Jesus was not born in December
An in-depth look from Scripture and history showing why the nativity of Jesus Christ could not have been on December 25th.
Introduction
Please read this first and don’t skip it!
The following articles highlight some of the lesser-known truths about the Christmas season. You may already know that “Christmas” is pagan in origin, so the first article will probably simply fill in some historical data for you.
However the article on December 25th being the conception of Jesus rather than His birth may be new to you. It’s also very exciting and encouraging. The detailed information on pages 11-13 are from “The Companion Bible” Appendix 179.
Whether you agree with the insights contained in it is entirely up to you of course. However, it will show that Christmas as celebrated on December 25th, while pagan in origin, can actually be a time of rejoicing for Christians because it was on this day that Mary was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit!
If that is so, then Christians can celebrate December 25th after all, and not shy away from it just because Satan has abused that day! Remember that Satan will always try to imitate the Lord God whenever he can, and thereby shift focus from God onto himself.
As we look at the background of all this we shall also see an amazing truth, namely, December 25th was the Day of Christ’s conception and Incarnation, but not his birth. So while we might see historically that “Christmas” has pagan origins, there is nevertheless something wonderful and important about December 25th.
…
Peter McArthur
The Issachar Ministry
Australia
__________________________________________
CHRISTMAS
Some historical facts we need to know about “Christmas”
by J. Preston Eby
..
“Jesus was not born on December 25th”! The first time I ever made this statement to anyone I was viewed with a combination of doubt, incredulity, hostility and outright pity. Christ was not born on Christmas! How could anyone say such a thing!
In late December of each year, thousands of tourists flock into the small town of Bethlehem in the Judean Hills south of Jerusalem to participate in annual Christmas celebrations there. Some make the six mile journey from Jerusalem on foot. Upon arrival, they crowd with silent awe into the paved expanse of Manger Square in front of the revered Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional sight of Jesus’ birth. Inevitably, some of these tourists arrive in Israel unprepared. They have not thoroughly studied their guidebooks.
As they step off their plane, they receive a real shock! For November through to early March is “winter” in Israel. The weather gets cold, especially at night. Often it rains — or even snows! Yet many arrive in Israel carrying luggage bulging with summer clothing, reasoning that it is always hot and arid in the Middle East.
So they hurriedly purchase coats and sweaters in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for their pilgrimage down to Bethlehem. Nevertheless, most of those who stand in Manger Square on December 25th each year (prepared and unprepared alike) fail to perceive the message being proclaimed by the very weather around them!
All who study this subject know that Jesus was not born in December because it is very cold in Israel in the winter time. Jesus was not even born in the winter season! When the Christ-child was born “there were in the same country shepherds ABIDING in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Israel in the month of December. Men, women, and children could not travel by mule or on foot in mid-winter to the city of their birth to be taxed (Luke 2:3).
Joseph would not have taken Mary, great with child, on such a long journey in the winter time (Luke 2:5). The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountain sides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15th, to protect them from the cold rainy season that followed that date.
The scriptures show plainly in the Song of Solomon 2:11 and Ezra 10:9 and 13 that winter was a cold rainy season not permitting people to be exposed out-of-doors for any long period of time.
It was the custom of that time for the Jews to send their sheep out to the fields in early spring and bring them home at the beginning of the first winter rain which began in mid-October. Adam Clarke in his commentary writes on this:
- “During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As…the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which is our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer.”
And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than very late September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up.
Any encyclopaedia, or other authority, will tell you that Christ was not born on December 25th. Even the Catholic Encyclopaedia frankly states this fact. Hardly any of the early scholars really believed that Christ was born on December 25th.
In fact, there were all types of guesses by the men of the fourth and fifth centuries, and almost everyone disagreed with the others. See Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. 1, page 358. But the people just couldn’t give up celebrating the season.
While the scriptures nowhere reveal the exact date of Jesus’ birth, they do indicate the season of the year. Jesus was born in the autumn. According to Luke 1:2-26, Mary conceived Jesus in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. This means that Jesus was born fifteen months after the angel Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah. According to Luke 1:5, Zechariah was a priest of the order of Abijah. Luke 1:8 states that Gabriel appeared to Zechariah while he was serving as a priest.
The order of Abijah served as priests during the second had of the fourth month only. Fifteen months later would place the birth of Jesus in the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. THAT would BE IN AUTUMN of THE YEAR, IN EITHER LATE SEPTEMBER or EARLY October!
One fact is startlingly clear: Christ was not born on December 25th. Those who do not yet know this, or do not wish to know it, are either too firmly dedicated to tradition, no matter how pagan, or are too lazy to bother with simple research.
..
_________________________________
..
Christmas is a pagan festival in origin
Many have supposed Christmas to be one of the chief of the Christian holidays. Without asking questions, many have blindly assumed that its observance must be either commanded or at least condoned or accepted by God! They have supposed Jesus was born on December 25th. They have supposed they exchange gifts because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child. They have supposed that the evergreen Christmas tree represented the spiritual eternal life of Christ.
But let’s quit supposing and look into history for the facts!
It’s not to Jerusalem or to Bethlehem, neither to Hebrew nor Christian scriptures we go to for the true story of Christmas. Rather we must look away to Babylon, to the land of Shinar, to learn just when Christmas was started, by whom and why. Abundant evidence exists which proves Christmas as celebrated on December 25th is utterly pagan in origin; as pagan as belief in Dagon, Vishnu, Baal, Isis or Osiris.
In his well-documented book, Babylon MYSTERY Religion, Ralph Woodrow says,
- Instead of this day (Dec. 25th) being the time of our Saviour’s birth, it was the very day and season on which the pagans for centuries had celebrated the birth of the Sun-god! December 25th was the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol — one of the names of the sun-god. In pagan days, this birth of the sun-god was especially popular among that branch of the “mysteries” known as Mithraism. The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25th as a holiday throughout the Roman and Greek worlds was the pagan sun worship — Mithraism.
- This winter festival was called THE NATIVITY — the nativity of the SUN.’ And not only was Mithra, the sun-god of Mithraism, said to be born at this time of the year, but Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, Tammuz, and other sun-gods were also supposedly born at what is today called the ‘Christmas’ season — the winter solstice!
- Says a noted writer: ‘The winter solstice was the time at which all the sun-gods from Osiris to Jupiter and Mithra had celebrated their birthdays, the celebration being adorned with the pine tree of Adonis, the holly of Saturn, and the mistletoe…tapers represented the kindling of the newborn sun-god’s fire.’
- Now the fact that the various sun gods that were worshipped in different countries were all believed to have been born at the same season (in the old fables), would seem to indicate that they were but different forms (under different names) of the original son of THE SUN-god, TAMMUZ, of Babylon, THE LAND From WHICH SUN-worship originally SPREAD. In Babylon, the birthday of Tammuz was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice with great feasts, revelry, and drunkenness — the same way many celebrate today!
- The ancient celebration spread and became so much an established custom that in pagan Rome and Greece, in the days of the Teutonic barbarians, in the remote times of ancient Egyptian civilization, in the infancy of the race, the period of the winter solstice was ever a period of rejoicing and festivity.
- When this mid-winter festival came to Rome, it was known as the Saturnalia — Saturn being but another name of Nimrod or Tammuz as “the hidden god”. A study into this shows how far apostate Church leaders went in their effort to merge Christianity and paganism into one apostate religion — even to placing the birth of Christ on a date to harmonize with the pagan birthday celebration of the SUN-god ”
End of quote
..
Historical records in encyclopaedias, which are available in any city library, and are noted for their authenticity and reliability, give us these facts that Christmas is of heathen origin. It is traced back to sun worshippers and observed among the pagan nations. All these pagan festivals originated in heathendom.
The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ” or, as it later became shortened, “Christ-Mass”, and finally “Christmas”. It came to us as a Roman Catholic Mass. But where did they get it? Since it has come to us through the Roman Church, and has no authority but that of the Roman Catholic Church, let us examine the Catholic Encyclopaedia, published by that denomination. Under the caption “Christmas” you will find:
..
- “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. ” “Pagan customs centering around the January calendar gravitated to Christmas.”
..
In the Encyclopaedia Americana, the 1969 edition, states:
..
- “CHRISTMAS. The name derives from the old English Chrites Maesse, or Christ’s Mass, and the present spelling probably came into use about the sixteenth century. All Christian churches except the Armenian church observe the birth of Christ on December 25th. This date was not set in the West until about the middle of the fourth century and in the East until about a century later.
- The reason for establishing December 25th as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days began to lengthen, to celebrate the “rebirth of the sun”.
- Northern European tribes celebrated their chief festival of Yule at the winter solstice to celebrate the rebirth of the sun (god) as a giver of light and warmth. The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun) also took place at this time, and some Christian customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration.
- It is held by some scholars that the birth of Christ as ‘Light of the World’ was made analogous to the rebirth of the sun in order to make Christianity more meaningful to pagan converts. Many early Christians decried the gaiety and festive spirit introduced into the Christmas celebration as a pagan survival, particularly of the Roman Saturnalia.”
..
With Voyager satellites sending back astounding pictures of the planet Saturn, with its impressive rings of debris and its many moons, the planet Saturn has been much in the news of late. One of the greatest festivals of the pagan calendar was that of Saturn, originally celebrated near the end of December. The festival began, anciently, on the 19th, and extended for seven days, which would include the 25th and 26th of December.
All classes of ancient Romans exchanged gifts during this celebration of the solstice of the sun, one of the more common forms of gifts being that of a clay doll. The dolls were especially given to children, and it was believed they represented the original sacrifices of human beings to the “infernal god”. There was a tradition that human sacrifices were once offered to Saturn, and Greeks and Romans gave the name of “Cronus” and “Saturn” to a cruel Phoenician baal to whom children were sacrificed at Carthage!
The Saturnalia was finally instituted by Romulus, the founder of Rome, under the name of “Brumalia,” which meant “winter solstice”. A solemn custom of kindling fires has prevailed in parts of Europe, with the “Yule log” a prominent feature, just as fireside dinners and the exchanging of gifts are still prominent features of modern American celebrations of “Christmas”.
..
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1964 edition, says about Christmas:
..
- “CHRISTMAS, on Dec. 25th is the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is the most popular commemoration of the Church year. Its observance as the birthday of the Saviour is attended with secular customs often drawn from pagan sources; indeed, both Christmas and Epiphany, which falls twelve days later on January 6th are transformed pagan celebrations of the winter solstice, and so closely linked that their origins cannot be discussed separately.
- December 25th in Rome — this was the date of a pagan festival in Rome, chosen in AD 274 by the Emperor Aurelian as the birthday of the unconquered sun, which at the winter solstice begins again to show an increase of light. At some point before AD 336 the Church at Rome established the commemoration of the birthday of Christ…on this same date.”
..
Concerning the origin of traditional Christmas customs, the Encyclopaedia Americana further says:
..
- “The English adapted many older folk festivals to their Christmas. In the Middle Ages, English Christmases were times of great hilarity and good cheer, and vast banquets and pageantry celebrated the occasion. It was in this period that the idea of the Lord of Misrule reached its greatest expression.
..
A common person or a servant of a great lord was chosen to rule with absolute authority during the Christmas season, and often his ‘rule’ resulted in uncontrolled frivolity. This tradition may have originated during the Saturnalia, when slaves became equals of their masters. Burning the Yule log was adapted to English custom from the ancient Scandinavian practice of kindling huge bonfires in honour of the winter solstice.
The idea of using evergreens at Christmas time also came to England from pre-Christian European beliefs. Celtic and Teutonic tribes honoured these plants at their winter solstice festivals as symbols of eternal life, and the Druids ascribed magical properties to the mistletoe in particular. The evergreen holly was worshipped as a promise of the sun’s return. Some scholars hold that the evergreen tree, a symbol of life to the pagans, became a symbol of the Saviour and thus an integral part of the celebration of His birth.”
..
The Encyclopaedia Britannica records:
..
- “The traditional customs connected with Christmas have been derived from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ and the pagan agricultural and solar observance at mid-winter. In the Roman world the Saturnalia was a time of merry making and exchange of presents…the fact that Christmas was celebrated on the birthday of the unconquered sun (god) gave the season a solar background.
- To these solstice observances were added the Germanic-Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and central Europe. Yuletide brought its own tradition of feasting and mortuary customs…special food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings; all commemorated different aspects of the festive season. Evergreens, as symbols of survival, have a long association with Christmas festivities, probably dating from the eighth century when St. Boniface completed the Christianization of Germany and dedicated the fir tree to the Holy Child to replace the sacred oak of Odin.”
..
Now let us see! Among the ancient pagans the mistletoe was used at this festival of the winter solstice because it was considered sacred to the SUN, because of its supposed miraculous healing power. The pagan custom of kissing under the mistletoe was an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery — celebrating the death of the “old sun” and the birth of the New at the winter solstice. Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun-god. The Yule log is in reality the “Sun log”.
..
In his book Answers to Questions Frederick J. Haskins writes:
- “The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era.”
And so, when we examine the facts, we are astonished to learn that the practice of observing Christmas is not, after all, a true Christian practice, but a basically a pagan custom in origin.
..
_____________________________________
..
So much for the historical information about the origins of Christmas. Let’s now take a look at how December 25th has some amazing truths related to it, not as the BIRTH of Jesus Christ but as the day on which He was CONCEIVED in the womb by the Holy Spirit.
..
PARALLEL DATINGS
1. Parallel Datings of the times of our Lord
2. “The Begetting” and The Nativity
3. The Course of Abijah
..
The actual list of detailed dates can be found either in the Companion Bible by E.W. Bullinger appendix 179 or, because they are so detailed and would take up unnecessary space here, can be downloaded free from one of the following websites for verification:
..
www.therain.org/appendixes/app179.html
www.biblestudysite.com/cbapwnd.htm
www.goodnewsministry.com/appendix.htm
www.angelfire.com/nv/TheOliveBranch/list/html
..
- It thus appears without the shadow of a doubt that the day assigned to the Birth of the Lord, namely December 25th, was the day on which He was “begotten of the Holy Ghost”, that is to say, by pneuma hagion = divine power (Matthew 1:18, 20 marg.), and His birth took place on the 15th of Ethanim, September 29, in the year following, thus making beautifully clear the meaning of John 1:14, “The Word became flesh” (Matthew 1:18,20) on 1st Tebeth or December 25th (5 BC), “and tabernacled (Greek eskenosen) with us”, on 15th of Ethanim or September 29th (4 BC).
- The 15th of Ethanim (or Tisri) was the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Circumcision therefore took place on the eighth day of the Feast = 22nd Ethanim = October 6th-7th (Leviticus 23:33-43). So that these two momentous events fall into their proper place and order, and the real reason is made clear why the 25th of December is associated with our Lord, and was set apart by the Apostolic Church to commemorate the stupendous event of the “Word becoming flesh” – and not, as we have for so long been led to suppose, the commemoration of a pagan festival.
- An overwhelmingly strong argument in favour of the correctness of this view lies in the fact that the date of “the Festival of Michael and All Angels” has been from very early times the 29th day of September, on Gentile (Western) reckoning.
- But “the Church” even then had lost sight of the reason why this date rather than any other in the Calendar should be so indissolubly associated with the great Angelic Festival.
- The following expresses the almost universal knowledge or rather want of knowledge of “Christendom” on the subject: “We pass on now to consider, in the third place, the commemoration of September 29th, the festival of Michaelmas, par excellence. It does not appear at all certain what was the original special idea of the commemoration of this day” (Smith Dictionary of Chr. Antiqq. (1893), volume ii, page 1177 (3) ).
- A reference, however, to the Table and statements above (go to Appendix 179 or to the website www.therain.org/appendixes/app179.html) make the “original special idea” why the Festival of “Michael and All Angels” is held on September 29th abundantly clear. Our Lord was born on that day, the first day of the “Feast of Tabernacle” (Leviticus 23:39). This was on the fifteenth day of the seventh Jewish month called Tisri, or Ethanim (Appendix 51. 5), corresponding to our September 29th (of the year 4 BC).
- The “Begetting” (gennesis) Day of the Lord was announced by the angel Gabriel. See notes on Daniel 8:16, and Luke 1:19.
- The “Birth” Day, by “(the) Angel of the Lord”, unnamed in either Matthew and Luke. That this Angelic Being was “Michael the Archangel” (Jude verse 9), and “Mika’el hassar haggadol-”Michael the Great Prince” – of Daniel 12:1, seems clear for the following reason: If, “when again (yet future) He bringeth the First-begotten into the world, He saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Hebrews 1:6; quoting Psalm 97:6)-then this must include the great archangel Michael himself. By parity of reasoning, on the First “bringing” into the world of the only begotten Son, the Archangel must have been present. And the tremendous announcement to the shepherds, that the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) was on earth in the person of the Babe of Bethlehem, must therefore have been made by the same head of the heavenly host (Luke 2:9-14). In mundane affairs, announcement of supremest importance (of Kings, etc.) are invariably conveyed through the most exalted personage in the realm. The point need not be laboured.
- .The fact of the Birth of our Lord having been revealed to the shepherds by the Archangel Michael on the 15th of Tisri (or Ethtanim), corresponding to September 29th 4 BC (the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles surely must have been known to believers in the Apostolic Age). But “the mystery of iniquity” which was “already working” in Paul’s day (2 Thessalonians 2:7) quickly enshrouded this and the other great fact of the Jewish month Tebeth (corresponding to December 25th 5 BC) as well as other connected with His sojourn on earth, in a rising mist of obscurity in which they have ever since been lost.
- The earliest allusion to December 25th (modern reckoning) as the date for the Nativity is found in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria, about the beginning of the third century AD.
- That “Christmas” was a pagan festival long before the time of our Lord is beyond doubt. In Egypt Horus (or Harpocrates), the son of Isis (Queen of Heaven), was born about the time of the winter solstice. By the time of the early part of the fourth century AD, the real reason for observing Christmas as the date for the miraculous “begetting” of Matthew 1:18 and “the Word becoming flesh” of John 1:14 had been lost sight of. The policy of Constantine, and his Edict of Milan, by establishing universal freedom of religion furthered this. When many of the followers of the old pagan systems-the vast majority of the empire, it must be remembered- adopted the Christian religion as a cult, which Constantine had made fashionable, and the “Church” became the Church of the Roman Empire, they brought in with them, among a number of other things emanating from Egypt and Babylon, the various Festival Days of the old “religious”. Thus “Christmas Day,” the birthday of the Egyptian Horus (Osiris), became gradually substituted for the real Natalis Domini of our blessed Saviour, viz: September 29th, or Michaelmas Day sometimes called The Feast of St Michael and All Angels.
- If however, we realize that the centre of gravity, so to speak, of what we call the Incarnation is the Incarnation itself – the wondrous fact of the Divine “begetting”,when “the Word became flesh” (see Matthew 1:18 and John 1:14) – and that this is to be associated with December 25th instead of March (as for 1,600 years Christendom has been led to believe) then “Christmas” will be seen in quite another light, and many who have hitherto been troubled with scruples concerning the day being, as they have been taught, the anniversary of a Pagan festival, will be enabled to worship on that Day without alloy of doubt, as the time when the stupendous miracle which is the foundation stone of the Christian faith, came to pass.
- The “Annunciation” by the angel Gabriel marked the genesis of Matthew 1:18 and the first words of John 1:14.
- The announcement to the shepherds by the archangel Michael marked the Birth of our Lord. John 1:14 is read as though “the Word became flesh (Revised Version), and dwelt among us”, were one and the same thing where – as they are two clauses.
- The paragraph should read thus: “And the Word became flesh; (Greek ho logos sarx egeneto.) And tabernacled with (or among) us.” (Greek kai eskenosen en hemin).
- The word tabernacled here (preserved in Revised Version marg.) receives beautiful significance from the knowledge that “the Lord of Glory” was “found in fashion as a man” , and thus tabernacling in human flesh. And in turn it shows in equally beautiful significance that our Lord was born on the first day of the great Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, viz: the 15th of Tisri, corresponding to September 29th 4 BC (in the modern reckoning).
- The circumcision of our Lord took place therefore on the eighth day, the last day of the Feast, the “Great Day of the Feast” of John 7:37 (“Tabernacles” had eight days. The Feast of Unleavened Bread had seven days, and Pentecost one day . See Leviticus 23).
___________________________________________________
..
The main arguments against the Nativity having taken place in December may
be set forth very simply:
..
1. The extreme improbability, amounting almost to impossibility, that Mary, under such circumstances, could have undertaken a journey of about 70 miles (as the crow flies), through a hill district averaging some 3,000 feet above sea – level, in the depth of winter:
2. Shepherds and their flocks would not be found “abiding” (Greek agrauleo) in the open fields at night in December (Tebeth), for the paramount reason that there would be no pasturage at that time. It was the custom then (as now) to withdraw the flocks during the month Marchesvan (October-November) from the open districts and house them for the winter.
3. The Roman authorities in imposing such a “census taking” for the hated and unpopular “foreign” tax would not have enforced the imperial decree (Luke 2:1) at the most inconvenient and inclement season of the year, by compelling the people to enrol themselves at their respective “cities” in December. In such a case they would naturally choose the “line” of least resistance”, and select a time of year that would cause least friction, and interference with the habits and pursuits of the Jewish people. This would be in the autumn, when the agricultural round of the year was complete, and the people generally more or less at liberty to take advantage, as we know many did, of the opportunity of “going up” to Jerusalem for the “Feast of Tabernacles” (compare John 7:8-10), the crowning Feast of the Jewish year.
4. To take advantage of such a time would be to the Romans the simplest and most natural policy, whereas to attempt to enforce the Edict of Registration for the purposes of Imperial taxation in the depth of winter – when travelling for such a purpose would have been deeply resented, and perhaps have brought about a revolt,-would never have been attempted by such an astute ruler as Augustus.
5. With regard to the other two “Quarter Days” (June 24th and March 25th) these are both associated with the miraculous (Luke 1:7) “conception” and the birth of the Forerunner, as December 25th and September 29th are with our Lord’s miraculous “Begetting” and Birth; and are therefore connected with “the Course of Abijah.”
_________________________________________________
..
The Course of Abijah
see Luke 1:5
..
- This was the eighth of the priestly courses of ministration in the Temple (1 Chronicles 24:10), and occurred, as did the others, twice in the year.
- The “Courses” were changed every week, beginning each with a Sabbath. The reckoning commenced on the 22nd day of Tisri or Ethanim (see Appendix 51.5). This was the eighth and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles = the “Great Day of the Feast“ (John 7:37), and was a Sabbath (Leviticus 23:39).
- The first course fell by lot to Jehoiarib, and the eighth to Abiah or Abijah (1 Chronicles 24:10).
- Bearing in mind that all the courses served together at the three Great Feasts, the dates for the two yearly “ministrations“ of Abijah will be seen to fall as follows:
- The first ministration was from 12th to 18th Chisleu = December 6th to 12th.
- The second ministration was from 12th to 18th Sivan = June 13th to 19th.
- The announcement therefore to Zacharias in the Temple as to the conception of John the Baptist took place between 12th and 18th Sivan (June 13th to 19th), in the year 5 BC. After finishing his “ministration“, the aged priest “departed to his own house“ (Luke 1:23), which was in a city in “the hill country“ of Judah (verse 39).
- The day following the end of the “Course of Abijah“ being a Sabbath (Sivan 19th), he would not be able to leave Jerusalem before the 20th.
- The thirty miles journey would probably occupy, for an old man, a couple of days at least. He would therefore arrive at his house on the 21st or 22nd. This leaves ample time for the miraculous “conception“ of Elizabeth to take place on or about 23rd of Sivan – which would correspond to June 23rd -24th of that year. The fact of the conception and its date would necessarily be known at the time and afterwards, and hence the 23rd Sivan would henceforth be associated with the conception of John Baptist as the 1st Tebeth would be with that of our Lord.
- But the same influences that speedily obscured and presently obliterated the real dates of our Lord’s “Begetting“ and Birth, were also at work with regard to those of the Forerunner, and with the same results. As soon as the true Birth day of Christ had been shifted from its proper date, viz: the 15th of Tisri (September 29th), and a Festival Day from the pagan calendars substituted for it (viz: December 25th), then everything else had to be altered too.
- Hence “Lady Day“ in association with March 25th (new style) became necessarily connected with the Annunciation. And June 24th made its appearance, as it still is in our Calendar, as the date of “the Nativity of John the Baptist“, instead of, as it really is, the date of his miraculous conception.
- The Four “Quarter Days“ may therefore be set forth thus: first in the chronological order of the events with which they are associated, viz: (see the table below).
or, placing the two sets together naturally
______________________________________________
SOME NOTES
According to some, Augustus died August 19th AD 14. Therefore if Tiberius’ co-regency was for two years before Augustus’ death his first year was 765 AUC = 12 AD. His fifteenth year consequently was AUC 779 = 26 AD = 4030 AM and AC 30, for our Lord was thirty years of age when He began His Ministry (Luke 3:23). Clement of Alexandria gives the years of Augustus’ reign as being 43-46, according to different reckonings in his day.
According to Clement of Alexandria (compare AD 190-220) “Our Lord was born in the twenty-eighth year when first the census was ordered to be taken in the reign of Augustus” (Stromata, Book i, see Clark’s edition i. pages 444 – 445). If that is correct, and it is true that a Census was taken every fourteen years, then the next would fall in AD 10, and the succeeding one would have been due AD 24. His statements are, however, very vague, and he mentions several dates claimed by others as correct.
It is true that the Lebanon shepherds are in the habit of keeping their flocks alive during the winter months, by cutting down branches of trees in the forests in that district, to feed the sheep on the leaves and twigs, when in autumn the pastures are dried up, and in winter, when snow covers the ground (compare Land and Book, page 204), but there is no evidence that the Bethlehem district was afforested in the manner.
Reckoning of course from Ethanim or Tisri – the First month of the civil year. The sacred year was six months later, and began on 1st Nisan.
The conception of John Baptist was, in view of Luke 1:7, as miraculous as that of Isaac; but it is not necessary to insist upon the complete period of forty sevens in the case of Elizabeth. Therefore the birth of the Forerunner may have been three or four days short of the full two hundred and eighty days, – as indicated in the above table.
______________________________________________
..
Insight into the numbers associated with the “begetting” of the Messiah
_______________________________________________
The connection to the Feast of Tabernacles
by Peter McArthur
..
There’s much to consider when looking at how the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) is related to the miraculous conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. First, based on the detailed evidence given by E.W. Bullinger and others (that Jesus Christ was born on September 29th in the year 4 BC, it being the first day of the Feast) then the symbolic meaning is astounding.
The common thread that runs through all Scripture is that God has chosen to dwell with man. Notice these particular instances;
- He met regularly with Adam and Eve in the garden;
- He inhabited the Tabernacle of Moses;
- He was present in David’s Tabernacle tent;
- He tabernacled in Solomon’s Temple;
- He dwelt in human form through Jesus;
- and finally His spirit dwells in all who believe on Him.
He dwells, He inhabits, He tabernacles. It’s all quite plain!
To top it all off, the Feast of Tabernacles is the major Feast of the Lord in Scripture, and the only open to all people, not just the Jews. So it’s not just the Jews the Messiah came for (although He did go to the house of Israel first), but for all humanity – hence one of the meanings of the Feast of Tabernacles.
In John’s wonderful gospel he writes these profound words as if he’s letting us in on the symbolic importance of the Feast and Christ’s connection to it. John writes:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
The Greek word “dwelt” here is actually “tabernacled” (Strongs G4637). It means “to encamp, to occupy, to abide”. What better day for the Messiah to come than the day of Tabernacles!
Just as Jesus died on the cross at the precise moment the lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple, and just as the Holy Spirit descended at the moment the priests in the Temple blew their trumpets and waved their palm branches, so too isn’t it likely that the Messiah tabernacled with man on the exact day that God had pre-ordained hundreds of years before?
The precise timing of the Lord is a feature of nearly all His dealings with man. So too it’s most likely that the Messiah indwelt Mary by the Holy Spirit during the Feast that symbolically stood for that very reason.
There’s so much more to draw out of this wonderful connection between the Messiah’s conception and the Feast of Tabernacles, so just a couple to whet your appetite for further study.
- Jesus was born in a stable, a booth, a tabernacle.
- Jesus was most likely transfigured during this Feast (see Peter’s strange comment in Matthew 17:4).
- Jesus probably baptised during this Feast (note the connection between the two common phrases spoken by God, “This is my beloved son” here at His baptism and also on the mount of Transfiguration).
- During the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus stands to declare where He came from (John 7:28-29) in a most forthright manner putting His messianic calling right on the line and proclaiming the Holy Spirit (vs. 37-39).
While it’s not one hundred percent confirmable that these texts prove the conception of Jesus on that Feast day, it’s most probable given how biblical typology operates. God is not an ad hoc God who catches up with events. No, He is in charge of them and coordinates times and seasons as signs.
The Lord God has a purpose and a plan, and timing is one of His enduring characteristics. All His symbols found in the Old Testament are signs pointing to extraordinary events and people that would come to fulfil His purposes. This is why we should have some understanding of Biblical Typology and symbolism.
For instance the number of bulls that God commanded to be sacrificed at the Feast of Tabernacles, 70 all told, is the Biblical number standing for the nations of the world. Hence God was saying that all nations are included in His great plan and purpose. For that very reason the Messiah tabernacled with man.
_____________________________________________
Chronology of the Messiah’s birth
Based on Luke 1:5-20
The following chart will give us an overview of the chronology of the events leading up to Christ’s birth. Note that the designated months are in our modern western calendar for the sake of clarity.
________________________________________________
What others say
The Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus
As we have seen, the birth of our Lord can be reasonably shown to have occurred in the autumn of the year on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is a joyful feast. Jewish believers would build a tabernacle or booth known as a “sukkah” out of green tree branches. They would eat their meals and sleep in this sukkah for eight days.
There are some very interesting connections in Scripture with Jesus and aspects of the Feast of Tabernacles.
John 1:14 says: And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. [literal translation of the Greek].
Look at what Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi has to say concerning this verse:
- To introduce the nature and mission of Christ, John in his Gospel employs the metaphor of the “booth” of the Feast of Tabernacles. He explains that Christ, the Word who was with God in the beginning (John 1:1), manifested Himself in this world in a most tangible way, by pitching His tent in our midst: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14).
- The Greek verb skenoo used by John means “to pitch tent, encamp, tabernacle, dwell in a tent.” The allusion is clearly to the Feast of Tabernacles when the people dwelt in temporary booths. In his article “The Feast of Tents: Jesus’ Self-Revelation,” published in Worship (1960), David Stanley notes that this passage sets the stage for the later self-revelation of Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7 and 8. Stanley writes: “The most basic clue to the mystery pervading this entire narrative [John 7 and 8] is provided by the symbolic action that gives this feast its name: the ceremonial erection of little bowers, made with branches of trees, in which every Jew was expected to live during the festival. These shelters were commemorative of the forty years’ wandering in the desert when Israel had lived as a nomad in such intimate union with her God. For John this dwelling in tents is a primordial symbol of the Incarnation: ‘Thus the Word became a mortal man: he pitched his tent in the midst of us’ (John 1:14). It is this insight which presides over the composition of John’s narrative which we are considering [John chpts 7-8]. All that happened, all that Jesus said on this occasion has some reference to the Incarnation.
- Look at what it says in seeking to describe the Messiah’s first coming to His people – John chose the imagery of the Feast of Booths since the feast celebrates the dwelling of God among His people. This raises an interesting question on whether or not John intended to link the birth of Jesus with the Feast of Tabernacles.
[from: God’s Festivals in Scripture and History Part 2: The Fall Festivals, page 241.]
And from his book called The Seven Festivals of the Messiah by Eddie Chumney we read this:
- As we have stated earlier in this chapter, the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) is called “the season of our joy” and “the feast of the nations.” With this in mind, in Luke 2:10 it is written, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings [basar in Hebrew; otherwise known as the gospel] of great joy [Sukkot is called the 'season of our joy'], which shall be to all people [Sukkot is called 'the feast of the nations'].” So, we can see from this that the terminology the angel used to announce the birth of Yeshua (Jesus) were themes and messages associated with the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles).
Light was also a prominent feature of the Feast of Tabernacles. At the end of the first day of the Feast, the Temple was gloriously illuminated. According to the Mishnah (Succah 5:2), gigantic candelabras stood within the Court of the Women in the temple. Each of the four golden candelabras is said to have been about 75 feet tall. Each candelabra had four branches, and at the top of every branch there was a large bowl. Four young men bearing 10 gallon pitchers of oil would climb ladders to fill the four golden bowls on each candelabra. And then the oil in those bowls was ignited. Picture sixteen beautiful blazes leaping toward the sky from these golden lamps. There was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated by this light (Succah 5:3).
____________________________________________
Be a Berean!
Peter McArthur
Tags: Christmas pagan, December 25, false tradition, Jesus birth, nativity, pagan origins
