While the calendar we use is based upon the birth of Christ, Christ was actually born a few years B.C.  A Christian monk named Dionysius Exiguus began the practice of dividing the calendar into B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord) in the sixth century.  His purpose was twofold.  He desired to allow for accurate dating of Easter and to move away from the Diocletian system, which honored an Emperor known for his cruelty to Christians.  As he devised this system, Dionysius wrote that the current year was 525 years after Christ’s incarnation, or A.D. 525. Nowhere does Dionysius explain this claim, he just states it as fact.  While Dionysius devised this system, it was 200 years later when Bede popularized the convention in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Modern scholarship questions Dionysius’ dating based upon our knowledge of events mentioned in the Gospels.  Both Luke and Matthew indicate that Jesus’ birth took place before King Herod’s death in 4 B.C.  From this information, we can safely date Jesus’ birth in or before 4 B.C.

More precision is impossible.  We simply do not have enough evidence, inside or outside of Scripture to place an exact year upon Christ’s birth.  Yet, we can confidently say that Christ was not actually born in year 1 A.D.