Christmas - When was Christ ACTUALLY Born?
I have been asked time and time again, “So when was Jesus really born?”
First let’s get the DEC 25th bit out of the way…
As we all know or should know by now Dec 25th is not the birthday of Christ for several reasons:
December 25th is solar calendar date and the birth of Christ would have been recorded as a Hebrew date which is on a lunar calendar so it would differ year when compared to the Gregorian calendar that we now use.
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Notice that the shepherds were ‘camping’ out in the fields ALL NIGHT. This would not happen in the middle of winter. Sheep are taken in for the winter due to the weather conditions from around October to around March, thus no shepherd would be staying out in the field. Some have suggested that these shepherds were guarding the sacrificial sheep in the temple grounds. There are again problems with that theology as it plainly states that it was “their flock”. Then the problem that the temple was in Jerusalem but the Bible says “in the same country” and they were in the “the field” outside the city of Bethlehem.
The taxation and census would not have been carried out during winter again due to weather conditions. This is the time of great rain and travel on foot or cart would have been very difficult. It was more likely to be done during a feast time when people were travelling to their own home towns anyway.
Constantine chose this date for the birth of Christ to cover up the 12 days of the festival of Saturnalia because he could not get the new converts to stop their pagan ways so let them keep their festival but with a different deity. The 25th Dec being the rebirth of the sun god which used to be the date of the winter solstice.
So when was he born? Can we know this from the Bible?
Not really but we can see some possibilities in the time of year that it was, but we can know for sure that it wasn't Dec!
There are several assumptions to make but we but back track a bit before the birth of Christ to Zacharias (John the Baptist’s father)
Luke 1:5-9 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. [6] And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. [7] And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. [8] And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, [9] According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
The course of Abia is found in 1 Chron. 24:5
Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God, were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar…7] Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, [8] The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, [9] The fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, [10] The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, …[19] These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the Lord, according to their manner, under Aaron their father, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.
Abijah or Abia is the 8th course to serve in the temple. Each priest had two allotted weeks during the year. Most make the assumption that they started on the first week leaving 3 weeks extra, I will show this to be inaccurate in a little while. We know that there are three feast weeks that would require all males to come to Jerusalem so that would mean priests too. If all priests came to serve during certain feast weeks. There are 51 weeks in the Hebrew calendar and 48 courses (24 x 2) so it makes sense that the 3 extra weeks are not regular courses since all are at Jerusalem anyway. The assumption goes like this. Jehoiarib was the first course and then there is Passover week also pushing 8th course back and that would make Zacharias’ course the 9th week of the year. However, if we look at the destruction of the Temple in AD70 we know that Jehoiarib’s course was serving during this time and that was the 9th of AV. If you trace that back to the beginning of the year you will find that the course of Jehoiarib DID NOT start at the beginning of the year. We also have the issue of Adar II, this is the inter-calendar month added to bring the Hebrew calendar back in line. This is an extra 4 weeks and we have no knowledge of how the priests worked this out. Knowing that Jehoiarib’s course did not start the first week of the year in AD 70 we need to work how this course came to be moved to this time in the year. The only way this course could move is that they cycle continued through Adar II. If not then the courses would not move. Tracing the pattern moving every ‘leap year’ you come up with this the course that start each year.
Jehoiarib – Malchijah – Jeshua – Huppah – Hezir – Jachin
So if Jehoiarib started the year and that year happened to be a leap year then Malchijah would begin the following year and would continue to start the subsequent years until there was another Adar II. After that then Jeshua would begin the year.
Now that we know the order of the courses can we know when John was born? Not without knowing the year of the birth of the Messiah!
In another study we looked at the possible date for the crucifixion in AD30
"Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open" (Yoma 6:3 [33b]).
Some may not realise the significance of this and other statements from the Talmud but I will elaborate. Forty years before the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed the menorah would not stay lit. No matter what precautions the priests made it would always go out. This light represented the presence of the Spirit of God, when it went out it meant that the Spirit was not present. The crimson thread was that attached to the scapegoat that bore the sins of Israel on the Day of Atonement. Every year as the goat was led out of the city the crimson thread was said turn to white indicating that the goat that was killed for the sacrifice had been accepted and sins were covered for another year. This also apparantly ceased the same year. The same was true for the lot that was cast for the goat that would be offered as the sin offering. The lot should have come up in the right hand to signal that that particular goat was chosen for the sacrifice but for forty years it could never be chosen so no goat could truly be offered by casting the lot. The final thing mentioned is that the temple gates would be opened during the night. These things all occurred forty years before the destruction in AD70; meaning that the year of these occurrences was AD30. The only thing that would cause these things to be was the fulfilment of the ceremonial law by the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we know the date of the Crucifixion was Passover AD 30 can we know back up to the year of the birth of Jesus? Not really because we don’t know how long His ministry was, only that He was about 30 when it started. The bible does not tell us how long it was but some assume 3 ½ years, some 4 years and others 7 years.
If 3 ½ or 4 years this would make Jesus 33 or 34 when He died meaning His birth was 3-5BC but Herod is said to have died in 4BC so we need two years before that at least to account for the time of the wisemen’s visit to the house in Nazareth. Since Herod had all the boys 2 and under killed John the Baptist had to be over 2 to survive and as we will see he was physically around 6 months older than Jesus. The other problem we encounter is the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3:1) when John the Baptist began his ministry. It is said that this would be 29AD. The only way to go along with this date is by saying that the 40 years before the destruction of the temple were approximate, but it still means that Jesus would then have been born after Herod’s death. It seems as though historical ‘facts’ to date the year of Christ’s birth elude us so there is absolutely NO WAY to even estimate the time of His birth!
Let’s continue…
Luke 1:23-24 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. [24] And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
By this verse it is assumed that John was conceived very soon after this and then thus with more assumptions people try to estimate the birth of Jesus. We know that Mary was visited in the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy according to Luke 1:26 “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,” and that tells us that John was born at least 6 months before Jesus. We have to account for length of cycles and assume that these events happened almost immediately.
The shepherds in Bethlehem were specifically for looking after the sacrificial lambs and the main reason shepherds would be staying out in the fields would be probably for lambing season. Lambing only happens in the spring and how fitting if the Lamb of God was born at the time of the birth of the sacrificial lambs! But again this is assumption!
If we went with a birth of 6BC then Messiah would have been born around the time of Shavuot
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…
Did the previous Comforter come on the same day?
The fact remains that unless we can accurately know for sure the year of His birth we will never know when Jesus was born. Depending which year it was will depend what time in the year and we would then have two possibilities due to the fact that there were two courses each year!
Some would reckon Jesus to be born in the autumn; how does that translate to the Hebrew calendar?
There are 3 later feasts as we have studied which are:
Yom Teruah – Trumpets
Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement
Sukkot - Feast of Tabernacles (Celebrating God dwelling with the Israelites in the wilderness)
God is specific with dates as we know that the day God made covenant with Abram in Gen 15 was the exact same day that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and it was the exact same day (14th Nisan) that Jesus took Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper and was also crucified on the same day (Remembering that Jewish days start at 1800hrs the night before)
Yom Teruah is the shadow of the the catching away of the church and Yom Kippur the shadow of the 2nd coming and millennium and Sukkot the shadow of eternity after the 1000 year reign of Christ so it does kind of make sense that He would be born during Sukkot because:
1. It was a feast where people came to their home towns
2. Luke 2:6 says the “days were accomplished”, they didn’t get to Bethlehem and Mary immediately went into labour. It is more probable that Mary and Joseph were already in Bethlehem for the feast of Tabernacles when she went into labour. We think of them just making it to Bethlehem and Joseph knowing on all the doors for a room. Who in their right mind would turn away a woman in labour? Adding to that also the fact that it looks like God did not provide for His Son. Most likely the ‘inn’ to a Jewish home was a guest chamber and there was no more room for a wee one so Jesus could have been laid out in the booth (tabernacle) that they would have had for the feast. Just because He was laid in a manger does not mean He was born in a stable. A stable would be a very unclean place not only physically but ceremonially thus it is impossible that God would allow His Son to be unclean at any point considering He was to be a sinless Lamb. It is far more logical that Christ was born in the tabernacle made to represent God’s presence on Earth. Knowing what we know about the Lord’s timing and shadows, doesn’t that make more sense?
3. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. What better way to come into the world in flesh than during the celebration of God’s presence on earth? Emmanuel, God with us!
If that is the case then the conception was around the time of Chanukah.
However, we have a problem with this though, all males were to appear at Jerusalem for 3 feasts, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. It is suggest that Joseph could have went there first and the commandment doesn't specify that they had to stay the whole time.
Exodus 23:13-17 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. [14] Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. [15] Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) [16] And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. [17] Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
That is why many celebrate the birth of Christ, not at the time of the Catholic christ’s (who is not the true Christ but Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) the son of Semiramis who is the Catholic Mary (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19; 44:25)) mass but at the time of tabernacles. It has nothing to do with being Jewish but everything to do with God’s calendar. The fact is that all these feasts are about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christmas is about people. Who gets the presents? Who gets to eat the food? Who decorates their tree? Apart from a manger scene, there is very little difference between a Christian’s Christmas and that of an atheist! When you study the origins of Christmas you find they are all routed in paganism and the Lord tells us many times to stay away from these things and specifically tells us NOT to worship Him in the way the pagans worship their false gods.
Deut. 12:29-32 When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; [30] Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. [31] Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. [32] What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
I suggest that you do your own study on Christmas because there is a plethora of information out there and too much to be included here as it would take another book. Start with Saturnalia and you will see how Constantine simply changed the name to Christmas around 320AD but changed nothing else bringing all the pagan rituals into this ‘new’ festival. All Catholic rites and rituals trace back to Babylonian worship of the sun god and have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Its founder, Constantine 313AD, changed the figures of paganism of Tammuz and his mother Semiramis to Jesus and Mary but it is clearly NOT the Jesus and Mary of the Bible. He took Babylonian priests, keeping their clothes but changing their names. The Catholic church is basically a carbon copy of the Babylonian sun religion worshiping the great whore (Semiramis) and her reincarnated husband/son (Tammuz).
A Mass in the Church of Rome is where a wafer and wine are served by a priest to the members. It is believed that the priest has the power to command Jesus to be crucified again and bleed into the cup and that he has the power to turn the wine and wager into the literal blood and flesh of Christ. This is called transubstantiation. There are several problems with this.
Acts 15:20...that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25)
So a Mass is really a celebration of death. It is a mockery of the LORD’s atonement on the cross and makes a sham of the Lord’s Table by which He commanded us to remember His death. Is this really something we want to be merry about?
Facts are facts, not once in the Scriptures are we told to remember the birth of Christ. In fact for around 400 years there was no mention of any Christian celebrating His birth. It was the Church of Rome who created Christmas by taking the rites and rituals of Saturnalia and other winter festivals and giving it a ‘Christian’ meaning. Over time many more traditions were added in by other cultures from their own festivals. There is not one tradition in Christmas that is biblical…ALL have come from paganism of some sort.
Even the idea of Santa predates any ‘Christmas’ proceedings. In ancient times people believed that Nimrod/Tammuz would return on his birthday to leave gifts under an evergreen tree, but only if they left him some sort of offering also. When was his birthday? 25th December.
The Bible tells us to remember the LORD’s death and it shows us EXACTLY when Jesus died; on the very day of Passover and He rose on the very day of Firstfruits. The Bible NEVER states when He was born although we can estimate His birth to around the feast of Tabernacles but we CAN know emphatically that Jesus was not born on the 25th Dec. We know that a record was kept of Jesus’ birthday because we know how old He was when He began His ministry but NEVER do we see any celebration of that by Him, His mother, or His disciples. If they did, it is not recorded.
Why do we insist on keep Catholic traditions when the Scripture so plainly tells us that God is disgusted with this Mystery Babylon religion?
Revelation 18:3-5 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. [4] And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. [5] For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Tis the season to be jolly and peace and good will toward men? Why is it that there are more suicides on Dec 25th than any other day? Why is it that people go mad and forget their manners during the whole month of December? Why is it people are fighting over TVs, etc when others are starving on the streets? Why is it that we MUST buy loads of stuff and over indulge in food and drink and then gripe about how much we over ate? Someone has been taken for a ride on the materialism marketing train and it is being fuelled by their own lusts!
IF Christmas is about Christ then make it so…prove it by doing away with everything that has come from tradition and only celebrate Christ…no presents (unless they are all given to Jesus like the wisemen did); no tree (which is a phallic symbol decorated with gonads and snakes coming from ancient times to represent an indoor obelisk, Jer 10); to ‘angel’ on the top of the tree (this is a representation of a winged goddess; angels are always given a MASCULINE pronoun!!!); no star (which was used by the wisemen to go to Nazareth when Jesus was about 2, NOT at His birth); no excess food or drink to consume upon our own lusts! Once that is gone can you still have ‘christmas’? The answer would be NO! Thus we can conclude that xmess is not about Christ but about the ELVES! OursELVES, mysELF, yoursELVES, sELFishness, and who is all about SELF?
Isaiah 14:12-15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! [13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. [15] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
The origin of the Christmas tree is founded in paganism too and forbidden by God
Jeremiah 10:2-4 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. [3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. [4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Now you may say “but I don’t worship the tree!” Would you have a pagan altar or a Buddha statue in your house? I would hope not as these represent the false gods regardless if you worship them or not. The fact remains that each person DOES bow down to their tree, when they put up the lights, when they put gifts underneath and when they get them back out, each time they bow.
God says to touch not the unclean thing! It is the tree of Nimrod (who was ‘reincarnated’ as Tammuz in pagan myth) to which he would supposedly return each year to leave gifts under this evergreen tree. The myth is that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, his blood fell on the stump of a tree which miraculously came back to life as an evergreen tree.
There are many customs dating back to pagan times which have been added to Christianity. Mistletoe, Holly and Ivy were all used in fertility rituals and used to decorate the houses of those worshiping Saturn. The yule log was burnt as an offering to Odin each of the 12 days of the Norse festival.
Satan has cleverly indoctrinated the modern Christian to refuse the feast of the Lord and practice the feasts of the pagans. Christmas was not even celebrated in Baptist churches until 1870, before that they were opposed to it and in the dark ages many were killed for not participating in these Catholic/Pagan/Babylonian feasts. Why do we now accept them and claim them as Christian when we know full well that Christ is not in these? It is because of peoples own fleshly lust.
Why celebrate the birth of Christ on a day which was rendered as the birthdate of Tammuz and every other sun god (all sun gods having sprung from Tammuz, hence the same date)?
By taking part in Christmas or Easter we are partaking in the worship of a false god. You will have all the “that’s not what it means to me” spiel or “what about the kids?” but what does it mean to God? Are you then going to put your kid’s feelings above that of God? It’s not a big deal to get rid of Christmas. From personal experience, if you have taught your children to obey the Bible no matter what then explain to them that Christmas is not about Jesus as we did, and they will not want to participate. When you take away one day and bring in the feasts of God you will realise what you have been missing out on.
You can easily take Christ out of Christmas and still have Christmas. Many unbelievers throughout the world celebrate this festival without Christ. They celebrate it as Yule, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice etc. Spurgeon preached against it as did many others. It is only our lust of the flesh and eyes that keep Christmas. To truly make Christmas about Christ then strip back all the pomp and just worship Christ with no presents for yourself, no special dinner, no decorations, no tree? Will that still be Christmas? No, therefore Christ was NEVER in Christmas to begin with so why try to keep Him there. The Lord Jesus Christ is the focus of EVERY feast of the Lord and that is where we should keep Him. Keep Christ in the Feasts of the Lord! Anything that God commanded to be celebrated He gave the exact dates to do so. This should tell us something.
Did the New Testament churches celebrate Christmas? No, as we have seen, they kept the feasts of God!
God is not happy when we make up our own feasts to try to honour Him
Amos 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
He is even less impressed when we take a pagan day and try to add Jesus into it (Deut 12)
Regardless when Christ was actually born we have no commandment to celebrate that event. Go to your concordance and see how many dates are actually given in the Bible, God is specific about record keeping so you’d think if the birth of Christ was so important then He would have given us that date, but He didn’t!
Our faith is not based on the birth of Jesus Christ but His resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
What we do have is a commandment to remember His death and God gave us the exact date and time to do that. Why are people adamant about the birth of Christ celebration on a specific date that is not commanded; but when we do have a commandment and the exact date, people think they can keep the Lord's Supper any time they want?
I have been asked time and time again, “So when was Jesus really born?”
First let’s get the DEC 25th bit out of the way…
As we all know or should know by now Dec 25th is not the birthday of Christ for several reasons:
December 25th is solar calendar date and the birth of Christ would have been recorded as a Hebrew date which is on a lunar calendar so it would differ year when compared to the Gregorian calendar that we now use.
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Notice that the shepherds were ‘camping’ out in the fields ALL NIGHT. This would not happen in the middle of winter. Sheep are taken in for the winter due to the weather conditions from around October to around March, thus no shepherd would be staying out in the field. Some have suggested that these shepherds were guarding the sacrificial sheep in the temple grounds. There are again problems with that theology as it plainly states that it was “their flock”. Then the problem that the temple was in Jerusalem but the Bible says “in the same country” and they were in the “the field” outside the city of Bethlehem.
The taxation and census would not have been carried out during winter again due to weather conditions. This is the time of great rain and travel on foot or cart would have been very difficult. It was more likely to be done during a feast time when people were travelling to their own home towns anyway.
Constantine chose this date for the birth of Christ to cover up the 12 days of the festival of Saturnalia because he could not get the new converts to stop their pagan ways so let them keep their festival but with a different deity. The 25th Dec being the rebirth of the sun god which used to be the date of the winter solstice.
So when was he born? Can we know this from the Bible?
Not really but we can see some possibilities in the time of year that it was, but we can know for sure that it wasn't Dec!
There are several assumptions to make but we but back track a bit before the birth of Christ to Zacharias (John the Baptist’s father)
Luke 1:5-9 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. [6] And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. [7] And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. [8] And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, [9] According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
The course of Abia is found in 1 Chron. 24:5
Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God, were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar…7] Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, [8] The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, [9] The fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, [10] The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, …[19] These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the Lord, according to their manner, under Aaron their father, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.
Abijah or Abia is the 8th course to serve in the temple. Each priest had two allotted weeks during the year. Most make the assumption that they started on the first week leaving 3 weeks extra, I will show this to be inaccurate in a little while. We know that there are three feast weeks that would require all males to come to Jerusalem so that would mean priests too. If all priests came to serve during certain feast weeks. There are 51 weeks in the Hebrew calendar and 48 courses (24 x 2) so it makes sense that the 3 extra weeks are not regular courses since all are at Jerusalem anyway. The assumption goes like this. Jehoiarib was the first course and then there is Passover week also pushing 8th course back and that would make Zacharias’ course the 9th week of the year. However, if we look at the destruction of the Temple in AD70 we know that Jehoiarib’s course was serving during this time and that was the 9th of AV. If you trace that back to the beginning of the year you will find that the course of Jehoiarib DID NOT start at the beginning of the year. We also have the issue of Adar II, this is the inter-calendar month added to bring the Hebrew calendar back in line. This is an extra 4 weeks and we have no knowledge of how the priests worked this out. Knowing that Jehoiarib’s course did not start the first week of the year in AD 70 we need to work how this course came to be moved to this time in the year. The only way this course could move is that they cycle continued through Adar II. If not then the courses would not move. Tracing the pattern moving every ‘leap year’ you come up with this the course that start each year.
Jehoiarib – Malchijah – Jeshua – Huppah – Hezir – Jachin
So if Jehoiarib started the year and that year happened to be a leap year then Malchijah would begin the following year and would continue to start the subsequent years until there was another Adar II. After that then Jeshua would begin the year.
Now that we know the order of the courses can we know when John was born? Not without knowing the year of the birth of the Messiah!
In another study we looked at the possible date for the crucifixion in AD30
"Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open" (Yoma 6:3 [33b]).
Some may not realise the significance of this and other statements from the Talmud but I will elaborate. Forty years before the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed the menorah would not stay lit. No matter what precautions the priests made it would always go out. This light represented the presence of the Spirit of God, when it went out it meant that the Spirit was not present. The crimson thread was that attached to the scapegoat that bore the sins of Israel on the Day of Atonement. Every year as the goat was led out of the city the crimson thread was said turn to white indicating that the goat that was killed for the sacrifice had been accepted and sins were covered for another year. This also apparantly ceased the same year. The same was true for the lot that was cast for the goat that would be offered as the sin offering. The lot should have come up in the right hand to signal that that particular goat was chosen for the sacrifice but for forty years it could never be chosen so no goat could truly be offered by casting the lot. The final thing mentioned is that the temple gates would be opened during the night. These things all occurred forty years before the destruction in AD70; meaning that the year of these occurrences was AD30. The only thing that would cause these things to be was the fulfilment of the ceremonial law by the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we know the date of the Crucifixion was Passover AD 30 can we know back up to the year of the birth of Jesus? Not really because we don’t know how long His ministry was, only that He was about 30 when it started. The bible does not tell us how long it was but some assume 3 ½ years, some 4 years and others 7 years.
If 3 ½ or 4 years this would make Jesus 33 or 34 when He died meaning His birth was 3-5BC but Herod is said to have died in 4BC so we need two years before that at least to account for the time of the wisemen’s visit to the house in Nazareth. Since Herod had all the boys 2 and under killed John the Baptist had to be over 2 to survive and as we will see he was physically around 6 months older than Jesus. The other problem we encounter is the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3:1) when John the Baptist began his ministry. It is said that this would be 29AD. The only way to go along with this date is by saying that the 40 years before the destruction of the temple were approximate, but it still means that Jesus would then have been born after Herod’s death. It seems as though historical ‘facts’ to date the year of Christ’s birth elude us so there is absolutely NO WAY to even estimate the time of His birth!
Let’s continue…
Luke 1:23-24 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. [24] And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
By this verse it is assumed that John was conceived very soon after this and then thus with more assumptions people try to estimate the birth of Jesus. We know that Mary was visited in the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy according to Luke 1:26 “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,” and that tells us that John was born at least 6 months before Jesus. We have to account for length of cycles and assume that these events happened almost immediately.
The shepherds in Bethlehem were specifically for looking after the sacrificial lambs and the main reason shepherds would be staying out in the fields would be probably for lambing season. Lambing only happens in the spring and how fitting if the Lamb of God was born at the time of the birth of the sacrificial lambs! But again this is assumption!
If we went with a birth of 6BC then Messiah would have been born around the time of Shavuot
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…
Did the previous Comforter come on the same day?
The fact remains that unless we can accurately know for sure the year of His birth we will never know when Jesus was born. Depending which year it was will depend what time in the year and we would then have two possibilities due to the fact that there were two courses each year!
Some would reckon Jesus to be born in the autumn; how does that translate to the Hebrew calendar?
There are 3 later feasts as we have studied which are:
Yom Teruah – Trumpets
Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement
Sukkot - Feast of Tabernacles (Celebrating God dwelling with the Israelites in the wilderness)
God is specific with dates as we know that the day God made covenant with Abram in Gen 15 was the exact same day that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and it was the exact same day (14th Nisan) that Jesus took Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper and was also crucified on the same day (Remembering that Jewish days start at 1800hrs the night before)
Yom Teruah is the shadow of the the catching away of the church and Yom Kippur the shadow of the 2nd coming and millennium and Sukkot the shadow of eternity after the 1000 year reign of Christ so it does kind of make sense that He would be born during Sukkot because:
1. It was a feast where people came to their home towns
2. Luke 2:6 says the “days were accomplished”, they didn’t get to Bethlehem and Mary immediately went into labour. It is more probable that Mary and Joseph were already in Bethlehem for the feast of Tabernacles when she went into labour. We think of them just making it to Bethlehem and Joseph knowing on all the doors for a room. Who in their right mind would turn away a woman in labour? Adding to that also the fact that it looks like God did not provide for His Son. Most likely the ‘inn’ to a Jewish home was a guest chamber and there was no more room for a wee one so Jesus could have been laid out in the booth (tabernacle) that they would have had for the feast. Just because He was laid in a manger does not mean He was born in a stable. A stable would be a very unclean place not only physically but ceremonially thus it is impossible that God would allow His Son to be unclean at any point considering He was to be a sinless Lamb. It is far more logical that Christ was born in the tabernacle made to represent God’s presence on Earth. Knowing what we know about the Lord’s timing and shadows, doesn’t that make more sense?
3. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. What better way to come into the world in flesh than during the celebration of God’s presence on earth? Emmanuel, God with us!
If that is the case then the conception was around the time of Chanukah.
However, we have a problem with this though, all males were to appear at Jerusalem for 3 feasts, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. It is suggest that Joseph could have went there first and the commandment doesn't specify that they had to stay the whole time.
Exodus 23:13-17 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. [14] Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. [15] Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) [16] And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. [17] Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
That is why many celebrate the birth of Christ, not at the time of the Catholic christ’s (who is not the true Christ but Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) the son of Semiramis who is the Catholic Mary (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19; 44:25)) mass but at the time of tabernacles. It has nothing to do with being Jewish but everything to do with God’s calendar. The fact is that all these feasts are about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christmas is about people. Who gets the presents? Who gets to eat the food? Who decorates their tree? Apart from a manger scene, there is very little difference between a Christian’s Christmas and that of an atheist! When you study the origins of Christmas you find they are all routed in paganism and the Lord tells us many times to stay away from these things and specifically tells us NOT to worship Him in the way the pagans worship their false gods.
Deut. 12:29-32 When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; [30] Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. [31] Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. [32] What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
I suggest that you do your own study on Christmas because there is a plethora of information out there and too much to be included here as it would take another book. Start with Saturnalia and you will see how Constantine simply changed the name to Christmas around 320AD but changed nothing else bringing all the pagan rituals into this ‘new’ festival. All Catholic rites and rituals trace back to Babylonian worship of the sun god and have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Its founder, Constantine 313AD, changed the figures of paganism of Tammuz and his mother Semiramis to Jesus and Mary but it is clearly NOT the Jesus and Mary of the Bible. He took Babylonian priests, keeping their clothes but changing their names. The Catholic church is basically a carbon copy of the Babylonian sun religion worshiping the great whore (Semiramis) and her reincarnated husband/son (Tammuz).
A Mass in the Church of Rome is where a wafer and wine are served by a priest to the members. It is believed that the priest has the power to command Jesus to be crucified again and bleed into the cup and that he has the power to turn the wine and wager into the literal blood and flesh of Christ. This is called transubstantiation. There are several problems with this.
- No earthly man has authority over Christ
- The bible forbids that people should eat or drink blood both in the Old Testament and also in the New
Acts 15:20...that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25)
- Christ died only once and need never make any more atonement for sin
So a Mass is really a celebration of death. It is a mockery of the LORD’s atonement on the cross and makes a sham of the Lord’s Table by which He commanded us to remember His death. Is this really something we want to be merry about?
Facts are facts, not once in the Scriptures are we told to remember the birth of Christ. In fact for around 400 years there was no mention of any Christian celebrating His birth. It was the Church of Rome who created Christmas by taking the rites and rituals of Saturnalia and other winter festivals and giving it a ‘Christian’ meaning. Over time many more traditions were added in by other cultures from their own festivals. There is not one tradition in Christmas that is biblical…ALL have come from paganism of some sort.
Even the idea of Santa predates any ‘Christmas’ proceedings. In ancient times people believed that Nimrod/Tammuz would return on his birthday to leave gifts under an evergreen tree, but only if they left him some sort of offering also. When was his birthday? 25th December.
The Bible tells us to remember the LORD’s death and it shows us EXACTLY when Jesus died; on the very day of Passover and He rose on the very day of Firstfruits. The Bible NEVER states when He was born although we can estimate His birth to around the feast of Tabernacles but we CAN know emphatically that Jesus was not born on the 25th Dec. We know that a record was kept of Jesus’ birthday because we know how old He was when He began His ministry but NEVER do we see any celebration of that by Him, His mother, or His disciples. If they did, it is not recorded.
Why do we insist on keep Catholic traditions when the Scripture so plainly tells us that God is disgusted with this Mystery Babylon religion?
Revelation 18:3-5 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. [4] And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. [5] For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Tis the season to be jolly and peace and good will toward men? Why is it that there are more suicides on Dec 25th than any other day? Why is it that people go mad and forget their manners during the whole month of December? Why is it people are fighting over TVs, etc when others are starving on the streets? Why is it that we MUST buy loads of stuff and over indulge in food and drink and then gripe about how much we over ate? Someone has been taken for a ride on the materialism marketing train and it is being fuelled by their own lusts!
IF Christmas is about Christ then make it so…prove it by doing away with everything that has come from tradition and only celebrate Christ…no presents (unless they are all given to Jesus like the wisemen did); no tree (which is a phallic symbol decorated with gonads and snakes coming from ancient times to represent an indoor obelisk, Jer 10); to ‘angel’ on the top of the tree (this is a representation of a winged goddess; angels are always given a MASCULINE pronoun!!!); no star (which was used by the wisemen to go to Nazareth when Jesus was about 2, NOT at His birth); no excess food or drink to consume upon our own lusts! Once that is gone can you still have ‘christmas’? The answer would be NO! Thus we can conclude that xmess is not about Christ but about the ELVES! OursELVES, mysELF, yoursELVES, sELFishness, and who is all about SELF?
Isaiah 14:12-15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! [13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. [15] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
The origin of the Christmas tree is founded in paganism too and forbidden by God
Jeremiah 10:2-4 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. [3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. [4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Now you may say “but I don’t worship the tree!” Would you have a pagan altar or a Buddha statue in your house? I would hope not as these represent the false gods regardless if you worship them or not. The fact remains that each person DOES bow down to their tree, when they put up the lights, when they put gifts underneath and when they get them back out, each time they bow.
God says to touch not the unclean thing! It is the tree of Nimrod (who was ‘reincarnated’ as Tammuz in pagan myth) to which he would supposedly return each year to leave gifts under this evergreen tree. The myth is that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, his blood fell on the stump of a tree which miraculously came back to life as an evergreen tree.
There are many customs dating back to pagan times which have been added to Christianity. Mistletoe, Holly and Ivy were all used in fertility rituals and used to decorate the houses of those worshiping Saturn. The yule log was burnt as an offering to Odin each of the 12 days of the Norse festival.
Satan has cleverly indoctrinated the modern Christian to refuse the feast of the Lord and practice the feasts of the pagans. Christmas was not even celebrated in Baptist churches until 1870, before that they were opposed to it and in the dark ages many were killed for not participating in these Catholic/Pagan/Babylonian feasts. Why do we now accept them and claim them as Christian when we know full well that Christ is not in these? It is because of peoples own fleshly lust.
Why celebrate the birth of Christ on a day which was rendered as the birthdate of Tammuz and every other sun god (all sun gods having sprung from Tammuz, hence the same date)?
By taking part in Christmas or Easter we are partaking in the worship of a false god. You will have all the “that’s not what it means to me” spiel or “what about the kids?” but what does it mean to God? Are you then going to put your kid’s feelings above that of God? It’s not a big deal to get rid of Christmas. From personal experience, if you have taught your children to obey the Bible no matter what then explain to them that Christmas is not about Jesus as we did, and they will not want to participate. When you take away one day and bring in the feasts of God you will realise what you have been missing out on.
You can easily take Christ out of Christmas and still have Christmas. Many unbelievers throughout the world celebrate this festival without Christ. They celebrate it as Yule, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice etc. Spurgeon preached against it as did many others. It is only our lust of the flesh and eyes that keep Christmas. To truly make Christmas about Christ then strip back all the pomp and just worship Christ with no presents for yourself, no special dinner, no decorations, no tree? Will that still be Christmas? No, therefore Christ was NEVER in Christmas to begin with so why try to keep Him there. The Lord Jesus Christ is the focus of EVERY feast of the Lord and that is where we should keep Him. Keep Christ in the Feasts of the Lord! Anything that God commanded to be celebrated He gave the exact dates to do so. This should tell us something.
Did the New Testament churches celebrate Christmas? No, as we have seen, they kept the feasts of God!
God is not happy when we make up our own feasts to try to honour Him
Amos 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
He is even less impressed when we take a pagan day and try to add Jesus into it (Deut 12)
Regardless when Christ was actually born we have no commandment to celebrate that event. Go to your concordance and see how many dates are actually given in the Bible, God is specific about record keeping so you’d think if the birth of Christ was so important then He would have given us that date, but He didn’t!
Our faith is not based on the birth of Jesus Christ but His resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
What we do have is a commandment to remember His death and God gave us the exact date and time to do that. Why are people adamant about the birth of Christ celebration on a specific date that is not commanded; but when we do have a commandment and the exact date, people think they can keep the Lord's Supper any time they want?