The Birth of Jesus – When, where and perceptions of purpose

In the New Testament the birth of Jesus is described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Matthew we read that Jesus’ parents Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem in Judea and that wise men “magoi” from the East arrived in Jerusalem, at the court of Herod the Great after having seen signs in the sky that said that a child was born in Israel which would become king. Herod was frightened and started looking for newly born children to have them killed. The magoi found Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem and presented gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to their infant son, Jesus. In Luke we read that shepherds outside Bethlehem got a shock when an angel appeared and said: “Don’t be afraid. Behold. I will give you a message of great joy, which shall be for all people, because today a Saviour has been born, Christ, the Lord, in the city of David. You shall find a newly born child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke: 2: 10-12.

So when was Yeshu’a = Jesus born? In the gospel of Luke 1: 5 we learn that John the
Baptist’s (Yochanán HaMatbíl) father Zekharya made service as a cohen = priest in the
temple of Jerusalem within the priestly group of Aviah. Zekariah got during one of these
occasions the message from one of God’s angels that he would become father to a son
called Yochanán = John who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Those who have
studied more carefully how these cohen groups were divided for service during the year they know when the priest group of Aviah had their service in the temple of Jerusalem.The division of Aviah was the eighth out of 28 priestly groups who made service in the temple during the year. However here it becomes a little confusing, because there are
two ways of calculating when that was. The first calculation concludes that Zekharya
served in early June. In that case, assuming that his wife Elisheva = Elisabet became
pregnant right after the Angel’s visit, then Yochanán = John would be born in March and
Yeshu’a = Jesus would be born six months after that in September, i.e. around the time
of Feast of Tabernacles = Sukkot. The other calculation concludes that the service of the
Aviah priest group took place in October.In that case Yochanán would be born around
Midsummer the following year and Yeshu’a would be born at the end of December or in
the beginning of January. It was that conclusion that the early church fathers supported
out of pragmatic reasons to easier combine it with the already existing pagan traditions.
That is why the churches around the world celebrate Yeshu’as birthday either on
December 25th or January 7th . If Yeshu’a was delivered by his mother Miryam (Mary) in
September around Sukkot then he must have been concieved by the Holy Spirit in
December around Midwinter. If he was born in December- January then we in any case
have a reason to celebrate his birth around Christmas. Personally I believe that Yeshua
was born in September, because the shepherds would not have been out with their
sheep in Midwinter. Anyway anyone believing in Yeshu’a can celebrate both Chanukka in December (which Yeshua himself celebrated), but we can also celebrate Christmas either to remember His conception through the Holy Spirit in Miryam’s (Mary’s) womb or His birth in Beyt Lechem. Therefore we can both celebrate Chanukka and Christmas with holiness as two Feasts of Light to honour the Son of Elohim. YHWH, the Creator of Universe is always
worthy to be praised!

Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was prophesied centuries before by early prophets like Micha and Isaiah that the coming Messiah would come from that place and the House of David. In all texts he is mentioned as Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee, because that is where he grew up. For Yeshua’s = Jesus’ first followers the date or place of his birth wasn’t very important. That changed long afterwards. The early Christians talked about his resurrection day on the 14th or 15th of Nisan as “dies natalis”, the birth day. It was also said that Jesus was concieved and died on the same day, on the 14th of Nisan. Since he was presumed to have been concieved on March 25th the churches later assumed that he had to be born on December 25th. However, the church father’s presumed preferred date of birth December 25th, merged in Rome, in 274 A.D. , with the ancient pagan beliefs of the Mithra/Jupiter cult and “dies natalis Solis invictus”, the birth of the invincible Sun. But as I said before I believe personally that Yeshua was concieved by the Holy Spirit in Miryam’s womb around midwinter and then born in early September the following year around the Feast of Tabernacles= Sukkot.

2000 years have passed and Yeshua as a person, status and message have been under fierce debate and still is. Outside the New Testament the most important source is the Jewish history writer Josephus, who wrote e.g. “Antiquities of the Jews” in 93-94 A.D. He had been fighting in the Jewish war in 70 A.D., surrendered to the Romans and was then seen as a traitor in Jewish eyes. Josephus makes two short references to  Yeshua  and one to Yochanan haMatbil = John the Baptist. He mentions ca 20 people by the name of Yeshua , but only one “Yeshua=Jesus, who was called Christ”. In Book 23, Chapter 9 he tells us that “the brother of Jesus, who was called the Messiah, whose name was James” had been prosecuted and sentenced to death by stoning, probably in 62 A.D.In Book 18, Chapter 3, there’s the so called Testimonium Flavium. This reference to Jesus most scholars realise has been tampered with by later church men, but the text in general seems genuine. Most existing copies are in Greek, but also versions in Arabic have been found. If we take away the obvious inclusions made by later Christian priests this is what Josephus said: “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds. And he gained a following both among many Jews and many of Greek origin. He was called the Messiah. And when Pilate at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day”.

Yeshua = Jesus himself was a Jew during his days on Earth, the first desciples were all Jews, and the first Christian or Messianic movement called The Way, started by Yeshuas’ desciples and Yeshuas’ earthly half brother James = Ya’aqov were all Jews. So was the first church for a hundred years before more and more non-Jews became believers. Today there is also a movement of  Jews coming to the conviction of that Yeshu’a = Jesus is and was the Messiah, Yehudim Meshichim and they spread the gospel to other Jews in Israel, to Arabs and co-operate with Christian Arabs in sharing the Gospel of Yeshu’a ha-Meshiach, Jesus Christ. Today there are about 500 000 Messianic Jews in the world, mostly in the USA, but more than 20-30 000 of them live in today’s Israel.

The Shroud of Turin, which is said to be Jesus’ burial cloth still is under debate. The marks of the crucified  body is in 3D, in photo negative, and quite mysterious. The scientists said in the 1980’s that it was a Medieval fake, but it was discovered in 1999 that the samples taken for carbon dating were taken from corners that had been woven into the cloth in the 1530’s after a fire, and wasn’t part of the original cloth. The results of later tests though have revealed something astounding. The picture on the cloth exists only on the utmost surface on one of the two sides, the blood on the cloth is real and has penetrated the fabric. Enzymes in the blood suggests that the man has been heavily tortured. Pollen has been found on the cloth, which now is dated to the period 200 BC to 200 AD. The pollen come from various plants and flowers, some only existing outside Jerusalem.  Around the forehead of the man in the cloth the pollen shows evidence of thorn, but not dry thorns like in all pictures of Jesus on the cross, but the crown of thorns has evidently been blooming at the time of the execution. Several signs of flogging, physical wounds, pierced hands and feet, as well blood running from a wound in one of the sides of the man, are clearly visible, The picture on the shroud has mysterious 3D effects even though it’s two dimensional. Evidence of absorbed texts in Aramaic, Greek and Latin in a hand writing from the days of Jesus have been found on the cloth. The text clearly says that this is Jesus of Nazareth. This was for identifying the body for delivering the body back to his family one year later after the burial. Something we know never happened. The mysterious picture in photo negative has baffled the scientists, and according to them it must have been quickly and suddenly scorched into the cloth’s absolute surface by 34 trillion Watt of ultra-violet light! This has happened at the moment of the resurection of Jesus Christ. Yeshu’a ha-Mashiach is resurrected and still alive! Amen!

Anders Moberg, December 19th 2012, upgraded on December 14th 2022.

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