Posted on 12/18/2008 4:27:24 AM PST by SonlitKnight
For years now, I have been convinced of the accuracy of December 25th, 1BC, as the birthdate of Jesus Christ, if not actually, then very close.
Although I fully admit I cannot prove it, I believe I can make a compelling case for it, using Scripture and other sources.
First, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus ministry began when He was about 30 years old, in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar- about AD 30. Give or take 3 years for ''about 30'', and Jesus age in 30 AD was between 27 and 33. His ministry lasted about 3-3 1/2 years, we could conclude that His death, about Tiberius' 18th year, and during the tenure of Pontious Pilate, had to have occurred around 33-34 AD. However, the Scriptures tell us that He died on a Friday, immediately preceding the Passover. 30 AD and 33 AD are the only years possible. Since His ministry lasted at least three years after 30 AD, April 3rd, 33 AD is the only possible date for the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Interestingly enough, many learned Scripture scholars insist that a prophecy from the 9th chapter of the Book of Daniel, affixes the date of the death of the Christ on exactly that date.
Going back to our approximate age of Jesus in AD 30 as between 27 and 33, His approximate age at death would be 30-36. This places His birth between 3 BC to 3 AD.
For Jesus to have been born after 1 AD would make it impossible for Him to have been born during the reign of Herod the Great as the Scriptures tell us He was. So we now have about a 4 year span of when He could have been born.
This entire range would have allowed him to be born under Herod the Great, be about 30 in AD 30 (Tiberius' 15th year) and to have died under Tiberius Caesar, Herod Antipas and Pontious Pilate.
The clincher is the Bible's proclamations that Caesar Augustus had ordered a Census while Quirinius was acting as Governor. The only possible date that places Jesus birth under Herod the Great, Augustus, Quirinius and a census is between the years 3BC to 1AD.
This likely places the year of His birth at 3BC-1AD, his age at Tiberius 15th year at 30-33 and the age of His death at 33-36, in 33 AD...... pretty much as the Church calendar prescribes.
Now that we have established an approximate year of Christ's birth, what would establish a date?
We start with Luke Chapter 1;
5THERE 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. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. 8And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, 9According 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 would have served twice in the temple, in June and then again in October. If it were the June service, Elizabeth would have been in her sixth month in December when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and She conceived. This means that in cold December, Mary would have traveled-alone- in to the hill country to visit her cousin. This is highly unlikely, even more unlikely than the much objected to sheep in the fields.
This would have meant John the Baptist would have been born in March, with Jesus birth coming in September. Plausible, but I feel unlikely.
There are two reasons.
1) The large crowds suggested surrounding the service of Zechariah suggest the October service which would have coincided with the feast of Tabernacles. Large crowds would have been unlikely in June.
2) Climate. Using the assumption that December is too cold for the sheep to have been in the field, watched by Shepherds, actually serves to highlight a very compelling argument that that is exactly where they would have been.
As this chart indicates, September in southern Israel is still hot and very dry, while December is very comfortable and the hills are lush with grass and vegetation, beyond the city of Bethlehem after 3 solid months of rain. The grass in the hills in September is parched and barren after 4 dry months.
Smith's Bible Dictionary, under the heading 'Palestine: the Climate', explained the rarity of snow in southern Palestine, while it conceded its more frequent occurrence in the northern parts of the land. The mean temperature at Jerusalem during December is said to run around 47 to 60 degrees F. It certainly would not hurt sheep to be out at night in that sort of temperature. The Dictionary further states:
"As in the time of our Saviour (Luke 12: 54), the rains come chiefly from the S. or S.W. They commence at the end of October or beginning of November, and continue with greater or less constancy till the end of February or middle of March, and occasionally, though rarely, to the end of April. It is not a heavy continuous rain, so much as a succession of severe showers or storms with intervening periods of fine bright weather, permitting the grain crops to grow and ripen. And although the season is not divided by any entire cessation of rain for a lengthened interval, as some represent, yet there appears to be a diminution in the fall for a few weeks in December and January, after which it begins again, and continues during February and till the conclusion of the season."
It may be noted that the traditional date for the birth of Christ falls in this period of the diminution of rainfall toward the end of December.
The former rains would have produced grass on the hills, and the fine bright weather intervening between the rains, with temperatures averaging 55 degrees F. would be excellent for sheep grazing on the hills east of David's royal city.
In fact, the very argument used to impugn the December birth argues against the June birth!
If we are to believe a fall/winter trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem (about 90 miles) by Joseph and Mary by donkey is implausible, how then can we believe that Mary traveled 85 miles to see her cousin Elizabeth, on foot, by herself? Is it reasonable to conclude that Joseph would have allowed such a trip?
Logic seems to dictate that the Course of Abia in question was in fact, in October. This would, like the climatological data, place Christ's birth near the end of December.
To me, the weight of scriptural evidence and logic leans toward the end December, rather than September birth. Yet, is there more evidence? I would argue that there is.
The mysterious scriptures concerning the star that led the Magi to Jesus are a great point of conjecture. The scriptures are elsewhere, silent on this star so we can only guess based on what we know.
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: 6" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. The Escape to Egypt 13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. There are many astronomical events that some have tried to make fit the mold. For me, the most tantalizing is the fact that The planet Jupiter stood directly over Bethlehem on exactly December 25th, 2 BC
As tempting as it is, I don't want to use known astronomical evidence to buttress the case because, for all we know, maybe only the Magi saw the star.
The early church is the best indicator. Though Christmas detractors insist that the celebration of the Nativity did not exist until chosen by the church to supplant a pagan feast in the 4th or 5th century, this argument is simply untenable.
Celebration of December 25th as the Nativity is known to have dated back at least as far as 127 AD under Bishop Telesphorus in Rome. This would have likely been the very first fully post-Jesus generation in the history of the Church so second-hand knowledge of the Savior's birth would have been quite strong.
There are at least two early records of massacres that are recorded as having occurred on the ''day of the Nativity''. The first was reported to have occurred in the catacombs circa 161-180 AD and the second in 300 AD under the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
During the time of Clement of Alexandria (220 AD), it was widely accepted as knowledge that Jesus was born on the 25th day of the month, although December was only 1 of 5 different months suggested.
Throughout the third century, it was commonly believed that Jesus birth coincided with the Winter Solstice. John Seldon would write, years later that when the Church was in it's infancy, the Winter Solstice fell on the 8th of the Kalends of January or, what we know as December 25th.
The Apostolic Constitution declared, still in the 3rd century, that the 25th day of the -then- 9th month was to be officially recognized as the birth date celebration of Christ.
Though none of these things alone (or together) prove the December 25th case, they do prove widespread existence of it's observance hundreds of years prior to the dates given by the conspiratorialists and unbroken, nearly all the way back to the time of Christ Himself.
Here are the facts.
1) The Biblical, logical and historical case argues much stronger, by far, for December 25th than for any other calendar date.
2) The argument that the date was invented out of whole cloth, solely to counter paganism (or adopt it) is patently absurd.
3) It makes for fun conversation but it will not decide your salvation.
~Sonlit
Probably not.
I don’t think so. Just my opinion though.
No.
It really does not matter to me when Jesus was born, personally I celebrate my birthday all month!
I choose to remember Christ’s Birthday on Dec 25th
He lived and died to save me from Eternal death.
For that and all that He has done in my life, and all that He is going to do, I am ever grateful!!
Probably not.
So what?
Agreed!
I thought he was actually born around March.
Merry Christmas!
John 1:14 says the Word became flesh and "tabernacled" among us..." In His death, resurrection and ascension+ Giving of the Holy Spirit, Jesus fulfilled 2 or the 3 pilgrimage feasts (Passover, Pentecost). The Fest of tabernacles commemorates God dwelling with His people. It seems unlikely that a God of order would become disorderly and leave the 1st Pilgrimage Feast unfulfilled and have his Son born on a random date that was not a "shadow of things to come" (Col 2:16, 17)...especially when John seems to be using some pretty vivid language about "tabernacling". There are many Greek words that mean to live among...this one is special and it describes the feast.
Also...John the Baptist's Father was of the order of Abijah. That means there course was in the 10th week of the (Jewish) year. After the prophecy given to him by the angel...+2 weeks of ceremonial cleansing+conception of John+9 months means John was born on Passover (the traditional time Jews look for Elijah...who John was said to be...by the Angel).
Mary finds out she is pregnant when Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant with John...which would have been around Hanukkah. 9 months later is the time of the Feast of tabernacles...Late September...October....not late December.
There are other reasons but I have to get to work.
It is almost a doctrine of the church that no one knows the birthday of Jesus, and that Dec 25 was chosen to replace pagan holidays that took place during the shortest days of the year.
It’s as good a day as any other.
It’s more important to enjoy it and resist present-day pagan influences than to worry about the right date.
Any relation to Darth Sidious?
The correct spelling is "Pontius Pilate."
Regards,
I would hope you would have read the piece befor commenting on it. In the piece, I addressed Zechariah’s course in the Temple and why that points to late December as the birthdate.
Do you have any evidence to support “probably not?”
evidence???
Your point is taken. I did not try to imply that salvation was based on the date of His birth.
Did you read the article?
Irrelevant in terms of NECESSITY but still an interesting item of curiousity in my view.
No.It was never claimed. A feast day was needed. December 25 was the choice the Romans made for whatever reason, perhaps to preempt Saturnalia, perhaps because that day was open on the calendar. We are not privy to the minutes of the meeting.
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