What were Jesus and early Christians like?

[watchamadoodle]

if we assume that Jesus really was crucified sometime around 30-33 C.E.

I wanted to comment on these dates often offered as the dates of JC's crucifixion. They're too early if we take seriously the Gospel account that John the Baptist was put into prison either before or during JC's ministry.

John the Baptist was supposedly put into prison and executed for mouthing off about Herod Antipas' marriage to Herodius and his divorce with his previous wife, the daughter of Aratas IV. These dates are pretty well fixed in history with the drama that ensued. Aratas' daughter got wind of the coming divorce and fled to her father, who made war with Antipas. Antipas' forces were defeated and he plead with Rome for assistance. Roman forces arrived in 37 but their defeat of Aratas averted by the death of Caesar Tiberius.

So, putting it together, if Jesus was crucified in let's say as late as 33 CE, that would mean JtB was put into prison earlier than that, which means he would have mouthed off about the divorce/remarriage of Antipas earlier than that, which means the divorce happened earlier than that. Let's say 31 CE, which gives Jesus' ministry its minimum year between the arrest of JtB and Jesus' crucifixion. That would mean Aratas' daughter fled in 31 CE, Aratas twiddles his thumbs in 32 CE, he twiddles his thumbs in 33 CE, he twiddles his thumbs in 34 CE, he twiddles his thumbs in 35 CE and finally in 36 CE he gets outraged and says "ATTACK!" ...or the whole drama with the arrest of John the Baptist occurred closer to 36 CE.

From looking at wikipedia articles, Herod was in Judaea from 27 CE to at least 37 CE. Where do the traditional dates come from? Are they simply adding the traditional age of Jesus to the dates from the nativity stories?