Friday, April 13, 2012

Does the bible tell us when Jesus was born?

Not long ago I thought it makes sense for Christ to be born on or near the feast of the first fruits, somewhere in the first set of holy days commanded by God. It just made sense, knowing the incredible symbolism woven into the holidays and considering the facts I could recall surrounding His birth. Though I would not hold to such an arbitrary thought dogmatically. I have said for some years now with full confidence that His birth could not be in winter due to the description of the shepherds “with their flocks by night” but, that only served to narrow the possibility to between late spring and early fall. I speculated when reading Leviticus 23 that the first set of Holy days pointed to His first advent while the second set pointed to His second. But with a little digging, the bible is much more specific than that. So get out your bible and lets get diggin’.



Reading through Luke & Matt, focus in on the details. (Luke 1:5) who was Abijah? (1Chron 24:1-19) the first division would start with the first of the year (Exo. 12:2 & 13:4) and each division would serve for ½ month or about two weeks.



This puts the end of Zechariahs service time at the end of Timmuz (about mid July). (Luke 1:23-24) she likely conceives soon after his return thus setting the course for the time scale. (Luke 1 :36) This puts Mary’s conception in the first half of Shevat. (Luke 1:39-56) Mary may have been there for the birth of John. I then assume the presence of a leap month as explained. (Luke 1:56) this puts her return just before Passover. After this Joseph (likely a resident of Bethlehem) came to Nazareth to collect His bride at the culmination of their engagement. (Matt. 1:18-25) They then moved to Bethlehem before any of the neighbors knew she was pregnant. Why? (Luke 4:22) there was no scandal around Jesus’ birth later on, either concerning a fully developed baby at 3 months premature nor an early wedding to indicate premarital relations. Memories are long and scandals are big in that region both then and now. (Luke 2:6) pay attention “while they were there” she did not give birth the night of arrival. Why the stable? It was part of the living quarters, probably of the midwife because her “katalyma” or guest room was occupied. “Pandocheion” the word for commercial inn was not used here. This would also explain how the shepherds knew where to go. All this would put Christ’s birth in the first two weeks of Tishri. Interestingly Tishri 1 is the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23 & Num.29). Jesus’ birth may have been heralded by trumpet blast of men and angels as His second coming will be. Tishri 10 is the day of atonement, He came to take away the sin of the world. Then the 15th –the 22nd is an eight day feast of tents which foretells and commemorates a time of God dwelling with man. Christ put on the “tent” of a man and dwelt among us.
hope you find this interesting, i did, husband signing out:)

2 comments:

  1. yeah! Looking forward to reading this. Printing it now . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you. I read this conclusion, at least, in one or two other places and thought it made sense also. We figured he was concieved during the festival of lights, if I recall, and born during the feast of booths. That's how I present it to the family.

    ReplyDelete