Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

years before Augustus died (in 

A.D.

 10), rather than 1 year after he died (

A.D.

 11). Thus, the difference 

between the two chronologies, during Tiberius' reign, is 14 years (9 + 1 + 4 = 14). 

8.  A long gap in the account of Josephus 

    If the first full year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar was 

A.D.

 1, rather than 

A.D.

 11, (the year after the death 

of Augustus in 

A.D.

 10, by my revised dates), then there was a ten year overlap in their reigns. This ten year 

overlap can be discerned in the writings of the ancient Jewish Roman historian, Flavius Josephus. 

    Now Josephus wrote a detailed history of this time period and he clearly believed that the reign of Tiberius 

began upon the death of Augustus. However, he is unable to support that belief with a description of events 

occurring during the first ten years of Tiberius' reign. There is a clear gap in Josephus' history a gap lasting 

from the first year of Tiberius' reign until the eleventh year. 

    The history of the Jewish people, and their interaction  with the Romans, was written by Josephus in 20 

books (these resemble 20 chapters of one book) called The Antiquities of the Jews. Events occurring during the 

reigns of Julius Caesar, king Herod, Caesar Augustus, and Tiberius Caesar, are told in this work in significant 

detail. The time period from the beginning of Herod's reign over Jerusalem to the completion of the rebuilding 

of the Temple, a time period of 18 years according to Josephus, is given 425 verses in book 15, an average of 

23.6 verses per year. Other books from The Antiquities of the Jews, which cover events from the reign of Julius 

Caesar to the destruction of Jerusalem, likewise give detailed descriptions of events. The average number of 

verses per year for each book is listed in the following chart.

855

Book number 

Years 

Verses 

Verses/yr. 

         14 

  32 

  491 

  15.3 

         15 

  18 

  425 

  23.6 

         16 

  12 

  404 

  33.7 

         17 

  14 

  354 

  25.3 

         18 

  32 

  379 

  11.8 

         19 

    3.5 

  365 

104.3 

         20 

  22 

  268 

  12.2 

total /average:  133.5 

2686 

  20.1 

    Notice that each book gives an average of over ten verses per year for each year covered in that book. (Book 

20 has a low number of verses per year because those events are described by Josephus in greater detail in a 

separate work,  The Wars of the Jews.) Book 18 contains the lowest average number of verses per year. The 

source of this lowered average is a section of book 17, from verse 33 to verse 35, which supposedly describes 

the first eleven years of Tiberius Caesar's reign after the death of Caesar Augustus. Only 3 verses (containing 4 

sentences) supposedly describe 11 years of history of the Jewish people and the Roman Empire. That's an 

average of 0.27 verses per year for this section of the history compared to 20.1 verses per year average for 

books 14 through 20 (98.7% less than the average). If this section of the history contained the overall average 

of 20.1 verses per year, then there would have been approximately 221 verses, instead of 3 verses. 

    Josephus wrote The Antiquities of the Jews in the latter part of the first century 

A.D.

, not long after these events 

occurred. It is therefore unlikely that he was simply uninformed as to the events that happened during this 11 

year time period (from the  early part of the same century). Josephus was in great favor with the Roman 

emperor Vespasian, who made Josephus a Roman citizen, gave him an annual pension, and let him live in 

Vespasian's former residence.

856

 He also continued to be favored by the subsequent emperors, Titus and 

Domitian, (Vespasian's sons). So, it is unlikely that Josephus did not have access to information on this time 

period. 

    Were there no events of significance occurring during the first eleven years of Tiberius Caesar's reign? Were 

there no battles, political power struggles, or other events in Israel and in Rome that were of concern or 

interest to Josephus? This eleven year gap in the sequence of events described by Josephus is unusual because 

192