ChristadelphianBooksOnline
Harry Whittaker
Studies in the Gospels

8. When was Jesus born?*

Certainly the oldest church tradition—for what it is worth-makes December 25th the day of the Lord’s birth. But is it likely that at that time of the year shepherds would be “abiding in the fields” throughout the night with their flocks? There is also the somewhat suspicious circumstance that December 25th is an old pagan feast. All through the autumn months the day gets shorter and shorter, and the sun at its zenith is lower and lower in the sky. This continues right up to December 21. But in ancient times men without means of exact measurement would not be able to detect the renewed lengthening of daylight until some days later. Thus December 25 became an ancient celebration of the return of the sun heralding the seasons of warmth and fruitfulness.

“The customary date of 25 December cannot be traced further back than the fourth century and is almost certainly an example of the church taking over and ‘baptizing’ an old pagan festival-in this case the winter solstice and the return of the sun” (The Path to Glory; Moorman, Bp. of Ripon).

It is not difficult to see how the church justified this date for the celebration of the birth of Christ. When Zacharias had his revelation from Gabriel in the temple, “the whole multitude of the people were praying without”. The phrase implies one of the great feasts when a specially large throng of worshippers assembled in the temple court. This was assumed to be the Day of Atonement (which it could not possibly have been) or one of the days of the Feast of Tabernacles in the third week of the seventh month. As the table given here shews, this leads to a date in December or early January for the birth of Jesus. Then what more convenient than to appropriate what was already an established feast-day and make that the Nativity of the Lord?

Feast	Jewish Month	Conventional chronology	Suggested chronology
Passover	1
	2
Pentecost	3
	4		Conception of John
	5
	6
Tabernacles	7	Conception of John
	8
	9
	10		Conception of Jesus
	11
	12
Passover	1	Conception of Jesus	Birth of John (April 23?)
	2
Pentecost	3
	4	Birth of John
	5
	6
Tabernacles (Sept-Oct)	7		Birth of Jesus
	8
	9
(Dec-Jan)	10	Birth of Jesus

John was born six months before Jesus (Lk. 1:26)

This, according to the last column of the table, leads to the fourth month in the Jewish year as the time of the conception of John. Since this comes soon after the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), it seems likely that this was the feast when Zacharias was officiating in the temple. The birth of John would then fall in the first month. As already mentioned (Study 3), according to Cyril of Alexandria the church of that city used to celebrate the birth of John on April 23, a date which harmonizes closely with what has just been suggested.

So whilst there is not much evidence one way or the other, it does seem more likely that Jesus was born about the end of September. And if December 25 was the date of the conception, not of the birth, of Jesus, this would lead to the same conclusion.

It is suggested here that very probably Jesus was born at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Roman census was bound to be extremely unpopular with the Jews. So presumably the requirement that every man should go to the city with which his family was historically associated was an attempt to dress up the census in Jewish garb. This movement about the country would inevitably cause considerable dislocation of normal life and would only be possible (as well as acceptable to the people) at a slack time in the agricultural year when the people were on holiday. For this purpose the Feast of Tabernacles, after the in-gathering of the last of the harvests, or the week immediately after that, would almost certainly be the most suitable. Also, this, far better than late December, would be a good time for travelling. Is John giving a hint about the birth of Jesus when he says: “The Word was born flesh, and tabernacled among us” (1:14)?