The Controversies of Christmas; Date Part 2
The Controversies of Christmas; the Date
Scripture reading; all the Christmas story scriptures relevant to the date of Christ’s birth
Luke 1: 5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechari′ah,[b] of the division of Abi′jah
8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty,
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she hid herself,
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin
2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. 2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirin′i-us was governor of Syria.
8 And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
All of those Scriptures have something to say about the date and timing of Jesus’ birth. When was Jesus born? The timing of this singularly important event has been a question for years. And we got the date we have now, December 25th, because someone was curious about it.
In about the middle of the fourth century, the late 330’s, the bishop of Jerusalem wrote a letter to the bishop of Rome and wanted him to figure out the actual date of Christ's birth.
And the bishop of Rome promptly sent word back that Christ’s birth was 25th. Well, by the end of the fourth century that was accepted by the church and became the regularly accepted day to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Well, through the years, the decision by the Roman Catholic church that December 25th is Jesus’ birthday, has been reexamined by a multitude of scholars, and now us.
Let us pray.
Today,
1. Why December 25th?
3 individuals held their political offices
2. The date for the reign of Caesar Augustus.
3. The date for the governorship of Quirinius.
4. The date for the reign of Herod.
And finally we will return to a couple things that could be used to put a more precise date on Jesus’ birth;
5. Priests, Shepherds and the star.
I. Why December 25th?
Around 204, St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote that “the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, was eight days before the Kalends of January, the fourth day [i.e., Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year” (i.e., 3 or 2 B.C.) (Commentary on Daniel 4:23:3). The Kalends was the first day of the month, and eight days before January 1 is December 25.
This is the earliest record we have of Jesus’ birth being December 25.
There are other later statements about the date of Jesus’ birth. But they just begin to repeat the tradition of the December 25th date. But let’s go back to 204, when Hippolytus of Rome wrote that Jesus was born December 25th. His statement was ““the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, was eight days before the Kalends of January, the fourth day [i.e., Wednesday], …. “Birthday of the Unconquerable.”
When does the Bible say that Jesus was born? Consider Caesar, Quirinius, and Herod
verses 1, 2 and 3 of Luke 2. "Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria and all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city."
Verse 5 of chapter 1 says, "In the days of Herod king of Judea,"
II. The date for the reign of Caesar Augustus.
A. "It came about in those days."
Sometime in those days during the time of Caesar a decree went out.
16 January 27 BC – 19 August AD 14
That’s a span of about 41 years. So that narrows Jesus’ birth down a little bit.
B. A decree went out.
We have evidence of a census being taken of the Roman world on a 14-year cycle.
C. the first census
The first of the cycle of fourteen-year censuses which Caesar Augustus had set in motion.
When was the first one? Well with some backwards calculation we come to the first year that Caesar ordered the census; 8 B.C.
III. The date for the reign of Quirinius, the governor of Syria.
A. Governor
That is just a generic Greek word for “leader.” governor of Syria.
Syria again is that large area in which Judea would exist. We discovered that Quirinius served as governor twice, one term around 6 AD, and an earlier term.
We know that the first census ordered by Caesar, was before Jesus was born. It was that census that sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. We also know that Caesar ordered that census in 8 B.C.
IV. The date of the reign of Herod
Herod the Great reigned, let’s take the most widely accepted date, 37–4 BCE .
It had to be before Herod died; 4 B.C. If they stayed in Egypt for a couple of years, that means that Jesus birth could have been anywhere from 6 to 4 B.C.
Since Caesar Augustus made the decree in 8 B.C., we don’t know if it was early or late in the year. That means that the actual completion of the census actually took place a least a couple of years after the edict, because ordering the first census and the census actually being completed would have involved communication across the empire, and possible a little rebellion from areas, like Judea, who didn’t want to comply.
So, what’s the date conclusion? Jesus was most likely born between 6 and 4 B.C., more likely closer to 4 B.C..
Now, let’s look again at this December 25th date.
V. Priests, Shepherds and the star.
A. Priests
Luke 1: 5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechari′ah,[b] of the division of Abi′jah
8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty,
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she hid herself,
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin
A. The Theory
“In theory, if one could pinpoint the day on which Zechariah and Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist, one could extrapolate an approximate date of Jesus’ birth. Elizabeth was “in her sixth month” of pregnancy when the angel Gabriel came to Mary. Therefore, approximately fifteen months after Elizabeth conceived, Jesus was born.”
B. The Course of Abijah
How could you pinpoint when Elizabeth conceived?
“The timing of John’s conception is tied to the annunciation to Zechariah while he was serving at the temple (Lk 1). Remember that Zechariah was performing his duty, in the temple in Jerusalem, when the angel told him that his wife would conceive and bear the announcer of the Messiah. Well, after he served his week, he goes home to his wife. Presumably, within a week or two of his return from Jerusalem, John was conceived. And since the announcement to Mary that she would conceive, came in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, then if we can narrow down the dates on which Zechariah would have been serving at the temple, wala, we have Jesus’ conception date, and therefore His birthdate.”
C. The division of labor among Jewish priests
1. Remember: most priests were not full-time
2. The entire tribe of Levi were priests,
3. Certain priests, along with the High Priest were at the temple, all the time, as their profession
4. The rest of the tribe came to serve at certain times of the year.
5. They all came during the big feasts, like Passover, because the work needed was huge.
There were three weeks of the year when all of the courses were on duty: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Dt 16:16).
6. But, for the day-to-day operations of the temple, the Levites were divided up into 24 groups, and they only came to serve at the temple during their course.
Now there are a lot of details here. But Scripture in 2 Ch 23:8; 24:7-19; along with some outside references (Josephus Ant. 7:14:7) lay out the schedule.
Each course had a name. The name of Zechariah’s course, or time to serve, was Abijah.
So, let’s lay out the best-case scenario for determining Jesus’ birthday.
We know from Josephus that the first division, the division of Jehoiarib, was on duty when Jerusalem was besieged during the first week of April, AD 70 (Nisan 1-8, AM 3830). When then would the division of Abijah (the eighth division) have been serving ca. 4 BC? If the courses served in the same weeks of every year, this would have the Abijah division coming on duty, besides the weeks when everyone served,
§ The tenth week of the year: beginning the second Sabbath in Sivan (May-June).
§ The thirty-fourth week of the year: beginning the second Sabbath in Tishrei
Assuming John was conceived within the week after Zechariah returned from his temple service, the May-June date would yield a date for the birth of Jesus in the fall; if the September-October date is preferred, the result is Jesus being born in winter.
Let’s get a little more precise, and when I say precise, I mean precise with our educated guessing.
One author I read thought he had it all figured out. He said,
Zechariah would have been serving as priest on the Day of Atonement.
In 4 BC, the Day of Atonement (Tishrei 10) fell on Monday, October 1. The following week was Tabernacles, so Zechariah could not return home to Elizabeth for another two Sabbaths, leaving Jerusalem perhaps Sunday, October 14. This means that even if we cannot prove that Zechariah was serving during the first week of October of 4 BC, he definitely would have been serving—along with the other twenty-three courses—during the second week of October, and would not have gotten home until after that.
Let us assume that John was conceived within one week of Zechariah’s return. This would therefore have been October 14-20 (regardless of the precise date of the angelic visitation), with the Annunciation following some twenty-six weeks later around April 14-20, 3 BC. (The angel told Mary that Elizabeth was “in her sixth month.” There is therefore a couple week’s leeway to play with here.)
Finally, the birth of Jesus would come thirty-eight weeks after that or around January 5-11, 2 BC. (Normal human gestation period is considered to be 38 weeks from conception.)
Other scholars differ for one reason or another. I said a moment ago that this is educated guessing.
And this is what this is. There have been people who took this calendar of priestly service and worked it from every angle. There are so many questions to consider. Here are just a few.
§ Did the priests serve the same two weeks every year?
§ Did they base the rotation off of the same start month each year?
§ What happened in leap years? In our leap year, we add a day to the year to make up for the difference between our calendar, and the solar calendar. Well, the Hebrew calendar had 12 months of 29 or 30 days each. So, each year they fell short of the solar calendar by about 10 days. So, every few years they would insert a 13th month into their year. So here’s the question, on those years that they added an extra month, did they keep the same priestly rotation, or was there some other formula for who would serve the extra month?
§ Did the rotation schedule change at any point or was it consistent across the decades and centuries?
And here are some simple added questions;
Did Zecharias go immediately home after his service, or did he stop somewhere on the return?
Did Elizabeth conceive immediately on Zecharias return? I’ll leave that question to your imagination.
It tells us that the angel Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, was that visit at the beginning, middle, or toward the end of the sixth month?
Was Mary pregnant for exactly 38 weeks, the “normal” gestation period?
We don’t know the answers to those questions, and the answers would change the date of Jesus’ birth by days, or weeks.
So, what are we left with? The Bible doesn’t tell us the exact date of Jesus’ birth.
But what about those shepherds abiding in the fields by night? Does that have anything to tell us about when Jesus was born?
B. Shepherds
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And [c]behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
So, if we can figure out the time of year that the shepherds around Bethlehem lived out in the fields at night, we can come up with the time period in which Jesus was born.
That the shepherds who visited Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were “living out in the fields” suggests several things.
First, the shepherds must have had rights to be in fields that otherwise would have been sown with grain. Likely they were shepherds connected to the village of Bethlehem, like David (1 Sam 16:11; 17:15, 20; Ps 78:70–71), rather than shepherds of the semi-nomadic variety (i.e., Bedouin). If so, they likely would have known everyone in Bethlehem and been familiar with the community.
Second, the shepherds must have been in the fields at a time when the fields were fallow—that is, after harvest and before plowing and planting. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship: sheep and goats (flocks are nearly always mixed) graze on the stubble of the harvested wheat and barley fields and in the process fertilize the field for the next cycle of plowing and planting.
Based on the weather patterns of Israel, the season between harvest and plowing is summer through early autumn (June/July through September/October). Fields are plowed at the beginning of the rainy season, and grain (barley and wheat) is planted in November. Barley ripens by March/April and wheat a few weeks later in May/early June.
So, by this reckoning, Jesus’ birth could not be in December or January for two reasons; First, because in late December and January, when the rain is the heaviest, the grain is just beginning to sprout. You don’t let sheep and goats out into fields with brand new tender shoots popping up out of the ground. They will eat your crop. Shepherds at this time would keep the sheep out of the fields around a community. It is after harvest that shepherds bring their flocks closer to town.
As the rain tapers off in the spring and temperatures rise, the grasses of the wilderness burn off, and the shepherds bring their flocks back up into the hills, entering the fields after the wheat has been harvested in early summer.
These seasonal patterns imply the birth of Jesus was a summertime event Luke’s statement that the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks “at night” suggests the same.
The second reason the birth would not be in December and January is because that is the rainy wintertime season. Nighttime temperatures in Bethlehem are typically in the low 50s during these months, at best, and can drop below freezing. This is the time of year that flocks would either be deep in the warmer wilderness, or if in Bethlehem, housed in stables, out of the cold and driving rain.
In the summertime, temperatures in Bethlehem often rise to the high 80s and 90s (degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to drive shepherds and flocks into shade and inactivity during the heat of the day. But summer nights out of doors are quite pleasant, a time when shepherding at night would be expected.
Now, there are others who disagree with that reasoning. There are Rabbinic sources (m. Shekalim 7:4) that indicate that certain fields at Migdal Eder (lit. “watchtower of the flock;” compare Gen 35:19–21) southeast of Bethlehem were reserved year-round as places where animals that were intended for temple sacrifice were raised. So those shepherds could be out all year long. Now that doesn’t change the fact that it is cold in December and January. But what conclusion does that lead us to. The conclusion is; Jesus could have been born in December or January, or He couldn’t.
Again, the Bible doesn’t say. But what about that star? Stars are very precise things; the orbit at regular intervals, surely it can tell us when Jesus was born.
C. The Star
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, [a]wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
Well, if the star is going to help us pinpoint the time of Jesus birth, we first have to know what it was. There have been many theories proposed.
Was it a conjunction of planets, a comet, a supernova, a moon, an angel, or something else?
To come to a conclusion we have to compare the details of the Biblical account to known celestial bodies. What does the Bible have to say about this star?
In particular, the magi may have been aware of Balaam’s prophecy recorded in Numbers 24:17: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel,…” This passage poetically describes the coming of the Messiah as being a star or scepter that will rise from Jacob/Israel.
From the biblical text, we infer that the Christmas star (1) was seen and understood by the magi, but no others, or at least no others are mentioned. (2) The magi saw the star on at least two occasions: before meeting with Herod and again after. They apparently saw the star when it first rose, and their meeting with Herod occurred less than two years later. (3) The star moved or at least appeared to move, going ahead of the magi. (4) The star stood over (remained stationary) over the location of Christ, apparently guiding the magi to the correct house. This means the object must have revolved along with Earth’s rotation so as to remain directly above Bethlehem. (5) The magi recognized this star as signifying the Messiah’s birth. They referred to it as “His star” (Matthew 2:2). Given this information, what celestial phenomenon can account for this remarkable event?
Some people have suggested that the Christmas star was a supernova. A supernova is an exploding star. When a star explodes, it brightens dramatically for months, and can even outshine the combined light of all the other stars in the galaxy. A supernova in our own galaxy occurs roughly once per century, and they are occasionally bright enough to be seen during the day. Could the Christmas star have been a supernova?
Although they are spectacular, a supernova does not fit the description given in the biblical text. A bright supernova would have been noticed by everyone, but only the magi apparently saw the Christmas star. More importantly, a supernova could not stand over the location of Christ for any length of time, because as the Earth rotates, all fixed stars appear to revolve in the opposite direction. And a supernova could not lead someone to a specific house, or even a specific town because many locations would consider the star to be “directly overhead.”
Another suggestion is that the Christmas star was actually a comet. A comet is a mass of ice and dirt that orbits the sun in an elliptical path, ejecting material along the way. Comets tend to have a fuzzy appearance because solar heat is constantly vaporizing their surface, forming a cloud of debris. Solar wind and radiation pressure can cause some of this debris to form a tail pointing away from the sun. Unlike a supernova, comets move relative to the background stars.
Unfortunately, this explanation is also problematic. Although comets do move, they do not revolve around the Earth. A comet could therefore never stand over Bethlehem for any length of time. And, like a supernova, a comet’s great distance would make it impossible to figure out which house is directly below it. So a comet could not direct the magi to the right house, or even the right city.
Another proposal is that the Christmas star was a conjunction of planets. There are a few different versions of this claim, but they are all similar. A conjunction is when a planet appears to pass very close to another planet or a star as seen in Earth’s sky. Several conjunctions took place around the time Christ was born. A triple conjunction (three passes in a row) of Jupiter and Regulus occurred in the years 3 and 2 B.C. And there was a spectacular conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on June 17, 2 B.C. Could one of these be the Christmas star?
Though the June 17, 2 B.C. conjunction was a spectacular and rare event, there are good reasons to think that this was not the Christmas star. This pair of planets did not (and could not) stand over Bethlehem for any length of time, nor did it go ahead of the magi, nor could it possibly lead them to the correct house – all things that the Christmas star did do. Recall that the magi saw the star at least twice, but this close conjunction occurred only once, on the evening of June 17, 2 B.C. Even the date is problematic. Most conservative scholars believe that Jesus was born around 4 B.C., or perhaps 5 B.C. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is at least two years too late. And since Venus is the third brightest object in our sky, it is likely that everyone would have seen this event – not just the magi. So, for many reasons, we can conclude that this conjunction was not the Christmas star.
What about a second moon? Today Earth has only one natural orbiting body – the moon. But what if a second, very small moon, fell into Earth’s orbit around the time of the birth of Christ. Could it orbit in such a way as to remain directly above Bethlehem? Any object placed in a prograde circular orbit around Earth’s equator at a distance of 26,199 miles from Earth’s center will naturally orbit at exactly the same rate Earth rotates. This is called a geostationary orbit. From our perspective on Earth’s surface, the object will appear to remain fixed at the same spot in the sky while the other stars rise and set. Could the Christmas star have been a geostationary moon?
This explanation almost works – but not quite. A geostationary moon can remain directly above a location on Earth’s equator, but only for such locations. However, Bethlehem is not on Earth’s equator, rather it is at latitude 31.7 degrees. No natural object can orbit in such a way as to remain directly over Bethlehem because the plane of all natural orbits around Earth must intersect Earth’s center of mass.
So, what is the conclusion? No known star, conjunction of stars, supernova, moon, or comet can be identified as the Christmas star. And even if we had one they don’t behave as the Christmas star behaved.
VI. Conclusion-Are you starting to wonder if God wants us to know the date of Jesus birth?
Where is Moses buried? We don’t know. In fact, the Bible tells us that God buried Moses and did not disclose the information to anyone else. Later in the New Testament, we’re told that Michael the Archangel had a dispute with Satan himself about the body of Moses.
We don’t know what the dispute was about, but the prevailing theory is that Satan wanted to lay claim to Moses’ body. Why? So, he could make his gravesite into an idolatrous shrine. The people of Israel had a history of taking God’s gifts to them, and worshiping the gift rather than the giver.
So, what does this have to do with the birthdate of Jesus? I think it was purposeful on the part of God to keep the date of Jesus birth unknown. Because He knew that people would turn it into a carnival. They would end up making the date, and the festivities more important than the One that the date was supposed to honor.
And for over 300 years it worked. But then, once the church set a date for Jesus’ birth, and put that date in the middle of an existent idolatrous, hedonistic, carnival season, Jesus was lost in the festivities.