First of all, Let us look at some terminology, so that we know who Caesar Augustus and Pontius Pilate are.
The main leader of the Roman Empire was called Caesar. Romans had a more intelligent system of government than the previous empires. When a large empire had only one ruler, he couldn't effectively manage the entire empire. Often those regions that were far away from the emperor's house, seperated from the emperor. The emperor might order something, and some regions would be like, "Come and make us". So the Romans put managers over each territory of the empire. And how do you think those were called? Governors. I wonder where the Americans got the term from.
So Pontius Pilate and Herod were the governors in the Israel region.
Here's the big question. Was Jesus really born in 0 A.D.? Some people ask, was Jesus born at all? Well, we'll try to answer both questions in this article.
The Bible says that Jesus was born during the rule of governor Herod. Herod died in 750 A.U. (After the founding of the city of Rome). That's 4 B.C. According to that data, Jesus was born in 4 B.C. at the latest.
Some people don't believe Herod could have killed hundreds of babies in Bethlehem, because Josephus hasn't written anything about that in his books. But if you knew who Herod was, you would not doubt that killing a couple hundred babies in some insignificant village of Bethlehem, would not be a problem to him. He had this tremendous fear of someone taking away his position in government, that because of it he killed the grandfather of his favorite wife, than his favorite wife, than three of his children. When Caesar August found out about that, said: "It's better to be Herod's swine, than to be his son." And yeah, when Herod was dying, he knew nobody would be crying over it. So he ordered to execute all of his nobles right after his death. So, at least that would cause crying in that city on that day.
Now, a little bit about the star of Bethlehem. How in the world did the magi from the East know what the appearance of a big star meant? Well, first of all, the prophecy of Balaam about "the star that was to rise out of Jacob" (Num. 24:17). Then the prophecies of Daniel and Isaiah. Since the dispersion of Jews throughout the world following the Babylonian invasion, rumors of this star were heard all over the East.
It used to be believed that this star was some sort of supernatural phenomenon visible only to the magi, which means it can't be proven in any way, and hence, it's a myth. But a lot of times, God works through natural forces. John Kepler made a very interesting discovery. A very bright star that has appeared in 1603 and 1604 A.D. helped him to make that discovery. During these years, there was a conjunction of the three largest planets: Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, and most likely another bright star in the constellation of Leo. Jewish astrologers gave special meaning to a conjunction of planets of Jupiter and Saturn, and then in the constellation of Leo.
This star reminded Kepler of the Star of Bethlehem so much, that he started doing some calculations and discovered that this same conjunction happened in 7-6 B.C. This discovery has been nearly forgotten until the 19th century, when the same discovery was made by three astronomers from different European countries. You'd say, wait a minute, the Bible talks about ONE star, not several planets. But, most disciples of Jesus were not astronomers. How would they know which dot in the sky is a star, and which one is a planet? Let's suppose Luke might have known about this, since he was an educated man, but how would he explain the concept of conjunction of planets to people who often times didn't even know how to read?
Luke 2:2 says that at the time of Christ's birth, a census was ordered by Caesar August, which was "the first made when Quirinius (Cyrenius) was governor of Syria". Quirinius was governor of Syria two times. The first time was between 6 and 4 B.C. Perhaps, that's what Luke meant by the "first when Quirinius was governor".
In John 2:20, Jesus was asked: this temple has been under construction for 46 years, and you will restore it in three days? (paraphrase) Herod began the restoration of the temple in 15th year of his reign, which was 29 B.C. Add 46 years to that, we get 27 A.D. Jesus must have been around 31 when he was asked that question. So the year of his birth would be --- 27 A.D. - 31 = 4 B.C. (Yeah, I know that was confusing :) )
Now let's talk about the 25th of December.
Some people would really crush on this date. They would say, "Oh, Jesus was born on December 25th?" And you know what? 25th of December used to be a big day in the ancient world. That was the day of the Sun god. So, you see, Christianity is just another mystical religion from the times of cave men. First of all, when people try to find a connection between Christianity and ancient mystical religions, we gotta remember where the ancient mystical religions came from. Regardless of what textbooks on history say, first people used to believe in one God, not in many gods. Remember Adam? When people started walking away from the true living God, they would still retain this feeling of God's existence somewhere; but because they left the living God, they began inventing perverted versions of the first true religion. They remembered some details from the times when people used to have live communication with God, but with generations, these memories were distorted more and more. So when you hear that some NUMBERS from the Bible can be found in ancient Egyptian religions, doesn't mean the Bible was derived from these religions. All it means, is that the human race began with open communication with God. The remains of that communication can be found in ancient religions. But the Bible completely restored that communication.
Secondly, the only place in the Bible which says anything about the season of Christ's birth, is that the shepherds were flocking sheep at that time. According to the climate of Palestine, that could be any season, EXCEPT... winter. Christmas on December 25th was invented only in the fourth century. And they had a reason doing so. They were trying to replace everything pagan, with everything Christian. And the holiday of Sun god, they replaced with the holiday of the birth of Christ.
Well, I'm pretty sure that was confusing. But I hope you got the main idea. There are ways you could historically prove the Biblical account. I'm not claiming that I have the most correct version on the year of Christ's birth, and everybody else is wrong. I'm not going to put an exact year on the birth of Christ. But all the above facts point to a pretty narrow range.
All historical research papers are based on the information accessible to the writer. Throughout time we refine our findings and change the historical account. The Bible, on the other hand, never changes, and have never been disproven. So the next time there seems to be a discreptancy between the Bible and history, why don't you try researching some more :)