Christian belief is that Jesus Christ (4 BCE–30 CE) was born by Mary, a virgin, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of the supernaturalism, the questions to emerge are: when was Jesus born historically, and where did his birth take place?

The New Testament texts nowhere say that Jesus’ birth was on the 25th of December, as first asserted by Pope Julius I (280–352 CE) in 350 CE. The Markan and Johannine gospels do not narrate any account of Jesus’ birth or formative period, in contrast to Matthew (1:18–2:23) and Luke (1:5–2:52), who supply details about his birth and childhood at the beginning of their accounts.

Because of a miscalculation by Dionysius Exiguus (470–544 CE), a sixth-century monk, the given date of Jesus’ birth is probably wrong. Most likely Jesus was born before 1 CE, as he was born during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in c. 4 BCE. Estimates of the date of Jesus’ birth range from 6 to 4 BCE.

The only other historical clues are that Jesus was around thirty years old when he began his ministry (Luke 3:23). John the Baptist was probably executed around 29 CE, and Jesus was probably executed around 30 CE. A rabbinic tradition also records that Jesus was thirty-three or thirty-four years old when he commenced his ministry (b. Sanh. 106b).

Luke’s reference to a census under Quirinius (51 BCE–21 CE) (2:1–2) who was, as far as is known from other sources, governor of Syria in 6 CE rather than 6 BCE complicates the dating further.

Where was Jesus born? Both Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels describe Jesus being born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

Some scholars argue that this story was contrived in order to make Jesus fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5:2 (cf. John 7:41–42) and that the census was devised for the purpose of placing Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth. Some scholars think that Jesus was more probably born in Nazareth.

On the other hand, the idea that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem was not a widespread element of Jewish messianic hopes, which might challenge the idea that the Christian gospel authors invented the Bethlehem location for apologetic reasons.

But was Jesus born in a stable, as Christian tradition holds? According to Michael Bird,

“Traditionally Jesus has been pictorialized as being born in the stable of an inn because Mary and Joseph could find no accommodation upon their arrival. Yet a small hamlet like Bethlehem did not have an assortment of inns with signs saying “no vacancy”. Luke 2:4–7 does not say that Mary went into labour immediately upon arrival in Bethlehem, it was only sometime during the stay there that she gave birth. Furthermore, the word kataluma ordinarily means “guestroom” and so Jesus was probably born in the house of a family related to Joseph in a guestroom adjacent to an indoor stable. There are also some later traditions that speak of Jesus being born in a cave (Proto-evangelium of James 18–19)”.