Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

The Comet of Jerusalem 

    Josephus does not mention those comets which the Romans associated with the deaths of various emperors. 

However, he does mention a comet associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.  Thus there 

was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued for a whole year. 

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Comets are not generally visible to the naked eye for an entire year; the longest period of time that any comet 

would be visible is several months. Perhaps the star appeared for a whole year (the sighting of a nova, or new 

star, is not too rare an event), or perhaps the star and the comet together took up about a year. In any case, the 

exact time of this comet's appearance is not clear from the text. 

    Josephus places this comet sighting during the war, not long before the destruction of the Temple. He writes 

about  the signs that were so evident and did so plainly foretell their future desolation. 

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 But these words 

refer to the future desolation of the destruction of the Temple, not to the beginning of the war. This conclusion 

is supported by the title of chapter 5 in book 6 of  The Wars of the Jews, which specifically mentions the 

destruction of the Temple and the signs that preceded it:   the Conflagration of the Holy House .the Signs 

that Preceded this Destruction. 

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 Also, Josephus separates the comment about the comet from his next 

comment, about the events occurring before the war began, by saying:  Thus also, before the Jews' rebellion, 

and before those commotions which preceded the war . 

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 This comet then was observed well after the war 

began, and was interpreted as a foreshadowing of the destruction of the Temple at the end of the war. 

    According to Josephus, the rebellion of the Jews against the Romans began  in the twelfth year of the reign 

of Nero in the month of Artemissus [Iyar]. 

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 The Jewish month of Iyar is in the spring; it is the month 

after Nisan. Nero's 12th year, in the usual chronology, was 

A.D.

 66 and is considered year one of the Jewish 

rebellion. The usual date for the destruction of Jerusalem, near the end of this war, is the summer of 

A.D.

 70. 

However, there is no extant record, from the ancient Chinese or Korean astronomers, of a comet sighting from 

May of 

A.D.

 66 to Feb. of 

A.D.

 71 inclusive, a period of time that encompasses the war between the Jews and 

the Romans. Two very conspicuous comets were sighted prior to the usual date given for the start of the 

Jewish rebellion. The comets of 

A.D.

 65 and 66 (discussed in detail in chapter 13) were observed from July 

Sept. of 

A.D.

 65 and Jan. Apr. of 

A.D.

 66. Yet Josephus does not mention a comet sighting prior to the war 

(which would have foreshadowed the start of the war), but rather one during the war which foreshadowed the 

destruction of the Temple, well after the war began. The usual chronology does not fit the comet sighting as 

described by Josephus. 

    In my revised chronology, the Jewish rebellion began in the spring of 

A.D.

 51, and the destruction of 

Jerusalem occurred in summer of 

A.D.

 56. There are a number of comets mentioned in the records of the 

ancient astronomers during these years.

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 However the comet most closely fitting Josephus' description was 

sighted by the ancient Chinese astronomers from  Dec. of 

A.D.

 55 to March of 

A.D.

 56. The length of the 

observation was fairly long, 113 days. And the sighting was not long before the destruction of the Temple in 

summer of 

A.D.

 56. The length of the observation of this comet is not near to a year, but Joseph may have 

been referring to the star (nova), or to the combination of star and comet, when he gives the length of time as 

about a year.

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Jesus, Son of Ananus 

    This Jesus is not Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, but another man named Jesus who lived years after Christ 

died and rose from the dead. This Jesus, son of Ananus, predicted the destruction of Jerusalem years before 

the war even began. Josephus tells us that this prediction began four years before the war began, at the time of 

the Feast of Tabernacles, which is in the autumn.

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 Now the war began, according to Josephus, in the spring 

of Nero's 12th year, in the Jewish month of Iyar (the month after Nisan).

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 So, when Josephus says that this 

man began making this prediction four years earlier, he is referring to Nero's 8th year as being 4 years before 

Nero's 12th year. But the predictions began in the autumn, whereas the war began in the spring. So the length 

of time was not four full years before the war began, but 3.5 years (fall of Nero's 8th year to spring of his 12th 

year). 

    Josephus states the entire length of time during which this man continued proclaiming the impending 

destruction of Jerusalem, both before and during the war, as 7 years and 5 months.

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 Counting forward 7 

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