Biblical Dates for the Birth of
|
|
|
December 25 is the day that is marked on the Gregorian calendar as the date of birth for Yeshua HaMashiach, but as we have demonstrated elsewhere, that date was established by a corrupt and pagan Roman church to “Christianize” and give some sense of legitimacy to their worship of the Roman sun god Saturn, which was simply another name for Nimrod, the sun god of the ancient Babylonian Mystery Religion. Using the evidence of Scripture, it is a simple task to calculate the actual birth date of Mashiach to within a very few days; the exact date is then easily extrapolated.
The Conception of Yochanan the Immerser [Luke 1:5-25]
5 There
was in the days of Herod, the king of Yehudah [Judah], a certain Kohen [priest] named Zekharyah [Zechariah], of
the priestly division of Aviyah [Abijah]. He had a wife of the daughters of Aharon [Aaron], and her name was
Elisheva [Elizabeth]. 6 They were both righteous before
First Chronicles tells us that the Levitical priesthood was divided
into 12 divisions of priests. The ancient Jewish Historian Josephus (Antiquities 7) tells us that each division
served for a period of one week. The first division began its period of service on the first day of the year — 1
Nisan (also called Aviv or Abib) — as
As Zekharyah was in the division of Aviyah (Luke 1:5), his term of service began in early Spring on the first day of the eighth week (27th of Ayyar) and ran for one week through the 4th of Sivan. As the following week (5-11 Sivan) was Shavuot, the Feast of Pentecost, he would have stayed in the temple and served that week also with all the priests. Luke 1:23-24 tells us that Zekharyah finished his duties at the Temple, and that Elisheva conceived shortly after his return home. This sets the date for Yochanan’s conception at approximately the third week of Sivan. [In Gregorian year 2001, that week corresponds to the first week of June. Adding nine months to that date puts the birth of Yochanan sometime near the first week of the Gregorian month of March.]
The Conception of Yeshua [Luke 1:26-55]
26 Now in
the sixth month [of Elisheva’s pregnancy, verse 36], the angel Gavri'el was sent from
39 Miryam
arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Yehudah, 40 and
entered into the house of Zekharyah and greeted Elisheva. 41 It happened, when Elisheva heard
Miryam’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elisheva was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh. 42 She
called out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when
the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy! 45 Blessed is she
who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!” 46 Miryam
said, “My soul magnifies the Lord. 47 My spirit has rejoiced in
Near the end of the sixth month of Elisheva’s pregnancy the angel Gavri'el appeared to Miryam and told her about Elisheva saying, “this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.” Miryam immediately left Natzeret (verse 39, “with haste”) and went to the “hill country” near Jerusalem to the home of Zekharyah and Elisheva. We know for sure that Miryam was already pregnant with Yeshua because Yochanan, still in Elisheva’s womb, recognized the unborn Yeshua. [What further evidence do the baby-killers need that life begins at conception?]
This sets the conception of Yeshua about end of Kislev during Chanukah (mid-December), the Feast of Lights, thus demonstrating in a very special way that Yeshua is the Light of the World.
“Yeshua is shown celebrating Chanukah in John 10:22,23. It is at this celebration that He declares ‘I and My Father are One’ [John 10:30], which testifies to His Divine origin in His conception. It also reinforces Chanukah as the time of His conception.”
— (MRav Dr. David Hargis, www.messianic.com/articles/dates.htm)
The Birth of Yochanan [Luke1:56-80] (Pesach)
57 Now the
time that Elisheva should give birth was fulfilled, and she brought forth a son. 58 Her neighbors
and her relatives heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 It
happened on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zekharyah,
after the name of the father. 60 His mother answered, “Not so; but he will be called Yochanan.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 They
made signs to his father, what he would have him called. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and
wrote, “His name is Yochanan.” They all marveled. 64 His mouth was opened immediately, and his
tongue freed, and he spoke, blessing
67 His
father, Zekharyah, was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, and prophesied, saying, 68 “Blessed be the
Lord, the
The prophet Mal'akhi (Malachi) tells us that Eliyah (Elijah) the prophet must come to prepare the hearts of the fathers and their children before Mashiach comes.
4 “Remember the law of Moshe [Moses] my servant, which I commanded to him in Horev for all Yisra'el, even statutes and ordinances. 5 Behold, I will send you Eliyah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the eretz with a curse.” (Malachi 4, HNV)
Therefore, in anticipation of the coming of Mashiach, when Pesach (Passover) is celebrated, a place at the table is set and a cup of wine is poured for Eliyah (Elijah), and the door of the house is left open so that he may come in to the celebration. It is clear that for centuries before the birth of Messiah the Jews had been anticipating the return of Eliyah during Pesach.
The way in which Gavri'el worded his announcement to Zekharyah makes
it clear that Yochanan was to be the fulfillment of Mal'akhi’s prophecy: “He will turn many of the children of
Yisra'el to the Lord, their
Luke 1:56 tells us that Miryam stayed with Elisheva for three months, which would have been up until the time Yochanan was born. We can now calculate the date of Yochanan’s birth with a great deal of accuracy (see the calendar).
• A full term pregnancy term is 41 weeks.
• There are 27 weeks in the first six months (two trimesters) of pregnancy.
• There are 27 weeks from the spring service of of Abiyah to Chanukah.
• There are 14 weeks remaining to accomplish the last trimester and bring
the pregnancy to full term.
• There are exactly 14 weeks from Chanukah to Passover (Nisan 14-22).
Therefore, Yochanan was born at Passover, most certainly on the first day of Unleavened Bread. He was circumcised on the eighth day, which would be the last day of Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread. His birth therefore exactly fulfills both Mal'akhi’s prophecy and the Jewish expectation of that fulfillment to occur at Passover.
The Birth of Yeshua / Luke 2 (Sukkot)
1 Now it happened in those days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. 2 This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Aram. 3 All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. 4 Yosef also went up from the Galil, out of the city of Natzeret, into Yehudah, to the city of David, which is called Beit-Lechem [Bethlehem], because he was of the house and family of David; 5 to enroll himself with Miryam, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being great with child. 6 It happened, while they were there, that the day had come that she should give birth. 7 She brought forth her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a feeding trough [better translated as “food tray” for reasons we will see later], because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2, HNV)
For the past several hundred years, Gentile Christians have taught that poor Mary and Joseph were forced to go to Bethlehem to register for their taxes, and that there were so many people trying to register at the same time that all the motels and hotels were full. Most of us have seen the Christmas play in which a third-grader with a pillow tied to his tummy and a cotton beard hanging by strings from his ears comes to the door and tells Mary and Joseph that the inn is full, but they are welcome to sleep in his barn out behind the inn. They trudge through the snow out out to the barn where Joseph moves the cattle, sheep, donkeys, and sometimes even chickens out of the way to find some clean straw, and he makes a bed in a manger for their baby Jesus to sleep in. It’s a beautiful story, but it’s simply not true ... it’s only a Gentile myth.
First of all, when the decree was issued, citizens were given a full year during which to register for the census. There was absolutely no reason for thousands of Bethlehemites to have to come to their home town all at once to register. That being the case, we must ask why Joseph would bring his wife Mary all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register when her pregnancy was so far along.
There were three great feasts during the year when the people of Adonai were expected to make every reasonable effort to attend in Jerusalem: Pesach (the feast of unleavened bread and Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost, the feast of harvest), and Sukkot (the feast of ingathering, booths, or tabernacles). [“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.” Exodus 23:14]
During these three feasts, the population of “the metropolitan Jerusalem area” would swell from about a hundred twenty thousand to something over two million people (according to Josephus). Every home in the entire area was open to guests, and of course all the hotels and motels would have been booked up for months.
However, during the feast of Sukkot [Tabernacles or Booths, pronounced “sue-coat”], every family was expected to live at least part of each day in their tabernacle or booth, called a sukkah, which is a temporary dwelling usually made out of palm and/or bamboo branches, to remind them that for 40 years their ancestors had lived in temporary shelters in the wilderness on their trek to the Promised Land. At night, these sukkot [the plural form of sukkah] were available for the overnight lodging of out-of-towners, and the homeowners would stock them with food for the travelers. The food was placed on a food-tray attached to the inside wall of the Sukkah to keep it up off the ground.
Beit-Lechem (Bethlehem) was a small village in the suburbs just about four miles south of Jerusalem. Miriam and Yoseph had apparently decided to register with the census-takers when they came up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Evidently they had intended to stop over night in Bethlehem, register in the morning, and then proceed on into Jerusalem for the feast. When they checked the hotel for available rooms, as there were no vacancies the innkeeper offered them shelter in his Sukkah, his Tabernacle, which had been erected and well-stocked with food for the express purpose of sheltering feast-keepers. It was not a shelter for animals at all. And when their Baby was born, they laid Him on the food shelf to keep Him up off the damp ground. When the (probably agnostic) Gentiles who translated the “King James” Bible got to this passage in Luke’s gospel, they had no knowledge of Jewish tradition or of how Sukkot was observed. Thinking only in terms of life in Medieval England, they translated the word for “food tray” as “manger” and the whole Gentile myth of Yeshua’s birth in a barn was created out of an ignorant error in translation.
As to establishing the date for His birth, one thing is very certain … He was certainly not born during the winter. Luke 2:8 tells us: “There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock."
The weather in Israel is very similar to that in central California. By December it is quite cold, and the sheep have all been brought into the fold for the winter. “As is well known, the shepherds in Palestine do not ‘abide in the fields’ during the winter season. The shepherds always bring their flocks in from the mountain slopes and fields not later than the fifteenth of October!” [Ralph Woodrow, Babylon Mystery Religion. Self-published, 1966, p.160]
Since we have already demonstrated that Yeshua was exactly six months younger that Yochanan, it is now easy to establish the time of His birth as mid-Tishrei. The only reason that Beit-Lechem would possibly crowded in mid-Tishrei would be for Sukkot. The first and last days of Sukkot were “high Shabbats” and travel on those days was forbidden. Therefore Yoseph would have planned their trip to arrive not later than a few hours before sunset preceding the first day of Sukkot. According to Luke’s account, Yeshua was born that night, on 15 Tishrei.
8 There were shepherds in the
same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. 9 Behold, an angel
of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 The
angel said to them, “Don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the
people. 11 For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Messiah the
Lord. 12 This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a
feeding trough” [food tray]. 13 Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising
21 When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Yeshua, which was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22 When the days of their purification according to the law of Moshe were fulfilled, they brought him up to Yerushalayim, to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2, HNV)
The “birth” of a Jewish baby boy was not considered complete until he had been circumcised on the eighth day. On the eighth day, Yeshua’s “presentation” in the Temple included His circumcision according to Torah. Thus we see that the birth of Yeshua HaMashiach spanned the entire eight days of Sukkot, including His birth on the holy Shabbat which was the first day of Sukkot and His circumcision on the holy Shabbat which was the eighth and final day of Sukkot.
At His birth he was placed on the food tray in the Sukkah, thus
demonstrating that He is indeed the true Bread of Life (John 6:33-51).
“Note that
The Feast of Tabernacles is a most important commemoration. Zechariah 14:16,17 tells us that one day all nations will be required by law to honor this feast. For what greater reason, than it is the birthday of the King of Kings! Why should we delay?”
— (MRav Dr. David Hargis, www.messianic.com/articles/dates.htm)
