The Gospels Don't Agree on Jesus Birth Year

Опубликовано: 11 Июль 2026
на канале: Tablets and Temples
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What year was Jesus born? Google tells you scholars say it was between 6-4BCE. However, this requires only accepting Matthew's narrative to be correct over Luke - as the two narratives contradict. In fact Luke presents two different ranges for Jesus' birth depending on whether you follow chapter 1 or 3. The reality is both narratives are highly literary accounts that probably don't preserve a historical birth year - but if they have any useful data then the range of Jesus' birth is actually much wider.

If you haven't already, check out ‪@UsefulCharts‬ who makes fantastic chart videos and I've definitely taken inspiration from them in the way I present some of the timeline data. You can watch their video on this topic here:    • When Was Jesus Born?  

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Sources:

The early church birth years come from the Handbook of Biblical Chronology by Prof Jack Finegan. It's a bit dated, but the information about this topic is still correct.

Some discussion about the problems of dating between Matthew and Luke can be found in Evidence for the Chronology of Jesus by Alden A. Mosshammer.

The argument for "about thirty" is found in the article "When Did Herod the Great Reign?" by Andrew E. Steinmann