Most historians and biblical scholars agree that no one today can pinpoint the exact day or even the exact year Jesus was born. However, the usual scholarly estimate places his birth sometime between about 6 and 4 BCE, during the final years of the reign of Herod the Great.

What we know and don’t know

The New Testament never states a specific date for Jesus’s birth, and no contemporary historical record gives a birthday, so any exact date (like December 25) is a later tradition, not a known historical fact. Because of this, historians focus on estimating a range of years instead of a precise day.

Why 6–4 BCE is commonly suggested

Both Matthew and Luke place Jesus’s birth during the time of King Herod, whose death is usually dated to around 4 BCE, which makes it likely Jesus was born a few years before that. Combining this with clues about Jesus being “about thirty” when he began his ministry under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate leads many scholars to a birth window of roughly 6–4 BCE.

Where December 25 comes from

December 25 was first clearly used as a liturgical celebration of Jesus’s birth in the fourth century, centuries after his lifetime. Early Christian writers and later theologians proposed various symbolic and calculated reasons for this date, but it was never based on an original birth record.

Other proposed dates

Some early Christian authors and modern writers have suggested alternative specific dates or seasons (for example in spring, autumn, or a particular winter in 3–2 BCE), using combinations of biblical clues, calendar calculations, and astronomy. These proposals, however, remain hypotheses, and there is no consensus that any one of them is historically certain.