In this blog I’d like to illustrate that Christ Birthday December 25th was more so based on the fiscal calendar rather than the exact month.
Pagans have often accused Christian Forefathers complying with Pagan rituals of "Saturnalia" -- in honor of Saturn and Yule which is an indigenous midwinter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples. The earliest references to it are in the form of month names, where the Yule-tide period lasts somewhere around two months, falling along the end of the modern calendar year between what is now mid-November and early January.
Today we have a clearer calculation of Christs actual birthday in the first half of September. The calculations below are derived by tracing the Archangel Gabriel's message to Zechariah about his son John the Baptist.
In 4 BC (Jesus’ birth is assumed to be in 3 BC from other historical evidence as well as astronomical evidence – to be presented in future Posts), Nisan 1 was the equivalent of our March 29, and the preceding Sabbath was March 24, making the week of the duties of the first priestly course from Sabbath noon, March 24, to Sabbath noon, March 31 (and the 2nd course from March 31 to April 7, etc.). The 3rd course (which started on our April 7) was interrupted by the Passover/Unleavened Bread week-long celebration, when all the priests officiated together; and this caused the 3rd course to extend its service until the Sabbath after Passover, which was April 21 in 4 BC.
The period of service for the 8th course of Abijah, to which Zechariah belonged, was from May 19 to May 26. It was most likely this late spring administration when Zechariah’s service was interrupted by the angel’s appearance to him, announcing his wife’s imminent pregnancy. Because of his unbelief, he was struck dumb during his service in the Temple, which immediately disqualified him from his priestly duties (Lev. 21:16-23). Therefore, he left for home. Sometime between May 26 and June 1, Elizabeth would have conceived. She later gave birth to John the Baptist near March 10 in 3 BC (after the gestation period of 9 months and 10 days, a total of 280 days). This would place the birth of Jesus six months later (Luke 1:26-38) in the first half of September, in 3 BC.
Of course, the other possibility is that the date that the angel struck Zechariah and caused him to lose his speech was during Zechariah’s second service term in the second half of the year, rather than during the first term of service in the spring. However, this is unlikely, as it would have caused the birth of John the Baptist to be near mid-September. Consequently, Jesus’ birth would have been in March, during the rainy season. William Ramsay demonstrates in his book, Born in Bethlehem, that the general time of year for the start of the census was from August to October – to encourage higher participation – and not during the rainy season in mid-March. We therefore know that Jesus was most probably not born in the spring, since we know that Joseph was taking his family to Bethlehem for the census, at which time Jesus was born. And we then conclude that Zechariah’s service in the temple when he was struck dumb was during the first half of the year rather than during the second half.
From this method of calculating the birth date of Jesus from information related to the birth date of John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel – as well as from information on the timing of the Roman census – we see that Jesus was most likely born in the fall of the year, probably in September. It is admittedly impossible to arrive at a specific date for the birth of either John the Baptist or Jesus based on the priestly courses and the information in Luke’s Gospel, but it helps to approximate a likely range of dates.
Tishri 1 (Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets) began at sundown on September 11, 3 BC, when the day changed from Elul 30 to Tishri 1.
Below is the ancient Hebrew calendar that shows that the Jewish New Year begins in September. I propose that our Christian Forefathers Calculated Christs Birthday a week before the New Year to maintain he was a New Year baby, bringing in the promise of New Hope, Peace, Light into the world. I do not believe it was any other compromise made.
