Christmas

When was Jesus Born

John the Baptist

• Luke 1

  In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah,[fn] of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

Mary and Joseph

• Luke 1:26-38

  And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. … Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[fn] will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

So this is the six month of Elizabeth’s pregenancy, not the sixth month of the year. That would place this in December

Mary and Elizabeth Meet

• Luke 1:39-45, 56

  And, behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
  …
  And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

Ok, so, when did this take place?

• “The course of Abia” … “According to the custom of the priests office”
• 1 Chronicles 24:1-19. v10: “the eight to Abijah.” This order was set up by David as a rotation across 24 divisions. Starting in post-biblical traditions, this was identified to be a weekly rotation. Each would attend the temple twice a year, one week at a time
• After the Mccabean revolt, all divisions served during Hannukah and then started with the first in the first week of the first month, placing the 8th rotation (Abiyah) in the last week of the counting of the omer, the week of Pentecost, in the 3rd month. He would again meet, 6 months later, to serve his second duty
• The bible mentions a “multitude present at the time of the incense offering” implying this was likely his first service, around Pentecost, when there would be many people in the temple
• From encognitive.com, its found that most women at the time ovulated with the full moon, so she would have become pregnant about two weeks after that
• We know that Jesus’s birth was announced in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and that she would have become pregnant around the third month of the year
• With a nine month pregnancy, Elizabeth would have had John within days of Passover and Mary would have conceived somewhere in the second half of 9th month (otherwise Elizabeth would have only been 5 months pregnant) and given birth in the 6th month of the following year, right around the time of the feast of Tabernacles (John 1:14, And the Word became flesh and Tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.)

Jesus’ Birth

• A decree from Caesar Augustus is announced for a censorship

• https://christiananswers.net/q-aiia/census-luke2.html

  To date, the only census documented outside the Bible near this time under Quirinius is the one referred to by the historian Josephus (Antiquities XVIII, 26 [ii.1], which he says took place in 6 A.D.
  But notice that 
  Luke 2:2 says that the census taken around the time Joseph and Mary went down to Bethlehem was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. This implies that there was a later census—most likely the one referred to by Josephus—which Dr. Luke would have also certainly known about.
  There is good reason to believe that Quirinius was actually twice in a position of command (the Greek expression 
  hegemoneuo in Luke 2:2 which is often translated “governor” really just means “to be leading” or “in charge of”) over the province of Syria, which included Judea as a political subdivision. The first time would have been when he was leading military action against the Homonadensians during the period between 12 and 2 B.C. His title may even have been “military governor.”

• Only the shepherds arrive (Luke 2:8-20)

• ‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:21‬ And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

• ‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭23:39‬ ‭ESV‬‬ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.

Herod & the astronomers

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_astrology#:~:text=The%20names%20of%20these%20planets,and%20the%20Sun%20(%E1%B8%A5amah)

• Looking back through NASA software, we can see what the night sky would have looked like on any night of the year, any year in history. On Sept 12, 3 BCE, jupiter (tzedek, righteous in Hebrew) comes into conjunction with venus (nogah, means “bright,” also named queen of heaven and light-bearer in ancient languages such as Babylonian - neither are good things in the Bible) as it moves toward regulus (melek, king in hebrew), between the feed of Leo (Ariyeh, the lion, the symbol of Judah). This aligns with the day of trumpets that year, two weeks before Jesus’s birth.

• Any time stars align, they become brighter, so there would have been a bright star that was the joining of the stars named “righteous” and “king,” just at the feet of the “lion” constellation

• Over the next month, 6 more conjunctions occur, with venus, jupiter, mars (ma’adim, bright or clearness), and Mercury (kokhav, meaning star)

• That is literally: lion, bright or clear, king, righteous, star all came into conjunction

• Daniel was given a prophetic vision in Bablylon of the coming of Jesus. When the Jews left Babylon to re-form Jerusalem, most stayed behind. Recall that Daniel was made the master over the astronomers (Dan 5:11, There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,)

• I believe that the treasure that was given to Jesus was none other but Daniel’s own gifts. He trained those under his authority to watch for a sign and they approached when they saw it, delivering what Daniel had set aside for them

• Matt 2 - Herod orders all boys under the age of 2 be killed. Jesus and fam move to Egypt:

  ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2:16‭-‬18‬ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

• ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2:13‬ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”