Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ

by Harold W. Hoehner

"Jesus Christ entered into the history of our world. Christianity, therefore, has historical basis. The backbone of history is chronology. Whereas history is a systematic account of events in relation to a nation, institution, science, or art; chronology is a science of time. It seeks to establish and arrange the dates of past events in their proper sequence. Thus chronology serves as a necessary framework upon which the events of history must be fitted. In this book (the author) attempts to establish certain fixed dates in our Lord's life." - Dr. Harold W. Hoehner. Dr. Hoehner has gathered a vast amount of data, both from Scripture and extrabiblical sources, to support his conclusions concerning key dates in the life of our Lord, among them: - The Date of Christ's Birth - The Commencement of Christ's Ministry - The Duration of Christ's Ministry - The Year of Christ's Crucifixion He carefully documents his position and compares the date available--including a study of Greek words, Roman law, and Jewish customs and prophecy.

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Biblical Studies, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 1978

Reviews

[Charity U · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little volume covers everything from the date of Jesus's birth, to the date for the beginning of His ministry, to the year and day of His death. Essential for anyone seeking to understand those things in their biblical and historical context!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first encounter with the works of Dr. Hoehner and I have to admit that I am very impressed with the level of research that he has done on the chronology of the Life of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. He is certainly knowledgeable on the subject and has proven himself by earning a Ph.D at Cambridge. This work is an excellent resource and here are a few of the reasons that I think this book is well worth the investment.Dr. Hoehner is very logical in his approach. His style is bland and clinical so you wont find any quotables. He considers various possibilities for every date that he sets forth. He starts with the birth of Christ and eliminates various years proposed for his birth by using a very systematic format. He proceeds on to show the date for the beginning of his ministry. He moves from date-to-date very even-handed and at no time does he try to force an interpretation to his favor. He often deals with problems that face his own postulations and try to work out a viable answer which he usually does very well. He goes through the crucifixion and the resurrection giving a very convincing reason as to why he accepts 33 A.D. as year of the Lord's Passion. He even demonstrates the likelihood that Christ was actually crucified on a Friday. After, he then compares notes with Daniel's 70 weeks and shows how that all the evidence falls in favor of the date he has established.I am no expert on the chronology of Jesus' life although I am not ignorant of it either. However, I do have a degree in history from the University of Illinois at Springfield and I do know that his method for coming to these conclusions is excellent. Many writings on this subject will often require a lot of guesswork and assumption which is not the case here. The historical data that he presents about Pilate and Herod shed a great deal of light in explaining why Pilate and Herod gave into the mob that wanted Jesus to be crucified. He shows how that there is a way to reconcile the caricatures of Tacitus and Josephus with those of the gospel writers about these two men.This book is accessible and can be followed by anyone with or without a background in this field. One thing I wish he would have done is to give a better rational as to why he thought Jesus may have been born in December and I wish he had give more charts to look at. But these are minor criticisms and do not in any way detract from the work. If you are doing a study of the gospels or the life of Christ you will do yourself a favor to pick up a copy of this book.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN EXCELLENT, DETAILED EVANGELICAL STUDY

Harold Walter Hoehner (1935-2009) focuses on six events: The Date of Christ's Birth; The Commencement of Christ's Ministry; The Duration of Christ's Ministry; The Day of Christ's Crucifixion; The Year of Christ's Crucifixion; Daniel's Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology.

He says, "According to Josephus, an eclipse of the moon occurred shortly before Herod's death... this occurred on March 12/13, 4 B.C. After his death there was the celebration of of Passover, the first day of which would have occurred on April 11, 4. B.C. Hence his death occurred sometime between March 12th and April 11th... Therefore... Christ could not have been born later than March/April of 4 B.C." (Pg. 13) He admits, "The exact date of the census [of Lk 2] cannot be determined with precision. However it is reasonable to think that the census would have been after Herod came into disfavor with Augustus in 8/7 B.C. ... The exact year of this census... is difficult to pinpoint but it was probably taken sometime between 6 and 4 B.C." (Pg. 22-23)

He states, "The question arises whether Matthew is speaking of the same time as Luke or a later time... to say that Jesus was no longer an infant because the Magi visited him in a house rather than a stable is quite weak. Certainly they would have moved to a house as soon as it was possible... That Herod killed children up to two years old was only to be sure he got Jesus... Therefore the slaying of the children soon after Christ's birth is tenable... it seems the evidence would lead one to conclude that Christ's birth occurred sometime in late 5 B.C. or early 4 B.C." (Pg. 24-25)

He states that "The one objection raised for the winter [Dec. 25] date is the fact ... [that] sheep were taken into enclosures from November until March and were not in the fields at night. However... it could have been a mild winter... Second, it is not at all certain that sheep were brought under cover during the winter months... Finally, the Mishnah implies that the sheep around Bethlehem were outside all year... Therefore, a December date for the nativity is acceptable." (Pg. 26)

He observes about the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27, "The first decree is the one of Cyrus to rebuild the temple... there are several problems with this view. First, Cyrus' edict refers to the rebuilding of the temple and not to the city... The final decree is that of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah in 444 B.C. to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (Neh 2:1-8)... this is the only decree that adequately fits the strictures given in Daniel 9:25." (Pg. 121-122, 126-127)

He argues about the dates of the Messiah, "If one multiplies the sixty-nine weeks by seven solar years, the total is 483 years. Subtracting this from 444 B.C. gives the date of A.D. 38, five years after Christ's crucifixion. So it is obvious that a calculation using the solar year does not work...

"The solution that is the most plausible is the one introduced by [Robert] Anderson [in 'The Coming Prince']. He proposed that the length of the year should be calculated as 360 days. He called these 360-day years 'prophetic years.' ... Multiplying the sixty-nine weeks by seven years for each week of 360 days gives a total of 173,880 days... This leaves only 25 days to be accounted for between 444 B.C. and A.D. 33. By adding the 25 days to March 5... one comes to March 30... This is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem." (Pg. 134-135, 137-138)

Hoehner's book is an "essential" for anyone seriously studying Jesus' chronology---whether all of Hoehner's interpretations convince one, or not.

[Tom Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foremost to understand here is that this is a limited work. It isn't devotional, exegetical, narrative, etc. It is strictly a detailed examination of the chronology of the more important events in the life of Christ.

I will say at the outset that I think the work suffers from two flaws. First, he places too much weight on extra-biblical sources. Second, he fails to offer enough width and depth to the book. What is really needed is a detailed examination of the entirety of His life. Yes, I realize the author specifically did not want to do that, but the reason it is essential is to explain/incorporate the impact of the chronology. Otherwise, it becomes too academic. Which is what this book, exactly. Academic.

Having said that, what he does, he does well. He explains his reasoning, and it is reasonable reasoning, even where I disagree with him. He gives us options and discusses why the other options are not as good as the one he chose. From the bibliography it is apparent he has studied the issues at hand deeply and I greatly appreciate that.

This book is what it is - a limited book tailored with academic exclusivity and thus a limited help.

[LAMONT D · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is from my own library as I was looking for books on prophecy and comments on the book of Daniel. I had read this back in 2016 but thought I would take a look again particularly since I rated the chapter on Daniel's Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology as very helpful. Probably the most interesting is the page on 143 regarding the Chronological Table of Christ's Life and the chart on page 139 of Daniel's Seventy Weeks which I happen to agree with on most points made in the book. It is a very difficult book to read in some chapters but also, he makes a concerted effort to detail the various interpretations of the life of Christ and why he believes, for example, in the dates that he lands on. In that light it is a good resource of the topics covered including the approximate time of His birth (4 B.C.) and what day/year did Jesus get crucified (and then rose from the dead-A.D. 33).

[Donald Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Hoehner is very thorough, but I have trouble completely agreeing with his date of AD 33 for the crucifixion. The hard dates in Acts, along with Paul's 14 years comment in Galatians make this date untenable in my view. I respect Dr. Hoehner's calculations, but he doesn't address these issues adequately here.

The other thing that I would say about the book is that it does get a little mind-numbing as Dr. Hoehner rushes through calculations in paragraph format. I think perhaps he could have found a way to express himself more clearly.

[Grayson Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a helpful little book in understanding all of the moving pieces in a chronological timeline of Christ’s life. I found it fascinating, well-reasoned, and accessible, especially as he interacts with opposing views (albeit, as it is a shorter work, it is an introductory resource in these aspects as well). Nonetheless, helpful in this form, as it saves one an immense amount of time in needing to weigh through the works of others.

[Rod Innis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for everyone. It deals with a lot of dates of events over 2000 years ago. It also includes quite a lot of speculation regarding those dates. I don't really agree with all the conclusions of the author although I do agree with most of them. The dates suggested are not crucial to the acceptance of the biblical records but are an interesting study.

[Christiam Aguilar Suazo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Súper buen libro

Buen libro una cronología perfecta da muy buenos argumentos y no solo su punto de vista que al final lo compara con los demás y eso sustenta aún más su propio punto.

[Jeremy Giesbrecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if there is anything new to be said perhaps with the additions of archeology since the time of writing.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential must-read for anyone involved in serious Biblical scholarship. The more one understands the chronological aspects of Christ's life, the more one realizes how truly significant they are. Hoehner does an excellent job drawing out the implications concerning how we date events in the life of Christ, showing the relationship between these dates and Biblical criticism as well as Old Testament prophecy. A well done book, and not too long!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly, yet accessible exploration of the timeline of events in Christ's life. Really interesting and helpful.