This is the chronology:
- Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem on the 6th April 5 BC / the comet appears and the Magi set off from Persia.
- Visit of the shepherds to the stable in Bethlehem that night.
- Circumcision of Jesus eight days after birth on the 14th April – the day the sacrificial Passover lambs were chosen.
- Passover on the 19th and 20th April /the wise men arrive in Jerusalem for Passover and go to Herod’s palace / Jesus is two weeks old.
- 26 days after Passover Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple for his dedication 40 days after birth and return to a house in Bethlehem. Meanwhile the wise men are held up at Herod’s palace for nearly two months.
- 30 days later the wise men leave Jerusalem and travel the six miles to Bethlehem where they find the new-born king. Jesus is ten weeks old.
- The comet disappears; the wise men depart to Persia via a different route; and Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt.
- Herod orders the massacre of all the baby boys in Bethlehem aged two years or less but Jesus had been rescued by his parents.
- King Herod died in 4 BC.
- Joseph and Mary with Jesus return to Israel but go to live in Nazareth in Galilee, not in their home town in Judea in 3 BC.
Jesus lived a quiet life in Nazareth working as a carpenter with Joseph. Jesus was in his 30s when he started his three year ministry. He moves to Capernaum on the shores of Lake Galilee. Jesus went to Jerusalem each year for Passover, first with his family and later with his disciples. On his final visit to Jerusalem in 33 AD he celebrated Passover with his disciples and taking the bread and the cup instituted the Lord’s Supper. He and the disciples went out and that same night he was arrested and put on trial immediately. The following day, on the eve of the Sabbath he was condemned to death, led away carrying his cross and crucified.
If Jesus was born in 5 BC it means that he started his mission aged 34 and was aged 37 when he died. (Note that in calculations of Jesus’ age there was no zero AD or zero BC so 1 AD = 1BC).
Not only in his death, but also in his birth Jesus is identified as the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed at Passover for both Jew and Gentile alike.
Thus, the month in which the comet of 5 BC appeared shows that Jesus must have been born just before Passover on the 20th April 5 BC. He was born and circumcised as the lambs were being chosen and prepared for the Passover sacrifice. This symbolically reveals Jesus Christ’s identity as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Merry and True 