Because, if Herod died in 4 A.D, then the birth of Christ must have taken place before that year which would make Jesus atleast 37 years old in 33 A.D. They argue that it is improbable for Christ to have lived till that age. This argument is not tenable on two grounds –
1. Firstly, we cannot know for sure the age of Christ either at his death or even when he lived. In Luke 3:23, it is said that Christ was ‘about thirty years old’. The word ‘about’ (Strongs No: 5616) is to be noted and respected. It shows approximation and hence we cannot come at a definite conclusion. Especially because, as we saw in this issue, we have to search for the crucifixion year within a narrow span of 10 years, during which Pilate was the Governor of Judah. Hence, even a difference of 1 or 2 years is very important. ‘About thirty years’ can be any age between 28/29 – 31/32 and hence it is unacceptable to put forward an argument that is based on an assumption of the age of Jesus.
2. Secondly, within the last 20 years, due to the research of scholars like David W. Beyer and Ernest L. Martin on the writings of Josephus, it has been revealed that older manuscripts of Josephus that date prior to 1544 A.D, support a 1 B.C date for Herod’s death (See David W. Beyer, Josephus Re-Examined: Unraveling the Twenty-Second Year of Tiberius, in Chronos, Kairos, Christos II, edited by E. Jerry Vardaman, Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-86554-582-0 & Ernest L. Martin, The Star That Astonished the World, Second Edition; Portland, Oregon: ASK Publications, 1996, ISBN 0-94-5657-87-0). Josephus lived in the first century. Just as many manuscripts were written for the Bible, Josephus’ writings also were written down by scribes. Naturally, the later manuscripts, due to the errors of scribes started having many errors. Just as older Bible manuscripts reveal the additions and errors of later manuscripts, manuscripts prior to 1544 A.D of Josephus’ writings have revealed that the support lend by later manuscripts to a 4 B.C date of death for Herod was due to scribal errors. All the manuscripts prior to 1544 A.D support a 1 B.C date of death for Herod. In fact, even Jack Finegan, considered a top expert in Herod’s chronology evaluated the new researches and came to the conclusion that Herod died in 1 B.C (See Jack Finegan, The Handbook of Biblical Chronology, Revised Edition; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1-56563-143-9). This is noteworthy. Truly, as we said in the Para 10 of this issue, the increase in knowledge of the time of the end aids our understanding of the various truths of the Bible. Indeed, the writings of Josephus support a 1 B.C date for the death of Herod. Infact, even many writers of the early church held that the birth of Christ happened around 2/3 B.C. Then, Christ would have been around 33/34 years old in 33 A.D.
John 2:20
John 2:20 informs us that its events took place in the 46th year of the construction work of the Jerusalem temple. This construction (basically a repair and extension work of the Second Temple built by Zerubbabel in 515 B.C; See Grace – Blossom 07:September 2008) was done by Herod. Some try to make use of this historical information and try to identify the year of crucifixion. But, such attempts are unacceptable for we cannot be sure that when this construction work began. When writing about this period, Josephus gives contradicting dates for it. In one place, he says that this construction by Herod began in the 15th year of his reign but in another place he assigns the 18th year of Herod’s reign for the same. Hence, due to these contradictions we cannot know this date with precision. In fact, Herod began constructing and repairing various parts of the temple on various years of his reign and hence it is impossible to determine which beginning is talked about in John 2:20. Hence, any argument that is based on a mere supposition of this date is not resting on a solid foundation. In fact, one calculation based on John 2:20 affixes 17/18 B.C as the date of beginning of Herod’s construction and hence 46 years from that would give 30 A.D. And we could have used this as evidence to support a 33 A.D crucifixion. But, we did not do so in this issue because it involves suppositions and not hard facts.
The point we wish to stress is that, it is easy for us as well to flood many weak and supposition based arguments for a 33 A.D crucifixion. For example, some writings of Josephus indicate that Pilate was dismissed before the Passover of 36 A.D and it was only Vittellius who was in Jerusalem on the Passover of that year. We could have used that as well as evidence to prove that the crucifixion did not take place in 36 A.D. But since some other historical records throw doubts on this record of Josephus, we resisted from using it as evidence. The point is, while trying to connect Bible and history, we should be careful to rely only on established historical dates instead of arguments that are based on weaker foundations.