y the Roman Senate in the 184th Olympiad, when Calvinus and Pollio were
consuls, that is, in the year of Rome 714; and that he reigned
thirty-seven years (Antiq. xvii. 8, Sec. 1). We may infer, therefore, that
his reign terminated in the year 751 of the city of Rome. He died
shortly before the passover; his disease seems to have been of a very
lingering character; and he appears to have languished under it upwards
of a year (Josephus' Antiq. xvii. 6, Sec. 4, 5, and xvii. 9, Sec. 2, 3). The
passover of 751 fell on the 31st of March (see Greswell's
"Dissertations," vol. i. p. 331), and as our Lord was in all likelihood
born early in the month, the Jewish king probably ended his days a week
or two afterwards, or about the time of the vernal equinox. According to
this computation the _conception_ took place exactly at the feast of
Pentecost, which fell, in 750, on the 31st of May.

This view is corroborated by Luke iii. 1, where it is said that the word
of God came to John the Baptist "in the _fifteenth year_ of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar." John's ministry had continued only a short time when
he was imprisoned, and then Jesus "began to be _about thirty_ years of
age" (Luke iii. 23). Augustus died in August 767, and this year 767,
according to a mode of reckoning then in use (see Hales' "Chronology,"
i. 49, 171, and Luke xxiv. 21), was the _first year_ of his successor
Tiberius. The _fifteenth year_ of Tiberius, according to the same mode
of calculation, commenced on the 1st of January 781 of the city of Rome,
and terminated on the 1st of January 782. If then our Lord was born
about the 1st of March 751 of Rome, and if the Baptist was imprisoned
early in 781, it could be said with perfect propriety that Jesus then
"began to be about thirty years of age." This view is further confirmed
by the fact that Quirinius, or Cyrenius, mentioned Luke ii. 2, was
_first_ governor of Syria from the _close_ of the year 750 of Rome to
753. (See Merivale, iv. p. 457, note.) Our Lord was born under his
administration, and according to the date we have assigned to the
nativity, the "taxing" at Bethlehem must have taken place a few months
after Cyrenius entered into office.

This view of the date of the birth of Christ, which differs somewhat
from that of any writer with whom I am acquainted, appears to meet all
the difficulties connected with this much-disputed question. It is based
partly upon the principle, so ingeniously advocated by Whis