The death of Jesus and His subsequent resurrection are the single most
important events since the creation of the world. It was through the
death of Christ that God took those who were “alienated” from Him due to
sin and “reconciled [them] by Christ’s physical body through death to
present [them] holy in his sight, without blemish and free from
accusation” (Colossians 1:21–22). And through Christ’s resurrection God has mercifully “given us new birth into a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3).
As with most of the events it records, the Bible does not give us the
exact date that Jesus died. But we can figure it out with a fair degree
of accuracy.
Even though the world’s timeline is historically divided between BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini—“in the year of our Lord”), Jesus Christ was actually born between the years 6 and 4 BC. We arrive at this date based on the death of Herod the Great, who was procurator of Judaea from 47 BC until he died in 4 BC. It was “after Herod died” that Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus were told to return to Israel from Egypt (Matthew 2:19).
A number of factors allow us to pinpoint the year of the death of Jesus. We know that John the Baptist commenced his ministry in AD 26, based on the historical note in Luke 3:1. Jesus probably began His ministry soon after John began his. Jesus then ministered for the next three and a half years, approximately. So, the end of His ministry would have been c. AD 29–30.
Pontius Pilate is known to have ruled Judea from AD 26–36. The crucifixion took place during a Passover (Mark 14:12), and that fact, plus astronomical data (the Jewish calendar was lunar-based), narrows the field to two dates—April 7, AD 30, and April 3, AD 33. There are scholarly arguments supporting both dates; the later date (AD 33) would require Jesus to have had a longer ministry and to have begun it later. The earlier date (AD 30) would seem more in keeping with what we deduce about the start of Jesus’ ministry from Luke 3:1.
Much has happened on the world stage since the time of Christ, but nothing has ever eclipsed the magnitude and meaning of what happened in AD 30—the death and resurrection of the Savior of the world.
Even though the world’s timeline is historically divided between BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini—“in the year of our Lord”), Jesus Christ was actually born between the years 6 and 4 BC. We arrive at this date based on the death of Herod the Great, who was procurator of Judaea from 47 BC until he died in 4 BC. It was “after Herod died” that Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus were told to return to Israel from Egypt (Matthew 2:19).
A number of factors allow us to pinpoint the year of the death of Jesus. We know that John the Baptist commenced his ministry in AD 26, based on the historical note in Luke 3:1. Jesus probably began His ministry soon after John began his. Jesus then ministered for the next three and a half years, approximately. So, the end of His ministry would have been c. AD 29–30.
Pontius Pilate is known to have ruled Judea from AD 26–36. The crucifixion took place during a Passover (Mark 14:12), and that fact, plus astronomical data (the Jewish calendar was lunar-based), narrows the field to two dates—April 7, AD 30, and April 3, AD 33. There are scholarly arguments supporting both dates; the later date (AD 33) would require Jesus to have had a longer ministry and to have begun it later. The earlier date (AD 30) would seem more in keeping with what we deduce about the start of Jesus’ ministry from Luke 3:1.
Much has happened on the world stage since the time of Christ, but nothing has ever eclipsed the magnitude and meaning of what happened in AD 30—the death and resurrection of the Savior of the world.
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