The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (33 page)

SIDEBAR 3.1: LUKE AND QUIRINIUS

Since Josephus indicates that Quirinius became governor of Syria in AD 6 and that he did begin a census of the region for Rome shortly after assuming power (
Ant.
18.1.1– 2 §§1–11), some scholars doubt the accuracy of Luke's statement and believe that he was confused about the dates of both the census and Quirinius's governorship. D. Bock has suggested two means of reconciling Luke with the extrabiblical references to a Roman census.

First, extrabiblical sources do not name Roman rulers for this region in the period 4–1 BC. Quirinius may have been governor of Syria during this period, and thus the Roman census may have concluded during his term of office that began around the time of Herod's death.

Second, the adjective “first” in Luke 2:2 can function as the adverb “before” as it does in John 15:18, in which case Luke was simply referring to a census that occurred before the AD 6 census when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
¹

C. Blomberg has pointed out that “some ancient sources also speak of Quirinius leading military expeditions in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire a decade earlier [than AD 6] in a manner most naturally explained if he held some official post in Syria (Tacitus,
Annals
3.48; Florus,
Roman History
2.31).”
²

J. Vardaman argued for an earlier term of office for Quirinius in Syria based on supposed micrographic analysis of two fragmentary Latin inscriptions, and his unpublished work was endorsed by J. Finegan. Unfortunately, Vardaman never published photographs of the micrographic inscriptions, so that his work could not be properly reviewed by other scholars.

Although some scholars have claimed that the unidentified official who served as a legate of Syria mentioned in the Lapis Tiburtinus inscription was Quirinius and that this confirms Luke's account of Quirinius's leadership in Syria around the time of Jesus' birth, R. Syme argued persuasively that the unnamed official was actually L. Calpurnius Piso.
³
Syme's work confirmed the wisdom of the caution that Sherwin-White expressed when he warned: “A headless inscription is at best a dangerous ally who may change sides at any moment.”
⁴

W. Ramsay discovered an inscription in 1912 that referred to a colonist in Pisidian Antioch that served as a prefect of P. Sulpicius Quirinius, the chief magistrate, and as prefect of M. Servilius. Ramsay argued that Quirinius was legate of Syria at the same time that Servilius was legate of Galatia during the period before 6 BC. Although Ramsay's interpretation of the significance of the inscription involves some speculation, his claims have not yet been disproven.
⁵

_____________________

¹
For a brief treatment of these issues, see Bock,
Studying the Historical Jesus
, 69–70. For a more extensive discussion, see his
Luke 1:1–9:50
, 903–9.

²
C. L. Blomberg,
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
, 2d ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2007), 248.

³
See R. Syme, “The Titulus Tiburtinus,” in
Vestigia: Akten des VI Internationalen Kongresses für Griechische und Lateinische Epigraphik 1972
, Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte 17 (Munich: Beck, 1972), 585–601.

⁴
A. N. Sherwin-White,
Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament
, Sarum Lectures 1960–61 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963), 165.

⁵
See W. M. Ramsay, “Luke's Narrative of the Birth of Jesus,”
The Expositor
4 (1912): 385–407, 481–507. More accessible is W. Ramsay,
The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament
, 4th ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1920), 275–300. A photograph of the inscription appears on p. 284.

Some scholars have argued that Herod the Great actually died in 1 BC.
¹³⁵
However, theories of a later death of Herod either mistranslate key texts that refer to Herod's death, ignore the fact that all of Herod's successors point to the year 5–4 BC in dating the beginning of their reigns, or overlook Josephus's references to events contemporary with Herod's death. The majority of scholars continue to affirm 4 BC as the year Herod died.
¹³⁶

Luke stated that Jesus' birth occurred during the period of the Roman census ordered by Caesar Augustus. He further pinpointed the time of the census by associating it with Quirinius's governorship over Syria (Luke 2:1–2).
¹³⁷
Unfortunately, no ancient historian refers to this particular census or to Quirinius's role in Syria in the Herodian period. H. Hoehner has suggested that other historical factors point to the years 6 to 4 BC as the most likely dates for the census in Palestine. Herod the Great had fallen into disfavor with Caesar. Herod was also extremely ill, and his sons were each competing for the throne. A census would have been a logical step toward assessing the situation in Palestine as Caesar prepared to appoint Herod's successor. Good historical reasons exist for affirming the accuracy of Luke's description of a census under Quirinius.
¹³⁸
However, without extrabiblical references to the census or to Quirinius's term of office, the census does not really assist in determining the date of Jesus' birth.

Matthew 2:16 implies that Jesus may have been up to two years old at the time Herod ordered the slaughter of the innocents. This suggests that Jesus was born by at least early 6 BC. However, it is possible that Herod extended the age of the children he slew in Bethlehem to two even though the star appeared more recently than two years before to make sure that the Messiah did not escape his sword. Thus Jesus may have been born any time between late 7 BC and early 4 BC.

Both the Western Church (December 25) and the Eastern Church (January 6) celebrate the birth of Jesus in the winter. None of the NT data is inconsistent with a midwinter date.
¹³⁹
If the traditional dates approximate the actual date of Jesus' birth, Jesus was probably born in the winter of either 7–6 BC, 6–5 BC, or 5–4 B.C., with a 5 BC date for Jesus' birth being perhaps the most likely.
¹⁴⁰

The Beginning of the Ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus

Luke 3:1–2 dates the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist with greater precision than any other event in the Gospels: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God's word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”

The most precise method of dating the start of John's ministry is to determine what Luke considered to be the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Although Luke could have counted the fifteenth year of Tiberius's reign from the beginning of an alleged coregency with Augustus, this is unlikely. None of the ancient sources—including Josephus, Appian, Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio Cassius—adopted such a system. More likely Luke counted from either the death of Augustus (August 19, AD 14), the vote of the Roman senate to approve Tiberius as Caesar (September AD 14), or the beginning of the first full calendar year of Tiberius's reign (AD 15).
¹⁴¹
This year may have begun on January 1 (Roman system), Nissan 1 (March or April; Jewish system), or even October 1 (Syro-Macedonian system).

Although it is impossible to be certain, the most probable views are (1) that Luke either began his calculation on the date of Augustus's death, in which case Tiberius's first year extended from August 19, AD 14 to August 18, AD 15; or (2) that Luke calculated using an ascension year system and reckoned time in accordance with the newly devised Julian calendar in which the year began on January 1, in which case Tiberius's first year of reign extended from January 1, AD 15 to December 31, AD 15.
¹⁴²
Consequently, the fifteenth
year of Tiberius's reign likely fell within dates ranging from August 19, AD 28 to December 31, AD 29. John the Baptist's ministry began sometime during this period.

Jesus' ministry likely began only a few months after John's. Hoehner noted that if Jesus were born in the winter of 5/4 BC as suggested above and if he were baptized in the summer of the year 29, he would have been 32 years old at the time he began his public ministry.
¹⁴³
This comports with the statement in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was “about” 30 years old when he began his public ministry.

This chronology fits nicely with another important clue that appears in John 2:20. During Jesus' first Passover in Jerusalem after the beginning of his ministry, Jesus' Jewish opponents provided an important reference that is helpful for establishing dates for Jesus' ministry by mentioning the construction of Herod's temple. Unfortunately, most of the major English translations of the Bible misconstrue the actual meaning of the Greek text. The translations of John 2:20 in the TNIV, HCSB, and NRSV imply that the conversation took place 46 years after the construction of the temple
began
and that the temple was still under construction. However, the Greek grammar and extrabiblical references to the construction of the temple seem to imply that the conversation took place 46 years after construction on the temple
had been completed
. Hence the translation “This sanctuary was built 46 years ago” may be superior to the translation “This sanctuary took 46 years to build” (HCSB).
¹⁴⁴
According to one reference in Josephus, Herod began construction of the temple in the eighteenth year of his reign, the same year that Augustus arrived in Syria.
¹⁴⁵
Augustus's arrival in Syria occurred in the spring or summer of 20 BC.
¹⁴⁶
This means that Herod's eighteenth year would have extended from Nisan 1, 20 BC to Nisan 1, 19 BC, if one assumes that Josephus used the ascension year method of calculating the duration of the reign. Although the construction of the entire temple complex
(hieron)
would continue until AD 64, Josephus noted that the inner sanctuary
(naos)
of the temple was completed by the priests in only 18 months. Thus when the Jews referred to the temple
(naos)
in John 2:20, they were speaking of the inner sanctuary that had been completed in
18/17 BC.
¹⁴⁷
The Passover 46 years after the completion of the sanctuary would fall in the spring of AD 30. This date would confirm that Jesus began his ministry in the summer or fall of AD 29.
¹⁴⁸

The Duration of Jesus' Ministry

The Synoptic Gospels refer to Jesus' visiting Jerusalem only once during his entire ministry. But the Gospel of John refers to Jesus' visiting Jerusalem three times for the Passover, not counting visits related to other Jewish feasts.
¹⁴⁹
Most scholars today affirm the accuracy of John's Gospel at this point. This does not mean that the Synoptic Gospels are in error. Although they mention only one Passover visit to Jerusalem, they do not deny that other Passover visits occurred during Jesus' ministry. In general, it appears that John was even more concerned with the chronology of Jesus' ministry than the Synoptic writers were. Moreover, John has a demonstrable interest in showing that Jesus fulfilled the symbolism underlying various Jewish festivals and thus narrates Jesus' visits to Jerusalem on the occasion of religious feasts including Passover.

Jesus' first Passover visit to Jerusalem during his ministry occurs in John 2:13, 23; a later Passover visit takes place in John 6:4; and a final Passover visit is recorded in John 11:55; 12:1; 13:1; 18: 28, 39; and 19:14. However, John did not necessarily record every single Passover visit during Jesus' ministry. He may have omitted references to a particular Passover just as the Synoptic writers did. H. Hoehner has argued that a comparison of the Synoptics with John suggests that another Passover occurred between the Passover in John 2:13, 23 and the one in John 6:4.
¹⁵⁰
An extra year of ministry between these two Passovers may be necessary to accommodate Jesus' ministry in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria during this period and to allow for the various seasons described in the Gospel accounts.
¹⁵¹

If one affirms that Jesus' ministry included only three Passovers, his ministry lasted approximately two and a half years.
¹⁵²
If one allows for another Passover between the first and second Passovers explicitly mentioned by John, Jesus' ministry lasted approximately three and a half years, the latter being more likely.
¹⁵³

The Death of Jesus

Scholars typically date Jesus' death to either AD 30 or 33, and either date is possible. However, the preponderance of evidence examined above suggests that Jesus was crucified in AD 33.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday. The Gospels explicitly state that Jesus was executed on Friday, the day of preparation for the Sabbath (Matt 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31, 42). Because Jesus clearly rose from the dead on Sunday and because Matt 12:40 stated that the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth “three days and three nights,” some interpreters have argued that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday or Thursday. However, several OT texts suggest that “three days and three nights” (which occurs only in Matt 12:30) might function as an idiom for any portion of a day plus an entire day plus any portion of a day (Gen 42:17–18; 1 Sam 30:12–13; 2 Chr 10:5, 12; Esth 4:16–5:1). This method of reckoning time was also affirmed in rabbinic literature.
¹⁵⁴
Jesus apparently used the expression “three days and three nights” in a similar fashion. This is confirmed by the frequent references to his resurrection occurring “on the third day” (see Matt 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27 :64).

The Gospels make clear that Jesus ate the Last Supper on the day before his Crucifixion (Matt 26:20; Mark 14:17; Luke 22:14; John 13:2), and this is confirmed by Paul (1 Cor 11:23). The Gospels also portray the Last Supper as shared in conjunction with the Passover meal.