Herod's Reign

Herod, also known as Herod the Great, was the Roman client king of Judea which was referred to as the Herodian kingdom. The accurate determination of the Herod's timeline is crucial to the construction of the accurate timeline of Yeshua. The accurate timeline of Yeshua is necessary for us to prove whether Yeshua is the true Messiah.

Details about Herod's life were recorded in The Antiquities of the Jews by Roman-Jewish historian Josephus. Herod also appeared in the Christian Gospel of Matthew as the ruler of Judea who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Yeshua. Moreover, Herod's temple was mentioned in the Gospel of John. Therefore, a reliable determination of his timeline is essential to pinning down the birth date of Yeshua and the starting date of his ministry.

We will use the historical records of Josephus, astronomical information, lunisolar calendar information, and other historical evidence to uniquely determine the date of the first year of Herod's reign. According to Josephus, Herod took Jerusalem in the day of the appointed third month's fasting in the 185^th Olympiad (Antiq., bk. 14, ch. 16, sect. 2-4). There is no third month's fasting according to Zechariah 8:19, "Thus says the LORD of hosts; the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace." Currently, the Jews observe the solemnity of the fast on Tammuz 17/18 (fourth month), Av 9/10 (fifth month), Tishri 3/4 (seventh month), and Tebet 10/11 (tenth month), in agreement with Zechariah 8:19.

Did Josephus make a mistake about the months for fasting appointed by Yehowah God? No, he did not. In fact, his record is correct if we understand that he was using the Babylonian calendar to describe the timeline of the event. In 38 BC the third month in the Babylonian calendar happened to be the fourth month in the Hebrew calendar, while in 37 BC the month's numbers were the same in either calendar (see the calendars of 37 and 38 BC in Appendix D). This fact rules out the possibility that Herod took Jerusalem in the summer of 37 BC since in this year the fasting of the Jews could never have taken place in the third month of the Babylonian calendar. In the summer of 38 BC, which was also in the 185^th Olympiad, there was the possibility of a Jewish fasting day in the third month of the Babylonian calendar (and in the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar). If this was the case, the fasting day should have been on Tammuz 17 (June 27) of 38 BC in the Hebrew calendar. Moreover, Jerusalem was besieged during the summertime and in a sabbatical year according to Josephus. Indeed, the year from the spring of 38 BC to the spring of 37 BC is inferred to be a sabbatical year from the confirmed sabbatical year in Chapter 14. Therefore, Herod must have taken Jerusalem in the summer of 38 BC.

Josephus informed us that the war at Actium between Herod and Arabians was at height and the earth was greatly shaken at the beginning of the spring in the seventh year of Herod's reign (Wars, bk. 1, ch. 19, sect. 3). Since Herod started to reign in the summer of 38 BC, his seventh year was from the summer of 32 BC to the summer of 31 BC. Therefore, the spring of 31 BC was in the seventh year of Herod's reign.

Josephus also told us that Herod died after a lunar eclipse and before the Passover (Antiq., bk. 17, ch. 6-9). This information allows us to narrow down the year and month Herod died. From 10 BC to 1 AD, there were only two lunar eclipses observable in Jerusalem during the spring season. In 4 BC, a partial lunar eclipse with a magnitude of 1.43 took place on March 13 and the Passover was on April 11. This eclipse is consistent with Josephus' description. In 5 BC, a total lunar eclipse occurred at 20:21 of March 23, one day after the Passover on March 23. This eclipse is inconsistent with Josephus' description. Therefore, Herod must have died between Adar 15 and Nisan 15 of 4 BC.

According to Josephus, Herod had reigned 34 years after he took Jerusalem (Antiq., bk. 17, ch. 8, sect. 1). From June 27 of 38 BC to March 27 of 4 BC, there were 33 years + 9 months, which were rounded to 34 years, in agreement with Josephus' direct statement.

It appears to be generally accepted that the first year of Herod was in 37 BC because the fall of Jerusalem occurred when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls of Rome (Antiq., bk. 14, ch. 16, sect. 4), which was in 37 BC according to the accepted chronology for the consuls of Rome. To reconcile with the historical records of Josephus, one must accept that the chronology for Roman consuls may not have been completely accurate: an uncertainty of one year.

In Rome, Herod was unexpectedly appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate. Josephus put this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio, which would have been 40 BC according to the accepted chronology for the consuls of Rome. This is in contradiction with Josephus' direct statement (Antiq., bk 17, ch. 8, sect. 1): "Herod reigned 37 years [41 to 4 BC] since he was appointed by the Romans." By shifting back by one year in the chronology for the consuls of Rome, we arrive a conclusion that Herod was appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 41 BC. Therefore, the currently accepted chronology for the consuls of Rome has one year uncertainty in the time of Herod.