A Fool’s Errand
My friend Pastor Matt Boswell, made a good point in his endorsement of my book: “For some, tackling the precise date of the birth of Christ would seem a quest only fools dare tread.” I must admit I have felt like that fool many times. Why did I dare to spend so many years researching a topic that nobody has resolved for 2,000 years? Why bother with the effort since what does it matter anyway? Does it really matter when Christ was born? Doesn’t it only matter that he was born?
That fear of looking foolish, though, is why I kept my quest pretty much to myself and did research in the chinks and cracks of my life, the odd moments when all of my other responsibilities were fulfilled. It was a curiosity, a hobby, and although I hoped to find an answer, what kept me going was that I found the topic to be extraordinarily interesting whether I solved anything or not. I teach history and I found the historical components of this debate fascinating. It seemed odd that a date wasn’t known already. Why wasn’t it known? How could it NOT be known? So I kept searching.
An Age-Old Controversy
You may be thinking, “Duh. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Jesus was born on December 25, two-thousand and twenty-three years ago. A fool’s errand, indeed.” However–although maybe you’ve never been aware of this–December 25 wasn’t even chosen by the western church until around 380 years after the birth of Christ, and before that the dates were in the spring!
Also, 1 AD wasn’t always called 1 AD (Latin for Anno Domini which means “year of our Lord”). That wasn’t used until over 500 years after the birth of Christ. Before that years were counted by the length of reigns of kings and emperors, or four year periods called Olympiads.
In The Spring?
For example, the earliest church father who actually mentions a specific date, was Clement of Alexandria who lived around 150 years after Christ was born. He says, “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon. . . . Further, others say that He was born on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi.”
Pachon is the Egyptian month we call May, and Pharmuthi is April. Also, notice that he does give a year, but since the BC/AD labels weren’t developed until centuries later, he said Christ was born in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus. Hmmmm. When would that be on our current BC/AD calendar? Converting Clement of Alexandria’s Egyptian calendar to our modern calendar using https://planetcalc.com/8448/, we can discover he is telling us that Jesus might have been born on what we would think of as May 13, 2 BC or April 13, 2 BC. Notice that the potential candidates are in the spring, not the winter.
But wait a minute! Why then, if several hundred years later Dionysius Exiguus labeled the year Christ was born as AD 1, why does our modern calendar say that the 28th year of Augustus is 2 BC? Shouldn’t it be AD 1? Hmmmm again. What’s going on?
Sorting Out the Winding Paths
That is why in my quest to discover the date of Christ’s birth, all I found were winding, swerving paths in every direction. They were seemingly endless, and when it seemed like I had found the right one, new vistas presented themselves. I would often think, “Yay! I found it!” Only to discover that I was still miles away. Ever have that happen while hiking? “I’m almost there!” Only to discover you’re not even close.
I go into much greater detail about these paths in my book, “500 Year Journey” which can be pre-ordered now on my website, www.500yearjourney.com, or on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop. It will come out on September 12, 2023, and it will reveal the ultimate solution to the question: When was Christ born? Luke and Matthew told us that he was born during the reign of King Herod, and he was born during a census commanded by Augustus. When was that? As I will demonstrate, it was not in the year we currently call AD 1.
All of that aside, what I hope and pray is that you will be blessed by the true date of Christ’s birth and feel the miracle of the arrival of our savior anew. The progression of ideas in this book are carefully laid out and seeks to demonstrate that the date was foreshadowed in Scripture, fulfilled within the context of real history, and confirmed by the stars.
And the timing of the birth of Christ is so stunning, I believe it will blow you away, too.
By the way, here is Matt’s full endorsement:
For some, tackling the precise date of the birth of Christ would seem a quest only fools dare tread. Yet, Piper has no interest in a fool’s errand. Through a stunning blend of scholarly rigor, theological reflection, and typological themes, 500 Year Journey takes us on an expedition half a millennium in the making. Some may be unconvinced of Piper’s conclusions, but he has constructed the most detailed and plausible solution to date. A thought-provoking contribution for the convinced and critics alike.
