Exploring the biblical theology of Christian egalitarianism

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Please read the very short introduction, here, first.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Luke 2:8-11

Was Jesus born during the Spring Lambing?

Most people today acknowledge that it is unlikely that Jesus was born on the 25th of December, the traditional date of Christmas. One reason for this is because it is unlikely that the shepherds would have been out at night with their flocks in the depths of a chilly, northern hemisphere winter.

Perhaps these verses in Luke chapter 1 indicate when Jesus was born.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. Luke 1:26-27 (NASB)

The sixth month of the Jewish calendar is Elul which roughly corresponds with August-September. If Mary conceived Jesus immediately after her visit from Gabriel in August-September, then Jesus would have been born in late Spring, nine months later. If Jesus was born in the Spring, the shepherds and the sheep could very well have been out in the fields at night time. Moreover, Jesus’ birth would have coincided with the lambing season which is when all the shepherds were on hand to guard the flocks day and night.[1] The shortcoming of this idea is that Luke did not use the Jewish months of the year elsewhere in his narrative to identify the timing of certain events.

Bible scholars typically believe that the “six month” in Luke 1:26 refers to Elizabeth’s pregnancy. The NIV 2011 even paraphrases this verse as “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy . . .” (Luke 1:26). Luke seems to take undue care in keeping track of the months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy (Luke 1:24, 26, 36, 56), while not giving us any indication of the dates and times of Mary’s pregnancy. Unless Luke is, in fact, plainly stating that the angel Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month—Elul.

Was Jesus born during the Autumnal Feast of Tabernacles?

Some Jewish scholars have tried to use the time of Zacharias’ temple service to calculate when Elizabeth became pregnant and, subsequently, when Mary became pregnant (Luke 1:5-9). They have used the roster given in 1 Chronicles 24:10, plus the information that Zacharias was of the family of Abijah, to work out when he was in the temple and visited by Gabriel. It is then assumed that Elizabeth became pregnant shortly after the completion of Zacharias’ temple service, and Mary became pregnant six months after Elizabeth.

The roster of 1 Chronicles 24:10 may not have been used in the post-exilic, second Temple but, if the suppositions and calculations of these Jewish scholars are correct, then Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Many significant New Testament events occurred during Jewish Feasts. Jesus died at the time of the Passover feast and was resurrected at the time of the feast of First Fruits. The Holy Spirit came on the feast day of Pentecost. With this in mind, it does seem plausible that Jesus, who became flesh and, literally, “tabernacled” (dwelt) with us, was born at the time of the feast of Tabernacles in late September or early October (John 1:14).

When was Jesus born?

Was Jesus born at the Winter Solstice?

For the first three hundred years, Christians did not celebrate any kind of Christmas observance. In the early fourth century, church leaders decided that they needed a Christian alternative to the popular pagan winter solstice celebrations. They chose December 25th as the date of Christ’s birth and held the first recorded Feast of the Nativity in Rome in A.D. 336.

“Church leaders may have also had theological reasons for choosing the date of December 25th. The Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus had identified the 25th as Christ’s nativity more than a hundred years earlier. Chronographers reckoned that the world was created on the spring equinox and four days later, on March 25th, light was created. Since the existence of Jesus signalled the beginning of a new era, or a new creation, the Biblical chronographers assumed Jesus’ conception would have also fallen on March 25th,[2] placing his birth in December, nine months later,” on or around the time of the winter solstice in December.[3]

Another idea concerns the popular Roman celebration on December 25th of the birth, or anniversary, of the invincible sun god, Sol Invictus. Perhaps Christian leaders wanted to replace this pagan festival with one that honoured the truly invincible “light of the world” (John 1:4-5; 8:12), and so they declared that December 25th was the birthday of Jesus.

When was Jesus born?

Many Christmas cards incorporate elements of pagan winter solstice festivals, such as the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was a week-long feast of eating, drinking and gift-giving, and homes were festively decorated. Holly was the official plant of the Roman God Saturn, and holly wreaths were distributed as presents and used as decorations during Saturnalia.

The Celtic Druids thought that holly was sacred, and they believed that holly and ivy entwined together could ward off the evil spirits that they imagined were especially prevalent in the cold winter winds. Mistletoe was also regarded as sacred by the Druids.

Holly is a common emblem on Christmas cards, as is the ubiquitous Christmas tree. The evergreen Christmas tree is thought to have originated from concepts of the “Sacred Oak” which appears in the folklore of several European cultures.

When was Jesus’ Birthday?

What is puzzling is that we really don’t know when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born on earth. Why is this fact obscured to us? The coming of the promised Saviour and Messiah had been repeatedly prophesied about in the Old Testament, and when the day finally came, his birth was heralded and celebrated by glorious angels and a starry cosmic sign. Yet we are ignorant of the day, or even the season, when this wonderful event occurred. Unless, as previously stated, Luke has told us that Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month—Elul.  Part 6 »


Footnotes

[1] See remarks about the Bethlehem flocks and the lambs bred for temple sacrifices in Christmas Cardology 4: Was Jesus born in a barn?

[2] The Feast of the Annunciation, which commemorates when Gabriel visited and spoke with Mary, is celebrated on March 25th by Orthodox Churches and some other churches.

[3] Sarah Dowdey, “Was Jesus really born on December 25th?” How Stuff Works (website)

© Margaret Mowczko 2010
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Christmas Cardology Series

(1) Introduction
(2) Mary’s Scandal and Favour
(3) Nazareth to Bethlehem
(4) Was Jesus born in a barn?
(6) The Virgin Mary
(7) The Wise Men from the East

There are more Christmassy articles here.
And my articles on women associated with the advent of Jesus are here.

Further Reading

Dr Ian Paul discusses the possibility that Jesus was born in September, here.

10 thoughts on “Christmas Cardology 5: When was Jesus born?

  1. You know Margaret, no one knows the date of Jesus’ birth, or the exact time of year that Mary visited Elizabeth. The Course of Abijah did not return from Babylon! It, with most of the courses, was recreated in the early days of the second Temple. In the Mishnah (the early Rabbinical writings we read that each of the 24 division of common priest served twice a year in the temple. But we don’t know which weeks Abijah’s division served in the Second Temple.

    It is true that there are Jewish scholars (and many Christians and messianic Jews) who want the Messiah to be born on a Jewish holiday. But I suspect that His mother would have remembered that and would have told Luke who interviewed her for his biography of Jesus.

    While I am not in favour of a December 25 birthday, it’s possible that Jesus was born in December. Bethlehem is green from rain at that time of year, though quite cool too. But it is in the Middle East and not Northern Europe, the winters are much milder. And that would be the time to feed sheep and goats on the surrounding hills, and so it may well be that during that rainy season, that the shepherds were given the news by the angles.

    The Bible does not tell us when, just Why! To be “God with us” (Immanuel) and to save his people from their sins. Yeshua means “to save.”

    God Bless you
    Paul

  2. Concerning the course of Abijah, apparently Jewish scholars couldn’t determine whether the two weeks of service was done in a fortnight block once a year, or a one week block twice a year. This information would greatly affect the outcome of their calculations.

    From what I can gather, many of the worship regulations that were put in place at different times in the OT were modified or corrupted or even abandoned by NT times. For example, we only have to look in the New Testament for evidence of a failure to follow scriptural guidelines in “selecting” the new High Priest.

  3. I go with Tabernacles! Then the wordplay in the NT makes sense.

  4. Same. Perhaps the time of Jesus’ first advent (coming) is obscure because his first coming was only a partial fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles.

  5. It is also very possible that Mary did conceived in December which would coincide with Elizabeth being 6 months earlier – the dates would tie up with 1. The Feast of Dedication / Light being the time that the Light of World came into the World (John 10:22) 2. That Christ would have been born during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. This would highlight that the God of Israel as being a God of distinct order! Maybe we were just meant to study the Word and diligently seek the truth instead of just going along with traditions and man’s version of events!

  6. Thanks for this, Yvonne. Jesus came at the fullness of time (Gal 4:4) – at exactly the time planned since the foundation of the world (1 Pet 1:20). Everything was ready. Even the planets and stars were in a special alignment so that the magi could see the cosmic anouncement of the Messiah’s birth.

    BTW, Do you know whether Jewish people in Jesus’ time observed birthdays and birthdates? A reader contacted me suggesting that Jewish people did not oberve birthdays and this is why Jesus’ birthday is nor known. Sounds a bit “iffy” to me.

  7. Hi Marg,
    I enjoyed reading your comments. To my knowledge the Jews did not celebrate birthdays as it was seen as a ‘pagan’ thing e.g. when King Herod celebrated his birthday that brought about the killing of John the Baptist, it was seen as something that the ‘gentiles’ did therefore the Jews would not have followed this type of celebration. The Jews were called to be a ‘separate’ people therefore because they celebrated the biblical feasts e.g. Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:1-) etc. it was shunned by the early gentile church and with it timing etc was all changed. However, the Bible shows us that Jesus (Yeshua) would have kept and celebrated these feasts and the time will come when we will all go back to keeping these biblical feasts including the Sabbath as we should.

    “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honour of kings is to search out a matter’ Proverbs 25:2

    1. Thanks for this, Yvonne.

  8. This link looks at Jesus’ birth date with help of Chronology of E W Faulstich.
    http://morechrist.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-mary-became-jesuss-mother.html

    Levitical Priests – Orders Reconstructed, E. W. Faulstich, Chronology Books, 1989

    http://biblechronologybooks.com/

    http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?t=KJV&x=45&y=9&b=Luk&c=1&v=1#conc/26

    We celebrate the feast day of Mary on August the 15th, in the sixth Hebrew month of Elul.

    http://www.textweek.com/festivals/mary.htm

    http://www.textweek.com/festivals/assumption_mary.htm

    Luke could have been talking about actual sixth Hebrew month Elul of year in Luke 1.26

    Jesus was born May 14 or Iyyar 28, 6 B.C. according to Faulstich and Clement of Alexandria.

  9. Hi Icvalin,

    I’ve finally got around to reading all the linked articles. Very interesting. My one concern is with the “Bible Chronology” information. I am dubious when a writer does not mention his sources or name his colleagues. He does not name, give credit, or give the credentials of the computer programmer and astronomer who helped him determine the dates he proposes. (Or, at least, I could not find the names.)

    Here is an article I like about Clement of Alexandria and the date of Jesus’ birth.
    http://pursiful.com/2006/12/when-was-jesus-born-clement-of-alexandria/

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