Do the Gospels Agree on Jesus's Birthday?

Tom:Thanks, Gary. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. But that wouldn’t be the case, if it were true, as some people allege, that the Bible is full of contradictions. First of all, if that were the case, then it wouldn’t be God’s Word, because God can’t contradict Himself. The Epistle to the Romans declares, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

Dave, there are more than a few people running around today convinced, because that’s what they’ve heard from the critics, that the Bible has such problems. Yet, I doubt that any of them have taken the time to see if that’s actually the case.

Dave: Well, Tom, you have to take the time. Now, I’ve probably mentioned it before, I remember when I was an undergraduate at UCLA, I went into the “back stacks,” they called it—you had to have a certain grade point average, believe it or not, before they would allow you back there—and, in that library and other libraries, I looked up everything I could find that the critics, the skeptics, the atheists, have written to try to destroy the Bible, to prove there is no God—and all I can say is the more I read, the more it strengthened my faith to see what pitiful arguments these people had!

But, now, if they can prove, as you said, that there are contradictions in the Bible, then the Bible is not God’s Word. If there are unscientific statements in the Bible, it’s not God’s Word. Now, we can’t allow someone to make that statement without investigating, for our own sake, and for the sake of others who hear these claims. So, I’ve spent quite a bit of my time investigating, and I have not found yet—and I’ve had a lot of correspondence with people—I have not found yet any contradictions, any unscientific statements, anything that they can document that would therefore prove that the Bible is not God’s Word.

Tom: Dave, we’re going to look at some alleged contradictions that have been brought to your attention over the years, and which you wrote about in your book, In Defense of the Faith, which we’re using to supply questions, answers—and it’s available, In Defense of the Faith by Dave Hunt, is available through our ministry, and Gary will give the 800 number at the end of the program.

But, this person writes, “Matthew says Christ’s birth was during the reign of Herod the Great,” and that’s Matthew:2:1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
See All..., “Herod died by all accounts in 4 BC, so Christ could not have been born any later than that. Yet, Luke says that Jesus had just turned 30 years old in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar (Luke:3:1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
See All..., 23), who began to reign in AD 14, so that would mean that Jesus was 30 in AD 29, and thus was born in 1 BC, three years after Herod’s death, thoroughly destroying Matthew’s timing. In a further contradiction, Luke puts Christ’s birth when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, but he didn’t take office until AD 6. How do you explain these discrepancies?”

Dave: Well, (laughing) we explain them. It’s a little bit . . . you know, Tom, every time we come across something like this, it strengthens my faith, because the Bible . . . well, the Bible is inspired of God. The Holy Spirit allows these things to be in there so the critics could gloat for a little while and think they’ve really come up with something—but [also] so that the Christians, or any interested inquirer, upon further examination would see the accuracy of the Bible.

Tom:  But there’s very little of that, Dave. It’s really a sad commentary. There is little further examination. People . . . and that’s one of our concerns here—we’re going to explain this contradiction.

Dave: But, that’s why we say “search the Scriptures daily,” but . . .

Tom: But people ought to be encouraged to do that—just for the reasons you said. It is a great encouragement. God’s Word is just that, it’s God’s Word.

Dave: Yeah, well, we point out a number of things here in the response. Luke 3, well, I don’t have it in front of me here. Let’s read the first few verses. Let me open my Bible and find it. I should be able to quote it, but it’s got so many names, people, and people and places.

Tom: Well, I’ll start with the . . .

Dave:  No, I’ve got it here. “Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar”—now, that’s specific—it’s not just any old Caesar, some Caesar, but Tiberius Caesar, and you go back to chapter 2, and it tells us that it was Augustus Caesar who put out a proclamation that the world should be taxed. And, indeed, Tiberius did succeed Augustus. Then it says, “Pontius Pilate, being governor of Judea, and Herod, being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests . . . ,” etc. Well, you say, I mean, why is that even recorded? It’s like the “begats and begottens” of the Old Testament, you know. 

Tom: Yeah, you could hardly spiritualize that and make something into it. This is history!

Dave: Right! Well, I would ask our listeners out there: Do you remember who pastored the church down the road 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or who was mayor, even, of your town or your city 15, 20, 30 years ago?

Tom: Try Vice-President of the United States.

Dave: Right. Yeah, ok. Now, we’ve got names of people. We have a date, first of all. We have to come to that—15th year of the reign of Tiberius. But when did his reign begin? Well, that’s another question. But, we have names. We have titles, and some of them are technical. Governor, tetrarch, Caesar, high priest, and so forth. We have the places where they held these offices. Now, that’s pretty specific. You couldn’t have written this fifty years later. I mean, there were no libraries in those days where you could look up this sort of thing. You couldn’t have written it twenty or thirty years later, much less centuries later—like the Jesus Seminar and some of these critics claim that the Bible was written.

So, first of all, we have evidence. This was written by someone at the time, as in fact, Luke. This is how it begins, “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order [this is Luke:1:1Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
See All...] a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us [this is a contemporary writing now], even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; [okay, we’ve had accounts from eyewitnesses] it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first. . . . ” Now this is a man who claims to be living at that time. He claims to be another eyewitness; he has a perfect understanding—he knows exactly what’s been going on.

Now, for someone to write this fifty years later, a hundred years later, two-hundred years later, is simply a lie! It’s a total fraud. And we’re going to believe someone like this? No. This man is proving to us—he certainly is claiming to be a contemporary. He says, “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus.” [Now, we know that he also wrote the Book of Acts—that book is written to Theophilus, and in the Book of Acts, it begins, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus”—so we know that Luke was written before the Book of Acts. And the Book of Acts surely would have included the death of Paul, who’s the main character, if he had been dead at the time it was written, and it does not, so we know that the Book of Luke also was written before the death of Paul. He says, (Luke:1:4That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
See All...) “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” So, this man, Luke, is writing to Theophilus. He wants him to know the facts. He says, “I’ve investigated, I’ve known this”—okay, now, he gives us these names, the date, the technical titles, the places where they held these titles, etc. Now, this man is a contemporary.

Okay, so now, the questioner raises some problems. He says, well, then, but what about Matthew, which says Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. We don’t know at what time during the reign of Herod the Great, because it says, “Wise men came from the East saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” So . . .

Tom: But, Herod had to be alive during the time . . .

Dave: Absolutely. He had to be alive after Jesus had been born. But the historians are pretty well agreed that he died in 4 BC. Well, now, how can Jesus be, well, I say He’s 29, verse 23 says, “And Jesus, Himself, began to be about 30 years.” So, I think He’s 29, going on 30. Now, if Tiberius began to reign upon the death of Augustus, which, again, historians are pretty well agreed was 14 AD, then, the 15th year of that reign would be 29 AD, and, indeed, Jesus would be 29 years old, going on 30 . . .

Tom: Which puts His birth date back to 1 BC, which is after the death of Herod the King.

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: Which is a problem.

Dave: I like to make it simple, even though there is no 0, I say He was born in 0, so—and this is where the calendar came from.

Tom: But, it’s still 3 to 4 years after the death of Herod the King.

Dave: Right. And this is a mistake, and unfortunately many people thought they were celebrating the 2000th birthday of Jesus.

Tom: Now, when you say it’s a mistake, what do you mean? Mistake in the Bible?

Dave: No, no. It’s a mistake to think that Jesus was born at 0—in other words, this is where the calendar came from that we have today. And so they were celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus in 2,000 AD. The Catholic Church was doing that. Now, I just ask any Catholics, if there are any listening, I mean, the pope surely should know better. The Catholic Church ought to know better. If they were celebrating the 2,000th birthday of Jesus in 2000 AD, they have a big problem, because He was born before Herod died. Actually, the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus was in 1995. Okay, well then how are we going to reconcile that? Well, I like Will Durant.

Tom: Not as a Christian . . .

Dave: No. He’s certainly not a Christian—a terrific writer. I mean, he can make history interesting as you read it. His 11-volume, I think—I don’t know whether we have all eleven volumes; I think we have ten of them, I’m not sure. But, his 10- or 11-volume History of the Civilization of the World is fascinating reading. And, Will Durant gives us a little bit of an insight. You know, Tiberius was one tough dude. Augustus was getting old and ill and . . .

Tom: Augustus Caesar.

Dave: Augustus Caesar. And, there were enemies who were taking advantage of that. They had killed his heirs, they were bringing rebellion in various parts of the empire, and Augustus sent Tiberius—this tough guy—out there to quell the rebellion and he did a job on those rebels!

Tom: Wasn’t he adopted by Augustus after . . . ?

Dave: I’m not certain of that. He may very well have been. Is that a fact?

Tom: Yeah, I’m pretty sure.

Dave: Okay. Anyway, he comes back, having quelled the rebellion, and he takes over. Well, I mean, he should take over, because Augustus is elderly. He’s not only elderly. Hey, I’m elderly, I’m 75—I guess that’s elderly—but Augustus is ill. He can’t think, he can’t do much, people are taking advantage of him, and so, Tiberius takes over.

So, Will Durant, in his history, quotes the citizens of Rome in 9 AD. They are very unhappy; they say, “Augustus is still Prince. . . ” That was their terminology, “but Tiberius is ruling.” So Tiberius actually began ruling . . . it doesn’t say “at the death of Augustus;” it says, “in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” So, again, the accuracy of the Bible is just fantastic! Tiberius actually began to reign in 9 AD. Then that moves the birth of Jesus back five years. So, He was born around 5 BC, but certainly (we don’t know exactly) but certainly within the lifetime of Herod the Great.

Tom: Right, which is critical. Because if not, all the references to Herod that we find in the Scripture— it doesn’t make sense. It can’t be true.

Dave: Yeah. And Herod, of course, sent his men out to kill this babe who had been born, the baby Jesus, and that’s very well known, especially at Christmastime. Well now, the next problem is Cyrenius. You go back to chapter two, again, (Luke), and it says, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

Tom: Dave, before you go on with that, let me refresh our listeners’ memories about the question. It says, “In a further contradiction, Luke puts Christ’s birth when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, but he didn’t take office until AD 6. How do you explain these discrepancies?”

Dave: Okay, so now we’re reading where it says that, in Luke chapter two. “It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” And, of course, to be taxed you have to go back to the town of your heritage, where your ancestors came from. So, that’s interesting, that is how Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem. Isn’t that wonderful how God can move the hearts of Caesars, of kings, and so forth? Caesar didn’t know what he was doing. But anyway, so Jesus was born in Bethlehem because Joseph, who was of the lineage of David, had to go back to the town of Bethlehem.

Tom: From Nazareth down to Bethlehem.

Dave: Right. And it goes on to tell us that he goes there with his wife, great with child, about to give birth. And so it was in Bethlehem, as they’re waiting for this registry, that she gave birth to Jesus in the stable. And it says [in] verse two, “And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.”

Tom: Well, this had to be around 5 BC, give or take a little.

Dave: Right. Now, Will Durant, interestingly enough, he does not know for sure. He does not say in his book (which was written some time ago) when Cyrenius began to reign. As a matter of fact, the later information, archaeological information, and digging up historical evidence, and so forth, we discover that he, Cyrenius, was governor twice. The first time, well some . . . I think I give some names in the book of various scholars—some of them think as early as 7 BC he began to govern Syria, and others say . . . well, A. W. Zumpt says around 4 to 5 BC. Others confirm that, 5-6 BC.

Tom: But, certainly not AD 6, which would throw out what we’ve been reading, I mean, this couldn’t agree.

Dave: Yeah. Zumpt says he governed again. He governed twice. His first governance ended in 1 BC, and then his second one began around 6 AD up until about 21 AD. But, certainly, he was governor of Syria when Jesus was born, in the days of Herod the Great.

Now, I love this, Tom, because (we’ve pointed out some other things like this) . . . because every time the skeptics come up with something and claim that the Bible is not true, when the archaeologists dig a little bit deeper and we come up with the full facts, we find that the Bible is true; the skeptics are wrong! I would never bet against the Bible [laughing]—you’re going to lose!

Of course, I’m not a betting man anyway. I’m a Christian, and I certainly would never bet against the Bible, because that’s betting against God. Because, I believe, and have absolute proof and confidence the Bible is God’s Word. But, this is one of those things that strengthens your confidence, because, it’s rather intricate—the names, the dates, the places, then the contradiction, apparently, and then the further evidence that proves that whoever was writing this knew what he was talking about. He’s not only an eyewitness, but he’s giving us an accurate statement, and it reconciles, and the Bible in fact is true!

Tom: Dave, that’s always been our encouragement. It’s why we’re involved with this radio program, to encourage people to that end. But, sometimes, you find even leaders that we look up to—they get stumped by this issue or that issue, and then they fall back and say, “Well, I’m just going to believe it because it’s God’s Word, whatever it says,” and they don’t get the benefit of seeing God’s Word take any challenge, take anything that’s thrown at it.

Dave: You cannot do that, Tom, as you know. Buddhists could say that, or a Muslim. Islam is a big issue right now. A Muslim could say, “Well, I just take the Qur’an by faith.” Well, but there are contradictions in the Qur’an. We’ve pointed out some of them. Serious contradictions in the Qur’an. Furthermore, the Qur’an contradicts the Bible. For example, it says that one of Noah’s sons refused to get in the ark, and he drowned. It tells us that Jesus was born under a palm tree.

Tom: And He didn’t die on the cross.

Dave: Right, I mean . . .

Tom: Somebody took his place.

Dave: So many contradictions with the Bible!? That’s a very serious one—that Jesus, instead of dying in our place, someone died in His place, and He was taken alive to heaven. The death, burial . . .

Tom: Which would make this other person the savior, which is impossible.

Dave: Well, but they didn’t die, so, no, what it would mean, Tom, is there is no savior, of course. That’s what you’re saying.

Tom: Right.

Dave: Because, our salvation is through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Furthermore, it raises complications for Islam. How can Muhammad be the successor—you know, they say Jesus was the 27^th prophet and Muhammad was the 28^th, and, like Sun Myung Moon claims, that he came to complete what Jesus failed; that Muhammad—he’s the successor of Jesus. But, wait a minute, how can you be a successor of someone who is still alive? Furthermore, He was in heaven—they say He’s in heaven. How can Muhammad, a man on earth, succeed Jesus, who hasn’t yet finished His work, because He’s in heaven, and He’s going to come back to this earth, and so forth?

Plus, there are many contradictions in the Qur’an itself as to how the earth was made, how . . .  

Tom: If anybody is upset by what you’re saying, there are places to go that you can look—that you can search out the Qur’an, you can do word searches, and so on, to see if it is true, just as Paul—well, actually, Luke, commends the Bereans for searching the Scriptures after listening to what the apostle Paul had to say. That’s what we want! If you’re a Mormon, do the same with The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine of Covenants, their supposed sacred writings.

Dave: Yeah, so please don’t get upset if we ever say something that you disagree with. If we’re wrong, please prove it. Go to the records, give us the evidence. Prove it, and we will apologize on the radio! We do not want to be led astray ourselves; we don’t want to lead others astray.

So, search the Scriptures daily, and if you are a Muslim, you’d better search the Qur’an and find out what it says—particularly what it says about using violence to spread Islam. This is a huge contrast with the Bible. Jesus says, “Come unto Me. If any man thirst, come unto Me and I’ll give him to drink.” You don’t force Christianity on anyone. Islam must be forced upon people. And, in Islam all you have to do is repeat the formula: “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is his prophet.” You don’t even have to believe it; you’ve got a sword pointed at you. But, in Christianity, it’s only if you believe with all your heart, then you are a real Christian. You are saved.