The Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church has faulted three claims about the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity.

In his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives’, published yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI (see photo) claimed that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed. This means that the entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, according to the Pope.

He claimed that the alleged mistake was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus (known as Dennis the Small in English), saying: “The calculation of the beginning of our calendar – based on the birth of Jesus – was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years.”

“The actual date of Jesus’ birth was several years before,” the 85 years old Pope wrote in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.

“Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the ‘inventor’ of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era,” says Daily Telegraph of Britain, adding:

“He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

“The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.

“The monk’s calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.”

In the book which appears destined to be controversial, the Pope also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus’ birth. He equally declared that Christ was born in Bethlehem rather than Nazareth as claimed by some scholars.

Update news