Courtesy of WIKIMEDIA

Christmas is most likely Oct. 3, according to the Bible.

How the Jewish festivals can help us trace the actual birth of Jesus Christ

We may commonly picture Christmas as a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus, complete with carols and snow on the windowsills.
     However, Jesus of Nazareth, the one Christians believe is the only begotten Son of God and the promised Jewish messiah, was not born Dec. 25, 1 CE.
    In reality, most scholars agree that Jesus was most likely born in the year 3 BCE, since King Herod, who had commanded the slaughter of all children under the age of two, died in the year 1 BCE. Herod, feeling threatened, had ordered the slaughter upon hearing that the “Child King” of  Israel had been born.
   Some 750 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah is believed to had said that the Messiah would be given to the world as a child, born of a young maiden, and who would be called “God among us” and “Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” He also wrote that the Messiah would bear the punishment of the sins of many; Christians believe Jesus suffered this punishment when he died on the cross.
   Luke, one of the writers of the Gospel accounts, gives 27 CE as the approximate year when Jesus was baptized and begins his public ministry at the age of 30. This is worthy
to note because the prophet Daniel had prophesied that within those very years, 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, the Messiah would appear. For this reason, many Jews at the time were expecting the coming Messiah, and history suggests that several people surfaced during that time claiming to be the Messiah and were promptly put to death by the Romans for insurrection.
   Jesus’s birth is celebrated on Dec. 25 due to syncretism – a reconciliation of different practices whereby old pagan festivities were given a new face after the official conversion
of the Roman Pagan Empire to Christianity.
   The conversion of the Roman Empire occurred some years after Christian worship was legalized in the fourth century as a result of Emperor Constantine’s conversion. This melding of the Roman Pagan Church with Christian beliefs is what produced what we call today the Roman Catholic Church, even inheriting the title of “Pontifex Maximus” for the pope, a title that was held by the emperor and head of the Roman Pagan Church.
   One tradition that was carried through was the celebration of the birthday of Sol Invictus, the “unconquered sun god,” on the winter solstice, which occurred on Dec. 25. The newly established church adopted this tradition, but reappointed it as the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
   So, if not on Dec. 25, when was it that Jesus was born? We can quite accurately place the date of Jesus’s birth by observing the Jewish festivals being celebrated during several key events as related in the story of Jesus’s birth.

So, if not on Dec. 25, when was it that Jesus was born?

  Luke relates that John the Baptist was conceived some time in the two-week period after his father Zechariah was serving at the Temple in Jerusalem. This is where an angel, quoting the prophet Micah, told Zechariah that his barren wife would give birth to a son who would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
  The conception of John the Baptist occurred some time after the third week of the Hebrew month of Sivan (May-June), six months before his cousin, Jesus, was conceived. This places the estimated time of Jesus’s conception around the time of Hanukkah.
   Some scholars calculate that John was born on the 15th day of the month of Nissan (March-April), meaning that Jesus would likely have been born on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei (September-October), which marks the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot.
   This would explain why Joseph and Mary could not find proper lodging, because a great number of Jews would have headed to Jerusalem during this time, as required by their religious law. Interestingly, that would also place John’s birth at the time of Passover, which, to this day, is marked by a traditional Passover Seder that celebrates the expectation of the coming of Elijah during precisely this time of year.
   If you have been keeping up with the dates of Jewish celebrations this year, you will have noticed that Sukkot is just about to occur: the appropriate time to celebrate Jesus’s birthday this year is also around the corner. This year, the 15th of Tishrei, the most likely date for Jesus’s birthday, will land on Saturday, Oct. 3 – quite a far cry from Dec. 25.
   Perhaps now, Christians can finally start celebrating the birth of Jesus at a more precise date than they have been for hundreds of years.
   But there is no reason to drop the December Christmas celebration, since Jesus was conceived during Hanukkah, the festival of lights, which was just one of the many Jewish festivals he would have celebrated as a Torah-observing Jew.
   And, after all, the New Testament does call Jesus “the light of the world.”