AD 30 or AD 33

No Gospel says "in the fifteenth year of Tiberius they crucified him." The year is built. It can be built badly. The pieces are these.

Herod the Great is the king who tries to kill the child (Matthew 2:1). On the usual historical reckoning he dies in 4 BC. Jesus is born before that death. So the birth is not the year we now number 1, and it is not AD 30.

John is already baptizing in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate is governor and Herod is tetrarch of Galilee (Luke 3:1-2). Tiberius's sole rule begins in AD 14, so the fifteenth year is about 28 or 29. Some count from an earlier share in Augustus's rule and land a year or two sooner. Jesus, when he begins, is about thirty (Luke 3:23). "About thirty" is not a birth certificate.

John's Gospel names Passovers: the one in John 2:13, the one near the feeding in John 6:4, and the one of the last week (John 11:55). John 5:1 says "a feast of the Jews" and does not name it. If that feast is a Passover, the public work is longer. If it is not, three Passovers still make a ministry of a little over two years, not one. Readers more often land near three years than near one. Both counts are still readings of an unnamed feast.

Pilate governs Judea from about 26 to 36. Caiaphas is high priest across those years, until about 36. Herod Antipas is still tetrarch of Galilee, which is why the morning of the trial can include him (Luke 23:6-7). The window is real. A year outside it is not a serious candidate. A year inside it is not thereby proved.

For a Friday crucifixion, the two years people repeat are AD 30 and AD 33. In both, a spring full moon can be set near a Friday. AD 30 fits a baptism nearer 28 and a shorter reading of the feasts. AD 33 fits a start nearer 29 and a longer ministry, and it is the year a Friday Nisan 14 is often calculated as 3 April. Both calculations assume we know how Jerusalem reckoned the new moon that year. We do not have the court's announcement. Astronomy can say when a moon was full. It cannot hand us the priests' decision.

A Wednesday crucifixion and a Thursday crucifixion pick other years inside the same window, often including 31, so that Nisan 14 falls on the weekday that reading needs. They are under the same limit. The moon is evidence. It is not a verse.

This site does not choose 30 or 33 for you. It tells you why those two are the Friday candidates, and why a different weekday goes looking for a different spring.