The Birth-Year of Christ according to the Regnal System

The problems and solutions using the Regnal Calendar system for calculating the birth year of Christ.

The following coverage shows that it is not a problem of the Christian religion to identify the year of Christ’s birth. Rather, it demonstrates that an internationally recognized calendar system was not available yet. Mankind was still figuring it out.

The Regnal system is one of the older calendar systems in the annals of human history. The origins are obscure but a natural fit.

It was widely used throughout the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean area and popularized by the Romans.

The problem with the Regnal system of calculating dates is political knowledge. If one does not know when the reign of a leader began or when he died, then this causes dating irregularities. We do not possess all the historical facts today to accurately date anything in history using this system. However, since the New Testament writers reference this system, it becomes an important factor in calculating the birth year of Christ.

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A Chronology of the Herods: More Details

Charting the dates and lives of the Herods in relation to the birth of Christ and making sense of the differences between competing histories.

A Chronology of the Herods

Charting the dates and lives of the Herods concerning the birth of Christ and making sense of the differences between competing histories.

Herod the Great was a living character described by the Bible narrators about the birth of Christ,1 therefore the reign dates of this leader and his family are of particular value.

a picture of Herod the Great
Herod the Great, founder of a family dynasty in the Middle East.

However, there are different timeframes in the significant historical sources, especially between the first century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus and several ancient church accounts. This work aims to define what Josephus and the church authorities wrote on the subject, compare the dates, find common patterns, and, hopefully, reconcile the differences.

The original writers of the Gospels never related time in relation to the Herod dynasty. This omission was likely done on purpose because the Gospels were for a universal audience that viewed the Herod family as minor players in a big act. Neither did the Christian writers want to parallel the Herods with time because they were so cruel and barbarous. This action would be too honorific.

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