Famously, the birth of Jesus is celebrated in many parts of the world on December 25. This is the traditional date of Christmas. Furthermore, many people today believe that the year in which he was born was 4 BCE. However, the early Christians had a completely different date and year for Jesus’ birth. When did they really place it?
Jesus’ birth according to Clement and Tertullian
When we look at the writings of the early Christians within the first few centuries after Jesus’ death, we find numerous references to when he was born. One of the very earliest of these references is from Clement of Alexandria, born in c. 150 CE.
According to Clement, Jesus was born 194 years, one month, and thirteen days before the death of Commodus. Since Commodus died on 31 December, 192 CE, that would place Jesus’ birth on 17 November, 3 BCE.
An exact contemporary of Clement, the famous Tertullian, stated that Jesus was born in the 41st year of Augustus. Tertullian apparently considered Augustus’ rule to have begun with the formation of the Second Triumvirate, which was on 27 November, 43 BCE.
Hence, according to this statement, Jesus’ was born at some point between 27 November, 3 BCE and 27 November, 2 BCE. Additionally, Tertullian states that this was when Augustus had been reigning for 28 years since the death of Cleopatra.
Since Cleopatra died in August, 30 BCE, that would place Jesus’ birth no earlier than August, 2 BCE.
Evidence from Ireneaus and Hippolytus
What did other early Christians say about the date of Jesus’ birth? Irenaeus, writing c. 180, placed Jesus’ birth in the 41st year of Augustus, just like Tertullian. Again, this would place Jesus’ birth at some point between the end of November, 3 BCE and the end of November, 2 BCE.
A few decades later, Hippolytus of Rome wrote his Commentary on Daniel. Here, he stated that Jesus died on 25 December in the 42nd year of Augustus. This is interesting, since it appears to be the earliest known reference to Jesus being born on December 25.
However, notice that Hippolytus states that Jesus was born in Augustus’ 42nd year, while Irenaeus and Tertullian placed it in his 41st year. This suggests that it happened fairly near the transition from one year to the next, which was in November in the year 2 BCE.
This ties in well with the fact that Tertullian placed 28 full years after the death of Cleopatra in August, 30 BCE. Hence, he explicitly placed it no earlier than August, 2 BCE and hence fairly late in Augustus’ 41st year.
Evidence from Eusebius and Epiphanius
When we move on to the early Christians of the fourth century, we find very similar statements regarding the date of Jesus’ birth.
Eusebius, writing in c. 325, stated in his Ecclesiastical History that Jesus died in the 42nd year of Augustus and the 28th year after the death of Cleopatra and the conquest of Egypt. As we have seen, Augustus’ 42nd year began in November, 2 BCE.
However, unlike Tertullian’s statement that Augustus had ruled 28 full years after Cleopatra’s death, Eusebius’ wording suggests that he had reigned only 27 full years and an undisclosed number of months after that event.
This would place Jesus’ death before August 2 BCE, based on the reference to Cleopatra. Hence, to reconcile the two references, Eusebius appears to have been placing Jesus’ birth in approximately the era between August and November in the year 2 BCE.
Epiphanius, writing just a few decades later, placed Jesus’ birth in the 42nd year of Augustus, 13 days after the winter solstice. This would be early January, 1 BCE. However, he also states that this was the year in which Augustus was consul with Silvanus, which was 2 BCE.
When the early Christians placed Jesus’ birth
When we look at all this evidence from the early Christians about the date of Jesus’ birth, we can see that they generally agreed that he was born in about 2 BCE. Some references favour 1 BCE, while Clement’s favours 3 BCE. In any case, these dates are generally in agreement.
Aside from Clement’s reference to Jesus being born in 3 BCE, the other statements are generally harmonious in placing Jesus’ birth in the latter half of 2 BCE. Based on the earliest of these references, his birth was originally placed before 27 November of that year.
It would appear that Clement’s claim is an outlier. Likely, his reference to “194 years” should be corrected to “the 194th year”. That would place Jesus’ birth on 17 November, 2 BCE, which is much more consistent with the other references from early Christians.
In summary, we can see that the early Christians generally placed Jesus’ birth in the second half of 2 BCE. While they did not agree on an exact date, the placement of Jesus’ birth right at the end of the year was not what they originally believed.
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