The Reigns of Roman Emperors 

description of two conflicts between Pilate and the Jews. The number of verses intervening is only eight. The 

overall average number of verses per year in The Antiquities of the Jews is 20.1 (see section 8 above), and no 

single book in that work (from the time of Julius Caesar's reign and thereafter) has an average number of 

verses per year of less than 11. Since there are only 8 verses between the account of Germanicus' death and the 

mention of Christ's Ministry, Germanicus must have died close to the time of the Ministry of Christ, no more 

than a year before His Ministry began (although he could have died sometime soon after Christ's Ministry 

began). 

    The death of Germanicus is placed by both Dio and Tacitus in the fifth year after the death of Augustus.

888

The usual date for the death of Augustus is 

A.D.

 14 and the usual date for the death of Germanicus is 

A.D.

 19. 

Even with the generally accepted dates for the deaths of Augustus and Germanicus, the Ministry of Christ 

must have begun at least a decade earlier than has been generally believed. But, with the conclusion of this 

chapter that Augustus died in 

A.D.

 10, the death of Germanicus must be placed in 

A.D.

 15 and the time of 

Christ's Ministry shortly thereafter (fall of 

A.D.

 15 to spring of 

A.D.

 19, as concluded in chapters 2 and 7 of this 

book). 

14.  The census under Quirinius 

    Josephus places the second census/taxation under Quirinius at the beginning of book 18 of The Antiquities of 

the Jews. The length of time from the beginning of book 15, when Herod's reign began, to the beginning of 

book 18 is given by Josephus as 44 years (see chart in section 8 above). The usual date for the capture of 

Jerusalem is 37 

B.C.

, and the usual date for the second census under Quirinius is 

A.D.

 6. But, with the 

conclusion of chapter 12 that Herod captured Jerusalem in 43 

B.C.

, and the conclusion of this chapter that 

Augustus' reign began and ended 4 years earlier than the usual chronology, the date for this census would also 

be four years earlier, in 

A.D.

 2. 

    Also, Josephus gives the date of this second census as  the thirty seventh year of Caesar's victory over 

Antony at Actium. 

889

 The first year in this count of 37 years is the year containing the victory. As section 4 

above concludes, the battle at Actium ended in 35 

B.C.

 Counting forward 37 years (inclusive) to the date of the 

census again gives us 

A.D.

 2, not 

A.D.

 6. 

    Under Caesar Augustus, a census of the occupied countries, such as Syria and Israel, was held every 17 

years.

890

 So if the second census under Quirinius began in 

A.D.

 2, then the first census began in 16 

B.C.

, 

seventeen years earlier (there is no year zero, so the number of years from 16 

B.C.

 to 

A.D.

 2 is 17, not 18). A 

census took two years to complete.

891

 The census of 16 

B.C.

 ran from mid 16 

B.C.

 to mid 14 

B.C.

 This first 

census under Augustus and Quirinius was the census at the time of Christ's birth (Luke 2:1 2). 

    After the second census of Quirinius, a census was taken after every 14 years.

892

 Thus the first census under 

Tiberius' rule as emperor (after the death of Augustus) began 14 years after the census of 

A.D.

 2, and ran from 

mid 

A.D.

 16 to mid 

A.D.

 18. In this revised chronology, the Ministry of Christ began in fall of 

A.D.

 15, and 

lasted 3  years to the Crucifixion in spring of 

A.D.

 19. Here we see that the time frame for the Ministry of 

Christ encompasses a Roman census, in agreement with the numerous Gospel references to tax collectors and 

the collecting of the tax. 

15.  The Memoranda and Eusebius 

    In his book, The History of the Church, Eusebius complains that some persons during his lifetime published a 

tract, called The Memoranda, (or The Reports), which claimed that Christ's Crucifixion occurred about the time 

of Tiberius' fourth consulship. This time frame for the Crucifixion was significantly earlier in Tiberius' reign 

than Eusebius thought correct.

893

 According to Eusebius, The Memoranda placed the Crucifixion in the year 

that Tiberius was consul for the fourth time, in the seventh year of his reign. The usual date for Tiberius' fourth 

consulship is 

A.D.

 21. However, Eusebius lived in the 4th century 

A.D.

, well before Dionysius devised the 

A.D.

system of numbering the calendar years in the 6th century, so Eusebius was not figuring the date of the 

Crucifixion by the years of the 

B.C.

/

A.D.

 calendar system. Eusebius believed that the Crucifixion occurred 

much later in the reign of Tiberius than his fourth consulship and seventh year. He placed the beginning of 

Pilate's rule over Judea in Tiberius' 12th year, and the beginning of Christ's Ministry in Tiberius' 15th year. 

197