Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 177:708 (Oct 2020)
Article: Consular And Sabbatical Years In Herod’s Life
Author: Andrew E. Steinmann

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Consular And Sabbatical Years In Herod’s Life

Andrew E. Steinmann

and

Rodger C. Young

Andrew E. Steinmann is Distinguished Professor of Theology and Hebrew at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Illinois; Rodger C. Young is an independent researcher in St. Louis, Missouri.

Abstract

Much of New Testament chronology, especially the dating of Jesus’s life, depends on the dates for the reign of Herod the Great. In the late nineteenth century Emil Schürer proposed dates for the reign of Herod: 40 (37) BC to 4 BC. These are suspect and are based on Josephus’s erroneous use of Roman consular years. Schürer also cites the Sabbatical tables developed by Zuckermann, but this is not an independent source, since they are based on the same citation of consular years in Josephus. When Josephus’s error is recognized, the correct dates for Herod’s reign are demonstrated to be 39 (36) BC to 1 BC, placing the birth of Christ in late 3 BC or early 2 BC.

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman world was embroiled in a civil war that was described extensively by the Roman historians Appian, Dio Cassius, and Livius. Plutarch’s biographies also provide historical background for the period. Writings from these Roman historians (except Livius, for whom the relevant portions have not survived) give important information regarding the civil war and also regarding the Roman strife with the Parthians that took place during this unsettled time. Excerpts from the Roman historians show that Herod’s appointment as king of Judea by the Roman Senate could not have happened earlier than the autumn of 39 BC, a conclusion that contradicts the most commonly accepted chronology for Herod’s reign, that of Emil Schürer.1 Schürer’s chronology has Herod’s appointment

BSac 177:708 (October-December 2020) p. 443

occurring in late 40 BC and Herod’s siege and final capture of Jerusalem, done with the aid of a Roman army under their general Sossius, taking place in 37 BC. The present article will show that the Schürer chronology is not only in conflict with Roman historians, but also in conflict with explicit statements in the writings of Josephus that contradict the statements in Josephus from which Schürer constructed his chronology. It will also be shown that a chronology that places Herod’s appointment as de jure king in late 39 BC, his siege of Jerusalem in 36 BC, and his death in...