Now regarding the year of the Nativity, we know that it was in the same year as the death of Herod. This event can be fixed. Josephus, in his Antiquities, lib. xvii, mentions an eclipse that took place on the night preceding one of the fasts, and which was immediately followed by the last illness of Herod. We know from the same source that Herod reigned thirty-four years after the death of Antipater, and thirty-seven from the beginning of his reign. The date is further fixed by the statement that this latter event took place in the 184th Olympiad, and we hence get the year of Rome 714 or 39 B.C., and the year of the eclipse would therefore be 3 B.C. The same author says that after mourning Herod for seven days, the feast of the Passover was approaching, and as this was always held on the 14th of Abib or Nisan, which is the first full Moon after the Equinox, we are able to confirm the date as the 13th March. At this date it is found that there is a considerable eclipse of the Moon as shown by the following calculation (see p. [48]).
The Sun being 7° 34´ from the Node, the extent of the eclipse would be nearly five digits, and the Moon would be about two-thirds down the western sky and in the south-west quarter of the heavens. It is of interest also to note that the Moon was eclipsed in the sign Virgo, which the ancients say rules Jerusalem, where Herod the Tetrarch died.
In the R.C. Festes we are told that the death of Herod took place before the Passover and after the eclipse of 13th March, so that the date appears to be very well established.
Eclipse of the Moon, March 13, 3 B.C. (astron.)
From Epoch New Moon March 1797
| March | Sun-Node | Moon’s Anom. | Sun’s Anom. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D. H. M. | s. °. . | s. °. ’. | s. °. ’. | |
| 1797 | 16 9 12 | 9 9 10 | 2 12 39 | 8 26 26 |
| ½ lun. | 14 18 22 | 0 15 20 | 6 12 54 | 0 14 33 |
| ———————— | ——————— | ——————— | ——————— | |
| 31 3 34 | 9 24 30 | 8 25 33 | 9 10 59 | |
| ———————— | ——————— | ——————— | ——————— | |
| 1800—) | 19 0 32 | 9 18 59 | 7 17 19 | 0 1 31 |
| ———————— | ——————— | ——————— | ——————— | |
| Equats. | 12 3 2 | 0 5 31 | 1 8 14 | 9 9 28 |
| a | +4 6 | +2 3 | 1 34 | |
| ——————— | ——————— | |||
| A+a | -1 | 0 7 34 | 1 9 48 | |
| A-a | +2 | |||
| A¹ | +6 37 | |||
| ———————— | ||||
| 12 13 46 |
i.e., March 13, at 4.46 a.m. G.M.T.
E. long. 2.22 Jerusalem.
————
4. 8 a.m.