Q: The Urantia Book says that Jesus was born 7 B.C. how can this be?

A: I’m sure you understand that calendars begin at any arbitrary point in time that the people who use them choose – -which would most likely be some significant event occurring in their culture. For example, Google tells us that the beginning of the Chinese calendar officially began on the Yellow Emperor’s 61st year on the throne (2637 B.C.) making this approximately year 4706 in the Chinese calendar and that this is the year 5769 in the Jewish calendar which began with the creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day of Creation according to their Hebrew texts. Muslims begin their calendar at July 16, 622, (by the Gregorian calendar) when Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina.

The Gregorian calendar assigns its beginning to the presumed year Jesus was born, that being the year 1. The Gregorian calendar is based on calculations made by Dionysus Exegines, a Roman abbot who lived over 500 years after the time of Jesus. Because of insufficient historical data the monk erred in fixing the time of birth and this error persists in our calendar to this day. The Urantia Book corrects this error by giving us the exact date of Jesus’ birth which occurred 7 years earlier than the abbot had calculated. Other sources have also determined that the assumed Gregorian date for Jesus’ birth is inaccurate, (you can do a Google on 7 b.c. for other examples) but The Urantia Book provides accuracy no other source can.

For a thorough exploration of this most interesting topic, please see When Is Jesus’ Birthday? on our site.