Bible history

First Century of the Christian Era

Blackwood’s Comprehensive Aids to the Study of the Bible · Vol. I, p. 56

Begins on Vol. I, p. 56

Transcriber’s note two parallel chronologies printed side by side; the church events have their year column on the left, the Rome/Palestine events have their year column on the right; rows of the two halves do not align. Year columns are headed "Before Christ." and then "Year of Our Lord."

§Events in the Christian Church

Year	Events in the Christian Church
Before Christ.
5	JESUS is born at Bethlehem, of Judea, on Monday, December 25th, four years and six days before the common era.
4	He is circumcised, Jan. 1st; Feb. 2d He is presented in the Temple; a few days later the Wise Men visit Him, and Joseph, in obedience to angelic warning, takes the young child and His mother and flees into Egypt.
2	Being informed by the angel of Herod's death, Joseph, Mary and the Holy Child JESUS return from Egypt and take up their residence at Nazareth.
Year of Our Lord.
8	JESUS, being twelve years of age, is taken by His reputed father and His mother to the Temple, and, when they leave, He remains; they return, seeking Him, and find Him in the midst of the doctors, "both hearing them and asking them questions." His mother expostulates with Him, and He makes His memorable reply (Luke ii. 49). (April) He goes with Mary and Joseph, and is "subject to them," and "increases in wisdom and stature, and in favor with GOD and man."
26	John Baptist begins to preach and baptize; toward the close of the year, JESUS, being about thirty years old, is baptized by John; soon after this He enters upon His public ministry.
28	John Baptist is beheaded by Herod Antipas.
29	Friday, April 15th, Our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST is crucified, dies and is buried; Sunday the 17th, He rises from the dead; He appears repeatedly to chosen witnesses, and Thursday, May 26th, Ascends to His Father's right hand.
	June 5th, the Day of Pentecost, the HOLY GHOST descends upon the Apostles and Disciples, while "they were all with one accord in one place;" St. Peter delivers a powerful discourse, and about three thousand are added to the Church.
	[For Chronology of Miracles, see page 55.]
30	The office of Deacon is created, and seven men are appointed.
31	St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is stoned to death, and a great persecution ensues.
33	Saul of Tarsus is converted. [For Chronology of St. Paul's life, see Tabular Memoir, p. 53.]
38	St. Matthew writes the Hebrew of his Gospel. [For Chronology of the Books of the New Testament, see pages 50, 51, 52.]
42	The name Christians is applied to the followers of CHRIST at Antioch.
44	St. James (the brother of John) is beheaded by Herod Agrippa, who also casts St. Peter into prison, whence he is rescued by an angel.
45	The fearful famine, foretold two years before by Agabus, rages throughout Judea.
52	The great Apostolic Council held at Jerusalem to decide the terms of the admission of Gentiles to the Church.
62	St. Mark dies, and is buried at Alexandria.
63	St. James the Less, brother of our LORD, is thrown down from the pinnacle of the Temple, then stoned, and a fuller strikes him on the head with his club and kills him.
64	The first Gentile persecution of the Christians commences, in consequence of Nero accusing them of causing the great fire in Rome.
66	The Christians at Jerusalem flee to Pella in Cœlo-Syria.
67	Simon-Magus, the arch-heretic, causes the imprisonment of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul (this being St. Paul's second incarceration in Rome).
68	These two Apostles suffer martyrdom, the former by crucifixion, the latter by decapitation.
95	The second Roman persecution of the Christians commences; tradition says St. John was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil near the Latin gate at Rome and miraculously preserved; he is afterward banished to the Isle of Patmos.
96	St. John is released from banishment on the accession of Nerva.
100	St. John, the venerable Apostle, the last of the Twelve, is supposed to have died at Ephesus about A. D. 100.

§Events in Rome and in Palestine, Syria, Etc.

Year	Events in Rome and in Palestine, Syria, Etc.
Before Christ.
	Twenty-eighth year of Augustus Cæsar's reign.
5	Cyrenius is appointed governor of Judea and Varus of Syria.
4	Antipater makes a plot against his father Herod, but is detected.
3	Herod causes the massacre of all male infants in Judea of two years and under, in the hope of killing the announced King of the Jews.
2	Antipater is put to death, about Nov. 19th or 20th; Herod dies a terrible death, Nov. 25th, and his kingdom is divided among his sons; Archelaus has Judea, Idumea and Samaria, with title of ethnarch or king; Antipas becomes tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa, and Philip of Trachonitis and vicinity.
Year of Our Lord.
4	Tiberius returns to Rome from Rhodes, is adopted by Augustus, and invested with the tribune.
6	There is a great famine at Rome.
7	Archelaus is deposed and banished to Lyons, by Augustus, on account of his tyranny and maladministration; his dominion is reduced to a Roman province and annexed to Syria, Coponius being appointed governor of Judea.
11	Augustus makes Tiberius his colleague in the empire, Aug. 28th.
14	A census is taken at Rome, which shows 4,037,000 citizens; Augustus dies, aged 76 years, Aug. 19th, at Nola; Tiberius Nero Cæsar is made emperor the same day.
19	Caiaphas is made High-priest; the Jews are banished from Rome.
26	Tiberius retires to Caprea, leaving the direction of the empire to Sejanus.
	Pontius Pilate is made governor of Judea.
31	Sejanus is disgraced and put to death.
36	Tiberius declares himself friendly to the Christians, and proposes to enrol JESUS among the gods, but the Senate refuses.
37	Tiberius dies at Misenum, near Baiæ, March 16th or 26th, aged 78 years, and is succeeded by Caius Caligula.
	Pontius Pilate commits suicide, having been deposed and sent into exile.
41	The Emperor Caligula assassinated on the fourth day of the Palatine games by Chæreas and others; his uncle Claudius Cæsar succeeds him; Seneca is banished to Corsica.
	Herod Agrippa is made king of Judea.
43	There is a famine in Rome.
44	Herod Agrippa I. is smitten by the angel of the Lord, and dies a miserable death (some authorities place this in A. D. 49).
	Cuspius Fadus is made governor of Judea, etc.
46	Tiberius Alexander is made governor.
47	Claudius takes upon himself the title of censor; he puts to death many of the first men of Rome to gratify the revenge of his wife Messalina.
	Ventidius Cumanus is made governor of Judea.
48	A census is taken, which is said to show 6,900,000 citizens in Rome; Messalina is put to death for her open crimes.
49	Seneca is recalled from banishment, and made preceptor of Nero Cæsar (afterward emperor).
50	The city of London founded by the Romans.
52	The Jews expelled from Rome by Claudius.
	Antonius Claudius Felix is made governor of Judea, etc., and Herod Agrippa II. King of the Jews.
54	Claudius is poisoned by his wife Agrippa, and is succeeded by Nero Cæsar, the most infamous of Roman emperors.
59	Nero puts his mother Agrippina to death, and enters upon his fearful career.
64	Gessius Florus is made governor, and the Jews begin their revolt by stoning him.
65	Nero puts Seneca, his former preceptor, and other eminent men, to death.
66	The Jewish war begins in May of this year; 20,000 Jews are slain in Cæsarea; all Syria is filled with slaughter.
67	Vespasian defeats the Jews and takes Josephus, the historian, prisoner.
68	Nero is deposed, and commits suicide; Galba is proclaimed emperor.
	The Zealots in Jerusalem divide themselves into two parties, and murder one another by thousands, committing the most horrid cruelties.
69	The civil war between Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian ends in triumph of the last-named, and he assumes the government.
70	Jerusalem is taken and destroyed by Titus, Sept. 7th; thus ends the Jewish war in the entire overthrow of their state and their dispersion; Josephus estimates 1,100,000 persons perished in the siege, and in all 1,357,660 in the war; the prisoners taken from the Jews, 97,000.
77	A dreadful plague rages in Rome, 10,000 persons dying within a day.
79	Vespasian dies; his son Titus succeeds him.
80	Terrible pestilence breaks out again.
81	Titus dies, Sept. 13th, and his brother Domitian succeeds him.
96	Domitian is killed, and with him ends the line of Cæsars; Nerva becomes emperor.
98	Nerva dies, Jan. 21st, and Trajan, who is absent in Germany, is proclaimed emperor.
99	Trajan enters Rome quietly, without parade.