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Old 12-27-2007, 09:06 AM
Shoonra Shoonra is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2,705
There is a small problem about dating the birth of Jesus to Sept. 11, 3 BC.

Scripture says he was born in the reign of Herod (Matt. 2:1), the Herod who ordered the slaughter of the innocent and died shortly thereafter (Matt. 2:19). This must be Herod the Great, since his son and successor Antipas outlived Jesus by several years.

Josephus gives a fairly exact date for the death of Herod the Great, within a very few weeks of the lunar exclipse of March 12, 4 BC; approximately a year and half earlier than the date you hypothesize.

Moreover, since the slaughter of the innocent extended to boys up to two years of age (Matt. 2:16), this hints that the birth of Jesus might have been at least two years before Herod's death.
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