Eusebius was referencing the destruction of the temple in AD 70, whereas Origen was speaking of “the entire Jewish nation.” Some insurrections continued several more years through Judea. So I do not see a these 2 reports as being either approximate or contradictory.
Also, an AD 30 crucifixion date fits very well with the 46 years comment made at the beginning of Christ’s Ministry. Assuming his ministry was 3 years long as shown, the timeline works.
Have you read the quote carefully? “It was, I believe, forty-two years from the time when they crucified Jesus
to the destruction of Jerusalem.” When Christians spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem, it invariably meant the event of AD 70. (Very often the events of 70 and the later revolts are conflated.) Clement of Alexandria reckoned the same (forty-two years, three months) in the
Stromata 1.145.5:
From Julius Caesar, therefore, to the death of Commodus, are two hundred and thirty-six years, six months. And the whole from Romulus, who founded Rome, till the death of Commodus, amounts to nine hundred and fifty-three years, six months. And our Lord was born in the twenty-eighth year, when first the census was ordered to be taken in the reign of Augustus. And to prove that this is true, it is written in the Gospel by Luke as follows: “And in the fifteenth year, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias.” And again in the same book: “And Jesus was coming to His baptism, being about thirty years old,” and so on. And that it was necessary for Him to preach only a year, this also is written: “He hath sent Me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” This both the prophet spake, and the Gospel. Accordingly, in fifteen years of Tiberius and fifteen years of Augustus; so were completed the thirty years till the time He suffered.
And from the time that He suffered till the destruction of Jerusalem are forty-two years and three months; and from the destruction of Jerusalem to the death of Commodus, a hundred and twenty-eight years, ten months, and three days. From the birth of Christ, therefore, to the death of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days.
On the other hand, in his Commentary on Matthew (just written about the same time as
Against Celsus), Origen - on the authority of the author Phlegon of Tralles - calculated that forty years elapsed between “the fifteenth year of Tiberius” and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70:
Circa quadragesimum annum a quinto decimo anno Tiberii Caesaris facta est destructio Hierusalem et templi quod fuit in ea. Subtracting three years’ worth of Jesus’ ministry and the forty days from His resurrection to ascension from this forty-year period, Origen arrived at thirty-five years, the half of seventy. Origen’s interpretation of the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - “And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and
for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering” (this was also the basis for Eusebius’ belief that Jesus’ ministry lasted for three and a half years, for the record) - reckons the last week (in the middle of which sacrifice and offering were to cease) at seventy years reaching from the advent of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem on AD 70.
Also re. the forty six years: in
Antiquities, Josephus says that the construction of the temple began in Herod’s eighteenth year (
Antiquities 15.380) coinciding with the arrival of Augustus in Syria (Ant. 15.254), which as per Dio Cassius, occurred in 20/19 BC (5.7.-46). (Earlier, in
Jewish War (1.401), Josephus gave a slightly different date: “In the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before enclosed” - 23/22 BC.)
There are actually two Greek words for the temple:
hieron, which encompassed the whole temple complex (the sanctuary proper and the courts) and was not completed until AD 63/64 under Herod Agrippa II and the governor Albinus (
Ant. 20.219), and
naos, the sanctuary proper which according to Josephus was completed by the priests within one year and six months (18/17 BC;
Ant. 15.421). John uses the same distinction in his gospel between
hieron and
naos. Which is why the translation in some modern Bibles - “It has taken forty six years to build this temple (
naos)” - is actually incorrect.
This is where you get into another issue: did the cleansing of the Temple happen at the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry - as in John - or the last - as in the synoptics? (Assuming that there were not two separate cleansings, that is.) In other words, assuming that the cleansing was a single event, was it John who moved the event at the beginning (which is what many scholars seem to think now) or the synoptics who moved it to Jesus’ last Passover (which is also possible)? Consequently, does the forty-sixth year since the
naos was built refer to the year Jesus’ ministry began, or the year that it ended?
