6 b.c.-the general scholarly consensus is that herod the great died in 4 b.c. and we know that, before his death, he tried to kill the baby jesus by ordering the massacre of all male children 2 years and younger. this puts jesus birth sometime around 6 b.c. this may seem odd, but our current calendar, though based on the birth of christ, involves a miscalculation. in the 6th century, a scholar by the name of dionysus exiguus calculated the year of christs birth but failed to take into account an important bit of evidence from the jewish historian josephus. his calculation, while mistaken, became so well-entrenched that it was impossible to change it even when his mistake became clear. an alternative date for jesus birth is 3 b.c. while a minority opinion among scholars, there is some evidence to suggest that herod the great might have died in 1 b.c. if this date proves to be true, then jesus would have been born sometime around 3 b.c. (herods death in 1 b.c. + 2 years)
