Jesus' Birth

Hey all,

Well, I listened to a speaker last night named Neil and the one thing that stuck out the most was his study on the birth of Jesus. I'll try to make it fast, but I encourage you all to check it out!

- Luke 1:5 - Zechariah belonging to Abijah.
- I Chronicles 24:10 - When Abijah's line served in the Temple; this would place Zechariah at the Temple close to the end of June for our calendars. (You'd have to compare our calendar to a Jewish calendar; I thought I'd save you the trouble;-)
- Luke 1:26, 36 - add 6 months and you MAY (it's of course not conclusive) get the end of December for Jesus' conception. I like to think it's December 25;-) OR, I also like even better the 25th of Kislev, which is Chanukkah for an Orthodox Jew (even before Jesus' day!). For those who don't know, Chanukkah is the Feast of Lights when, during the Maccabean days, there was only enough oil for the Temple menorah to last one night. Instead, it lasted 8 nights. Nice for the Light of the World to be conceived on the Feast of Lights don't you think;-)
- 9 months later - late September or early October (if my math serves me correctly). At any rate, in the Jewish calendar, Jesus would have been born VERY close to (if not on, which would be something G-d just might do;-) Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths). This is one of the 3 Jewish feasts when pilgrims would come to Jerusalem. Notice the wording in John 1:14. (I took the liberty of looking up the Greek word for you; it's from skenoo - hard to spell in English - and means "to tabernacle" or "to set up one's tabernacle". "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us....") Perhaps Jesus was born on Sukkot in late September or early October.

I don't know, you may not care. I think it's pretty fun. Have a great weekend!

Shalom,

Geoff

P.S. Ray VanderLaan talks about this as well.