Question:  If the letters “BC” indicate a period before Christ, how do you explain that Jesus was born in 4 BC?  Surely he was not born before he was born?

            Jim

Answer:  Dear Jim,

            Good question!  Christianity influenced a new organizing principle for the calendar.  The birth of Christ came within the cultures of Judaism and Rome – Judaism counted forward from the date that was accepted as the date of the beginning of the world (the Hebrew calendar is still counted this way).  In the Roman Empire events were calculated backward from the founding of Rome.  Eventually Christianity combined these customs.  The birth and resurrection of Christ was seen as the watershed of all time, thus western Christians divided history into two parts.  But this did not happen until centuries after the resurrection of Christ.  Thus a chronological framework had to be constructed for events that had already happened, with the birth of Christ being the fulcrum 

            Originally the two periods of time were considered by Christians as AC and AD – abbreviations for two Latin terms, “Ante Christum” (before Christ) and “Anno Domini” (in the year of the Lord).  Later the English-speaking world replaced the Latin AC with BC (before Christ) while maintaining the AD.

            When calculations were done, dividing history into the two time periods of AC (later BC) and AD, it was difficult to arrive at the exact year for the birth of Jesus.  Of course, there is no year zero, so the year had to be 1 BC or 1 AD.

            Since the time when Christianity reorganized time into BC and AD historians have come to see that the birth of Christ needed to be adjusted a few years backwards – into BC – hence your question.  It does seem odd to claim that Jesus was born before he was born!  Historians have worked with evidence about the enrollment that Joseph and Mary would have traveled to – it was set for 8 BC.  Registration and taxing of all subject peoples was an object of pride and care for Roman Emperors, and Augustus was no exception.  Herod tried to please both Rome and the Jews, and in carrying out the edict of Rome it seems that he delayed the edict for 8 BC until 5 or 4 BC.  Herod died in 4 BC and Jesus was born while Herod was alive.

            There are other dates that can be consulted in determining an approximate year for the birth of Christ, but they all, in retrospect, agree with a slightly earlier date for the year of Jesus’ birth.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht