Posted by Wylie [GLamotta] on April 04, 1999 at 12:11:41 {th2VaRoznY7FeR6xQLXwboLUiPtahc}:
Perhaps the most amazingly unexplainable eclipse events that has influenced the concept of Biblical dating of events is the 4BCE eclipse which helps date the year of Herod's death in 4BCE which in turn has fostered concepts that Jesus must have been born before 2BCE.
Of course, based upon him being around 30 in 29CE, he should have been born in the early fall or late summer of 2BCE.
What's so incredible, is how many people take the eclipse reference for granted in 4BCE when it is historically totally inconsistent with the context of the history in which it is presented.
Generally, Herod is said to have died "shortly after an eclipse and shortly before the Passover."
This fits perfectly well his death on Shebat 2nd which is about 9-10 weeks before Passover, thus within the general season approaching Passover.
WHY THE MARCH 13/14, 4BCE ECLIPSE DOESN'T WORK:
But if you compare the March 13/14 eclipse which is supposed to
solidly confirm the dating of Herod's death in 4BCE you will immediately notice that it doesn't work.
1. For one, if Herod died on Shebat 2, which would be like February 2nd, it is clear the eclipse doesn't occur until more than six weeks AFTER his death.
2. March 13/14 allows only a month before Passover. According to Josephus' history, after the eclipse which followed an annual Fast for the Jews, Herod died 18-20 days later and then there was a 7-day formal mourning and then a 25-day procession of the body from Jerusalem to Herodium where his tomb was. This timing alone is far more than a month. Then after his son and heir, Archelaus, began to deal with the people a sedition quickly arose just before Passover. So there is not enough time for this to occur.
What's amazing is that the translator of Josephus, William Whiston, in his footnotes openly admits and recognizes that this reference to the passover must be dated a year later and not the same year.
Yet many historians and Christians don't know this and they think there is an eclipse-confirmed dating for this event for 4BCE.
ACTUAL DATING:
What we know now, based upon comparisons in Josephus,
is that the dating of Herod's reign was revised by 3 years from the time he wrote "Wars" until the time he wrote "Antiquities." Of note in "Wars" he claims that the temple was begun by Herod in his "15th year" whereas in "Antiquities" in
his "18th year." This simply addresses what he claims which is that Herod ruled for 34 years from the time Antigonas was killed, the official rulership, beginning in 37 to 4BCE, but that his appointment by Caesar was from 40CE, three
years earlier and that is the reference to a 37-year rule by Herod.
Clearly, this is just a cover for the revision. Thus, if we simply count a 37-year by Herod from his actual rule beginning in 37CE, his last year would have been in 1BCE and his death on Shebat 2, 1AD. This is perfectly in harmony with the Bible's dating of Jesus' birth in 2BCE since Jesus was at least a year old at the time of Herod's death as he sought to kill babies "2 years and younger."
WHAT
ABOUT THE ECLIPSE?
The critical question, though, when dating the death of Herod based upon the above on Shebat 2, 1 AD is what about the eclipse event?
Well, of course, there was an eclipse. It was critically just after the annual fast of Tebet 10 with the eclipse ocurring on Tebet 13 or 14. In that case it fits the history perfectly since this would have been an eclipse just after an annual Fast (Tebet 10), and a few days before Herods death on Shebat 2, which still allows enough time for his burial and for the events described with Archelaus before Passover approached within several weeks of his death.
Even so, with such obvious reasons to dismiss the March 13/14 eclipse as being the one described by Josephus occurring shortly before Herod's death, it remains the most historically well-accepted astronomical dating event which is used to "confirm" the dating of Herod's death in 4BCE, which has distorted the correct dating of Jesus' birth in 2BCE as suggested by the Bible.
This just goes to show and underscore that sometimes false beliefs continue simply out of ignorance and because few people really bother to look closely enough at the actual facts, the quick glossover being quite sufficient to maintain many favorite false dates and concepts. The above use of the 4BCE eclipse todate Herod'sd death in that year is one of the most blatant examples of precisely that. Of course, unrecognized historical revisionism is also to blame for many false dates.
Anon