Dating Scripture Events

Jeffrey R. Chadwick, in three landmark articles published in BYU Studies Quarterly, discusses accurately dating key scriptural events. The first article (2010) presents evidence from historical and scriptural sources suggesting that Jesus Christ was born in December of the year 5 BC, rather than in April of 1 BC as commonly claimed in traditional Latter-day Saint sources. The second article (2015) is a follow-up to the first and lays out a more complex collection of evidence pointing to the day and date of Jesus's crucifixion and death as a Thursday early in April of AD 30, thirty-three years and three months after his birth. The third article (2018) assembles a vast array of historical and archaeological data suggesting that the date of Lehi's departure from Jerusalem must have been late in the year 605 BC, some six hundred years prior to Jesus's birth in December of 5 BC.