Of course back of Eusebius lay Jewish tradition, which in modern times has found expression in the "Jewish Calendar" of E. H. Lindo; London, 1838. Under the title of the "Book of the Generations," that noted chronologist states that the Christian Era began with the year A.M. 3760, in other words with the 30th day of August B.C. 2 as shown in the diagram.
|| A.M. A.M. A.M.||A.M. A.M. +----+----+------------------+----||----+---------+----+ |5666|5665|..................|3760||3759|.........| 1 | +----+----+------------------+----||----+---------+----+ | | || | |<---------1906 yrs---------->||<----3759 yrs----->| | || | ----^----- ----^^--- ----^--- Sept. 30th Aug. 30th Oct. 7th ----v----- ----vv--- ----v--- | || | |A.D. A.D. A.D. B.C.|| B.C.|B.C. ++---+----+-----+---+---++----+----+----------+----++---+ |1905|1904|.....| 2 | 1 || 1 | 2 |......... |3760|3761| ++---+----+-----+---+---||----+----+----------+----++---+ | || B.C. | |<------1904¾ yrs----->||<--------3760¼ yrs------->| | CHRISTIAN CALENDAR. | | | |<---------------------5665 yrs------------------->|
Eusebius, who as Bishop of Caesarea, spent most of his life in Judea, possessed rare opportunities for verifying Jewish tradition. It is very significant that his scholarly research led him to accept and endorse a date for the commencement of the Christian Era, which is identically the same as that preserved by the Jews.
The New Testament plainly declares that Christ was born shortly prior to the death of Herod the Great. The most perfect history we possess of Herod's life is found in the works of Flavius Josephus, who acknowledged indebtedness to the "Commentaries of King Herod," and to the works of "Nicolaus of Damascus, the historiographer of Herod." It should be remembered that for his facts Josephus depended entirely on others, because Herod died almost 40 years before Josephus was born and therefore, however accurate Josephus might be individually, he was liable to be mistaken by the error of others. Let us turn to the XIVth book of his "Antiquities," because it contains a statement of than ordinary precision which bears directly on the date of Herod's death and may rightly be regarded as the corner stone of Josephus' calculations regarding Herod's reign. It is there recorded that Hyrcanus began to rule in the "3d year of the 177th olympiad" [B.C. 70/69]. At first sight, one cannot help being pleased, that in so important a matter, Josephus took special pains to be exact, for nowhere else in all his writings does he give the year of any olympiad. It was his custom simply to announce the olympiad and leave the reader to guess in which one of four years the event took place. However, in this one instance he gave the year and left nothing to be supplied. This apparent accuracy has led many readers astray, for they have lost sight of the fact that his statement is not historically correct.