DATING THE BIRTH OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
Dating the year of Christ's birth is as controversial as dating the day. The Gospel of St. Luke provides several historical references that help determine Jesus' birth year in Luke 1:5, 2:1-3, and 3:1-2. St. Luke records: In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and while the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert (Luke 3:1-2 NAB). The historical record can provide reliable dates for most of the men mentioned in this passage
The Roman Emperor Tiberius succeeded his step-father, Augustus Caesar, on the 19th of August in 14 AD. Therefore, the 15th year of Tiberius' reign, when St. John the Baptist began his ministry (as the Romans calculated their years), was from August 19th, AD 28 to August 18th, AD 29. However, if St. Luke were using the Syrian method of calculating, Tiberius' reign would have been from September/October AD 27 to 28. For a discussion of post-ascension dating, see the document "How We Date the Reigns of Old Testament Kings."
St. Luke also provided information concerning Jesus' age, when He began His ministry: When he began, Jesus was about thirty years old (Luke 3:23). That both the priest St. John the Baptist and Jesus, the rightful Davidic king, were thirty years old when they began their ministries is significant. A priest started his full ministerial duties when he was thirty, and King David began to rule Israel when he was thirty years old (Numbers 4:34-35; 2 Samuel 5:4). But this is also information that is useful in calculating Jesus' birth since St. Luke provided the testimony from the angel Gabriel that St. John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus (as the ancients counted; as we calculate without the concept of a zero place-value, five months older): And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month (Luke 1:36-37). From the year calculated as the beginning of St. John the Baptist's ministry and the information concerning the difference in months between John and Jesus' conceptions, it can be determined that both St. John's and Jesus' births were probably in 3/2 BC.
The Testimony of the Early Church Fathers
Testimony supporting the year of Jesus' birth as 3/2 BC also appears in the writings of the early Church Fathers. Around AD 200, St. Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215), head of the Christian school of Catechesis and Theology in Alexandria, Egypt, recorded that Jesus of Nazareth was born in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. St. Clement calculated the beginning of Augustus' reign from the year 727 AUC (a dating system from the foundation of the city of Rome), or in our time, 27 BC when the Roman Senate conferred upon him the title "Augustus." St. Clement's calculation gives the date 3 BC for Jesus' birth (Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts, Ralph Novak, page 282). St. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Holy Land, supported St. Clement's calculation as recorded in Bishop Eusebius' Church History written in the 4th century AD (Church History, V).
Concerning the month and day of Jesus' birth, St. Clement reported that diverse opinions existed on identifying both the month and day of the Savior's birth. Some Biblical chronologists dated Jesus' birth to April 19th, some to May 30th, and St. Clement assigned Jesus' birth to November 17th in what would be our calendar year 3 BC. The Eastern Rite Church Fathers had a long tradition of celebrating the Nativity on January 6th. However, there were other Fathers of the Church who favored December the 25th. This date became the official celebration of the Nativity of the Savior in the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.
There is firm documentary evidence that the birth of Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer and Savior, was celebrated in Rome as a Christ Mass on December 25th by AD 336. The Eastern Church kept January 6th as the celebration of the birth of Christ until the end of the 4th century when they joined in the observance of the December 25th date, agreeing to celebrate January 6th as the adoration of the Magi. But where and how did the Catholic Church in Rome, guided by St. Peter's successors, settle on December 25th as the day of the Savior's birth? Successive attacks on Rome by barbarian armies in the 5th century AD destroyed any documentation that may have existed. However, there may be a way to determine how the date of December 25th became the anniversary of the birth of our Christ Jesus.
The Testimony of the Church's Earliest Documents
The earliest mention of the birth of Jesus as December 25th comes from a document entitled The Constitution of the Holy Apostles. Modern scholars continue to debate a date for this early catechism of the Church. This document is not as old as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Known simple as the Didache, meaning "The Teaching," it was written between AD 50-100. Church historians acknowledge the Didache as the first catechism of the early Church. It is the predecessor of the Constitution of the Holy Apostles and is included within its eight books. The Constitution of the Holy Apostles is an extremely ancient document written by the Fathers of the Church. Quoted frequently in the oldest writings of the Church that have survived, most scholars agree that the first six books of the Constitution were written not later than the 300s, and some argue it dates to the 200's or even earlier. The Constitution of the Holy Apostles appears to have been a revised edition of the Didache as the official catechism of the universal Catholic Church, just as the Church updated the catechism by the publication of the Universal Catechism in 1994.
The Constitution of the Holy Apostles contains instructions on the celebration of the Holy Days. Book V, section 3 begins with a subject heading and then addresses the Holy Days, including the celebration of the Lord's birthday: ON FEAST DAYS AND FAST DAYS: A CATALOGUE OF THE FEASTS OF THE LORD WHICH ARE TO BE KEPT, AND WHEN EACH OF THEM OUGHT TO BE OBSERVED. XIII. Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month.... The Constitution's ancient date can be verified because its authors were still using the Jewish liturgical calendar. The "ninth month" in the Old Covenant liturgical calendar is our December. Their liturgical year began with the spring equinox, which fell in late March/early April, as did the old Roman calendar before Julius Caesar introduced his calendar reform.
The Jews considered the celebration of one's birth a pagan custom. In the first century AD, religious Jews disdained the pagan Roman birthday celebrations, and Jewish-Christians may have also felt this prejudice associated with birth celebrations. The bias may have changed to acceptance as more Gentile converts embraced Christianity. While Scripture does not mention December 25th, there may be a connection to a Jewish feast day and other Jewish traditions that could identify the New Covenant feast day of the birth of Christ or could provide an explanation as to why the Church chose this date. The earliest Fathers of the Church came from a Jewish tradition. Even if they didn't write about Jesus' birth date, they had an oral tradition of Jesus' birth, which is the information second century Church Fathers like St. Clement of Alexandria recorded. It also may have been reasonable for them to deduce from certain Scriptural texts a suggested the date for Jesus' birth. Both New and Old Testament passages could provide the necessary keys to solve the dilemma of the months of both Jesus' and St. John the Baptist's births.
Zechariah's Revelation Associated with Dating Jesus' Birth
The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah as he was burning incense in the Temple's Holy Place during liturgical worship and announced to the elderly priest that his wife was to bear a son in her old age. The angel told him the child would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb and would call the covenant people to repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah (Luke 1:1:8-11). Shortly after this announcement, Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, conceived St. John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ. John's mission and the baptism he offered was for repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). Many Biblical scholars believe there was a connection between St. John's divinely ordained mission in calling the covenant people to repentance and the annual Feast of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Yom Kippur was a day of expiation that called the covenant people to national repentance and forgiveness of their collective and individual sins (Leviticus 16; 23:26-32; Numbers 29:7-11). For this reason, many Biblical scholars (ancient and modern) believe Zechariah's Temple service recorded in Luke 1:8-22 was on or near Yom Kippur.
According to the Jewish liturgical calendar, this day of national repentance had to fall before the autumn equinox. The next Jewish feast, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), came five days after Yom Kippur during the full moon either on or after the autumnal equinox (the date of the autumn equinox is September 23rd, according to our modern calendar). It has long been a tradition in the Church that the angel gave his revelation to the priest Zechariah at a time associated with the Old Covenant feast of Yom Kippur. The Feast of St. John the Baptist is on June 24th, the day the Church determined as his birth. If John's birth occurred on June 24th, then his conception was nine months earlier in September, near the observance of Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34; 23:27, 34).
Linking Yom Kippur to the announcement of John's birth is significant. The Old Covenant feast day of atonement is a time of national repentance. John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way for the Messiah by calling the covenant people to a baptism of repentance for their sins, individual and nationally. In the book of Leviticus, Yahweh commanded that the Feast of Yom Kippur was: to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves and not do any work [...]. Because on this day, atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then, before Yahweh, you will be clean from all your sins (Leviticus 16:29-30).
St. Luke's Gospel describes Zechariah's selection by lot to serve as the high priest's representative in offering the sacred incense when the angel appeared to announce the birth of St. John. According to Scripture, John was six months older than Jesus as the ancients counted without a zero place-value (Luke 1:37), but as we calculate, he was five months older than Jesus (see Luke 3:23). St. Luke's Gospel provides a detailed account of the year when John began his mission that was on or near his 30th birthday (Luke 3:1-4, 23):
Roman historical records can confirm these times of service.
Only the anointed High Priest could offer the sacrifices at Yahweh sacred Bronze Altar of Sacrifice in the Courtyard of the Priests, burn incense on the golden Incense Altar in the Holy Place, and enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:12-13; Mishnah: Yoma, 5:1, A-Q. On regular days of worship, however, he could appoint a priestly representative to take his place. Zechariah could not have been the High Priest during the Feast of Yom Kippur in 4/3 BC since his selection to perform that service was by the drawing a lot (Luke 1:9). There are lists of all the ordained high priests who served in the Jerusalem Temple from the 2nd century BC until the Temple's destruction in AD 70 (i.e., the list in "The Works of Josephus," Whiston, page 535). There is no priest named Zechariah in any of the lists. If he were the High Priest, he would not need to draw a lot. Only a chief priest, serving as the High Priest's representative, was eligible to draw a lot to burn the incense. However, it is possible that Zechariah was the officiating priest performing the rite of burning the sacred incense on the golden Incense Altar in front of the Holy of Holies during the afternoon liturgical service for Yom Kippur or in another worship service that week. The High Priest offered the incense at the morning worship service on Yom Kippur (Lev 16:12-13), but he could appoint by lot a priestly representative for the afternoon service (Mishah: Yoma, 2:4).
In the 1st century BC, when Zechariah served Yahweh in his priestly duties, there were about 20,000 priests throughout the country. There were far too many priests to minister in the Temple at one time. King David divided the chief priests into twenty-four separate groups called "courses" that may have been twenty-four families or clans, all of them descended from Aaron, the first High Priest. According to King David's directions (1Chronicles 24:3-19), each group took turns serving for a week in the Temple two times a year except for the three pilgrim feasts (Exodus 23:14-19; Deuteronomy 16:16; 2 Chronicles 8:13). The pilgrim feasts of Unleavened Bread, Weeks (Pentecost), and Tabernacles required the service of all the courses of the chief priests and the Levites (lesser ministers) at the Temple.
During the daily morning and evening/afternoon worship services in ordinary time, the chief priests drew lots to determine their duties during the worship services (the Jewish "evening" was our afternoon since their day ended at sundown when the new day began). The only lot drawing repeated in the afternoon worship service was the one for burning the incense. The priest Zechariah was a member of the Abijah division, on duty that eventful day as recorded in St. Luke's Gospel (Luke 1:1-23). Each morning and afternoon, a priest entered the Holy Place in the Temple to burn incense on the golden Incense Altar during the daily liturgy of the Tamid sacrifice (Exodus 29:36-42; Num 28:1-8). The third daily lot drawing decided which priest had the honor of representing the High Priest in burning the sacred incense. It stood in front of the curtain that shielding the entrance to the Sanctuary's most sacred space, the Holy of Holies, which was the dwelling place of God among His people (Exodus 30:1-10). On this particular day, the lot fell to Zechariah.
Drawing the lot to burn the sacred incense was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Zechariah. Only a priest who had never been chosen to burn the incense could participate in drawing the third lot, but Zechariah's selection was not a chance occasion. God was guiding the events of history to prepare the way for Jesus, the final sacrifice of atonement, to come to earth and to offer Himself for humanity's sins. And that brings us to the phrase in the Gospel of St. Luke that reads, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside (Luke 1:10). Some scholars assume that this phrase refers to the faithful at the Temple during the incense offering on Yom Kippur. However, that assumption ignores that the burning of the incense in the Holy Place took place twice a daily, seven days a week. At that part during the liturgical service, as the smoke from the burning incense rose, it filled the Holy Place and spilled out of the Sanctuary doors. The people outside the Sanctuary believed the rising smoke from the incense carried their prayers to Heaven. At the sight of the smoke, the congregation gathered in the courtyard prostrated themselves facing the Sanctuary and prayed in silence.
Other than the High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies on the Feast of Yom Kippur, there was no other time when a priest came into such proximity with the presence of God in the Jerusalem Temple. Perhaps Zechariah made the incense offering during the Tamid worship service in the afternoon of Yom Kippur, or he offered the incense during the morning or afternoon Tamid liturgy on a day near to Yom Kippur. No matter how important an annual feast, or even the Sabbath service, it could not take precedence over the Tamid sacrifice. A sacrifice of the Tamid lamb had to take place twice daily so long as the Sinai Covenant between God and Israel endured (repeated fifteen times in Numbers 28:10-29:38; Mishnah: Yoma, 2:4). If Zachariah's wife conceived John in the early fall, around the time of Yom Kippur, his birth would be nine months later, in the summer. This is why the Church chose to remember St. John the Baptist's birth on June 24th.
Biblical scholars have noted that St. John's statement that he must grow less as Jesus grew greater in John 3:30 was illustrated in the traditional dates when the Church celebrates as their births. The Church celebrates St. John's birth after the summer solstice as the days of the year grow shorter, and Jesus' birth just after the winter solstice as the days of the year grow longer. Is it possible that John 3:30 is a clue that could indicate their births? If so, John's conception had to occur in the fall (near Yom Kippur) and Jesus' conception six months later (as the ancients counted), in the spring, with His birth at the beginning of winter.
The Church celebrates the Annunciation on March 25th, very close to the spring equinox. When you add nine months to March 25th, you have December 25th as Jesus' birth. Is it a coincidence that these significant dates associated with St. John the Baptist and Jesus all fall near the year's four divisions? Our seasons and the momentous events related to our Savior's Advent are all part of God's divine plan since the creation of the world. Our seasonal divisions were established after the Flood (see Genesis 8:22), and the cycles of the moon determined the Old Covenant liturgical calendar.(1)
One more piece of evidence may support the theory that the Church used this information to determine the birth of Jesus. According to the early Church Fathers, there was a tradition that Jesus died on the cross on the same day of the year that the Holy Spirit conceived Him. Jesus died during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, always celebrated in the spring from Nisan 15th to the 21st in the Jewish lunar calendar. This feast falls during the first full moon after the spring equinox (end of March or early April is the yearly spread in calculating the date according to the moon's cycle). And the Church has always celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th!
Jesus' Birth and the New Year
If the Church has determined that Jesus was born December 25th, why is it that the beginning of our civil calendar year, set in the 6th century AD, begins on January 1st? The Church's liturgical year begins at Advent in early December. In AD 525, mathematician Dennis the Short, Abbot of Rome, rejected the old Roman calendar dated from the founding of the pagan city of Rome. He established a new calendar, which he dated from what he calculated as the year of the birth of Christ (designated as year 1 Anno Domini= "in the year of our Lord"). He decided to date the beginning of the civil calendar year with Jesus' entrance into the Old Covenant faith, according to the Law of Moses. This event, commanded since the time of God's covenant with Abraham, was to take place eight days after the birth of a male child (Genesis 17:9-12; 21:4; Leviticus 12:3). Counting December 25th as day one, which was the ancient custom since there was no concept of a zero-place value, the eighth day was January 1st.(2)
Unfortunately, the calculations Dennis used to date the day of Jesus' birth no longer survive. As far as the year of Jesus' birth, Fathers of the Church like St. Clement of Alexandria (3rd century AD) and Bishop St. Eusebius of Caesarea in the Holy Land (4th century AD) agreed on the year of Jesus' birth (see Clement of Alexandria's Stomata, I and Eusebius' History of the Church chapter 5). Eusebius wrote in his Church History: It was in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus and the twenty-eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the death of Antony and Cleopatra. These calculations place Jesus' birth in 3 BC (BC = Before Christ).
Eusebius was dating Augustus' reign from the death of Julius Caesar, in our time = 44 BC, and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra in 30 BC. Dates before the year 1 BC and 1 AD (the year designated by Dennis the Short as the year of Christ's birth) are counted in decreasing order, backward from Christ's birth and in increasing order, counting forward from His birth. There is no year 0. In calculating ancient dates, it is essential to remember that it was not until the Middle Ages that the mathematical concept of a zero-place value was introduced into the West. This concept was not employed in Jesus' time; therefore, in counting sequences in ancient times, the count always including the first in the series as #1. This counting method is why Sacred Scripture records Jesus was in the tomb for three days instead of two days from Friday to Sunday (Luke 24:7, 46; Acts 10:40).
Dating King Herod's Death Associated with the Year of Jesus' Birth
Today most modern scholars have based the year of Jesus' birth on a calculation of a lunar eclipse originated by the report of the 1st century AD Jewish priest/historian Flavius Josephus. Josephus wrote that Herod the Great died after a lunar eclipse and before the annual remembrance feast of the Passover (Antiquities of the Jews, 17.6.4 [167]). A lunar calendar determined the Feast of the Passover and all the sacred feasts. God commanded that the annual remembrance of the Passover sacrifice commence on the 14th of Nisan, with the sacrificial meal celebrated on the first night of Unleavened Bread, on the 15th day of the full moon (Exodus 12:6-8; Leviticus 23:5-6), which came after the vernal equinox.(3) In 1630, astronomer Johannes Kepler (d. 1630) attempted to identify Jesus' birth year through Josephus' information concerning Herod's death associated with a lunar eclipse. Kepler identified the year 4 BC as a year of a partial lunar eclipse on March 12/13, with the Jewish Passover twenty-nine days later, on April 11th. He also discovered there was a total lunar eclipse in 5 BC, but with a lapse in time of seven months until the Passover, that date seemed unlikely. Kepler also proposed that St. Matthew's account of the star refers to several extraordinary conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in 7 BC.(4)
Since the late 19th century, most Biblical scholars have accepted Kepler's discovery as proof that Herod died in 4 BC. Therefore, they assume that Jesus must have been born in year 7 or 6 BC, completely ignoring St. Luke's testimony in Luke 3:1-2 in determining the year of Jesus' birth in the 15th year of Roman Emperor Tiberius. Recently, however, modern astronomers, like Dr. Ernest Martin, using more sophisticated and accurate instruments, have calculated that in year 1 BC, there was a full lunar eclipse viewed from Jerusalem on the night of January 9/10, and tha year the Passover Feast was celebrated just twelve and a half weeks later on April 8th. This information has caused many Biblical scholars to reassess the calculations of Jesus' birth year from 7 BC to year 3/2 BC. This date is in agreement with Saints Clement, Bishop Eusebius, and Luke's testimonies that St. John and Jesus were thirty years old in the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius, which would be the year 28 AD, providing a birth year of 3/2 BC.
Dr. Ernst Martin has also discovered an even more unique stellar event than the one Kepler identified in year 7 BC. During the year 2 BC, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus must have caused a spectacular stellar display. With Venus rising in the east in conjunction with Jupiter, the planets would have appeared in the sky as a single brilliant light. The inspired writer of the New Testament book of Revelation refers to Jesus as "the bright morning star" in Revelation 22:16, a reference which links the planet Venus, the morning star, to Christ. Also, any stellar event involving the giant planet Jupiter was viewed by the ancients as foretelling the birth of a king, as the event of the sign in the stars was interpreted by the Magi who traveled to Bethlehem. They arrived when Jesus was no longer an infant but a very young child in what, according to our calendar, would have been 2 BC. If Jesus was born on December the 25th, 3 BC, the date agrees with St. Luke's date for Jesus at 30 years old in the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius. Many of the world's prestigious observatories, including the Griffith Observatory in Lost Angeles, accepted Dr. Martin's Christmas star theory and featured it in their annual Christmas program.
The date of Herod the Great's death based on the eclipse of the moon in 4 BC would place Jesus' birth sometime between 7 and 4 BC. It does not agree with St. Luke's information on the beginning of St. John and Jesus' ministries in the Gospel of Luke in the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius. However, Clement's testimony of a 3/2 BC date supports St. Luke's account. It is also supported by the modern astronomers' finding that a full lunar eclipse occurred in year 1 BC, which could be the lunar eclipse Josephus referred to, with a spectacular conjunction of planets in 3/2 BC, which could be the "star" of Bethlehem. If the 1 BC lunar eclipse is what Josephus associated with Herod's death, then the 3/2 BC birth date for Jesus agrees with the Biblical account.
Copyist's errors compromised other accounts by the first century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus' dates concerning Herod's family. Copies of his history after the year 1544 indicate he recorded that Herod died later than previously copies of Josephus' account. All copies of Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews 18.106 before 1544 placed Herod the Great's son Philip's death in the 22nd year of the reign of Roman Emperor Tiberius, after ruling for thirty-seven years after the death of his father instead of in the 20th year of Tiberius as recorded in many copies after 1544. The copyist evidently mistakenly failed to write 22 and instead recorded 20 years, and other copyists repeated the error. The older accounts from Josephus' history, therefore, place the death of Herod in the year 1 BC our time (see The Works of Josephus, page 483, footnote c). If King Herod died in year 1 BC, according to our modern calendar, and if Herod believed Jesus to be just under 2 years old when he ordered the murder of the babies in all villages around Jerusalem, then a birth date of winter 3/2 BC for Jesus would agree with both accounts of St. Clement and Bishop Euseibus as well as the calculations that can be made from the information provided in the Gospel of St. Luke. All the available information supports a birth date for Jesus of Nazareth on about December 25/January 6th, 3/2 BC, with the beginning of His ministry when He was thirty years old in 28 AD and His death during the Passover of 30 AD.
Endnotes:
1. The vernal equinox occurs
when the sun changes from south to north of the celestial equator, appearing to
cross the celestial equator and intersecting the constellation Pisces. The sun
appears to cross the celestial equator at this point on about March 21st
each year. This is the vernal equinox, which means the "green time of equal nights
and days." Because of the sun's position at this time of the year over the
earth's equator, the day is evenly divided for a brief period between sunlight and
darkness. At this time, spring begins in the northern hemisphere, and autumn
begins south of the equator. The opposite point of intersection is in the
constellation Virgo where the sun appears to cross the equator from north to
south. This is the autumnal equinox. The sun reaches this point each year on
about September the 23rd. Autumn begins north of the equator, and
spring comes to the southern hemisphere. On the other hand, the
solstice marks the extreme northern or southern position of the sun in its
apparent annual journey. The sun appears to reach its most northern position,
known as the summer solstice, around June 21st, when summer begins
north of the equator. The opposite point is the winter solstice, reached on
about December the 21st. This marks the most southern position of
the sun and the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer
solstice is at the intersection of the stars of Gemini, and the winter solstice
at the intersection of the constellation Sagittarius. The procession of the
earth has shifted the solstices in their positions. In ancient times, the
summer solstice was in the constellation of Cancer and the winter solstice in
Capricorn.
2. Christianity and the Roman Empire, page 282; Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year, page 189; Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, pages 77-78, 81. This is why Scripture records that Jesus was in the tomb three days from Friday to Sunday, instead of two days as we would count it. The ancients counted time the way we count objects.
3. Philo of Alexandria, 1st century AD Jewish theologian wrote: And there is another festival combined with the feast of the Passover [...]. This month being the seventh [in the civil calendar] both in number and order, according to the revolutions of the sun, is the first in power; on which account it is also called the first in the sacred scriptures. And the reason, as I imagine, is as follows. The vernal equinox is an imitation and representation of that beginning in accordance with which the world was created. [..]. And again, this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day which the moon is full of light, in consequence of the providence of God taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day (Philo, Special Laws, II. 150-155).
4. Full lunar eclipses occurred in 9, 8, 5, and 1 BC, and in AD 3, 7, 10, 11, and 14.
Sources:
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © December 1999; revised January 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.