Unsolved Mysteries of the Bible Lesson 2 Bellevue Church of Christ March 13, 2019 Lesson 2 – What Time of Year was Jesus Born? Background The birth of Christ has become synonymous with Christmas on December 25. Whether you’re listening to carols or looking at nativity scene imagery, the idea that Christmas is the date of the birthday of Jesus is everywhere. But is this popular belief true to history? Why is this unsolved? The nativity accounts in the gospels of Matthew and Luke do not mention a date or time of year for the birth of Jesus and these details are also not included in any historical reference. What evidence do we have in scripture? Shepherds Were in the Fields Watching Their Flocks at the Time of Jesus’ Birth: Luke 2:7–9 (ESV) 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. One argument is that shepherds would not have been in the fields at night during December, and therefore Jesus must have been born in summer or early fall. This argument states that because Judea is cold and rainy in December, it is likely the shepherds would have sought shelter for their flocks at night (See commentary from Adam Clarke in attached notes). Jesus’ Parents Came to Bethlehem to Register in a Roman Census Luke 2:1 (ESV) 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. Another argument says that because temperatures often dropped below freezing, and roads were in poor conditions due to rain, the census would not have been taken in winter. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version This handout can be downloaded in PDF format Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers from: (www.teamagee.com/class) Used by permission. All rights reserved. Unsolved Mysteries of the Bible Lesson 2 Bellevue Church of Christ March 13, 2019 Zechariah’s Priestly Service Luke 1:5, 8, 23-24, 26-27, 31(ESV) 5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah … 8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty … 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden … 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin … And the virgin’s name was Mary …31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. • The priesthood had 24 divisions which ministered yearly in the temple (1Chr 24:6-19). • The order of Abijah was the eighth priestly division and possibly served during the 10th week of the priestly cycle (See attached article for more details on this calculation). • The start of the 10th week coincided with the second Sabbath in the month of Sivan, which runs from mid-May to mid-June. • Soon after Zechariah returned from his priestly duties, Elizabeth became pregnant with John the Baptist. Possibly in the month of June. • In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Gabriel visited Mary and she became pregnant with Jesus soon thereafter. This would be the month of December. • Nine months from conception would put the time of Jesus’ birth in the September. Where did December 25th come from? Romans honored their god Saturn (agriculture) with a festival that began on December 17 and ended on December 25, which was the date of the winter-solstice on the Roman calendar. After the Constantine I converted to Christianity in 312 and sanctioned Christianity, church leaders made efforts to appropriate the winter-solstice holidays and thereby achieve a more seamless conversion to Christianity for the emperor’s subjects. • Some who dismiss December 25th as a possibility for the date of Jesus’ birth still think that the date could hold a significance in the story of the Christ as… o The date of his conception (Mt 1:18). o The date the magi visited Jesus at the house in Bethlehem (Mt 2:8-12). What Really Matters Romans 5:6 (ESV) 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. In order for Jesus to die at the right time, he had to have been born at the right time. It was according to God’s plan from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:3-6). Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version This handout can be downloaded in PDF format Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers from: (www.teamagee.com/class) Used by permission. All rights reserved. Unsolved Mysteries of the Bible Lesson 2 Bellevue Church of Christ March 13, 2019 Shepherds in the Field at Night Luke 2:8 - abiding in the fields—staying there, probably in huts or tents. watch … by night—or, night watches, taking their turn of watching. From about passover time in April until autumn, the flocks pastured constantly in the open fields, the shepherds lodging there all that time. (From this it seems plain that the period of the year usually assigned to our Lord’s birth is too late)1 Luke 2:8 - Keeping watch - by night - Or, as in the margin, keeping the watches of the night, i.e. each one keeping a watch (which ordinarily consisted of three hours) in his turn. The reason why they watched them in the field appears to have been, either to preserve the sheep from beasts of prey, such as wolves, foxes, etc., or from freebooting banditti, with which all the land of Judea was at that time much infested. It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And 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. See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot. The time in which Christ was born has been considered a subject of great importance among Christians. However, the matter has been considered of no moment by Him who inspired the evangelists; as not one hint is dropped on the subject, by which it might be possible even to guess nearly to the time, except the chronological fact mentioned above. A late writer makes the following remark: "The first Christians placed the baptism of Christ about the beginning of the fifteenth year of Tiberius; and thence reckoning back thirty years, they placed his birth in the forty-third year of the Julian period, the forty-second of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth after the victory at Actium. This opinion obtained till a.d. 527, when Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar account. Learned and pious men have trifled egregiously on this subject, making that of importance which the Holy Spirit, by his silence, has plainly informed them is of none. Fabricius gives a catalogue of no less than 136 different opinions concerning the Year of Christ's birth: and as to his birth Day, that has been placed by Christian sects and learned men in every month in the year. The Egyptians placed it in January - Wagenseil, in February - Bochart, in March - some, mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, in April - others, in May - Epiphanius 1 Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, pp. 98–99). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc. Page 3 of 13 Unsolved Mysteries of the Bible Lesson 2 Bellevue Church of Christ March 13, 2019 speaks of some who placed it in June - and of others who supposed it to have been in July - Wagenseil, who was not sure of February, fixed it probably in August - Lightfoot, on the 15th of September - Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius, in October - others, in November - but the Latin Church, supreme in power, and infallible in judgment, placed it on the 25th of December, the very day on which the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess Bruma." See more in Robinson's Notes on Claude's Essay, vol. i. p. 275, etc. Pope Julius I.