Peter Sammons considers.
NO AGREEMENT
There is no overall agreement as to when precisely our Lord Jesus was born. Historians generally concur that Herod the Great died in 4BC, so plainly Jesus was born before this date. And since the Wise Men sought a child (Herod ordered “go and make a search for the child” – Matthew 2: 8) some opine that Jesus may have been up to 2 years old when the Magi arrived in Jerusalem and Herod sought to destroy the infant.
For reasons developed in my 2006 book “The Birth of Christ” (Glory to Glory Publications, no longer available commercially – but can be viewed freely as a PDF here: https://christian-publications-int.com/default-63.html?ID=76 ) I consider an early date likely, that is 6BC.
I CHANGED MY MIND
In my 2006 book I opined that Jesus was probably born at ‘Christmas’ time (so late December) of 6BC. Since 2006 I have looked far more deeply at the prophetic trajectory of Jesus’ birth and now consider that Jesus was born at Sukkot (Tabernacles) of 6BC. It’s best to own up to our mistakes, and praise God we get a chance to put things right!
THE MOEDIM
The below image reminds us of the commanded Hebrew Feasts (or more correctly, ‘”Moeds” of holy meetings), and how they ‘fit’ our modern calendar:
In these we see the key aspects of Jesus’ ministry prefigured. Immediately below we see how these speak of Jesus’ key accomplishments. A full explanation will have to wait for a future articl
TABERNACLES
All the key achievements of Jesus are prophetically prefigured in the Old Testament and especially in the commanded Hebrew Feasts. My 2019 book “The Messiah Pattern” explores all this, freely available as downloadable PDF here: https://christian-publications-int.com/images/PDF/MessiahPattern.pdf
The New Testament drops a big hint, in any case, that Jesus was born at Tabernacles (see John 1: 14). So, Tabernacles was, in the lands of Israel, a pilgrim feast when many people made their way to Jerusalem. The Jewish population was ‘on the move’ annually at this time. What could be more natural than that King Herod would order a census to coincide with Tabernacles, when people were shifting around and many would fetch-up in Jerusalem?!
Furthermore, there is considerable reason to believe it likely that Jesus will return (the second coming, as it is often styled) also at Tabernacles. We do not know the year, but we have genuine prophetic insight into the time of year that Jesus will return. The time of year will mirror the first incarnation.
In the next article we set out the Biblical text from the 1984 NIV and associate possible dates assuming a 6BC birth. Hopefully readers will find this of interest – and even helpful – as we reflect, at this time of the year, on the wonderful first incarnation of Messiah Jesus, and the amazing truths of the Nativity.
To the glory of God.
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Peter Sammons is commissioning editor for Christian Comment. His most recent book, “Last Days and End Times – Making the Connection” is available here:
https://christian-publications-int.com/Last_Days_and_End%20Times.html
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