Merry Christmas everyone!
The past few days I’ve enjoyed these two sermons, which do wander a bit but also get pretty nerdy about the details about Jesus’ birth. Here’s a condensed version of what they make the case for, for all the other bible geeks out there:
- Josephus (a non-Christian Jewish historian for the Roman Empire) explains to us that the census was a special census – probably the first in history where some women had to register. This was because Rome was at peace, entering a golden age, going to declare Caesar Augustus “Father of the Nation”. This means several things:
- The reason Mary had to register for the census was because children *she* bore had claims to the throne of David, and she had to renounce challenging Caesar over them.
- The arrival of a new king wasn’t just a challenge to Herod, but a huge wrench into the political zeitgeist of the time across the entire Roman empire.
- The census was to occur in summer and early autumn to avoid harvest
- John the Baptist was 6 months older than Jesus.
- Jesus was 30 years old during the 15th year of Tiberius’ reign
- Jesus birthday was therefore between September of 3 BC and September of 2 BC
- Zachariah’s priestly duties were either May 19th-26th 4 BC or Nov. 22-29 4 BC
- This means John the Baptist’s conception was around either late May of 4 BC or early December of 4 BC
- This means John the Baptist was likely born around March 10 or September 10 of 3 BC
- This means Jesus would have been born in September of 3 BC or March of 2 BC
- Rosh Hashanah – the Festival of Trumpets – was September 11th, 3 BC.
- Revelations 12:1 – “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”
- The constellation Virgo (consisting of 12 stars) with the Sun in her midsection and the moon at her feet occurred only once in the history of the world, 5:53-6:35, September 11th, 3BC
- The star Spica representing the wheat Virgo is holding touched the horizon at 6:12, September 11th, 3BC.
- John 12:24 – “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat alights to the earth and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it bears fruit.”
- This implies that the exact moment of Jesus’ birth was 6:12, September 11th, 3BC.
But! December 25th is a relevant date:
- The Bible says the magi – sorcerers and witches trained by the Babylonian school Daniel was put in charge of – showed up to a house, not the stables.
- They did not show up on Jesus’ actual birthday.
- This is reinforced by Luke using the word for Infant and Matthew using the word for Toddler
- Further reinforced by Herod needing to kill all under age 3.
- Christmas is co-opted from the Roman celebration of Saturnalia – a period of gift giving and sacrificing to the chief Roman God, Saturn
- The magi followed pagan customs and were celebrating Saturnalia to give gifts to the newborn God King.
- The “star in the east” the magi were following was likely the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the constellation of Leo. Jupiter was the “star” of Kingship, Venus the “star” of Love, and they appeared as a single bright star only twice in human history – June 17th 2 BC and again December 25th of the same year, right as Saturnalia was concluding.
So Christmas is the celebration of God subjecting Pagan rituals to himself and turning their tribute to himself, and of the Magi’s gift giving.
Christian Musings 