Date of the Crucifixion — How the Evidence Compares
The Gospels don't state a calendar year for the crucifixion, so scholars reconstruct it from astronomy, Roman history, and the Gospels' own chronological clues. Two years, AD 30 and AD 33, account for the great majority of serious proposals (a few writers argue for AD 31 or AD 36, covered briefly below). BibleCalcs doesn't take a side — here's the actual case for each.
Why the date isn't settled
The Gospels don't record a year, so reconstructing one means combining several independent threads: Pontius Pilate's known governorship (AD 26-36, from Roman sources), the length of Jesus' public ministry implied by the Gospels, and which day of the Jewish month Nisan the crucifixion fell on. That last thread is itself disputed — John's Gospel reads as placing the crucifixion on 14 Nisan, the day before Passover began, while the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) read as placing the Last Supper itself as the Passover meal, which would put the crucifixion on 15 Nisan. Modern astronomical reconstruction of the ancient Jewish lunar calendar can calculate which years had Nisan 14 or 15 falling on a Friday within Pilate's term — but because the ancient calendar depended on an actual new-moon sighting in Jerusalem, not a fixed mathematical rule, more than one year can satisfy the calculation, which is exactly why AD 30 and AD 33 both remain live candidates.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these is correct?
BibleCalcs doesn't take a position. Both AD 30 and AD 33 are defended by serious scholars using real astronomical and historical evidence, and neither has become the settled consensus.
What about AD 31 or AD 36?
A smaller number of writers have proposed AD 31 (on narrower astronomical grounds) or AD 36 (right at the edge of Pilate's governorship, requiring an unusually long ministry). Both are minority positions without the sustained body of scholarship behind AD 30 or AD 33, which is why this page compares those two rather than building out four full rows.
Why does the Passover date matter here?
Because the Gospels tie the crucifixion to the Jewish festival calendar rather than to a Roman calendar date, pinning down the year requires figuring out which year's Passover lines up with the Gospels' other details — which is the same underlying lunar-calendar math used by this site's Hebrew Date Converter, just applied backward in history rather than to the present-day calendar.
Is this the same question as Easter's date?
No. The modern date of Easter each year is set by a fixed ecclesiastical formula (see the Holiday Countdown Calculator), not by recalculating the historical crucifixion year. This page is about pinning down which actual calendar year, two thousand years ago, the crucifixion happened in.
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