Herod did not die when Yeshua was born

[Humble Penny]

When pinning down the year of Christ's birth one of the most erroneous things I hear and come across is that the account of Matthew has king Herod dying when Christ is born with some side comment about a lunar eclipse mentioned by Josephus. This thread sets out to show that Herod the Great actually died when Yeshua was 4 Years old.

Let us open with the account of Matthew:

"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.' Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.' Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi."
Matthew 2:1‭-‬2‭, ‬7‭-‬8‭, ‬16 NASB1995 (emphasis added mine)​

As we clearly read from Matthew the Magi came to Herod two years after Christ was born in the days of Herod...but somehow there are many silly writings saying that Jesus was born when Herod the Great died...this could only happen because of of ignorance and not carefully paying attention to what has been written in the Word of God. Anyways we know from the accounts of Josephus and other historians that Herod ruled for 37 Years: therefore the magi met with Herod in the 35th Year of his reign over Judah, and Christ was born two years prior in the 33rd Year of Herod's reign; and finally Herod died after ruling over Judah for 37 Years in the 4th Year of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.

From this we see that following the strict principles of the Anno Domini and Before Christ timelines we have the following chronology:

Conception of John the Baptist to Herod's Death
-2 BC (31st Year of Herod; John Conceived)
-1 BC (32nd Year of Herod; Census of Quirinus)
0 BC/1 AD (33rd Year of Herod; Christ's Birth)
2 AD (35th Year of Herod; Innocent Massacre)
4 AD (37th Year of Herod; 4th Year of Christ)

Why do I treat the BC and AD as two separate timelines? Because they were created by two different men at two different points in time:

1. Anno Domini 525 AD (Dionysius Exiguus)
2. Before Christ 731 AD (Venerable Bede)

Anno Domini is Latin for "Year of our Lord"--not After the Death of Christ as is commonly believed--which count the years from the birth of Christ onwards. Before Christ counts the years from creation to the birth of Christ: so while there is no Year 0 on the AD timeline, there is a Year 0 on the BC timeline.

And what about this eclipse mentioned by Josephus? After doing some digging on this lunar eclipse which occured in the year Herod died I found one passage from Josephus which mentions it:

As we can see this lunar eclipse is very ambiguous as we aren't told by Josephus what phase the Moon was in. However I thought I would check the tables provided by NASA to see what type of lunar eclipse would've occured in the year 4 AD which I have claimed to be the true year Herod died:

So we clearly see according to the tables of NASA that for the year 4 AD we would have seen two separate partial lunar eclipses. And since Josephus mentions there was a fast which was about to occur near the death of Herod. This was clearly not the Day of Atonement because the astronomical dates don't align with our historical records. However after doing some digging I found a list of fast days in the Megallit Taanit - The Scroll of Fasting (which I will upload for your convenience):

Seeing that Kislev is the 9th Month in which the Judah Maccabee instituted Hannukah we are being told that Herod would've died shortly after this partial lunar eclipse

7th Month [Tishri]
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
_________01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30______

8th Month [Bul/Marcheshvan/Cheshvan]
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
_______________01 02 (Partial Lunar Eclipse)
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

9th Month [Kislev]
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 (Herod dies in 37th Year)
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30[01]___________

September-October
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
_________17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16______

October-November
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
______________ 17 18 (Partial Lunar Eclipse)
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 01
02 03 04 05 06 07 08
09 10 11 12 13 14 15

November-December
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 (Herod dies in 37th Year)
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 01 02 03 04 05 06
07 08 09 10 11 12 13
14 15 [16]___________

As we can see this is the only way to match the astronomical data for the lunar eclipse mentioned by Josephus with the data from Megallit Taanit - The Scroll of Fasting, and the tables from NASA. I am no astronomy expert...I just play match the data.