The Reigns of Roman Emperors 

his history of the Jewish people is otherwise quite detailed. His history is also well organized chronologically 

each book is even labeled with the length of time it encompasses. 

    The reason that this eleven year gap occurs in Josephus' chronology of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, is that 

the first ten years of his reign coincided with the last ten years of Augustus' reign. Josephus writes that Valerius 

Gratus ruled over Judea for eleven years before Pilate, having been sent to Judea at the beginning of Tiberius' 

reign.

857

 But all that Josephus can tell us about this time period is that Valerius Gratus was procurator of Judea 

and that he appointed various persons, in succession, as Jewish high priest. Josephus did not have enough 

material to describe that eleven year period of time, because he had already described the events of the last ten 

years of the reign of Augustus (

A.D.

 1 to 10). Those last ten years of Augustus' reign coincided with the first 

ten years of Tiberius' reign. 

    Once Josephus states that Pilate replaced Gratus as ruler over  Judea, the noticeable lack of detail in his 

chronology ends. My revised chronology places the eleven year rule of Valerius Gratus over Judea from about 

A.D.

 1 to 

A.D.

 11. Since Pontius Pilate replaced Gratus as procurator of Judea, the first full year of Pilate's rule 

over Judea would then be 

A.D.

 12. The detail in the history of Josephus resumes at that point because the 

overlap in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius has ended. 

9. The Gospel of Luke 

    All of the Roman emperors during this time period (after the death of Julius Caesar) had the word Caesar as 

a title after they became emperor. None would dare to use the word Caesar as a title before becoming 

emperor that would be treason. Even so, whoever was in line to inherit the throne of emperor of Rome was 

customarily given the word Caesar as a part of their name. For example, Tiberius had the name  Tiberius 

Claudius Nero  from birth. Then, when he was adopted by Augustus and made next in line to inherit the title 

of Caesar, his name was changed to  Tiberius Julius Caesar. 

858

 Tiberius used the name Caesar from the time 

of his adoption by Augustus (usual date, 

A.D.

 4; revised date, 1 

B.C.

), but he could not use the title Caesar until 

he actually became emperor, after the death of Augustus. Other examples are Lucius Caesar, Gaius Caesar, 

and Drusus Caesar, who all were at one time in line to become emperor of Rome.

859

 None of these three 

actually became emperor (they died prematurely), so it is clear that the word Caesar was being used in these 

cases only as a name, not a title. 

    Now the Gospel of Luke refers to Augustus as  Caesar Augustus,  so that the word Caesar is used as a title 

(Lk 2:1). But the same Gospel also refers to Tiberius as  Tiberius Caesar,  using the word Caesar as a name 

rather than a title (Lk 3:1). The passage referring to Tiberius gives the year of the beginning of John the 

Baptist's ministry:  In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar the word of God came to John the 

son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of 

repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  (Lk 3:1 3). In this way, Sacred Scripture indicates that the 15th year of 

the reign of Tiberius is to be counted from the time he received the name Caesar, rather than from that later 

time when he received the title Caesar. Tiberius received the name Caesar when he was adopted by Augustus 

on June 26 of 1 

B.C.

 (usual date, 

A.D.

 4).

860

 As a result, the first year of Tiberius' reign is the first full calendar 

year (

A.D.

 1) after Tiberius received the name Caesar. 

    Notice here that the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar's reign mentioned by Sacred Scripture coincides with 

A.D.

15. In this way, God is able to tell us a date in the later 

B.C.

/

A.D.

 calendar system, even though the Gospel of 

Luke was written long before that system was devised. 

10. Errors of the early historians 

    Why did Josephus and other early historians mistakenly believe that Tiberius' reign began when Augustus 

died? First, most other Roman emperors counted their reigns from the death of the previous emperor. The 

assumption that Tiberius did the same would have been difficult to avoid. Second, the ancient historians 

whom we rely on for information about Tiberius' reign (Josephus, Dio, Tacitus, Suetonius) were not 

contemporary to Tiberius' reign. Tiberius ended his reign with a long series of murders and political 

assassinations.

861

 Perhaps those persons contemporary to Tiberius' reign feared to write about it. Only years 

later did historians put together a history of the time period. Third, the system used by the Romans to keep 

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