year since the battle of Actium on September 2 in 31BC, rather than from the death of Cleopatra on August 12th 30BC (O/S), which would be from September 2nd in 4BC to September 2nd in 3BC, but Clement thought Jesus was born 15 years before Augustus died which would be in August 2BC. (Some of his figures are inconsistent) 
EUSEBIUS of Caesarea (AD260-340) says "It was the forty-second year of  Augustus reign and the twenty eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, when our saviour and Lord - was born in Bethlehem." (Book 1, Ch 5:6, Penguin p17) Finegan points out with these early writers, the later the writer, the later the year of the birth. (p229)

THE ERA OF ACTIUM After the victory of Augustus over Antony at the Battle of Actium on the 2nd of Sept in 31BC some countries under Roman influence used this event for a new era called the Era of Actium. (This date of Tuesday the 2nd of September was according to the Pontiffs erronius calendar but on the corrected Julian calendar this was Tuesday the 3rd of September) As the battle was only 5 days after the start of the Egyptian year on Thoth 1 (August 29) this was the beginning of this era: "years began from Aug 29" (Handy Book of Rules and Tables, p204 and Bickerman p73) although the Coptic Ency' under Calendar says the first year was 30-29BC. Year 1 was from August 29 in 31BC to August 29 in 30BC (leap-year). Year 28 was from August 29 in  4BC to August 28 in 3BC. (O/S dates) The Era of Augustus began one year later on August 30 in 30BC. (Bick' p73)

THE 28TH YEAR OF CLEOPATRA (VII) Clement says that Jesus was born in the 28th year of Augustus while Tertullian, Eusebius and Epiphanius say that Jesus was born in the 28th year after the death of Cleopatra and arrive at different years for the birth of Jesus, Irenaeus and Tertullian say that it was the 41st year of Augustus which is thought to be 2BC, while Eusebius and Epiphanius say it was the 42nd year or 1BC, but Epiphanius says the 42nd year was the year in which Augustus and Silvanus were consuls which was in 2BC which makes the 41st consular year of Augustus to have been 3BC, while the 41st reignal year of Augustus from August 43BC would have been between August 3BC to August 2BC.  
Tertullian shows he regarded the 41st year to be the year after 41 reignal years were complete and not "in" the 41st year, which shows he meant it was from after August of 2BC. As the 28th year counting from the death of Cleopatra begins from the end of the 27th year in August 3BC, it ended on August 12 of 2BC, and corresponds with the 41st reignal year of Augustus. Some say the reason the 28th year was regarded by some as the 42nd year is because they counted from the death of Julius Caesar which makes the 42nd year to be between March 3BC to March 2BC. Clement says "in fifteen years of Tiberius and fifteen years of Augustus" "thirty years were completed," as Augustus died in August of AD14 his last 15 years began from August in 2BC and shows he thought the 28th year of Augustus, corresponded to the 28th year after Cleopatra and that it ended in 2BC.

SUMMARY From these accounts we have at least seven different dates for the start of the reign of Augustus, March 22 44BC, April 18th 43BC, April 13 43BC, August 19 43BC, November 27th 43BC August 31BC and August 30BC, the most popular one being August 43BC, suggesting Jesus was born in the year between August 3BC to August 2BC providing the earlier 41st advocates were correct, while "in" the 28th year of Cleopatra also results in the birth being between August 3BC to August 2BC, or possibly the year beginning from August 2BC. There is also the possibility that the counting of the reign of Augustus was from the death of Julius Caesar making the 42nd reignal year to be from March 3BC to March 2BC, being only six months different from the 41st year but upsetting its compatibility with the 28th year of Cleopatra.

THE CENSUS DECREE EDICT ENROLLMENT OR TAXING OF AUGUSTUS With the number of these that took place as mentioned in Dio Cassius 52:30, Josephus, Cassiodorus (Variarum 3:52) Suidas etc it seems hard to determine anything. According to Ramsay a census was taken in Egypt every 14 years, 9BC, AD6-. In Luke 2:2 the word "apografesthai" is used which means enrollment. Martin points out that "When Herod became king, however, the tribute to Rome ceased and Herod collected all taxes. This continued until AD6/7 when direct taxation was again imposed upon those in Judaea." (The Star, p193) This edict of Augustus may not have been to collect tax but simply to enroll the population and perhaps it did not apply throughout the whole empire, although some thought that Augustus issued a decree to all the territory he ruled and that it was carried out in different countries at different times and in different ways by those who conducted it. (JETS, March 1984 p52) Julius Africanus says that "Herod, knowing that the lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to him, and goaded by the consciousness of his ignoble birth, burned the registers of their families." (The Epistle to Aristides, Ch 5, A-N Vol 6 p127) Augustus may have wanted this special enrollment of names to replace those destroyed by Herod, so "that all the world should be enrolled." (Luke 2:1) Perhaps because Herod was sick near the end of his life and because Herod had been responsible for the destruction of the family records Augustus may have sent Kureniou of Syria to conduct this special enrollment. Peaks Commentary says "-a rescript from Cyrene dated 7/6BC indicates that by then no census of the non-Roman population there had been made." (p728) Luke 2:2 says "this was the first enrollment when Kureniou (translated as Cyrennius or Quirinius) was Governor of Syria." The Syrian legates were:-
          M Agrippa                        23-13BC
          M Titius                           c10-9BC
          S Sentius Saturninus       9-6BC
          Quinctillius Varus            6BC- until after Herod's death.
          Gaius Caesar                     1BC-cAD4
          L Volusius Saturninus     AD4-5
          Publius Sulpicius Quirinius AD6-7 or 11
Some think Kureniou was the Governor of Syria twice but Antiquities 17:9:3 shows Varus remained in office until the time of Archelaus. Tacitus 5:9 also shows this, "After Herod's death, a certain Simon assumed the name of king without waiting for Caesar's decision. He, however was put to death by Quintilius Varus, governor of Syria." Josephus also calls him "President" (Ant 17:10:1) Varus was still in office after Pentecost in 3BC following the Passover in which 3000 Jews were killed. (Ant 17:10:2, Wars 2:2:2, 2:3:1) Luke appears to say that "Kureniou (Quirinius) was governor" of Syria at the time. Peaks Commentary says, "The assumption seems inevitable that Lk 2:2 is an insertion made by a person who wrongly identified the enrollment of Lk 2:1 with the well-known enrollment of Judaea made by Quirinius in AD 6/7." Josephus said Cyrenius was sent into Judah to start taxation, (Wars 7:8:1) so while the AD6/7 decree was to "start taxation" the earlier edict of Augustus that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem for, appears to have only been for the purpose of enrollment and may have been before Kureniou was made governor.
Eusebius of Caesarea says "-Jesus Christ, at the time of the first registration, while Quirinius was Governor of Syria - was born-." (Eusebius 1:5:6, Penguin p17) Eusebius of Caesarea may have misunderstood what Luke wrote. Justin Martyr said, "Jesus Christ was born as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing made under Cyrenius your first procurator in Judea." (First Apology of Justin, Ch 34, A-N Vol 1, p174) He also said "-Christ was born one hundred and fifty years ago under Cyrenius," (Ch 46, p178) which may have also been his incomplete understanding or interpretation of Luke 2:2. Although the later register made in AD6/7 appears to have recorded the birth of Jesus, we do not know if Jesus was or was not included in the earlier enrollment of Augustus when Joseph went to Bethlehem. In the Works of Julian the Emperor he says that Jesus, "with his father and mother - registered his name in the governorship of Cyrenius.", so along with Joseph and possibly Mary, Jesus may have or may not have first been registered in 4BC after his birth in Bethlehem while according to later records he appears to have definitely been registered either for the first or second time in the AD6/7 census under Cyrenius when he was about 10 years old which would have been the record that Justin and other historians were able to access and referred to.
F.F.Bruce suggests "- it may be best to follow those commentators and grammarians who translate Luke 2:2 as `This census was before that which Quirinius, governor of Syria, held'. (N.T. Documents, p87, ref' N.Turner 1965) The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (JETS) Vol 27, March 1984 says the adjective "protos" may mean first, earlier of former which makes Luke 2:2 to mean "This census was BEFORE the census which Quirinius governor of Syria made.", "aute apografe prote egeneto egemo neuontos tes Surias Kureniou." This verse is rendered by M J Lagrange "This enrollment was earlier than that held when Quirinius was Governor of Syria."
It is thought to have been unlikely that it would have been held in winter in Judea, temperatures during December to March are close to freezing. With ice and snow covering the grass the sheep would have no grass to eat. Numerous writers point out that the shepherds kept their flocks under cover during the cold, wet, winter nights of December in the area of Bethlehem and Jerusalem where it also snows and that as the shepherds were out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night, it suggests that Jesus was not born in Winter but in Autumn. December and January have "the greatest rainfall in the year: approximately 6 inches in December, and nearly 8 inches in January. According to all existing information the climate of Palestine has not changed appreciably in the last 2000 years - Bethlehem is in the grip of frost, and in the Promised Land no cattle would have been in the fields in that temperature. This fact is borne out by a remark in the Talmud to the effect that in that neighbourhood the flocks were put out to grass in March and brought in again at the beginning of November." (The Bible as History p336) "These lie in the pastures, which are in the villages, all the days of the cold and heat, and do not go into the cities until the rains descend." "The first rain falls in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to the latter part of our October-" (Hislop, The Two Babylons p91-92) It is thought that Herod followed the customary method of returning the people to their ancestral birthplace as recorded in Luke and so Joseph would have returned to Bethlehem, although as Herod was sick near the end of his life perhaps Kureniou was sent into Judah to conduct the enrollment before he was made governor of Syria and this may have played a part in why Herod knew nothing about the birth of Jesus. If the enrollment in 4BC began before the Feast of Tabernacles, you would expect the census takers would seek to include the child of the obviously pregnant Mary in their register. If the enrollment was after Jesus had been born perhaps Jesus was not registered in 4BC due to the threatening events in Judah before Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with Jesus. The Byzantine chronicler John Malalas of Antioch (AD491-578) says "Augustus IN the 39th year and 10th month of his reign issued a decree". From March the 15th in 44BC this would have been January the 15th in 4BC. If the time John Malalas gives for the issue of the decree by Augustus is correct, and Jesus was born after it was issued, it appears unlikely that Jesus was born before 4BC.

THE SELEUCID ERA (SE) The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy says "In the three hundred and ninth year of the era of Alexander, Augustus put forth an edict, that every man should be enrolled in his native place." (A-N, Vol 8 p405) "in 312BC a Greco-Syrian empire was established by Seleucus one of the generals of Alexander the Great" (Torah Commentary, Plaut p922). "Seleucus reconquered Babylon in August 312BC". (Bickerman, p71) Ptolemy defeated Demetrius Poliorcetes at Gaza on Dec 7 in 312BC and returned to Babylon on April 3 in 311BC. (Judaica, Chron') The dates for the beginning of the two main Seleucid eras are: "In the Macedonian calendar the Seleucid era began with Dios 1 (Oct 7), 312BC.; in the Babylonian it began with Nisanu 1 (Apr. 3), 311BC." (Chronology, Parker and Dubberstein p18 Note 5)  In the book of Calendars by Frank Parise it began on Oct 2nd in 312 BC, this is the N/S date.
The Universal Jewish Ency' calls the first one the "Syrian Seleucidian Era" the one beginning six months later is the Babylonian Seleucid Era, some call them the era of Alexandria and in the Book of Maccabees it is called "the year of the kingdom of the Greeks.", but these are not the only dates that are recognized for the Seleucidian Era;
    1) Some people started year 1 SE immediately after the battle of Gaza and began year 2 a few months later in autumn 312 (SE 1).
    2) The Jews and the Syrians started year 1 SE on October 24th 312, (SE II)
    3) The Babylonians began it on their official New Year's day on April 3rd, 311, while,
    4) the so-called Greek era (of Chaldea) which was especially used in Persia started even later, in autumn 311 (SE III).  (Talmudic and Rabbinical Chronology, p30) "in the ancient usage of Damascus and Arabia Petraea the year began with the vernal equinox." (p31)
Some Syrians began the Greek Era about the start of September 312BC others in October. (Bond, Handy Book of Rules and Tables, p259)
The year began at various times from city to city. (Wacholder HUCA p161)
Bickermans Chronology says "The beginning of the Seleucid year could vary according to the calendar of the city. In the Julian calendar of Antioch, the year began on 1 Dios (1 October)-. (p71)  --[This should not be confused with the Egyptian solar calendar which was reformed sometime about 26BC or 22BC by Augustus to begin on August 29 (O/S) and was brought into harmony with the Julian calendar and is called the fixed Alexandrian year. (Bickerman, p28, 49) According to J.Bond, Augustus reformed the Egyptian calendar in 30BC but it did not take effect until 26BC. (p205) Richards says "Augustus ordered the introduction of Euergete's calendar on 29 August 23BC." (Mapping Time, p156) According to Bond the Era of Alexander began from the death of Alexander on 12 Nov 324BC. (Handy Book of Rules and Tables, p199, 529/BON)]-- According to the Book of Calendars by Parise the 309th Seleucid year was the year between Oct 2 in 4BC to Oct 1 in 3BC (O/S), (p46) but it is uncertain if the author of the Arabic Gospel meant it was "in" the year or "after" the 309th year was completed.

THE BIBLICAL ANCESTRY OF JESUS The Israelites were supposed to only marry within their own tribe to preserve their heritage (Num 36:7-9) Females of the tribe of Levi could loose their inheritance if they married outsiders. (Lev 22:12) Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite (Ex 2:16-21, Nu 31:7, Judges 6) and was accused by Miriam of marrying an Ethopian/Cushite. (Nu 12:1) Aaron the first high priest who was a Levite is said to have had a mixed marriage to Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon/Nahshon of Judah. (Ex 6:23, Nu 2:3) Joseph "was of the house and lineage of David." (Luke 1:27, 2:4) He probably knew Mary's cousin Elizabeth who apparently lived in Bethlehem and was "of the daughters of Aaron" (Luke 1:5) According to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Emerina and Anna were sisters. Emerina was the mother of Elizabeth who was the mother of John the Baptist. Anna married Joachim and they were the parents of Mariam the mother of Jesus, (Ch 42 A-N Vol 8 p382) although in Ch 1 he says Anna daughter of Achar was of the tribe of Judah. Possibly Marys mother was of  the tribe of Levi and perhaps her father was of royal Jewish descent. (See Is 11:1) Zechariah who was a priest, married  Elizabeth who was also a descendant of the tribe of Levi which would preserve their tribal heritage but in some cases a Levite could be thought to be of the "family of Judah" not because of his genes but because of where he lived. (Judges 17:7, Ant' 5:2:8) Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist also said that his son ("John the Baptist") was in "the House of David" (Luke 1:69) when it is clear that John was not a descendant of David but was of the family of Levi. This can be explained if you accept that the reference to the "House of David," is to where he lived rather than from who he was descended from. The TRIBE of Judah was predicted to rule "until Shiloh come" (Gen 49:10-12, and 1 Chron 5:2) Matt 2:1 says Jesus was born in the LAND of Judah, "it is evident that the Lord sprang out of Judah". This could mean either the location of his birth or his tribal descent. (Hebrews 7:14) but this is made more difficult when Matthew 1:1 says that Jesus was the son of David and Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel told Mary that Jesus would be given "the throne of his forefather David." (Lk 1:30-32, Isa 11:1-10) Peter says that Jesus was descended from David (Acts 2:29-30) Paul also says that Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh- (Romans 1:1-4, 2 Timothy 2:8) Heb 7:14 also says he was from the tribe of Judah. Even blind Bartimaeus called Jesus the "Son of David" (Mark 10:47-48) Rev 5:5 refers to Jesus as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David," which implies hereditary tribal descent and Rev 22:16 it says "I am the Root and the offspring of David", "the bright and morning star". In 2 Sam 8:18 we are told Davids sons were priests and 1 Chron 6:4 says David appointed the priests. It appears that popular usage led many to accept that Jesus was a blood descendant of king David.
The two separate genealogies in Matthew 1:16 and Luke 3:23 both claim to be Joseph's lineage from David, "the genealogy of Jesus Christ" but this is impossible because Joseph could only have had one father and could not have descended from two males of two separate families and anyhow Joseph's descent is irrelevant to the fatherhood of Jesus because it is claimed in Matt 1:18-25 and Luke 1:35, that Jesus was conceived "of the Holy Ghost." which means Jesus had none of Josephs DNA, so only Mary's descent determined the ancestry of Jesus and as Mary was the cousin of Elizabeth and Elizabeth was of the tribe of Aaron (Luke 1:5) then Jesus could only be half Jewish at the most, and was at least half Levite and possibly totally Levitical like his cousin John the Baptist but Hebrews 8:4 denies that Jesus was a part of the Levitical family and Jesus was prophesied to be of the "seed" of David not merely a "legal" descendant. The first record of these two genealogies does not appear until after Tatian wrote his "Diatessaron" around AD150. If Jesus was conceived of the holy Spirit then he was not a hereditary Levite or a Jew. Jesus said he was the Son of Man although he was a son of Mary. Many presumed Jesus was a Jew but nowhere, except in the book of Revelation (22:16) does he ever reveal that he had any tribal descent! Jesus even questioned this idea in one of his very final statements in his last public appearance at the temple on the Sunday before he died, saying that the term "son of David" should not be understood literally. (Matt 22:42-45 ) "What think ye of Christ? Whose son  is he? They say unto him, The son of David." He saith unto them, How then doth David in the spirit call him Lord, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son. This is also recorded in Mark 12:35 and Luke 20:44, "How can the Scribes say that the Christ is David's son." At his trial Jesus told Pilate "if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews:" (John 18:36) This shows that Jesus distinguished himself from the Jews. Jesus began his ministry according to Levitical practice at 30 years of age. Hegesippus in Book 5, tells us that "James the Just" who was the brother of Jesus, served in the temple, "He alone was permitted to enter the holy place:" James was apparently regarded as being a Levite which suggests both parents, Joseph and Mary were Levites. Some claim that the genealogy in Luke belongs to Mary but that it was customary in geneaological lists to substitute the name of a wife with the name of her husband, but there is no mention of Mary in the genealogies and she could not have had two different fathers either, one being a Jew and the other a Levite. How could her genealogical descent change from David's sons Solomon or Nathan and result in her being a cousin of Elizabeth, a Levite? Origen (AD185-254) records that people in his time knew "-the discrepancy between the genealogies -" (Against Celsus, 2:32, A-N Vol 4, p444) so we can't blame Constantine (AD325) for making this alteration to the scriptures. If Jesus was descended from Joseph, then as Irenaeus who wrote between AD182-188 shows in "Against Heresies" Book 3, Ch 21, Verse 9, according to Jeremiah 36:30-31, Jechoniah (who is also called Coniah, the son of Joachim) is referred to as "childless" (Jer 22:18-30) Jeremiah also says, "There shall be from him none sitting upon the throne of David.", thus Jesus would be disqualified from sitting upon the throne of David. Jehoiakim had seven sons. (1Chron 3:17-18, 2 Chron 36:8) Floyd Jones calls Coniah, Jehoiachin, and says he was "counted childless" but infers he was not included because he sat on a vassal throne and not on the throne of David. (p294) Whether he did or did not sit on any throne has nothing to do with the fact he existed as a descendant of the line of David. Also if Jesus was descended from Ruth, the wife of Boaz, as the bible geneaologies have it, it would contradict Moab's exclusion "for ever" (Deut 23:3). 

   THE GENERATIONS OF KINGS FROM DAVID 
        DAVID 
   1   SOLOMON
   2   REHOBOAM / ROBOAM
   3   ABIA (Abijam)
   4   ASA
   5   JEHOSHAPHAT / JOSAPHAT (1 Ki 22:41-2)
   6   J(eh)ORAM   1 Ki 22:50, (2 Ki 8:16)
* 7   AHAZIAH / AZARIAH (2 Ki 8:24-25, 9:29. 2Chr 22:1) or Jehoahaz (2 Chr 21:17)
        Athaliah (2 Chr 22:12)
* 8   J(eh)OASH (2 Ki 12:1, 18)
* 9   AMAZIAH   (2 Ki 12:20-21, 14:1)
  10   AZARIAH / OZIAS (UZZIAH) (2 Ki 14:21, 15:1)
  11   JO(A)THAM (2 Ki 15:7) 
  12   AHAZ (ACHAZ / JEHOAHAZ)
  13   HEZEKIAH / EZEKIAS
  14   MANASSEH / MANASSES
  15   AMON
  16   JOSIAH / JOSIAS, Has 4 sons, Johanan, (1Chron 3:4) Eliakim, (Jehoiakim), Mattaniah, (Zedekiah, 2 Kings 24:18) Shallum, (Jehoahaz, Jer 22:11, 18)
  17   JEHOAHAZ (Shallum)
*17   JEHOIAKIM (Jer 22:18)  (son of Josiah, has 2 sons Jeconiah & Zedekiah 1Chr 3:16)
  18   JEHOIACHIN (JEC(h)ONIAH / JECHONIAS / CONIAH) Son of Jehoiakim (2 Ki 24:6, Jer 22:24, granson of Josiah) His sons Asir & Salath
  17   ZEDEKIAH (Mattaniah son of Josiah, the last ruling king of the line of David in Jerusalem 2 Kings 24:17)

Matt 1:17 says there were 14 generations from David to the Babylonian captivity. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were all sons of Josiah so they would all be part of the 17th generation with Jesus descent through Jehoiakim who was made a king in Babylon by Evilmerodach. (2 Kings 25:28) How many generations can you count? It appears to be at least 18! E L Martin in "Tithing" tries to justify the discrepency by saying it was the Jewish method of inclusive counting that accounts for this but when we check 1 Chron 3:9-16 we can see that there are at least four kings who have not been included in Matthew's list, Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:24, 9:29), J(eh)oash (2 Kings 12:1, 18), Amaziah (2 Kings 12:21, 14:1) and Jehoiakim (1 Chron 3:15-16, Jer 22:18) which adds up to a lot more than 14 generations while the genealogical number from the captivity until Jesus only adds up to 12 and not 14 as we are told in Matthew! Appendix 99 of the Companion Bible justifies the "blotting out" of the three generations as being "according to law". According to Epiphanius it was thought that Jeconiah son of Jeconiah was a mistake and so was dropped from the list. (Section 1, 8:2, Brill Vol 1, p28) Matthew, Luke and John regarded Jesus as having been a descendant of Jacobs son Judah through king David, while offering contradictory descent. So was Jesus really Jewish? No wonder Paul urged his perplexed followers to "-avoid foolish questions, and genealogies,-". (Titus 3:9) 
Also, just for comparison in the list below we can see  the variation in the inclusive number of generations from Abraham to David between Judah (14) and Levi (17)

HEROD "THE GREAT"Most of what we know about the life of Herod and the dating of events comes from the writings of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus who was born in the first year of the emperor Gaius (AD37-38) and died about the time of the emperor Domitan about AD100. Josephus wrote his earlier book called the Jewish War (Bell), between AD75-79 and finished his book called the Antiquities of  the Jews about 15 years later in the thirteenth year of Domitan (AD93-94). Josephus tells us that Herod's father was an Idumean called Antipater and that his mother was an Arabian called Cypros and says Herod was born a Jew. (Ant 14:15:2 and 20:8:7)

HERODS 37 YEAR REIGN (This was when Herod was officially proclaimed to be king of Judah by the Romans although he did not gain control over Jerusalem until 3 years and 3 months later) It appears that the Parthians in support of Antigonus the Jewish king caused Herod to flee to Rome (Wars,1:13:7) He went via Thressa in Idumea (Ant 14:13:9) to Malichus king of the Arabians, then to Cleopatra in Egypt who had "put to death her brother, who was her consort in the government, and being then summoned by Anthony to Cilicia to make her defense, committed the care of the sovereignty to Herod; and as he requested that he should not be entrusted with anything until he was restored to his own government, she took him with her and went to Antony" (Julius Africanus 17:1) Cleopatra supplied him with ships (5 Macc 49:29)  "deterred neither by the perils of mid-winter nor by the disturbances in Italy, set sail for Rome." (Wars 1:13:2) but it appears that after leaving Cleopatra with Antony in Cilicia the bad weather got worse and near Pamphylia Herod lost most of the ships cargo but made it to the island of Rhodes where he built a three deck ship which he sailed to Brundusium before arriving at Rome. (Wars 1:14:3, and Ant 14:14:3) Herod on a later trip said "as winter was coming on, he thought it not safe to go to sea." (Ant 16:2:1) In the meantime while Herod was on Rhodes building the ship, Antony had returned to Rome where Herod met him when he arrived. (Ant 14:14:3) Josephus says that Herod told Antony that he had "crossed the sea in the depth of winter-" (Wars 1:14:3) which seems to imply it was during about December or January but he was also delayed for some weeks or months while he had his ship built which may have made the time of his arrival in Rome to be after winter was over. While at Rome he was made king by the senate (1:14:4) "On this the first day of his reign, Herod was given a banquet by Antony. All this time Antigonus was besieging the occupants of Masada-" (Wars 1:14:4 - 1:15:1)
The time that Josephus gives us for the beginning of Herod's 37 year reign is in the 184th Olympiad, which was between July 44BC to July 40BC and when Caius Domitus Calvinus was consul the second time and Caius Asinius Pollio [the first time] which was in AUC714 (40BC) as the 184th Olympiad ended in about July of 40BC Herods 37 year rule according to Josephus began somewhere between January to July in 40BC. [Finegans Handbook says on p101 of the 1998 edition that there are some variations to the Olympiad year due to it overlapping other calendars and because not all early writers agreed upon when the first Olympiad was held but most calculate from July 1 in 776BC. (p93)] 5 Maccabees 50:5 says that Herod's proclamation as king by the Romans commenced an era but the date is not recorded. Later at the time of the rebuilding of the temple Josephus says "for at the same time with this celebration for the work about the temple, fell also the day of the kings inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it now coincided with the other," (Ant 15:11:6) According to the Zikhronot Yemot Olam, (Ozar he-Tefilot, A Collection of Prayers) the dedication of Herod's temple was on the 12th of Adar. (Day by Day, Abraham Bloch, N.Y. 1945) The 12th of Adar would approximately correspond to Tuesday the 16th of March in 18BC (O/S) and in 40BC the 12th of Adar was approximately Thursday the 18th of March (O/S) depending upon slight calendar variations.
Julius Africanus mentions an era he calls "the monarchy and empire of the Romans" (Chronography 17:3)  He says the 11th year of this era was the fourth year of the 187th Olympiad (July 29BC to July 28BC), which would make the first year of this era to fall between July of 39BC to June of 38BC, but if Julius meant that it was the year following the completion of eleven years rather than it being IN the eleventh year then the corresponding Olympiad year of this era probably began in July 40BC. Julius infers that the eleventh year was "in the time of the Ptolemies, and under Cleopatra, the last of these, the date of which event is the 11th year of the monarchy and empire of the Romans, and the 4th year of the 187th Olympiad.", but Cleopatra killed herself in August 30BC which was in the THIRD year of the 187th Olympiad, (July 30BC to July 29BC) If we "correct" Julius by moving the first year of this era of the Monarchy back one year, it would begin from July in 40BC which may help pinpoint the time when Herod was made king by the Romans, but as Josephus says it was the 184th Olympiad, perhaps the 11th year of the Monarchy did not coincide with the Olympiad year but began sometime before it, i.e. March 18. As it appears that Julius Africanus dated events in this period one year ahead, it is also possible that when he says that Herod "went away to Alexandria to Cleopatra. That was the 185th Olympiad" (17:1) this too may have been in the previous year which would have been the 4th year of the 184th Olympiad which began in July 41BC, for it took some time before Herod reached Rome and was declared king, and then returned to Judah to fight. It appears Herod's era and nominal 37 year reign began on the 12th of Adar, Thursday March 18 (O/S) in 40BC.

HERODS 34 YEAR REIGN There is some uncertainty about which year Herod's 34 year of actual reign over Judah began.
Dio Cassius wrote his Roman History in about AD200 and says in Book 49 that Antigonus was killed "in the consulship of Claudius and Norbanus" or 38BC, while Josephus gives the date for the taking of Jerusalem by Sossius in Antiquities 14:15:14, "when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls" which was in 37BC, and Julius Africanus gives the time of Herod setting out to see Cleopatra on his way to Rome as the 185 Olympiad which began in July 40BC which would result in the 34 year reign probably beginning later than 37BC.
The date of the start of Herod's 34 year reign is thought to have been from:
1) the fast day when Jerusalem was taken and Antigonus surrended after having  reigned for three years and three months, or from
2) when Antigonus was killed sometime later,
3) or from when Herod was proclaimed to be king by Antony sometime after this.

THREE YEARS  Josephus regards the time between the beginning of the nominal 37 year reign when Herod was made king by the Romans and the beginning of his actual 34 year reign when he conquered Jerusalem to have been three years. It was just over three years between the time Herod was made king of Judah by the Romans and the time he procured Antigonus to be killed by Antony, also the war lasted for about three years.
Julius Africanus (AD200-245) says in his Chronology Ch 17:2, "For three years they besieged Antigonus" (A-N Vol 6, p136) "this was in the third year of the reign of Herod, which was also the third year of Antigonus." (5 Macc 52:34)  This is the English translation of the Arabic and Syriac copies which comes from the Greek which was believed to have been translated from the original in Hebrew. Moses Chorenensis tells us that Tigran helped Antigonus to gain the throne. (Book 2) Josephus says that Antigonus began his reign from when Hyrcanus was taken, which was between Pentecost 41BC (Ant 14:13:4-10) and when Herod was on his way to Rome. More specifically, Antigonus ruled for 3 years and 3 months from when "Barzapharnes and Pacorus the generals of the Parthians, passed over Euphrates and fought with Hyrcanus and took him alive," (Ant 20:10:4) (246)
Herod was informed of the death of his brother while on his way to Egypt (Wars 1:14:2) and when he arrived at Rome some months later he told Augustus of his brothers death and added that "they had made Antigonus king," (Ant 14:14:3) Josephus says in Wars 1:17:8 "winter was going off" and also in Ant.14:15:14 "When the rigour of winter was over" that "this was the third year since he had been made king at Rome" indicating  that Herod was made king at about this time of year around Adar/Nisan, (Feb/March) in 40BC. So by the time Herod returned from Rome it was probably about summer and after taking Joppa and Masada (Wars 1:15:3) the winter of 40-39BC began, which was spent at Jericho (Wars 1:15:6) The following year 39BC it appears was when Herod takes Sepphoris in Galilee after a 40 day battle (Wars 1:16:2, Ant 14:15:4) and Silo arrives. The winter of 39-38BC comes following which Herod fights the cave dwellers using wooden chests, but Herod leaves Ptolemy to finish the fight while he sets off with his army from Antioch to help Antony at Samosata, summer arrives (Wars 1:17:1, Ant 14:15:9) There is a footnote on p313 of the Kregal edition of Antiquities referring  to the Armenian historian Moses Chorenensis who says that Tigranes the king of Armenia "reigned two years after Herod was made king at Rome," before he died and ,"Tigran did not live more than three years after this -" "Antony heard of Tigran's death - " when he arrived at Samosata (Book 2:21) The account by Josephus is similar, "Antony did not hear of his death, in that very neighbourhood, at Samosata, till he was come hither to besiege it; after which Herod brought him an army, which was 340 miles march, and through difficult country, full of enemies also, and joined with him in the siege of Samosata till that city was taken: then Herod and Sossius marched back with their large armies - to besiege Jerusalem, they were not able to take it but by a siege of five months." Samosata is on the Euphrates river. (Wars 7:7:1) So by the time of Antonys arrival at Samosata before the summer of 38BC Herod had already been made king by the Romans for over two years. This shows a period of about three years since Herod had been made king by the Romans before Antigonus was taken captive in the following summer, which also indicates Herod's reign began in 37BC rather than 38BC, so because Josephus gives the year of the Roman consuls and the Olympiad for the start of  Herod's 37 year reign as January to July of 40BC and the time of the capture of Antigonus as the summer of 37BC with Antigonus being king for 3 years and 3 months with a difference of three years between the length of Herod's reigns of 37 and 34 years it is obvious that he intended it as a period of approximately three years. After this fight Antony goes to spend the winter of 38-37BC with Cleopatra leaving Sossius to help Herod. Antony "went for winter quarters to Egypt - burning with desire for Cleopatra." (Moses Chorenesis - History of Armenia, Book 2, Ch 21) It was in the depth of this winter that Antigonus attacks Samaria when Herod is in the shower. (Wars 1:17:7, Ant 14:15:12)  When this "winter was going off" "This was the third year since he had been made king at Rome". 

THE FAST "This destruction befell the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Canidius Gallus were consuls of Rome, in the hundred eighty and fifth Olympiad, in the third month, on the solemnity of the fast,-" (Antiquities 14:16:4) For those who believe it was a fast in 37BC, which fast was it?
   The fast of Seige of Jerusalem    10th Teveth (2Kings25:1,Jer52:4,Ez24:1)
    "   "   "  Esther                               13th Adar 1 (Esther 9:1,17) Sat Mar 16
    "   "   "  Firstborn                          14th Nisan (Tuesday April 16)
    "   "   "  Jeroboam & firstfruit     23rd Sivan (Sunday, June 23 O/S)
    "   "   "  Breaking of Walls & T  17th Tammuz, Jer36:3,Ta'4:6, Tu July 16.
    "   "   "  Destruction of Temple  7th of Av (2Kings 25:8) or (Jer 52:12)
    "   "   "                 "      "    "          10th of Ab (Thursday August 8, O/S)
    "   "   "  Extinction of light          18th of Av, from days of Ahaz.
    "   "   "  Gedaliah                          3rd of Tishri, 7th month
    "   "   "  Day of Atonement        10th Tishri (Sunday October 6 O/S)

Josephus helps locate this "fast" by saying in (Wars 1:18:2) that "they sustained the siege into the FIFTH month", while Whiston translates this as "they bore a siege of five months," Later in Antiquities (14:16:4) Josephus equates the fast with the THIRD month, which he may have confused with his earlier account of Pompeys siege, which was in the third month. (Wars 1:7:4, Ant 14:4:3) Tammuz 9 in 63BC, both Wednesdays. (Zeitlin, Vol 1, p410-1, 511)

       The third Roman                        month was March
        "    "   Hebrew                                    "     "  Sivan (May/June)
        "    "   Greek                                        "     "  Boedromion (September)
        "    "   Alexandrian & Macedonian "     "  Andynaeus (Nov/Jan)  
        "  fifth Roman                                    "     "  May
        "    "   Hebrew                                    "     "  Av (July/Aug)
        "    "   Greek                                        "     "  Maimakterion (November)

If it was on a fast, the fast of Esther 4:16 which would have been held on Sivan 20-22 is not known to have been kept as a regular annual fast, but it, and the fast on Sivan 23 when Jeroboam stopped the bringing of the firstfruits to Jerusalem are the only likely fasts that are in the third month and in "summer" while the fast of the 10th of Av in the fifth month broadens the time between the beginning of the 37 year reign and the 34 year reign to be near six months, although some references say that Herod did not begin his 34 year reign until after Antigonus had been killed, which would be sometime even later. (It is more logical to think Herod began his 34 year reign from the day he conquered Antigonus) Pentecost is also in the third month of Sivan. In 37BC it was on Sunday June 9, according to the Sadducees method or on Thursday the 6th according to the Pharisees but it is unlikely that it is a candidate.
Ant 20:10:4 says that Antigonus ruled for 3 years 3 months before being besieged and taken captive, so assuming Josephus counted using Hebrew months, counting back for 3 years and 3 months for the start of both of their reigns from the three most likely fasts we have:
   
          FASTS IN 37BC       (O/S dates)     START OF REIGN IN 40BC
   Sivan 23  = Sunday June 23                 Adar 23   = Saturday March 29
   Ab 10      = Wednesday July 31           Iyar 10    = Friday May 14
   Tishri 10  = Sunday October 6             Tammuz 10 = Monday July 12
   
A footnote in Loeb says some think the idea that it was a "fast" came from a non Jewish source which Josephus used and was due to "a mistaken and widespread idea in the Graeco-Roman world that the Jews fasted on the sabbath". Josephus openly acknowledges the use of varying accounts. (Wars 1:13:10) It is possible that Josephus may not have known what "fast" it was, but broadly says that the war began in the middle of winter and ended in the middle of summer. Dio says "The first of them to be captured were those who were fighting for the precinct of their god, and the rest on the day even then called the day of Saturn." (Book 49, Loeb p387)
Ben Zion Wacholder points out the variation in Josephus's accounts of the length of the siege which lasted 5 months (Wars 1:18:2), or 6 months (Wars 5:9:4) (Hebrew Union College Annual, Vol 44, 1973 p165-167) but did Josephus mean the fifth month of the war or the fifth month of the calendar? "they sustained the siege into the fifth month;" If this was the 5th month of a five month siege then the war could have begun two months before the year began and this 5th month of the siege could have been the THIRD Hebrew calendar month of Sivan but if the war was 6 months long (Wars 5:9:4) then the FIFTH month it refers to would be the calendar month of Av. "This destruction befell the city of Jerusalem" "when Marcus Agrippa and Caninus Gallus were consuls at Rome," on the 185th Olympiad on the third month, on the solemnity of the fast." (Ant 14:16:4)  The war could end on the third or fifth calendar month of a 5 or 6 month war, but it makes no sense for the war to have ended on the third month of the war, when it was a five or six month war so it appears to refer to the third calendar month. If it was the third calendar month of a 5 or 6 month war it started 2 or 3 months before the first calendar month but if the war was 6 months then it could only mean it was the 5th calendar month, unless he meant only parts of  6 calendar months and contradicts that it was the third calendar month. Josephus tells us that the taking of Jerusalem by Sossius (in 37BC) was a repetition of what had occurred with Pompey "for the Jews were taken by him on the same day, and this was after 27 years time." (Ant 14:16:4) but he does not explain what day Pompey did this, so we do not know what day either of them were. In Ant' 14:4:3 he says Pompey took the city "on the third month" and in Wars 1:7:4 he says "it was the third month of the seige." In his book of "Antiquities" which was written after he wrote "Wars", Josephus does not mention how many months the seige by Sossius lasted in 37BC and only gives us broadly that the siege began from the "depth of winter" until  saying "it was summertime" when the final 55 days began. (Ant' 14:16:2) References in the bible to the seasons of Spring, Summer and Winter are fairly broad. (Gen 8:22, Matt 24:20, 32, Mk 13:18, 28, Lk 21:30, John 10:22) so when Josephus tells us "it was summertime" (Ant ' 14:16:2) he may have simply meant the 55 days began after winter had past, in what we would say was "spring".

THE 10TH OF AV  There are a few things supporting the war ending on the fast of the 10th of Av. In Ant 14:16:2 Josephus shows us that it was already "summertime" before the final 55 days of the siege began. Av is the fifth month and if the war was 6 months long it began about the 10th of Shevat which was in winter. Counting from the beginning of Herod's 37 year reign on Adar 12 it is right on 5 months but Josephus says the war ended in the "third month" (Antiquities 14:16:4) not in the fourth or fifth calendar month, also when Josephus describes the taking of the temple in AD 70 he clearly associates it with the 10th of Av but although he associates both the accounts of Pompey and Sossius he does not say that either of them happened on the 10th of Av which is an indication that the war in 37BC did not end on the 10th of Av. If the war ended on the 10th of Av then it would make the time until the fall of the temple in AD70 to be exactly 106 years, not 107 and it lengthens the reign of Antigonus by 2 months to make it 3 years and 5 months. Perhaps the reason Josephus tells us the battle was for five months (Wars 1:18:2) was because the actual length of the battle took five months, but because it involved six calendar months presumably from mid Kislev, (January), all Shevat, (February), all Adar, (March), all Nisan, (April), and all Iyar, (May) and didn't end until the middle of Sivan, (June), then Josephus could say that the war was (or involved) six calendar months (Wars 5:9:4) or perhaps because it says "encompassed and besieged for six months" Josephus may have included a month of Jerusalem being "encompassed" before a siege of five months began. It seems the five or six months of the war were counted beginning from the attack by Antigonus which appears to have occurred around the middle of January in 37BC, shortly after this Herod gets married, then after Sossius arrives around mid-April, the 55 days of battle against Antigonus at Jerusalem begins. (Ant 14:16:1-2) "it was summer time" (hardly, but at least it was after Passover ) and a sabbatic year, "the first wall was taken in 40 days and the second in 15 days more" then Antigonus surrenders to Sossius. If the war ended on the 23rd of Sivan then the final 55 days started on or around the 29th of Nisan, (Approximately April) in 37BC (O/S). If Josephus meant the temple was taken on the "fast" of the 10 of Av rather than on the "fast" of the 23 of Sivan in 37BC then the dates of several events would need to be brought forward by between about 45 to 47 days later. (6 or 7 days of Sivan plus 29 or 30 days in Tammuz then 10 more days until the 10th of Av) The beginning of the 55 day siege would then have begun around the 14th or 15th of Sivan, (15+30+10=55) and the start of the 5 or 6 month war would have begun on about the 10th of Shevat or Adar. Josephus tells us the war began when "winter was going off" (Wars 1:17:8) "When the rigour of winter was over"  (Ant.14:15:14) Also if the fast was on the 10th of Av then the date of the completion of the temple in 37BC given in the Zikhronot Yemot Olam as being on the 12th of Adar and which co-incided with Herods inauguration in 40 BC would be in disagreement and would have fallen about 46 days later around about the the 27th or 28th of Nisan in 37BC. Josephus tells us that Antigonus ruled for 3 years and 3 months (Ant 20:10:4) (246) which was the time between Herod being made king by the Romans and when he actually conquered Jerusalem, so then the time from the 12th of Adar to the 10th of Av would have been 3 years and 5 months. Also the date for the start and finish of the temple would have been about 46 days later, but either the third or fifth month does not affect the statement in John 2:13-20, spoken when the temple was 46 years old.

THE MONTHS OF WAR IN 37BC As it is evident that the "third" month is meant to be according to the Hebrew calendar we find it almost coincides with the Julian in 37BC.

Using the varying figures for the war over a period of 6 months we have the events in Josephus laid out in the northern hemispheres seasons of  Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

If the war that began in Samaria "in the depth of winter" ended on the day of the fast of Jeroboam stopping the bringing of the firstfruits to Jerusalem on the 23rd of Sivan and it lasted for six months then it began around the 23rd of Kislev (about the middle of December in 38BC) If the war was for five months then it began around the 23rd of Teveth (about the middle of January in 37BC) This was followed by Herod's marriage to Mariamme almost two months later, near the end of March when winter was "going off" (Wars 1:17:8) Josephus says "winter was over" when Herod married. (Ant 14:15:14) There was some delay while they prepared for their attack upon the first wall, so the attack against the first wall would have started about the 29th of Nisan (approximately April) and lasted for 40 days until about the 8th of Sivan, (June). It was "summertime" (Ant' 14:16:2) when the first wall was broken down, followed 15 days later (from the 9th to the 23rd of Sivan) when the second wall was broken through. (Ant 14:16:2) Josephus says, "This destruction befell the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls of Rome (37BC) on the hundred eighty and fifth olympiad, (the 185th olympiad was from July in 40BC to June in 36BC) on the third month -" (Ant' 14:16:4). The "third month" of the Hebrew year was Sivan. (June) If this reckoning is wrong, then it must be very close!
Tacitus 5:8 says "the Jews were subdued by Gaius Sossius. Antony gave the throne to Herod." Antigonus was taken captive by Sossius "he marched away from Jerusalem and carried Antigonus with him in bonds to Antony." (Ant 14:16:4) Sossius took Antigonus in chains, for according to 5 Macc 52:32-34 "Antigonus was taken prisoner. After these things Sossius betook himself into Egypt to his colleague Antony carrying with him Antigonus in chains" meanwhile it appears that Antony had sailed back with Cleopatra to Italy and then traveled through Greece on his way to Antioch in Syria. (Dio 49:23) Antony intended "to keep Antigonus as his captive" (Ant 15:1:2) and take him to Rome. (Ant 14:16:4)  Dio says "Antony bound Antigonus to a pole, he was flogged, a punishment no other king had suffered at the hands of the Romans and afterwards slew him. (Roman History Book 49, Loeb p387-8) This may have been several months later, for Josephus says that Herod got Antony to kill Antigonus after "giving Antony a great deal of money." (Ant 14:16:4) "At this time Herod, now that he had got Jerusalem under his power, carried off all the royal ornaments, and spoilt the wealthy men of what they had gotten; and when by these means he had heaped together a great quantity of silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony" (Ant 15:1:2)  It was after this when "the nation grew seditious and that, out of their hatred to Herod, they continued to bear good-will to Antigonus he resolved to behead him at Antioch" (Ant 15:1:2) "-Antony had him brought to Antioch, and slain there." (Ant 20:10:1) "then did the axe bring him to his end, who still had a fond desire of life" (Wars 1:18:3) "-when Antony had him brought to Antioch, and slain there. Herod was then made king by the Romans,-" (Ant 20:10:4)  "after putting Antigonus to death, he assumed control of the state;" (Wars 1:33:8) 5Maccabees says much the same thing, "Herod sent to Antony a very great and fair present, requesting him to slay Antigonus" (p159) Josephus also quotes Strabo "Antony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be brought to Antioch and there to be beheaded." (Ant 15:1:1, and 20:10:1) It probably would have been some time between when Antigonus was taken to Egypt and then taken to Antioch where he was killed, which may explain the dating by Julius Africanus: "Antony when about to go on an expedition against the Parthians slew Antigonus the king of the Jews and gave Arabia to Cleopatra and passing over into the territory of the Parthians sustained a severe defeat, loosing the greater part of his army. That was in the 186th Olympiad". The 186th Olympiad began in July 36BC. Wars 1:33:8 says Herod "reigned thirty four years since he had caused Antigonus to be slain, and obtained his kingdom; but thirty seven years since he had been made king by the Romans". This is mistranslated as 36 and 33 years by some, it is 37 and 34. Josephus repeats this in Antiquities, "having reigned since he had procured Antigonus to be slain thirty four years, but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty seven." (Ant 17:8:1) As much as Josephus says Herod's 34 year reign began with the DEATH of Antigonus it appears more likely it began from the DEFEAT of Antigonus which took place 3 years and 3 months after Herod's proclaimation in Rome as king. As we are told in the Zikhronot Yemot Olam that the dedication of Herod's temple (in 18BC) was on the 12th of Adar and as the 12th of Adar in 40BC was on the 18th of March then as Herod's celebration of his inauguration in Rome co-incided with those for the building of the temple, (Ant 15:11:6) then the 37 year reign would have begun on the 12th of Adar in 40BC and his 34 year reign would have begun about 3 years and 3 months later on about the 12th of Sivan in 37BC which was somewhere around the 12th of June in 37BC (O/S) or perhaps on the fast of Jeroboam stopping the offering of Firstfruits which was held on the 23rd of Sivan which would have been on Sunday, June 23 in 37BC (O/S).

COUNTING BACK 107 YEARS Josephus says in Ant 20:10:5 "the number of the high priests, from the days of Herod until the day when Titus took the temple and the city, and burnt them, were in all twenty eight: the time also that belonged to them was an hundred and seven years." but from Av 10 in 37BC to the 10th of Av in AD70 is only 106 years. We need to be careful from when in the year we begin and end counting the years. Counting 27 years from Pompy's victory in 63BC results in 36BC but subtracting 107 years from AD70 results in 38BC. It becomes apparent that Josephus often adds an extra year to the actual number of years. Josephus says that it was "in the second year of Vespasians reign" (Wars 6:4:8) that the destruction of the temple took place, but the flames were due to the Jews themselves. (Wars 6:4:5) Epiphanius also says that Titus captured Jerusalem "in the second year of his father Vespasian's reign." (Sect 1, 5,6, p47) Vespasian became emperor on July 1st in AD69. Tacitus said "Vespasian within two summers occupied with his victorious army the whole of the level country and all the cities except Jerusalem." (Book 5:13, Loeb Vol 3, p193) These were the two summers of AD69 and AD70. The fire that destroyed the temple began on the 9th of the Syrian month of Lous, which is called Av in the Hebrew calendar and is thought to have been Sunday the 5th of August in AD70. At about midday on the following day which was the 10th of Av a soldier threw some of the burning timber through an opening near the sanctuary which spread and burnt the temple down. (Wars 6:4:6) Titus took the rest of the city on the eighth day of Elul (Wars 6:9:1) (probably Sunday 2nd of September) "then after the war the Romans demolished it" (Wars 6:10:1 and 7:1:1) "Thus was Jerusalem destroyed on the very day of Saturn, the day which even now the Jews reverence most." (Dio's Roman History, Book 65, LCL p271) It seems that Josephus includes the short additional time after 106 "reignal" years from the end of the war in 37BC until the 10th of Av in AD70 which was IN the 107th year of the 28 priests as being 107 years, or he may have begun the first year from Nisan 1 in 37BC as being the first Hebrew year followed by 105 complete years and the period from Nisan 1 in AD70 until Av 10 in AD70 as being the last year. A note in Loeb on Ant 20:10:5 p133 simply adds the Roman years 37BC to AD70 to give 107 years. A list of these high priests and the years they were in office can be found in "A Light from the Ancient Past" by Jack Finegan on p262-3 (220.93/57).
Josephus used various calendars having Hebrew, Macedonian and Roman months, Greek Olympiads, Alexandrian years, years of Roman consuls and reignal years. Some believe that Josephus may have used the Jewish method of counting the years of kings from Nisan 1, and as Herod was half Jewish, any time before Nisan 1, even if it was only one day would be considered as being in his first year. "A king who ascends the throne on the 29th of Adar must be considered to have reigned one year as soon as the first of Nisan comes." (Babylonian Talmud New Year, Ch 1) it would be okay to reason that way about Josephus counting Herod's 37 year reign from the beginning of 40BC, but his 34 year reign is shown to have begun in "summer" or even a few months later when Antigonus was killed, so because he regards the difference as only a three year gap between both events it appears probable that his 37 year reign began with Adar 12 in 40BC which was Thursday March 18, (O/S) and his 34 year reign began about three years and three months later on about Sivan 12, (Wednesday June 12) in 37BC (O/S), or perhaps on the fast for Jereboam stopping the bringing of Firstfruits to Jerusalem which was held on the 23rd of Sivan. The Testament of Moses, (also called The Assumption of Moses) which was written in about AD30 which was before Josephus was born, also shows that Herod ruled for 34 years. (Ch 6:6) Julius Africanus says "Herod was declared king of the Jews by the senate and Octavius and reigned 34 years" (Chronology Ch 17:2, A-N Vol 6, p136)  
As the reigns of Antigonus and Herod were simultaneous and Antigonus is said to have ruled for 3 years and 3 months, and the war ended in the third month, then the weight of evidence is that Herod's 34 year reign began from somewhere between about Wednesday the 12th to Sunday 23rd of Sivan in 37BC. Because Herod's 37 year reign appears to have begun before Nisan 1 and since Josephus used the Jewish method of counting kings years, it would result in the 37 year reign ending in March of 4BC, while Herod's 34 year reign from the "summer" of 37BC ends in the "summer" of 3BC. This apparent difference of over one year is only due to the result of the artificial method of regarding the period before Nisan 1 in 40BC as being a full year, but the 34 year reign with the 34th year being between the summer of 4BC and the summer of 3BC shows a later date for Herod's death than the commonly accepted date of March in 4BC

THE SABBATICAL YEAR Sometime after Herod "had got Jerusalem under his power" and was causing "miseries" and before Antigonus was killed, Josephus says "the sabbatic year, - was still going on, and forced the country to lie still uncultivated, since we are forbidden to sow our land in that year." (Ant 15:1:2) Being "summertime" suggests it was not the day of Atonement which is near October in the northern Autumn, and also Josephus shows the "sabbatic year" which would have ended if this had been on the Day of Atonement still continued. Perhaps the reason that some think that the "fast" was the Day of Atonement is that the third month of the Jewish calendar Sivan, (about June) could be confused with the third month of the Olympiad year, Boedromion (September) but the Day of Atonement was about October 6 in 37BC, which was in the FOURTH Olympiad month and not the "third", and as George Ogg says "Attic months were never numbered" (The Chronology of the Public Ministry of Jesus, p156) Bond says the Olympiad calendar was lunar-solar having 12 or 13 months and that Hadrian introduced new Olympiads in AD131, Olympiad 227.3 = 1. (p193) There is uncertainty about when the sabbatical (shevit) years fall for they originally were part of a 50 year cycle that seems to have been lost, and as Plaut (p943-4) points out, Lev 25:10-11 says "fiftieth", not the 49th year. The crops that grew naturally were not to be reaped but could still be eaten. (Lev 25:11-12)  Philo says "allowing the poor to go with impunity over the fields of the rich to gather the fruits which that year grew spontaneously." (On Humanity, Ch 11) and Josephus says "as for the spontaneous products of the soil, the enjoyment of these was to be open to all desirous of them, whether countryman or alien, none of them being kept back. Josephus also tells us that in the 13th year of Herod (June in 25BC to June in 24BC) there was a drought in Judea for two years which appears to have been the two harvests of 25BC and 24BC. Herod bought grain from Egypt for the people and gave some to the Syrians to grow, which according to the system recorded in Josephus would have been in the sabbatical year of 24/23BC. (Ant' 15:9:1) "-I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years." (Lev 25:21) If they were keeping the correct sabbatical cycle, did God break his promise to provide double in the pre sabbatical year? This practice was also to be observed at the end of the seventh week of years. This is the period amounting to fifty years in all, of which the fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews Jobel." (Ant 3:12:3) (Jovel is a rams horn) Leviticus 25:8-10 says that after 49 years they were to "hallow the fiftieth year" which is thought by some to have first been observed by the Israelites in the last 6 months of the Hebrew year that were left of the first year that they entered the Promised land, which was from when the trumpets were blown at the time of the fall of Jericho just after the Passover (Josh 5:10, 6:16) although the correct time to do this was on the Day of Atonement. (Lev 25:9-10) In the Adin Steinsaltz edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Reference Guide p280 the Jewish scholar says "The first of these fifty-year cycles began in the fiftieth year after the conquest of the land of Israel in Joshua's time."
William Whiston gives 31 different years between 1756BC to 1272BC that chronologists have thought was the year after Moses died that Joshua entered the land. These can be found on p707 of early Kregal editions of Josephus, Whiston thought it was 1492BC and the G.N. July/Aug 1997, p22 gives us another one, 1410BC, as the year of the fall of Jericho. Some think it was near 1200BC. The Jubilee "is only observed when the majority of the Jewish people are living in Israel, hence its observance was discontinued during the First Temple period and was never renewed." (Steinsaltz, p199)  "Observance of the Jubilee year ceased before the end of the First Temple period, even though the system of counting the fifty-year cycle may still have been kept up." (p280) The Babylonian Talmud, Abadim 62a says "When did the Jubilees cease to be observed? From the time when Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, came up and carried the Reubenites, the Gaddites and half tribe of Manasseh into captivity" (Vol 2, p623). They received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan river, which was outside the Promised land, before the crossing of the Jordan and they appear to have also been the first to go into captivity. Tiglath-Pileser III ruled from 744BC to 727BC. This was in the days of king Menahem of Israel, 747-737BC. (2 Kings 15:19-29) but as Whiston shows in his dissertation p702, that even after this time, Hezekiah the king of Judah is shown to have been told to observe two years of  rest for the land, which most logically is taken to have been a seventh year followed by a Jubilee year called the "second year". (2 Kings 19:29 and Isa 37:30) but not all historians agree upon when Hezekiah's reign began. "He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years -" (2 Kings 18:22, Chr 29:1) "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah -" (Isa 36:1) Before we try to resolve which year this was it helps to understand there are a number of ways people construct tables of sabbatical cycles. Some think they should rest their land on the 7th year from whenever it was purchased, but this year of liberty was not just any year but was one particular year for all the inhabitants of the land. (Lev 25:10) Some think we should count in 50 year cycles from the creation in 4004BC. Others use continuous 7 year sabbatic cycles that start from 3761/60BC and make the first year of the next 49 year cycle to be a Jubilee but Wacholder makes 3761/3760BC to have been a Jubilee which makes his sabbatic cycle fall one year later. Out of the seven possible alternative years, these are the two main cycles that most students of history use, although Floyd Jones uses unbroken cycles of seven years, Nisan to Nisan, with the Jubilee year Tishri to Tishri overlapping two years every 49 years. (Chronology, Floyd Jones, p288) "There is a controversy among the Tannaim (first century scholars) as to whether the Jubilee Year was reckoned as the first year of the new Sabbatical cycle (in which case, the Jubilee period would last only forty-nine years), or whether the fiftieth year that followed the seventh Sabbatical cycle was a special additional year (in which case the Jubilee period would be fifty years)." (p280). Judah, (c AD130) said the Jubilee was not counted as a separate year. (Zeitlin, Vol 1, p219) "according to the opinion of R Juda" - The Yobel "was at the same time the first of the next Shmittah - The Sages - hold that the Yobel interrupts the counting," (Erachin 33a) (Talmudic and Rabbinical Chronology, p66) The Book of Jubilees and the Samaritans use the 49 year cycle. (Judaica, Jubilee) Whiston agrees with those who said "the Jewish year of jubilee was always the first of a sabbatic week of years; - So that every 49th and 50th year were, the former a sabbatic year, and the latter a year of jubilee, without any interruption of the sabbatic cycles by the jubilees." (Kregal, p700) As it is thought that the sabbatical cycle is to be seen historically as only being kept every seventh year with the observance of the 50th or Jubilee year being understood to coincide with the first year of the next 7 year cycle, then like the system used in the book of Jubilees the only way to get 50 years between Jubilees is to use inclusive counting. This cycle of counting continuous unbroken seven year sabbatic/Jubilee cycles from the start of the AM era in 3761BC is used in Israel today. Mark Kaplan says "Ambassador College, Big Sandy, had an agricultural program and decided that its seventh year would begin in the fall of 1972. The College later discovered that Israel would observe its land rest that same year." (The Journal, August 2000, p3) If we include the 7x7 year system with a separate Jubilee on the 50th year, because we do not know which is the Jubilee year we end up with 50 possible alternative options as to the Jubilee year cycle because it could fall on any one of the fifty years and adding these to the 7, seven year cycle alternatives, we have a total of 57 different varieties to choose from (like Heinz soup) If we can isolate the Jubilee in the days of Hezekiah it would help to narrow this down. The two systems do harmonize for 50 years every 350 years and perhaps by coincidence the period between Isaiah around 700BC and the time of Christ is double that time but both systems cannot be right. Although some would say that preference should go to the original system used in the time of Isaiah and Hezekiah, we can ponder the 50 year system used in the time of Isaiah later but as it is apparent that the 49 year cycle was the historically acknowledged system that was in use from the time of the Babylonian captivity and so is the most relevant system to help us figure out the years and dates during the Herodian period. Most accept the dates given in the following table.

Examining these various ideas about which year is thought have been the 14th year of Hezekiah, which appears to have been a sabbatical year, the views range from about 728BC to 675BC. If 38/37BC was a sabbatical year then counting back in steps of 7x7 years from 38/37BC results in the closest and most likely years that harmonize with this sabbatical system to have been 709BC, 702BC and 695BC. The year 702BC appears to be the most favourable because it agrees with the Assyrian records of it being during the years of the third campaign of Sennacherib's reign (705-681BC). Using later sabbatic years such as 688BC and 681BC becomes progressively less likely because they become far too late. Some may ponder whether 704BC being 14 Jubilees (of 50 years) before the birth of Jesus in 4BC might be significant and would show that using a 49 year cycle is wrong. We are told Hezekiah had 15 years added to his life from the time Isaiah spoke to him in the 14th year if his reign which appears to have been a sabbatical year with the following year being a Jubilee year. If Samaria was taken captive in 721BC and Hezekiah began to reign 6 years before this occured in 727BC then his 14th year would have been around 713BC and the closest sabbatical year according to the 49 year cycle would have been 709BC (710/709BC). (Using a 50 year cycle we could make 713BC or 712BC to have been the Jubilee year.)
The following table shows 710/709BC which would have been the sabbatic year according to a 49 year cycle when counting back from 38/37BC and this results in the following year of 709BC/708BC to have been a Jubilee year, which is clearly out of step with the commonly accepted pattern of Jubilee years according to the 49 year cycle based on 3761BC.

For anyone wanting to follow this 50 year system today, a short table for the 21st AD century follows.

We have no proof of whether Jesus' ministry began in a seventh year, in a Jubilee year, from the first year of a new 7 year cycle or none of these. His reading from Isaiah 61:2 about "the year of the Lords favour" or "the acceptable year" (Luke 4:19) may have been prophetic and as this was read sometime after his 40 day fast and probably well after the day of Atonement it would be strange that he would be proclaiming the sabbatical year when it was already half over, but as some hold that he was the one who is said to have given the original 50 year system to Moses on Sinai (Ex 23:11, Lev 25:4-5, 26:34, 2 Chron 36:21, Jer 25:11-12) it would be difficult to imagine that he changed the system mid-stream but presently there is uncertainty about whether any of the sabbatic years recorded in history are correct. Although we cannot prove that 38/37BC was or was not a sabbatic year, Josephus at least, appears to have believed it was, and if it was, then using this 49 year cycle, Jesus apparently began his ministry in the first year of one of its seven year cycles, in AD 27/28. Using the 50 year system and counting from as closely as can be determined from the Jubilee falling in the vicinity of 704BC, approximately 700 years before the birth of Christ, it is apparent that neither AD26/27 or AD27/28 was a Jubilee year that began his ministry .

THE EARTHQUAKE Josephus mentions an earthquake which he says happened IN the seventh year of Herod's reign. "in the seventh year of his reign when the war about Actium was at the height at the beginning of the spring the earth was shaken and destroyed. (Wars 1:19:3) "At this time it was that the fight happened at Actium between Octavius Caesar and Antony, in the seventh year of the reign of Herod and then it was also that there was an earthquake" (Ant 15:5:2) The Actium war ended on September the 2nd in 31BC and the earthquake which he says occurred in the spring IN Herod's seventh year, which was from the summer of 31BC to the summer of 30BC appears to have struck around March or April of  30BC because Josephus says it was IN his seventh year. If Herod's reign began from the Day of Atonement then the battle of Actium would have been in his 6th reignal year. While we are looking at the years of Herod we can see that if the first year of Herod's 34 year reign was from June in 37BC to June in 36BC then his 18th year, the year in which Josephus says Herod undertook rebuilding the temple was between June 20BC to June 19BC.

FORTY AND SIX YEARS Just before the first Passover of Jesus' ministry, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and drove all the "buyers and the sellers" out of the temple. (John 2:13-20) In the discussion that followed the Jews said "forty and six years was this temple in building-". If, as Josephus tells us, the first year of the temple began in the 18th year of Herod's reign and the 18th year of Herod's reign was between June of 20BC to June in 19BC, then the beginning of the 46th year since the work of building the temple commenced, was between June of AD26 to June of AD27 and so from its commencement, the temple turned 46 years old sometime after June in AD27 and remained 46 years old until at least June of AD28 and the only Passover in the twelve months while the temple was 46 years old was the Passover of AD28 which was the first Passover of Jesus' ministry when the Jews said "forty and six years was this temple in building". As this was the first Passover of a 3 1/2 year ministry, his ministry ended three years later at the Passover of AD31 having begun six months before the first Passover, at the Feast of Tabernacles in AD27 when Jesus was baptized by John when Jesus was about 30 years of age. 30 years before his baptism is when Jesus was born at the Feast of Tabernacles in 4BC. Even though there was an unspecified time after Herod's announcement of his intention to reconstruct the temple which was spent in organizing and preparing for the work, the work of building the temple could not have been said to have begun any earlier than Herod's 18th year although the off-site preperations did and probably began around three years earlier in Herod's 15th year, which would have been from June 23BC to June 22BC. (Wars 1:21:1) Herod said "He would not pull down their temple till all things were gotten ready for building it up entirely again. And as he promised them this beforehand, so he did not break his word with them, but got ready a thousand wagons, that were to bring stones for the building, and chose out ten thousand of the most skillful workmen, and bought a thousand sacerdotal garments for as many of the priests, and had some of them taught the arts of stone-cutters, and others of carpenters, and then began to build, but this not till everything was well prepared for the work." (Ant 15:11:2) "the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months; - They feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple." Josephus tells us "for at the same time with this celebration for the work about the temple, fell also the day of the kings inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it now coincided with the other," (Ant 15:11:6) Herod's inauguration in Rome in 40BC was marked by a banquet attended by Augustus and Antony. (War 1:14:4 and Ant 14:14:5) This appears to have been the ceremony that Josephus is referring to, which he says, "coincided" with the completion of the temple. According to the Zikhronot Yemot Olam, (Ozar he-Tefilot, A Collection of Prayers) the dedication of Herod's temple was on the 12th of Adar. (Day by Day, Abraham Bloch, N.Y. 1945) The 12th of Adar would approximately correspond to Tuesday the 16th of March in 18BC (O/S) It would be easy to jump in and simply count back for "a year and six months" from the 12th of Adar in 18BC to arrive at the 12th of Elul in 20BC as the date when the work on the temple began but that does not consider it would be unlikely that Herod would completely demolish the old temple just before the Feast of Sukkot and so the demolition may have either been delayed or there was only some partial demolition until after the Feast of Sukkot. Also it is not impossible that Josephus was referring to the celebration for the inauguration of Heros's 34 year reign which was probably on either the 12th or 23rd of June in 18BC and should not be confused with the actual time the work of building the temple began which Josephus tells us began "one year and six months" earlier. Exactly just what Josephus meant by "one year and six months" is a bit unclear. Did the first year begin from the 12th of Tishri and end on the 12th of Tishri the following year or perhaps from the start of Tishri until the end of Elul and how were the "six months" counted? Were they counted as complete months or did they start from some particular day of the first month until some particular day in the sixth month, eg, the 12th of Elul to the 12th of Adar? The building work may have started just after the feast of  Sukkot, (Tabernacles) in the Hebrew month of Tishri which finished on the 22nd of Tishri, (October in 20BC) and this was in Herod's 18th year which was from Adar in 20BC until Adar 19BC or from Sivan 20BC until Sivan in 19BC, depending upon whether Josephus was referring to Herod's 37 year reign or his 34 year reign. The work went on for "a year and six months" but they may not have all been complete months but perhaps were only part of Tishri and part of Adar and until either Adar or Sivan of 18BC which are the only two possible dates for the celebration of the completion of the temple which co-incided with the date of either of Herod's inaugurations. By counting back "a year and six months" it shows the work of building the temple could have begun in Elul/Tishri or Tevet of 20BC and so makes the first year of the temple to have been from Elul/Tishri or Tevet in 20BC and lasted until Elul/Tishri or Tevet in 19BC. This would mean the 46th year since the temple began to be built would have been from Elul/Tishri or Tevet in AD26 to Elul/Tishri or Tevet in AD27. At the completion of this 46th year the temple then turned 46 years old and the only Passover that fell while the temple was 46 years old was the Passover of AD28. Those who think that Jesus died in AD30 may want the 18th year of Herod to have commenced with the time of Herod's inauguration in Rome in 40BC rather than when he conquered Antigonus in 37BC and would say the 18th year of Herod should begin in Adar of 20BC, although Adar in 20BC would have only been in the 17th year of Herod's 34 year reign and this idea cannot be correct because adding "a year and six months" until the completion of the temple would end in Elul of 19BC and this does not co-incide with the date of Herod's inauguration at Rome. Using this earliest of dates still results in the earliest date that co-incides with either of Herod's inaugurations to be in Adar of 18BC. They then need to count back "a year and six months" from this date and would have to admit that the work began no earlier than in Elul or Tishri of 20BC, so it doesn't matter if you use the Roman calendar, the Hebrew calendar or the years of Herod's reign, you still come up with the same result. The first year of the temple ended in either Elul/Tishri or Tevet of 19BC which has the same results as using the years of the 34 year reign and makes the 46th year of the temple to have fallen in either Elul/Tishri or Tevet of AD26 and ended in Elul/Tishri or Tevet of AD27. At the end of this 46th year the temple became 46 years old. As the statement in John 2:20 mentioning the forty sixth year of building the temple was spoken nearly ten years before Josephus was born, it was not influenced by any misunderstanding by Josephus about when Herod made his speech. The work of building the temple in Herod's 18th year began "a year and six months" before the celebration of Herod's inauguration and so the work probably started just after the Feast of Sukkot in 20BC and may have included an additional intercalery month as there was in the Babylonian calendar in March of 19BC. The temple turned 46 years old either in Elul/Tishri or Tevet of AD27 and only remained 46 years old until either Elul/Tishri or Tevet of AD28. Fred Coulter in his book called "A Harmony of the Gospels" (Third edition, 2001, pages 22-32) using the historical data in Josephus, concludes that Jesus was born in 5BC and died in AD30, but this conclusion appears to result from a mistaken idea about which year was the 46th year, and it is easy to make mistakes. The rebuilding of the temple began in the 18th year of Herod's reign. Herod's 34 year reign began around June in 37BC and this is the reign Josephus refers to when he dates events that occured during Herod's life, so Herod's 18th year was between about June in 20BC to June in 19BC. Counting 46 years from the start of the rebuilding of the temple Coulter arrives at AD26, which was only "IN" the 45th year, but the Jews said "Forty and six years was this temple in building." (John 2:20). The completion of 46 years from 20BC, ends in AD27, so the first Passover following this when the Jews made their statement was in AD28 and not in AD27. This is not the only mistake Coulter makes in his book. Although the second temple was dedicated on the third day of the winter month of Adar in Ezra 6:15 which appears to have been the same month that Herod completed his rebuilding of the temple, Josephus shows other additions to the temple were not completed until about AD66 in the time of Agrippa 2, (Ant 20:9:7) but there is no mention of any celebrations being made for these, while the feast of Dedication in John 10:22 was Hanuka which the book of 1 Maccabees 4:52-59 shows began on the 25th of Kislev in 164BC and was originally a delayed observance of the feast of Tabernacles and not its rededication. (2 Macc 1:9, 10:6) The statement in Wars 1:21:1 that it was in Herod's 15th year that he began to rebuild the temple cannot be reconciled with John 2:20 as it would result in the 46th year being AD23 and that was before Pilate became governor in AD26 and so the actual construction of the temple had to begin in or after 20BC on this point alone. Counting from the sabbatical year of 38/37BC then 24/23BC was also a sabbatical year and it was probably in the last few months of this sabbatical year when the off-site preparations to build the temple first began, in the 15th year of Herod (June 23BC to June 22BC) while the actual work on the temple site when Herod "took away the old foundations" (Ant' 15:11:5) did not start until his eighteenth year, which began in June of 20BC. Josephus also mentions that after the 17th year of Herod's reign was completed that Augustus visited Syria (Ant 15:10:3) which is confirmed in Dio 54:7 (LCL p299) where he says that Augustus was in Syria and visited Tyre and Sidon in the year that M. Appuleius and P. Silius were consuls (20BC) this also confirms that Herod's 34 year reign began in 37BC. This was at the time of Varo of Syria (Wars 1:20:4). Augustus also made Herod a procurator of Syria in 20BC. (Wars 1:20:4, Ant' 15:10:3) In 40BC when Herod was made king by the senate in Rome he was given a banquet by Antony (Wars 1:14:4) but we are also told that after his victory over Jerusalem, which was in 37BC, "Herod was then made king by the Romans", (Ant 20:10:4) so Josephus tells us Herod became king in both 40BC and also in 37BC but Josephus makes no mention of any celebration being made at the start of Herod's 34 year reign and unless there was some celebration at the beginning of his 34 year reign that is not mentioned when he conquered Jerusalem in Sivan (June) of 37BC or after Antigonus was killed, it appears there is little reason to think that the celebration at the completion of the building of the temple was for anything but for the date that co-incided with those for his inauguration at Rome in 40BC. It is possible that the Herodians continued the practice of celebrating the date of the inauguration of Herod or the completion of the temple on the 12th of Adar each year which took place about a month before the Passover and they would remember that the work began "a year and six months" beforehand, so they would be very aware that the temple was forty six years old at the time when Jesus first drove the "buyers and the sellers" out of the temple when he arrived there in AD28. (John 2:15) According to the Zikhronot Yemot Olam the celebration for the temple was in Adar (about March of 40BC) and according to Josephus it co-incided with Herod's inauguration at Rome, so then counting back for one year and six months to the commencement of the work of building the temple, it appears that the first year of the work probably began immediately after Sukkot on the 23rd of Tishri in 20BC and ended on the 22nd of Tishri the following year (19BC) and the following "six months" were perhaps made up of the last eight days of Tishri in 19BC, then all of Heshvan, Kislev, Teveth and Shevat and the first 12 days of Adar in 18BC. If the temple was finished on the date when Herod began his 34 year reign in Sivan of 37BC the "year and six months" would have been approximately three months earlier, but also, if so, Josephus would probably have said that the celebration for the building of the temple co-incided with his conquest over Jerusalem rather than saying that it was because it co-incided with his inauguration as king.

HASAMONEAN RULE Josephus records a speech made by Herod after Antigonus was killed by Antony where Herod says that Hasmonean rule had ended after 125 years, (Ant 17:13) but Josephus appears to contradict himself when he says, "thus did the government of the Asamoneans cease, a hundred and twenty six years after it was first set up" (Ant 14:16:4), again Josephus possibly counted using Jewish reignal years.
In 167BC the temple in Jerusalem was desecrated by the Assyrian king Antiochus 4, (Epiphanies) and was rededicated 2 or 3 years later on the 25th of Kislev, the ninth Hebrew month, which is celebrated around December or early January. 2 Maccabees 10:3 says it was after a lapse of 2 years, Josephus says that it was after 3 years (Ant 12:7:6), in Wars 1:1:19 he says Antiochus held Jerusalem for 3 years 6 months. It was from this time that the feast of Dedication or Hanuka began. Josephus giving the date for Hanuka makes the 148th Alexandrian year to continue beyond October to include Hanuka, he says it was the 154th Olympiad, but the 148th Alexandrian year would have ended in October 164BC, otherwise Hanuka in the 148th Alexandrian year would have been in the previous year of 165BC which was in the 153rd Olympiad, so it seems he is using the Babylonian Seleucid calendar year here, which does not end in October but ends 6 months later in Nisan, or about April. In 1 Macc 4:52 it says that the temple was rededicated on the 25th of Chislev in the 148th year, and it was shortly after this that king Antiochus died in the 149th year (1 Macc 6:16)
In 2 Maccabees the events are reversed and Antiochus dies (9:28) and then the temple was rededicated on Kislev 25 (10:5), and later letters are dated in the year 148, (11:21,33,38) so adding 125 or 126 years on to 148 or 149 gives us the years of 273 (39BC) to 275 (37BC) when the Hasmonean rule ended, so according to this it appears that the completion of the 37 year reign of Herod would have ended in the spring of 3BC and the completion of the 34 year reign would have been in the summer in 3BC or soon after.

ARCHELAUS Josephus is careful to explain that Herod's son Archelaus was "not indeed to be king of the whole country, but ethnarch of the one half of that which had been subject to Herod" (Ant 17:11:4) but in 17:13:4 Josephus calls him "king Archelaus" who dreamed he saw 9 ears of corn which represented the years of Archelaus's reign, (Wars 2:7:3) "in the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna" could mean anytime in the 12 months after his 8th year. Dio Cassius (AD150-235) says that Archelaus was deposed during the consulship of Lepidius and Arruntius which was in AD6. (Roman History 55:27) In the book of Antiquities Josephus says Archelaus dreamed he saw 10 ears of corn. (Ant 17:13:3). He says it was IN the 10th year of Archelaus, which could be anytime in the 12 months after the 9th year following the death of his father Herod. Josephus repeats this in "The Life of Flavius Josephus" (Ch1) where he tells us his father was born "in the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus". Cyrenius arrives after Archelaus has gone and sets about taxing Judea which Josephus says was "in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium" which was on September 2nd in 31BC. The first year was 30BC, making the 37th year to be from September in AD6 to September in AD7, so it appears that the 9th or 10th year of Archelaus which was immediately before this, was in AD6, so counting back 10 years makes the first year of Archelaus to have been 4BC or if his banishment was in his 9th year then it was 3BC, but as Herod was still alive in 4BC and Herod's 34th year of reign did not end until the "summer" of 3BC then Archelaus's first year could only have begun in 3BC and if it was 3BC then the 34th year of Herod in which he died was sometime late in 4BC or before the Passover of 3BC, making his reign perhaps 6 months short of 34 years but IN his 34th year. Archelaus's reign could not begin any later than 3BC or else his reign would have only been 8 years and Herod could not have died any earlier than in June of 4BC or else his reign would have been less than "in" his 34th year, and so his reign would have only been 33 years. Archelaus was made king by his father Herod but Archelaus wanted to wait until this was authorised by Augustus. (Wars 1:33:8) He intended to go to Rome immediately. (Ant 17:9:1) but did not go until after Passover and was in Rome at Pentecost. (Ant 17:10:2) While at Rome Antipater said Archelaus "in deeds had long exercised royal authority." (Wars 2:2:5) This all agrees with the comment on Antiquities 17:9:3 made on page 575 of the Kregel edition, "This Passover, when the rebellion here mentioned was moved against Archelaus, was not one, but thirteen months after the eclipse of the moon already mentioned."
Epiphanius says "Archelaus was king for nine years." (Panarion Sec 1, 2:3) Probably the reason for the variation between 9 and 10 years is because although Archelaus took control immediately after his father died and acted as if he was the king up until the Passover of 3BC, when he had 3000 Jews killed who had come to the feast, (Ant 17:9:3) he then had to go to Rome to explain his actions and was not officially given rulership by Augustus until sometime after this which was well into 3BC.
In the book of Wars, which Josephus wrote first, it gives the 9 reignal years that began on Kislev 8 in 4BC (November 27, O/S), (Tuesday 25th, Pontiffs) [the day after Herod's death] until Archelaus is exiled sometime during AD6, while in Antiquities where Josephus refers to Archelaus as "king", he uses the Jewish method of counting the years of kings, saying it was ten years, which makes the period between Herod's death until Nisan 1 in 3BC to be counted and included as a year. Archelaus is said to have died in exile in 16CE (Ency' Judaica) The nine year reign of Archelaus from November of 4BC would have been completed in November of AD6 but just as in the case of Herod's reign of 33 years and 7 months being regarded as 34 years, so too the reign of Archelaus was probably a bit less than nine full years. Josephus also tells us about Phillip the son of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, who reigned for 37 years and died IN the 20th year of Tiberius (Ant 18:4:6) Ernest Martin says that Philip died in AD36 in the 22nd year of Tiberius and that 20th is a mistranslation. (The Star p112-113 & p227) George Ogg says that "Philip, died in the winter of AD 33/34." (The Chronology of the Public Ministry of Jesus, p259) Phillip was left in charge of Judea when Archelaus went to Rome after the Passover following Herod's death. (Wars 2:2:1) Beginning to count from the death of Augustus in August AD14 the 20th year of Tiberius would be the year between August of AD33 to August AD34, counting back 37 years is the year between August 4BC to August 3BC which shows that here in the book of Antiquities he has used Jewish years as he does with the 10 years of Archelaus otherwise 37 years after the reign of Phillip began would have been the 21st year of Tiberius (AD34-35) Also there are coins with "year 37" of Philip being AD33-34, showing his reign began in 4BC. (BAR, July/Aug 2013) This shows that Josephus considered the reigns of both Phillip and Archelaus beginning together from sometime before Nisan in 3BC but as he shows Herod ruling in 4BC it would logically have been from the death of Herod on Chislev/Kislev 7, Monday Nov 26th (O/S) (or 24th, if using Pontiffs calendar error) There are also coins of the 43 year reign of Herod Antipas which ended in AD39 showing that his reign also began year 1 in 4/3BC. (BAR, July/Aug 2013 and Jan/Feb 2014)

MARCH OR NOVEMBER Well, why do people believe that Herod died in March of 4BC (or in April before the Passover), instead of November. Zeitlin says Adar 28 (Vol 2 p381) It is commonly believed that Herod died shortly after he burnt Matthias "alive along with some of his companions, on the same night there was an eclipse of the moon, but Herod's illness became more and more severe" (Ant 17:6:4) again there are varying opinions as to which eclipse Josephus meant.

   The Julian (O/S) dates for eclipses during this time are:-
 6:35pm  to  8:35pm on Thursday   March 23  in 5BC total (day before P/O)
 8:25pm  to 10:25pm on Friday     September 15 5BC total (2d before Jos' FoT)
 12:55am to  2:55am on Tuesday    March 13  in 4BC partial (day after Purim)
 11:20pm to  1:20am on Fri/Sat    Jan 9-10  in 1BC total (after Herod's death)

Ernest Martin says that Herod would not have burnt them on March 13 in 4BC because he says it was during Purim and thinks it was the eclipse at 12:21am on Saturday January 10 in 1BC (O/S) (The Star, p139), but if a Purim burning was out of the question how much less likely would a sabbath holocaust have been. Josephus distinguishes the Matthias who was burnt on the night of the eclipse from a High Priest who was also called Matthias who was temporarily replaced by another priest called Joseph on the Day of Atonement. In Fred Coulters book called "A Harmony of the Gospels" (Third edition, 2001, p22-32) he claims that Josephus connects these events on the Day of Atonement to the events on the night of the eclipse of the moon and so concludes the eclipse in Josephus occurred in September 5BC but Josephus only says that this event of the replacement of the high priest was "during the time of the high priesthood of this Matthias,-" (Ant 17:6:4) Josephus makes the connection of two people with the same name, not that the eclipse was connected and took place at the same time of the events surrounding the Day of Atonement. It seems unlikely that it was the eclipse on Thursday March 23, 5BC (O/S) because if Herod died shortly after this eclipse then as Herod's reign is said to have been for 34 years, this would only make it 32 years, while the eclipse in September 5BC would make it only 32 1/2 years although it depends upon how long it was thought that Herod lived after it, so it appears more likely to have been the partial eclipse that occurred early on Tuesday the 13th of March in 4BC following the burning of Matthias, Judas and their companions at Jericho a few hours earlier on Monday night the 12th of March. (O/S)
Josephus seems to give us the impression that Herod was about to croak at any time so most historians have compressed the events that followed to fit into the 30 days before the Passover on Wednesday the 11th of April in 4BC, (O/S). Josephus does not give any date or say that Herod died at this time which would be only 36 years after being made king, not 37. The only record we have that gives the date of Herod's death is the Jewish Megillat Ta'anit (the scroll of fasting) which was written in the first century by Hezekiah ben Garon, his son Eliezer ben Hananiah is also said to have written it or added to it (Judaica), and it gives the date as Kislev 7, which would have been Monday, November 26th in 4BC (O/S), but a note on p314 of the Loeb edition of "The Jewish War" Book 1, says it is unrecorded and was said by a late Scholiast.
Look at the events that are thought to have fitted into the 30 days between the eclipse of 4BC and the Passover. Josephus says Herod's sickness began just after he sent ambassadors to Rome and grew worse. This does not appear to have been immediate but was over some period of time as the ambassadors would have taken a few weeks or months to get to Rome and back.. Josephus tells us they returned while Herod was still alive. (Ant 17:6:1).
Herod calls for Physicians and crosses the Jordan river for treatment in the warm baths of Callirrhoe this may have been some weeks or months after the eclipse. Herod also had a special hot oil bath made and was probably away for at least some weeks. After this treatment he returned to Jericho (Ant 17:6:5) but evidently following this he then moved back to Jerusalem where he called all the principal men from the entire nation to him, by letter. (Ant 17:6:5) Some think that it would have taken over a month just for this alone to be done. Herod appears to have set about locking the Jews up sometime shortly after Jesus was born and possibly just before the 40 days for Mary's purification ended around the middle of November of 4BC. This gathering appears to have been the same event as Matthew 2:7, which was done in response to the arrival of the Magi from the east and their inquiries about where they could find the new-born king. Herod made plans to have all the principal men killed with darts when he died, he ordered that one out of every family should be slain. Perhaps Josephus did not know what caused Herod to do this. Macrobius Theodosius wrote about the reaction of Augustus when he heard that Herod had killed infants under two years of age and his son Antipater , "On hearing that the son of Herod, king of the Jews, had been slain when Herod ordered that all boys in Syria under the age of two be killed, Augustus said, 'It is better to be Herods pig than his son'" (Saturnalia, Book 2:4:11) This quote from  Macrobius shows that Herod ordered both the killing of the infants and his son Antipater, who was to inherit the throne, at the same time. Josephus tells us this slaughter was just five days before Herod himself died so this would probably have taken place on Wednesday the 21st of November in 4BC, (O/S). In the History of Armenia it says that while Herod was sick he deployed an army against Persia that was defeated and Herod died soon after this. After Herod's died his sister Salome released the Jewish leaders from the hippodrome in Jerusalem and held a meeting in the Ampitheater in Jericho. (Wars 1:33:8, Ant 17:8:2) Josephus makes it clear that this Ampitheater was in Jericho (Wars 1:33:8) but he does not bother to specify where the Hippodrome was, probably because he thought there was no need to mention its location because everyone knew the Hippodrome was in south Jerusalem. (Ant 17:10:2) Josephus mentions the Hippodrome in other places, (Ant' 17:6:5 and 17:8:2) but doesn't bother to say where it was. If all these events had taken place at Jericho why would Josephus need to mention that he meant the theater in Jericho? So people would not think he meant the Ampitheater at Jerusalem. Perhaps Herod returned to Jericho just before he died or his funeral was taken there. Josephus says "the body was carried 200 furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried" (Wars 1:33:9)  Herodium is about 7 miles S.E. of Jerusalem and is about 23 miles by road (200 furlongs) from Jericho and the funeral procession went 8 furlongs a day to Herodium. Archelaus  mourned "till the seventh day" (Ant 17:8:4) In a note in Loeb it says the funeral procession took 25 days and a commentary in Josephus says the passover in Antiquities 17:9:3 was 13 months after the eclipse. Before the funeral the soldiers appointed  Archelaus as the king and congratulated him. (Ant 17:8:2, ) Archelaus was in charge of the soldiers at the time of the passover  when he had 3000 Jews killed, and all this is thought to have happened in the 30 days from the eclipse of Tuesday 13th of March in 4BC to the Passover on the 11th of April in 4BC. Although the eclipse was probably the one in March of 4BC, it doesn't really matter if it was an earlier one as we are not given any exact length of time from when it occured for the events that followed it until the time when Herod died. If Herod had died in March 4BC as some historians say, then Josephus could not have said that Herod had ruled for 34 years because from June in 37BC to June in 4BC was only in Herod's 33rd year, (after only 32 complete years). Herod's 34 year rule began from June in 37BC and from then until his death in November 4BC was approximately 33 years and 5 months and his 37 year rule that began around March of 37BC was really only about 36 years and 7 months, although it was regarded by Josephus as being 34 years and 37 years. From June 37BC to June 4BC is only 33 complete years so Herod must have lived until sometime later than June 4BC, into his 34th year of reign.
Although Josephus does not mention anything about the birth of Jesus, the things he records can be read in parallel with the book of Matthew. Matthew 2:4 says Herod assembled "all the chief priests and scribes of the people" to inquire WHERE the Christ was to be born. He then assembled the Magi again secretly to find out WHEN the star had appeared. (Matt 2:7) "Then Herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the Magi was in a furious rage" (2:16) This seems to be the same event as Josephus records in Antiquities 17:6:5 "He commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived should be called unto him - the king was in a wild rage against them all, the innocent as well as those that had afforded ground for accusation, and when they were come, he ordered them to be all shut up in the hippodrome." In the book "Herod the Great" by Michael Grant on page 130 he says there was a hippodrome at Jericho but says he thinks that Josephus "may have been mistaken ". Excavations of Jericho and the surrounding area have found no evidence of any hippodrome having been there. According to Ehud Netzer there was a "multi-functional complex" with a theatre and gymnasium built at Jericho in about 10BC with an adjacent racecourse, (Near Eastern Archaeology Vol 77-2, June 2014) It seems more likely that people have been mistaken about where Herod was when he locked up all the "principal men". Earlier when the golden eagle had been torn down, Herod was in Jerusalem and sent the young men bound "to Jericho" (Ant 17:6:3) he then called together the principal men among the Jews; and when they were come, he made them assemble in the theatre, (Ant 17:6:3) As Matthew tells us this happened in Jerusalem this would have been the theater in Jerusalem, Josephus does not state that the location of events moved on from Jericho after the time of Herod going to the hot springs and when he had his son Antipater killed, which was five days before he died, but it is evident that some of Herod's last days were spent at his summer palace in Jerusalem rather than in Jericho. (Ant 17:10:6, Ant 17:13:1) and that the hippodrome that Josephus was referring to was not at Jericho but was the hippodrome in south Jerusalem. (Ant 17:10:2, Wars 2:3:1) As Herod would spend the winter at Jericho, where the climate was warmer than at Jerusalem, it accounts for him being there in March 4BC. After Herod's visit to the warm baths of Callirrhoe we are told he, "came again to Jericho" (Ant 17:6:5) but sometime after this he returned to Jerusalem to spend the summer and autumn of 4BC and appears to have been at Jerusalem when the Magi arrived. (Matt 2:1) Herod assembled the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem. (Matt 2:3-4) Herod being in Jerusalem is an indication that this occured during the summer or autumn of 4BC and it is more likely to have been in Jerusalem rather than in Jericho that he locked them in the hippodrome, (Ant 17:6:4) and it is doubtful that there was any hippodrome in Jericho to lock them into anyhow. Matt 2:1 says "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came Magi from the east to Jerusalem." Some have thought that because Herod had the children up to 2 years of age killed that this was 2 years after Jesus was born because Herod in Matt 2:8 refers to Jesus as a young child (paidion) rather than as a baby (brephos) but this is not proof because John the Baptist is also referred to in Luke 1:66 and 1:76 as a "paidion" when only 8 days of age and "brephos" can also be used of an older child. More importantly the historical constraints of time show that it was as Matthew 2:1 says "WHEN Jesus was born in Bethlehem", "Where is he that IS born king of the Jews", not two years later not even as much as two months later. Matthew tells us the Magi arrived "WHEN Jesus was born" so they appear to have arrived in Jerusalem in late October or early November of 4BC, sometime before the days for Marys purification were completed, just a few weeks before Herod died.

BIRTHDAY THEORIES Clement of Alexandria mentions some of the dates that people gave for the day Jesus was born on. The 25th of Pachon (May 20) and the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi (April 19-20). (The Stromata, Book 1, Ch 21, A-N Vol 2, p333) He said that "from the time that he suffered until the destruction of Jerusalem are forty two years and 3 months." (Stromata Book 1, Ch 21) If we count back 42 years and 3 months from the destruction of the temple on the 10th of Av in AD70 we get the 10th of Iyar in AD28 but then we need to subtract one more year because Clement thought that the length of Jesus' ministry was only one year so it makes the date for when Clement believed Jesus turned thirty and began his ministry to have been the 10th of Iyar in AD27, and means he thought that Jesus was born around the 10th of Iyar in 4BC. (around April/May)
Hippolytus of Rome (AD170-236) "The first coming of our Lord, that in the flesh, in which he was born at Bethlehem, took place eight days before the kalends of January, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, 5500 years from Adam." (Commentary on Daniel, 4:23, Finegan, p325)
The Constitutions also say his birthday was on the 25th. (A-N Vol 7, p443)
The Philocalian calendar which was compiled around AD336 to AD354 says it was Friday the 25th of December. (Dec 25 in AD1 was a Sunday on the corrected Julian calendar but the 25th was actually a Monday due to the Pontiffs error.)
Epiphanius said it was the 6th of January (O/S) and the Catholic Encyclopaedia mentions March 28 - advocated by early writers -
"there  have been at least 136 different dates set for the birth of Jesus- Fourteen Christmases are celebrated in Jerusalem annually and they are all on different dates." (G.Burnside, The Strange Origin of Xmas p2)
Youngs Concordance says "Friday April 5th, four years before the Christian Era" (p544). April 5 in 4BC was a Thursday according to the Julian (O/S) calendar but at the time the 5th of April was actually a Saturday as a result of the Pontiffs error.
Mormons say the 6th of April because of their belief in a spring census. (These April dates fit more closely to the birthday of John the Baptist than of Jesus.)
Ernest Martin concluded that Jesus was born on the feast of Trumpets in 3BC because the position of the sun moon and stars fit the description given of the virgin in Rev 12, but Virgo was thought to represent Ishtar and was not renamed the virgin Mary until the Middle ages, also as the sun was shining and as the moon is rarely seen before sunset at the beginning of a lunar month, this imagery that no one could have seen would have been over two Hebrew days.
Ethelbert Bullinger and others believe that Jesus was born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles (the 15th of Tishri in 4BC) for John 1:14 says "the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us," (Panin translation). Ethelbert William Bullinger (1837-1913) was descended from Johann Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575). Ethelbert was mostly responsible for the margin notes and appendixes in the Companion Bible which was written before we had the accuracy of modern computer programs that are now available to give us ancient lunar dating. In appendix 179 of Bullingers Companion Bible it says the 25th of December in 5BC was the 1st of Tebeth on the Hebrew calendar and that this was the date of the conception of Jesus then adding 280 days for gestation arrives at the evening of the 29th of September in 4BC which is claimed to have been the 15th of Tishri and the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and was the time when Jesus was born. Checking the calendars shows that this is not correct.

 (Also the 1st of Tebeth in 5BC was not the 25th of December, it was either the 30th or 31st of December depending upon lunar calendar variations.) On the corrected Julian calendar (O/S) the 29th of September in 4BC was on a Saturday and on the Gregorian calendar (N/S) it is a Monday but both of these were about a week before the Feast of Tabernacles began in 4BC which was on the 15th day of the seventh Hebrew month which in Canaan was called Ethanim but is today called Tishri.
According to the book called "Babylonian Chronology 626BC to AD45" by Parker & Dubberstein printed in 1942, the 15th day of the lunar month of Tishri in 4BC was on Saturday the 6th of October (O/S) but in the later edition, "626BC to AD75" (page 45) it shows it was on Sunday the 7th of  October (O/S). It is not absolutely certain which was the correct day that the Feast of Tabernacles began in 4BC. It could have been in the evening before either Saturday the 6th of October or Sunday the 7th of October (O/S) that it is thought that Jesus was born on but the history by Epiphanius about the engendering of the Aeon on the Epiphany which falls on January 5/6 tends to support the idea that Jesus was born nine months later on Friday/Saturday the 5/6 of October (O/S) in 4BC which was actually the 3/4 of October at the time due again to the Pontiffs leap-year error. Also the new lunar calendar months in Israel could sometimes begin a day before they did in the Babylonian calendar.

THE STAR "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came Magi from the east to Jerusalem, saying where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." (Matt 2:2) Ignatius (cAD35 to 107) who became the bishop of Antioch says in his Letter to the Ephesians, Ch19 "A star shone forth in heaven above all the other stars, the light of which was inexpressible, while its novelty struck men with astonishment. And all the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon formed a chorus to this star, and its light was exceedingly great above them all. And there was agitation felt as to whence this new spectacle came, so unlike to everything else-" The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Ch 13 says "a great star, larger than any that had been seen since the beginning of the world, shone over the cave from the evening till the morning." (A-N, Vol 8 p375) Origen in about AD230 said it was a new star "unlike any of the other well known planetary bodies" (Against Celsus Book 1, Ch 58, A-N, Vol 4 p422), and in his commentary on John he says it was not any of the constellations existing in the sky but one of another order. (Vol 10 p312) The Arabic Gospel says it was an angel (A-N Vol 8, p406) Garner Ted said he thought the star was an angel too.
There were a number of astronomical phenomenon between 7BC and AD7 which are thought to have been the star that Matthew mentions. "Anything that has ever moved across the canopy of heaven, as well as much that has only existed in men's imaginations, has been dubbed the `Star of Bethlehem'." (The Bible as History p328). The astronomer Johann Kepler (AD1571-1631) discovered that Jupiter and Saturn and sometimes Mars were in conjunction in 7BC and 6BC, he said the conjunctions in 7BC were in June, August and December, Ideler said May 20, October 27 and November 12, Encke said May 29, September 30 and December 5. The Witness of the Stars p39 says May, October and December. The Bible as History says, May 29, Oct 3 and Dec 4 (p332) and also points out that in 7BC October 3 was the Day of Atonement and that it would have been significant to the Jewish astronomers at the school of Astrology at Sippar in Babylon. Kepler said Jupiter Saturn and Mars were in conjunction in 6BC in February and March. (The history of the Christian church, P Schaff p55-57) Ideler the astronomer said that "to a weak eye they would appear as a single star" "Ideler thus with Kepler sets the birth of Christ in 7BC. Here are two great astronomers settled on a date, one of whom is a profound scholar in addition: settled by means of the whole apparatus of calculations, conjunctions, and what not. But Ideler adds that the conjunction was such (a moon's diameter separating two of the conjuncting bodies!) that a person with weak eyes would see them as one star. Now I am only a plain man, and my eyes, Heaven knows, are weak enough. But thank God, my head is not yet weak enough not to rebel at once against three magi being suddenly struck with weak eyes to see planets a moon's diameter apart as one. But I am only a plain man, and even strength of head would count here but little against giant astronomers.-Pritchard, who happens to be an astronomer, also rebelled, or rather his suspicions were aroused by that unlucky weak-eyes remark. Accordingly, he recalculated the whole, and he now shows conclusively that while Kepler and Ideler are right about their conjunctions, the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is such that much of the way the planets must have been BEHIND the magi instead of going BEFORE them, as Matthew expressly says it did. I have studied Ideler faithfully, lovingly, because he is a classic; his work is beautifully done. But even he - needed watching. Knowing as I do human nature, the next thing to expect is that some archaeologist will make the discovery that the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem was originally such that the planets were before the magi all along the way. Taxes, corporations, and "scientific" errors never die, however often buried." (The Writings of Ivan Panin, p555-6)
"the words `in the east' are in the original `En te anatole' - the Greek singular - elsewhere `the east' is represented by `anatole' - the Greek plural. The singular form `anatole' has, it is maintained, quite a special astronomical significance, in that it implies the observation of the early rising of the star, the so called heliacal rising." (The Bible as History, p332) If this early morning rising of the star was true, then as Pritchard said the star the Magi "followed" was "behind" them. The conjunctions of 7BC and 6BC or the supernova (new star) DO Aquilae in 5BC which was visible for 70 days. (Newton, p13, Cambridge) or in 4BC from February to April according to Chinese astronomical records (Schaff Vol 1,p55) have all been thought to mark the time of Jesus' birth. Herod asked the Magi WHERE Jesus would be born and WHEN was the time of the stars appearance, perhaps its first appearance, not the time of Jesus' birth, which may not have been the same. "Then Herod, when he had privately called the Magi, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared." (Matt 2:7)

THE MAGI Hislop says "-the original Head of the Magi, was not a priest merely, but a warrior king. Everywhere are the Zoroastrians, or fireworshippers, called Guebres or Gabrs. Now Gen 10:8 proves that Nimrod was the first of the "Gabrs." (The Two Babylons, p 314) They are thought to have originated in Persia. (Note 1, A-N Vol 5. p40) In about 450BC Herodotus wrote that the Magi were a race of Medes (The Histories 1:120) They are said to have controlled Zoroastrianism. (D J Conway, The Ancient Shining Ones p137) Tertullian thought they were "almost kings" (Dict BT p472) Some are thought to have lived in Babylon and Persia or perhaps in Parthia or India. Philo of Alexandria said "Among the Persians there is a class of the Magi, who investigate the workings of nature in order to discover the truth, and silently, through exceptionally clear visions, receive and transmit the revelation of divine virtues." (Prob 72, Spec. 3.100, LCL 7, p635-6) Pliny the Elder (AD23-79) mentions "the Magi of Persia, Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt," (Natural History, Book 25, 5:14, LCL Vol 7 p145) Justin Martyr thought they came from Arabia and says that Damascus was in Arabia. (A-N Vol 1 p237-8, 251-2) Damascus was Arabia before it became Syrophoenicia. (A-N Vol 3 p332) (Damascus was north of Jerusalem while Matthew 2 says the Magi came from the east) "in the eighth century, the Zoroastrians were driven out of Persia by the Moslems to Western India," (Mapping Time, p157) They are now largely centered in Bombay, India, others think the Magi were associated with the Druids of Europe or the magicians of Egypt. Julius Africanus says they came from Persia - a bright star descended and stood above the pillar of Pege (fountain or spring) "mother of the heavenly constellation" where it remained until the wise men came forth, and it went with them "The king then without delay, sent some of the Magi under his dominion with gifts, the star showing them the way." Hippolytus says there were Magi in Babylon. (Ref' 1:11, A-N Vol 5, p16) We are not told when the Magi began their journey. In 1Esdras 8:6 and in Antiquities 3:15:3 and 11:127-131 it shows a trip from Babylon which was about 700 miles, took 4 months on foot. Persia is about twice that distance. The Bible as History suggests a camel trip from Babylon would be "a journey lasting about six weeks" (p333) Some think they rode on elephants. Garner Ted Armstrong said he thought the Magi or Wise Men did not arrive at the house where Mary and Jesus were staying until up to two years after Jesus was born. In "Christ in the Old Testament" (15-Apr-2000) GTA said it took a year for the Wise Men to journey to Bethlehem while in "Satan's Greatest Deception" (21-June 2003) he says the journey from Persia took two or three months and that Jesus was a year old before the Magi visited him, (tv pgm #5009) but if so, why would the Wise Men have waited around Bethlehem for perhaps over a year before visiting "the house"? Moses Khorenasis shows that Herod was at war with the Persians (Book 2:26) so if the Magi were Persians it would seem unlikely that Herod would have allowed them the freedom to go unaccompanied to Bethlehem and more probably would have held them as prisoners or killed them. Although Matthew 2 tells us the Magi came from the east, we are not told which country they had traveled from. Wherever they were from, they may have already been only a short distance to the east of Jerusalem at around the time when Jesus was born, either because the star had appeared to them several weeks or months beforehand or perhaps they were on their way to be enrolled or were coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast, or for any other number of reasons at that time. If the star was such a spectacular event then it seems strange that Herod knew nothing about it but "diligently inquired" when it had appeared. Julius Africanus says that the high priest offered the magi a bribe to keep quiet. (p129-130) J Thomas thinks that it would have taken at least two months to gather the leaders into the hippodrome. (Our records of the Nativity, p61) Herod sent the Magi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and the star appeared to them again, south is not the ordinary direction for a star to travel, and "stood over where the young child was" (Matt 2:9) The Samaritan writer Justin Martyr (AD110-165) says the Magi found him "in a certain cave near the village" (Trypho Ch78, A-N Vol 1, p237) but Matthew says "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child-" (Matt 2:11) In the Gospel of Pseudo Matthew, (A-N, Vol 8, Ch 16, p375) the Infancy by Thomas, (A-N, Vol 8, Ch 1, p400) in Julius Africanus, (Vol 6, p130) and also according to Epiphanius "in his second year, he was visited by the magi," (Section 1:1:5, 51:22:12) "For after two years - as they told Herod the time the star had risen, `two years ago at the most'" (Sect 2:29:1) (Brill, p144) Jesus was now supposedly "in his second year".  We do not know how long it took before Herod discovered that he had been "tricked by the Magi" (Matt 2:16) but according to Matthew 2:13 it was long enough for Joseph and Mary to leave for Egypt with Jesus before Herod had all the male babies killed in Bethlehem and the surrounding area including Ramah which is north of Jerusalem (Matt 2:18) who were up to 2 years of age, according to the time he had obtained from his questioning of the Magi. When Augustus heard that Herod had killed "boys under two years" and his son, he said "it was better to be Herod's swine than his son." (Macrobius, Sat 2:4, Schaff Note 8 p399) which was playing on the Greek words of "hys"and "hyios" for "pig" and "son". (Millard, Discoveries p208) If Jesus had been 2 years old when Herod gave his orders to have him killed then according to this theory Herod would need to have still been alive about 2 years after Jesus was born. Calculating from November in 4BC this would mean that Herod would have lived until almost 1BC and his reign would have been 39 and 36 years instead of 37 and 34 years and this would have reduced the reign of Archelaus to have been only 7 years or if Jesus was born 1 or 2 years earlier in 5 or 6BC then the ministry of John the Baptist who was older than Jesus and began when he was about 30 would have begun before Pontius Pilate became governor in AD26 and would have made the ministry of Jesus to have been at least 4 1/2 years long, these alternatives show that the theory that Jesus was 2 years old, to put it politely, is very unlikely. It seems that Herod killed the older babies simply to improve his chances of killing Jesus, Garner Ted often said that Herod massacred thousands of babies, "tens of thousands" ("Satans Kingdom", 7-Sept-1985) but historians estimate the number to have been between about 50 to 100. In Josephus, Paul Maier says, "a dozen or so" (p567) and as a result of the massacre GTA claimed that Jesus  was the only person alive of a similar age, but as John the Baptist was only six months older than Jesus, it shows that this idea is not valid either. Peter of Alexandria says that Herod also tried to kill John the Baptist who was only six months older than Jesus at the same time, and when he could not find him he killed the childs father Zacharias between the temple and the altar (The Canonical Epistle-Canon 3, A-N Vol 6, p277) The Protevangelium of James also says this. (Ch 23, A-N Vol 8 p366) which may also help to explain why Herod killed the children up to 2 years of age, but although the 40 days for Marys purification would have ended on Thursday Nov 15 in 4BC and the course of Abia would have been on duty in that same week between Nov 10 and Nov 17 or in the following week, (24 weeks after Pentecost) which was at the same time and would explain why Zechariah was in Jerusalem, the Zecharias that Jesus was referring to in Matt 23:35 and Luke 11:51 was the son of Barachias son of Jehoiada (2 Chron 24:20-22) who was stoned in 840BC. (Young, Zecharias, p1086) Jesus was viewing martyrs "from the first book of the canon to the last" and with no Hebrew word for grandson, called him son of Jehoiada. (Wenham p137)

THE RETURN OF JOSEPH FROM EGYPT TO ISRAEL  From the historical accounts of the bible, Josephus and others, we can roughly almost pinpoint the precise time when Joseph returned from Egypt. Jesus was taken to Egypt by his parents while Herod was still alive. While they were in Egypt Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth (Matt 2:23 and Lk 2:39) was told, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go hither -" (Matt 2:20-22) It does not tell us that Joseph returned to the land of Judea but tells us he "was afraid to go hither". The news of the death of Herod had spread quickly but Joseph did not hear that Archelaus had assumed the role as the new king until he arrived back "into the land of Israel". As such an important news event as who the new king of Judah was would have spread quickly, it is evident that Joseph returned from Egypt very shortly after the death of Herod but before the news that Archelaus had replaced him had become known. Being a carpenter and having recently received gifts from the Magi, instead of taking the risky road trip back home he probably returned by ship to one of the ports in "the land of Israel", which would help explain why he did not hear that Archelaus was in control until he arrived back in port and had landed in Israel. If he had returned by road he would probably have entered Judea before reaching Israel and probably would have heard the news about Archelaus being king from other travelers, so it appears that Joseph returned to Israel within only a week or so after the death of Herod and then headed straight back to his home in Nazareth. Herod died on the 26th of November, only five days after Herod had killed Archelaus' brother Antipater and Archelaus took over immediately. So Joseph appears to have arrived back in Israel sometime early during the 25 days of Herod's funeral procession to Herodium in December 4BC.

JOHN THE BAPTIST Just when the conception and birth of John the Baptist took place can only be guessed at following the method used by Bullinger, Martin and Coulter who try to prove the date by determining the time when John's father Zacharias was performing his duties in the course of Abia. (Luke 1:5-9) John the Baptist is mentioned by Josephus in Ant 18:5:2. John was six months older than Jesus (Luke 1:26,36) and was conceived soon after John's father Zacharias was performing his duties in the course of Abia. (Luke 1:5-9) Luke said John would "be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mothers womb." (Lk 1:15)
The Levitical priesthood began from the two sons of Aaron called Eleazar and Ithamar. (Exod 28:1)  The Babylonian Talmud says that Moses instituted eight or sixteen divisions. (Taanit 27a)  Josephus says that in the time of king David "there were twenty-four families, sixteen of the house of Eleazar and eight of the house of Ithamar" (Ant 7:365). "the First Prophets ordained twenty-four Courses," (Mishna, Taanith 4:2, Danby p199).(1 Chron 9:22, 24:18)
According to 1 Chron 24:10 the eighth course was to Abijah but after the captivity in Babylon the first course of Jehoiarib is said to have refused to return (Megillat Taanit, Malter p420-1) and was replaced by the second course of Jedaiah as shown in Ezra 2:36. The Tosefta says "even if Jehoiarib should come up from exile, not one of them would be removed on his account, but he would be made subordinate to him." (Ta'aniyot 2:1) also the Mishna says that Bilgah "had lost the usual rights belonging to the course of priests" and was replaced by the course of Jeshebeab (Sukk 5:8, Danby, Note 8, p181) but the course of Bilga is included in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The courses changed at midday each sabbath. (Apion 2:108) and each course worked for one week twice a year making 48 weeks (Ant 7:365) Josephus belonged to the first course. (The Life 1) During the festivals all courses were on duty "Three times in the year all the courses of priests shared equally-" at Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Sukkah 5:7, Danby p181) but a lunar year of 354 days has 50 weeks and 4 days and in leap years has nearly 55 weeks. In the Dead Sea Scrolls system the 24 courses follow a fixed cycle that repeats every three years using a 52 week solar calendar. (Enoch by Milik p62) "in the overall framework of a six-year cycle of the priestly courses" (Two New Mishmaroth Texts from 4Q, p2) and this shows the three festivals did not break the sequence of the courses. The War Scroll 2:2 has 26 courses to fill the 52 weeks each year. (The Judaean Scrolls, G.R.Driver p325).  The cycle is thought to have begun on either the 4th or 12th of the first month. There doesn't seem to be any way to determine exactly on which week of the year the first course began or whether they performed their work during a fixed week each year or if it was fixed on a rotation. If it was, then was it a seven year cycle (The Tosefta shows that there was an increase in the size of the priestly watch "once in a septannate," (Ta'aniyot 2:2 K, Neusner p268) and how did it work in sabbatical and Jubilee years and how could we be sure which year of the cycle it was that Zacharias was on duty, if it was in 5BC this was probably the fourth year of a seven year cycle that would end with the sabbatical year of 3/2BC, the fourth year (6/5BC) began with Elyasib and would result in Abia serving in the 22nd week, beginning on Av 30 on the Babylonian calendar which would have been Saturday Sept 2 in 5BC (O/S).
   Josephus said the twenty-four courses "has lasted down to this day" (Ant 7:366) "The list of priestly courses started in Nisan, but the exact date in Nisan varies in the traditions. In the Jewish tradition it is said that the first priestly course began its period of duty on the sabbath before 1 Nisan or on 1 Nisan. The eighth course was then on duty between about II/14-20 (14-20 of Iyar) or if all priestly courses were on duty during the week of Unleavened Bread the eighth course was on duty between II/21-27 (21-27 of Iyar). In the Qumran calendar scroll the list of priests started on 12 Nisan, and the priestly course of Abijah (the ninth of this scroll) then came on duty on III/8 (Sivan 8). We can thus assume that Zechariah's duty began in the second half of the second month or the beginning of the third month." (J.Van Goudoever, Biblical Calendars p274, 291.38/21) It is generally thought that the twenty-four courses began each year with the first course of Jehoyarib and as Abia was the eighth course it would serve in the eighth week of the Hebrew year which was near Pentecost, (this would fit closely to the first year of the Qumran six year cycle) and so it is thought that John was probably conceived shortly after this, which appears to have been around the beginning of July in 5BC and was born about the following Passover which was around Wednesday April 11th in 4BC (O/S) which was about six months before the birth of Jesus.

CHRONOLOGY  Instead of trying to jam all the events of the last days of Herod and the birth of Jesus into the 30 days between the eclipse in March 4BC and the Passover in April 4BC, we should spread them out between the eclipse in March of 4BC to the Passover of 3BC and build around the dates recorded in history to get a better picture.

TIBERIUS The Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero is said to have been born in 42BC and to have died in AD37. He is mentioned in Luke 3:1 "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea -v2- the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness." Lk 1:80 says that John "was in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel". John the Baptist was a Levite. According to Numbers 4 they began their work at 30 years of age while Num 8:24 says it was from "twenty five years old." Although we cannot be sure of when "the word of God came to John" most assume that as John was 6 months older than Jesus, that John began his work 6 months before Jesus began his ministry. As Pontius Pilate became governor in AD26 it was in or after this year that the word came to John. Tiberius died in the 23rd year of his reign. Tiberius was "Arbiter of the Roman world for virtually twenty-three" years (Tacitius, Annal' 6:51, Loeb p235)
Josephus said Tiberius reigned 22 years 6 months and 3 days  (Wars 2:4:5) which when added to the death of Augustus on August 19 of AD14 gives the date for the death of Tiberius as February 22 AD37 later in Antiquities Josephus said it was 22 years 5 months and 3 days. (18:6:10) giving January 22 AD37.
Theophilus said Tiberius reigned for 22 years (Book 3, Ch 27) Tertullian says Tiberius held the empire 22 years 7 months and 28 days. (A-N Vol 3 p160) this gives us the date of Friday March 16th in AD37, which is thought to be correct, while Dio says after he "celebrated the completion of his second ten year period." he "died in the following spring, in the consulship of Gnaeus Proculus and Pontius Nigrinus." (AD37) "On the 26th day of March" a note in Loeb says it was actually the 16th of March, He had lived 77y 4m 9d "he had been emperor 22 years 7 months, and 7 days." (Dio, Loeb Vol 7 p 247-257) and counting back for 22y 7m and 7d gives us August 9 in AD14.
Julius Africanus says the 16th year of Tiberius was the second year of the 202nd Olympiad (July AD30 to July AD31) making the first year of the reign of Tiberius to have been July AD15 to July AD16. (Chronology Ch 16, A-N Vol 5, p135) also making his final 22nd year to be between July AD36 to July AD37.
If we count the 15th year of Tiberius from the death of Augustus in AD14 this would have made the word of God to have come to John IN the year from between August AD28 to August AD29 but it appears that Luke has departed from the commonly recognized way of counting from the death of Augustus. Peaks Commentary suggests that Luke was an Antiochian Syrian and so may have used "the years of the Syrian calendar, in which case his second year began on 1 October AD14 and his fifteenth year on 1 October AD27, or with the years of the Jewish calendar, in which case his second year began on 1 Nisan AD15 and his fifteenth year on 1 Nisan AD28." (Chronology of the N.T., p729)
Some have pointed out that Suetonius says that Tiberius governed jointly with Augustus, "the consuls caused a law to be passed - that he should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus" (Suetonius, Tiberius Ch 20, Loeb Vol 1, p323) Augustus died shortly after this. Schaff says that there are coins that have both Tiberius and Augustus on them dated AUC765 which was AD12. (History of the church.) Plutarch records that Tiberius spent his last 7 years at Capri. (Moralia 7, On Exile, LCL p539) It appears that Luke has used August AD12 as the base for the years of the reign of Tiberius. This would have made the 15th year of Tiberius to have been the year between August of AD26 to August of AD27, just after Pontius Pilate entered office and assuming that John was 30 years old when he began to preach we could count forward from when he was born at about the time of the Passover on Wednesday April 11th (O/S) (or Pontiffs 9th) in 4BC, for 30 years which would also agree with the time for the start of Johns ministry as the Passover which was Thursday the 10th of April (O/S) in AD27, but this is unconfirmed dating done to fit in with the other dates. As Jesus was born in October and baptized at about 30 years of age this would have been in October of AD27, six months after John began. Because of the uncertainties surrounding the month John began, and how long afterwards it was before he baptized Jesus, about the only thing we can get from this is that Jesus was not yet baptized and so was not yet 30 years old when John was called to start his work in the 15th year of Tiberius or AD27. There's more

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