When was
Jesus Born?
Best Guess: September 29, 5 B.C.
Want the details? Read more below.
Biblical scholars readily tell us that it was most likely NOT on
December 25th, A.D. 0. Why?
When were shepherds in the fields?
Israeli meteorologists tracked December weather patterns for many
years and concluded that the climate in Israel has been essentially
constant for at least the last 2,000 years. The Interpreter's
Dictionary of the Bible states that, "broadly speaking,
weather phenomena and climatic conditions as pictured in the Bible
correspond with conditions as observed today" (R.B.Y. Scott, Vol.
3, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962, p. 625).
The temperature in the area of Bethlehem in December averages
around 44 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) but can drop to well
below freezing, especially at night. Describing the weather there,
Sara Ruhin, chief of the Israeli weather service, noted in a 1990
press release that the area has three months of frost: December with
29 F. [minus 1.6 C.]; January with 30 F. [minus 1.1 C.] and February
with 32 F. [0 C.].
Snow is common for two or three days in Jerusalem and nearby
Bethlehem in December and January. These were the winter months of
increased precipitation in Christ's time, when the roads became
practically unusable and people stayed mostly indoors.
This is important evidence to disprove a December date for Christ's
birth. Note that, at the time of Christ's birth, the shepherds tended
their flocks in the fields at night. "Now there were in the
same country shepherds living out in the fields," wrote one
Gospel writer, "keeping watch over their flock by night"
(Luke 2:8). A common practice of shepherds was keeping their flocks in
the field from April to October, but in the cold and rainy winter
months they took their flocks back home and sheltered them.
One commentary admits that, "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 September, as the flocks were still
in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December
should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields
is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this
disputed point" (Adam Clarke's Commentary, Abingdon Press,
Nashville, note on Luke 2:8).
Another study source agrees: "These humble pastoral folk are
out in the field at night with their flock—a feature of the story
which would argue against the birth [of Christ] occurring on Dec. 25
since the weather would not have permitted it" (The
Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary, Abingdon Press, Nashville,
1971, note on Luke 2:4-7).
The Companion Bible, Appendix 179 says:
Shepherds and their flocks would not be found
"abiding" (Gr. 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 Marchesven
(Oct.-Nov.) from the open districts and house them for the winter.
The census described by Luke
Other evidence arguing against a December birth of Jesus is the
Roman census recorded by Luke. "And it came to pass in those
days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world
should be registered... So all went to be registered, everyone to his
own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem..., to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was
with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were
completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn
Son..." (Luke 2:1-7).
The Roman and Judean rulers knew that taking a census in winter
would have been impractical and unpopular. Generally a census would
take place after the harvest season, around September or October, when
it would not seriously affect the economy, the weather was good and
the roads were still dry enough to allow easy travel. According to the
normal dates for the census, this would probably be the season of
Christ's birth.
One author states that this census "could hardly have been at
that season [December 25], however, for such a time would surely not
have been chosen by the authorities for a public enrollment, which
necessitated the population's traveling from all parts to their natal
districts, storms and rain making journeys both unsafe and unpleasant
in winter, except in specially favorable years" ("Christmas
at Bethlehem," Holy-Days and Holidays, Cunningham Geikie).
Luke's account of the census argues strongly against a December
date for Christ's birth. For such an agrarian society, an autumn
post-harvest census was much more likely.
The year of Christ's birth
Jesus wasn't born in A.D. 0 either. In 525 Pope John I
commissioned the scholar Dionysius Exiguus to establish a feast
calendar for the Church.. Dionysius also estimated the year of
Christ's birth based upon the founding of the city of Rome.
Unfortunately because of insufficient historical data he arrived at a
date at least a few years later than the actual event.
The Gospels record Jesus' birth as occurring during the reign of
Herod the Great. Herod's death is recorded by Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus, Book 17, Chpt.
8) and occurred in the spring of 4 B.C. (New Testament History,
F.F. Bruce, Anchor Books, p.23). Therefore, Christ's birth had to take
place at least four years before the traditional date!
Jesus was not born on December 25, A.D. 0. [Actually there is no
such year as A.D. 0. Our calendar jumps from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1 with no
intervening year of zero.]
The celebration of Christ's birth in the the early church
In the first 200 years of Christian history, no mention is made of
the calendar date of Jesus' birth. Not until the year 336 do we find
the first mention of a celebration of His birth.
Why this omission? In the case of the Church fathers, the reason is
that, during the three centuries after Christ's life on earth, the
event considered most worthy of commemoration was the date of His
death. In comparison, the date of His birth was considered
insignificant. As the Encyclopedia Americana explains,
"Christmas... was, according to many authorities, not celebrated
in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage
in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather
than their birth..." (1944 edition, "Christmas").
Speculation on the proper date began in the 3rd and 4th centuries,
when the idea of fixing Christ's birthday started. Quite a controversy
arose among Church leaders. Some were opposed to such a celebration.
Origen (185-254) strongly recommended against such an innovation.
"In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or
held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners who make
great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this
world" (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908 edition, Vol. 3, p.
724, "Natal Day").
During this time eight specific dates during six different months
were proposed by various groups. December 25, although one of the last
dates to be proposed, was the one finally accepted by the leadership
of the Western church.
A summary of the debate on the dates of Christ's birth appears in The
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: "Though
speculation as to the time of year of Christ's birth dates from the
early 3rd century, Clement of Alexandria suggesting the 20th of May,
the celebration of the anniversary does not appear to have been
general till the later 4th century. The earliest mention of the
observance on Dec. 25th is in the Philocalian Calendar, representing
Roman practice of the year 336. This date was probably chosen to
oppose the feast of the Natalis Solis Invicti [nativity of the
unconquerable sun] by the celebration of the birth of the 'Sun of
Righteousness' and its observance in the West, seems to have spread
from Rome" (1983 edition, Oxford University Press, New York,
1983, p. 280, "Christmas").
Around 200, when Clement of Alexandria mentioned the speculations
about Christ's birthday, he said nothing about a celebration on that
day. He casually reported the various ideas extant at that time:
"And there are those who have determined not only the year of our
Lord's birth, but also the day..., the 25th day of Pachon...
Furthermore, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of
Pharmuthi" ("The Stromata, or Miscellanies," The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1986, p.
333).
Later, in 243, the official feast calendar of the time, De
Pascha Computus, places the date of Christ's birth as March 28.
Other dates suggested were April 2 and November 18. Meanwhile, in the
East, January 6 was chosen, a date the Greeks had celebrated as the
birth of the god Dionysus and the Egyptians as the birth of the god
Osiris. Although pagans commonly celebrated the birthdays of their
gods, in the Bible a birthday is never celebrated to the true God
(who, of course, had no birth or day of origin).
December 25 popularized
In Rome December 25 was made popular by Pope Liberius in 354 and
became the rule in the West in 435 when the first "Christ
mass" was officiated by Pope Sixtus III. This coincided with the
date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and
to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day.
The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that,
"to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses,
the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of
December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the
pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible
Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical
History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67).
Protestant historian Henry Chadwick sums up the controversy:
"Moreover, early in the fourth century there begins in the West
(where first and by whom is not known) the celebration of December
25th, the birthday of the Sun-god at the winter solstice, as the date
for the nativity of Christ. How easy it was for Christianity and solar
religion to become entangled at the popular level is strikingly
illustrated by a mid-fifth century sermon of Pope Leo the Great,
rebuking his over-cautious flock for paying reverence to the Sun on
the steps of St. Peter's before turning their back on it to worship
inside the westward-facing basilica" (The Early Church,
Penguin Books, London, 1967, p. 126).
The Encyclopedia Americana makes this clear: "In the
fifth century, the Western Church ordered it [Christ's birth] to be
observed forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol
[the sun god], as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth
existed" (1944 edition, "Christmas").
Is there any evidence from the Bible that will help us fix the
date and year of Christ's birth?
Actually from the Bible, we can at least determine the probable
season and year of His birth. The most convincing proof of when Jesus
was born comes in understanding the evidence that is presented in the
book of Luke concerning the birth of John the Baptist.
Luke 1:5-17 says:
In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named
Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife
was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them
were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the
commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children,
because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on
duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the
priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.
Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the
people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of
the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When
Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But
the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your
prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and
you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many
will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight
of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before
his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many
of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and
power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents
to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Zechariah was of the division of Abijah (Luke 1:5,8). Back in King
David's day, the priests had been separated into 24 turns or
divisions. These turns began in the first month of the Jewish calendar
(1 Chronicles 27:2), March or April of our modern calendar. According
to Talmudic and Qumran sources, the turns rotated every week until
they reached the end of the sixth month, when the cycle was repeated
again until the end of the year. This would mean that Zechariah's
division served at the temple twice a year.
We find in 1 Chronicles 24:10 that Abijah was the eighth division
of the priesthood. Thus, Zechariah’s service would be in the tenth
week of the Jewish year. Why the tenth week? Because all divisions
served during primary feast weeks of the Jewish year. So all of the
divisions of the priesthood would serve during Passover and the
Days of Unleavened Bread (the third week of the year).
Likewise, all of the divisions of the priesthood would serve during
the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (the ninth week). Thus, the
eighth course of the priesthood would end up serving on the tenth week
of the year.
Now we must make an assumption here. Remember we said that
Zechariah's division served at the temple twice a year. The Bible does
not specify which of the two shifts of service it was. Regardless,
nine months after one of the two dates John the Baptist was born. This
would place his birth in March or September.
We will assume that Luke is recording Zechariah's first shift of
service for the year. We will find that assumption tends to prove true
as we discover the dates of John the Baptist's and Jesus' birth.
Therefore, the date of Zechariah's service would be the Jewish date of
Sivan 12-18 (See the Companion Bible, Appendix 179, Section III).
Picking up the story in Luke 1:23-25:
When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months
she remained in seclusion. She said, "This is what the Lord has
done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the
disgrace I have endured among my people."
After his service in the temple, Zechariah went home to his wife.
Due to the laws of separation (Leviticus 12:5; 15:19,25), two
additional weeks have to be counted. Now I don't know about you, but
if an angel had told me that I was going to have a special child, I
would get to it just as soon as the law allowed. So we will make a
second assumption, that Elizabeth conceived a child two weeks after
Zechariah's return.
Allowing for this and going forward a normal pregnancy places the
birth of John the Baptist at the time of the Passover (Nisan
15)! The Jews always looked for Elijah to return on the day
of Passover. To this very day there is an empty chair and a
table setting for Elijah whenever Passover is celebrated.
Little children also go to the door of the home and open it in
anticipation of Elijah's coming. The Old Testament prophets had said
that God would send Elijah before the coming of the Messiah (Malachi
3:1; 4:5-6). According to these calculations John the Baptist was born
at Passover. Remember the angel's words to Zechariah? The
angel said that John the Baptist was to come "in the spirit and
power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). Elijah came at Passover!
Continuing in Luke 1:26-36:
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a
town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord
is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and
pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And
now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will
name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the
Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his
ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and
of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be, since I am a virgin?"
The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore
the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And
now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a
son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.
Luke tells us that Elizabeth was six months pregnant when the angel
Gabriel visited Mary. The beginning of Elizabeth's sixth month would
have been the celebration of the Jewish feast of Hanukkah,
which occurs in December of our modern calendar. Hanukkah (Chanukkah)
is known as the "Feast of the Dedication" (John 10:22)
because it is connected with the dedication of the second Jewish
temple and the rededication of the temple after the Maccabean revolt.
Mary was being dedicated for a purpose of enormous magnitude: God's
presence in an earthly temple, i.e. a human body (John 2:18-21).
If Mary did conceive on Hanukkah, John the Baptist would
have been born three months later at Passover. And assuming a
normal pregnancy of 285 days, Jesus would have been born on the 15th
day of Jewish month of Tishri (September 29 by modern
reckoning). This is significant because it is the first day of the
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). It is a high day, a special
Sabbath, a time of great rejoicing.
The Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus
As you 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 7-8]. All that happened, all that Jesus said on
this occasion has some reference to the Incarnation."
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 II: The
Fall Festivals, page 241.]
According to the Companion Bible, Appendix 179:
The word tabernacled here 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 29 (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. See Lev. 23).
From 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).
As we have seen, the Feast of Tabernacles is called variously
"Season of Our Joy" and "Feast of the Nations." It
is also called "Feast of Lights".
John 1:6-9 says:
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came
as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe
through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to
the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming
into the world.
In these verses John refers to Jesus as "the light"; and
as we have also seen, verse 14 says that he "became flesh and tabernacled
[literal meaning of the Greek] among us". These are two apparent
references to the Feast of Tabernacles that are associated with the
coming of the Messiah.
Magi from the east
The Scriptures tell us that there were wise men (scholars) who came
from the east looking for the birth of the Messiah, saying "we
have seen his star in the east". Who were these scholars from the
east? Why were they looking for a Jewish Messiah?
Matthew 2:1-6 says:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking,
"Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we
observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage. When
King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people,
he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him,
"In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the
prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means
least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who
is to shepherd my people Israel.'" [cited from Micah 5:2]
Babylon was known as "the land to the east." At the time
of the birth of Jesus, the largest Jewish population was actually in
Babylon, not in Palestine. Nearly five hundred years earlier, the
entire nation of Judah had been carried away captive into Babylon by
Nebuchadnezzar. Only a small colony of Jews returned to Palestine
after sixty-three years of captivity. The greater number of them
remained where they had established homes in the land of Babylon.
The Greek for "wise men" is magoi. Daniel was
referred to by this same title (Daniel 4:9). The word is equivalent to
the Jewish term rabbi. It is very likely that the wise men from the
east were Jewish rabbis who had been anticipating the coming of the
Messiah because of Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy [Daniel
9:24]. They had spotted a new star in the sky and took it to be a sign
of the coming of the Messiah.
At the very least, even if the wise men were not Jewish, they would
have been influenced by Daniel's writings. At an earlier time, Daniel
had been in charge of all of the wise men in Babylon (Daniel 2:48;
4:9; 5:11).
The Star and the Feast of Tabernacles
There is one time of the year when Jews would typically look at the
stars. That time was during the Festival of Tabernacles. As we already
said, 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. It was
customary to leave a hole in the roof of the sukkah so that one
could look at the stars. Jewish "wise men" celebrating the
Feast of Tabernacles would have noticed the appearance of a new star.
The year of Jesus' birth
Jesus was born while Herod the Great was still living (Matthew
2:1). Wise men appeared in Jerusalem asking about "one who has
been born king of the Jews?" Of course, this upset Herod, who had
been given that title by the Roman Senate. Herod talked to the wise
men secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had
appeared (Matthew 2:7). The wise men then journeyed to Bethlehem and
found Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a house (Matthew 2:11) and they bowed
down and worshiped Jesus.
When the wise men did not return to give Herod a report, "Herod
realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men. 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 wise men" (Matthew 2:16).
This tells us that Jesus may have been born two years before the
appearance of the wise men and the death of Herod. Herod died the
spring of 4 B.C. Let's assume that the star appeared at Jesus' birth.
Let's also assume that Herod was already close to death when the wise
men appeared. It was the custom in ancient Israel to count the years
of one's age from the date of conception. Therefore, Herod actually
killed the children one year old and under according to the way that
age is calculated today. This would mean that Jesus had to have been
born in 6 B.C. (if Jesus was one year old) or 5 B.C. (if Jesus was
under one year and Herod was just being extra careful).
This date for Jesus' birth fits with other Biblical data such as
Jesus being "about thirty years old" when He began his
ministry (Luke 3:23). From evidence given to us in John 2:20 about the
construction of the temple, we know Jesus' ministry began in A.D. 26.
Counting forward from 6 B.C. to A.D. 26 (one year has to be subtracted
because there is no year zero) would make Jesus 31 years old when he
began his ministry -- that is, about thirty years old.
Counting forward from 5 B.C. to A.D. 26 would make Jesus 30 years old
when he began his ministry. The birth years of 5 or 6 B.C. also fit
with the best date for the crucifixion, that is A.D. 30. Personally I
opt for the 5 B.C. date, because I assume the wise men would want to
come at once and the time for a journey from Babylon to Jerusalem
takes only four months.
When was Jesus born? Nothing is absolutely certain, because we are
dealing with implications and assumptions, but a best guess from the
Scriptures and history is September 29, 5 B.C.
Sources of Information for this Article:
- The Gospel of Luke by William Hendriksen, Baker
Book House.
- When was Jesus born? by Christian
Renewal Ministries International.
- New Testament History by F.F. Bruce,
Anchor Books.
- When Was Jesus Christ Born? by Mario
Seiglie, The
Good News, United Church of God, 1997.
- The Companion Bible, Published by Kregel
Publications.
- God’s Festivals in Scripture and History, Part 2
by Samuele Bacchiocchi, PhD.
Available from: Biblical Perspectives
4990 Appian Way
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
The purpose of this article is NOT to suggest that we change the
day of Christmas or the year of our calendars! It is to give added
meaning and insight to our Lord's birth, particularly from a Jewish
perspective. If it really mattered to Jesus when we celebrate His
birth, then He would have made the exact day crystal clear with
absolute certainty.
The essential fact is that God did enflesh Himself in time and
space (1 John 4:2). He was born from a woman on a specific day in a
specific year, walked among us, died for our sins, was raised from the
dead, and ascended into heaven. |
