TIME

Birth of Jesus

c. 6–4 BCE

The Nativity at Night, a painting of about 1490, with the child in a manger lit against a dark stable.

Recorded HistoryBirth of Jesus

A birth in the reign of Herod the Great.

Most scholars place the birth of Jesus about 6 to 4 BCE, in the last years of Herod the Great. Matthew and Luke set it in Bethlehem.

No contemporary record gives the day, and 25 December is a feast date. The movement that followed became Christianity and shaped worship, law, art and the calendar.

c. 6–4 BCE, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Recorded History
Period
c. 6–4 BCE
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing shepherds on a hillside under a bright star. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. It is a devotional scene, not a record.