Was Jesus born on December 25th or early September?

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FAQ: I have heard a number of people say that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25, the date that Christians
celebrate as his birthday. Is that true? If not, why do people celebrate on that date, and when was he born?

Merry Christmas! Centuries old, those cheery words are still being spoken each December by countless millions of
people, some of whom do not even believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God or the resurrected Lord. As we write,
the world is once again approaching the Holiday Season, when the name of Jesus Christ takes center stage for a
few weeks. Amidst the often crass commercialism of Christmas, familiar carols and Christmas cards do herald the
glad tidings of the baby born to be the Savior of mankind. And, in perhaps unwitting concurrence with our heavenly
Fathers unparalleled act of giving His only begotten Son, even non-Christian families gather together in love and
give gifts to one another. For many people, Christmas is their favorite time of year.

We in Spirit & Truth Fellowship are glad that the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is recognized on the calendar each
year. However, much of the beauty of the events leading up to and including the birth of Jesus as told in the Word of
God has been obscured by the religious traditions of men. In this brief answer to the above question, we hope to
whet your appetite to look deeper into these magnicent truths, including the poignant and inspiring examples of
those players in this real life drama that forever changed the world.

You can get a panoramic yet detailed scriptural account in the two hour video teaching titled, The Birth of Christ and
our article Retelling the Christmas Story. For specic astronomical documentation of the birth date of Christ, see the
book titled The Star That Astonished the World, by Ernest L. Martin. We believe that when all the evidence is
considered, it shows that Jesus Christ was not born in December, but in September of 3 B.C.

Knowing that Jesus was His only hope for the restoration of His shattered dream of a family living forever on a
perfect earth, God, the Father, announced the impending birth of His only begotten Son in Genesis 3:15. He told the
Devil that the ospring of a woman would one day crush his head. For the next 4000 years God precisely and
meticulously worked to establish and preserve the bloodline from which the Redeemer of man would be born.
Throughout the Old Testament, Satan tried in vain to destroy this bloodline, sometimes coming within a hairsbreadth
of succeeding, but God was always one step ahead of him, and at last, the cries of a newborn baby in a manger split
the air in Bethlehem. The Promised Seed had arrived! The Plan of Redemption was proceeding toward Paradise
regained, and Jesus is now Lord at the right hand of God, His Father.

Tradition teaches that Jesus was born on December 25, when it is very cold, and sometimes snowy, in Bethlehem.
We believe the evidence supports the conclusion that Jesus was born in September. Tradition would have us
believe that there were three wise men, and that they came to the manger. The truth is that there were quite a
number of those who came from the East, and that they came to see Jesus when he was between 18 and 24
months old.

In this brief article, we cannot fully set forth the many pertinent biblical details, but we will give you the important
facts, and we encourage you to pursue this via the avenues of study mentioned above. It is important to note that
the actual chronology of events regarding the birth of Christ must be put together from what is recorded in Matthew
and Luke (with some overlapping in time), as follows: Luke 1:5-25; 1:26-38; 1:39-56; 1:57-80; Matthew 1:18-24;
1:25a; Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 1:25b; Luke 2:21; 2:22-24; 2:25-35; 2:36-38; Matthew 2:1-12; 2:13-22; 2:23; Luke 2:39;
2:40; 2:41-50; 2:51 and 52.

Luke 1:5-25 is the record of the angels announcement to Zecharias that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a
son, whom they were to call John. Verse 5 contains a little phrase that is one important key to determining that
Jesus was born in September, not December. It says that Zechariah belonged to the priestly division [KJV: course]
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of Abijah. A study will show that from the time of David, Jewish priests were organized into 24 courses, named
after the heads of the priestly families. These courses of service in the Temple started on Nisan 1 (which
corresponds to March or April on our calendar) and spanned the calendar year. Because the Hebrews used a lunar
calendar and we use a solar calendar, Nisan 1 changes on our calendar each year. The course of Abijah was the
eighth course, and, like each course, occurred twice during the year. In 4 B.C., the year prior to Christs birth, the
rst of those two courses took place during the last week of our month of May.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were quite elderly, and had no children, and the angel gave them the wonderful news that
they would have a son, to be named John. Verses 23 and 24 tell us that when Zechariah nished his service in the
Temple, he returned home (which would have been in early June). Upon his return, Elizabeth became pregnant.
Verse 26 then says that in her sixth month of pregnancy (December), the angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that
she was about to become pregnant with the Son of God. Nine months later would have been September.

How else do we know that Jesus was not born in the Winter? Luke 2:8 speaks about the shepherds near Bethlehem
who were in the elds, watching their ocks at night. Shepherds in that region did not keep their sheep out at night
during the Winter because it was cold and sometimes even snowy, but they did keep them in the elds during the
Fall, after the end-of-Summer harvest. At that time, the sheep could eat the stalks of grain left over after the harvest,
and they would then fertilize the ground prior to the late Fall planting.

Also, Luke 2:1 says that when Mary was just about to give birth to Jesus, she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to
fulll their obligation to be counted in a Roman census. They did not travel in the Winter because it would have been
much too hard. Rather, people traveled in the Fall, between the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter. And at that
time of year the grain, and also some fruit, were ripe, and travelers were allowed to eat some of the gleanings as
they passed by (Lev. 23:22).

A study of the now computerized data by which we can very accurately determine astronomical events of that time
gives us another piece of the puzzle to dating the birth of Christ in September of 3 B.C. In particular, the very
noticeable celestial activity of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Regulus (the King star), and Venus (the Queen star), and their
various combinations of conjunctions in Leo during the nine months leading up to Christs birth are vital signs to
determine the September birth date of our Lord Jesus. And we believe that research shows that he was born on
September 11 (Tishri 1 on the Jewish calendar), on which day the sun was in Virgo, as per the prophecy in
Revelation 12:1 of a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet (Rev. 12:1). [1]

So then how did December 25 come to be the date that most all Christians recognize as the birth date of Christ? We
quote from Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed :

In 274 A.D., the Romans designated December 25 as the birthday of the unconquered sun, being
the time when the sun begins noticeably to show an increase in light, resulting in longer daylight
hours. By 336 A.D., the church in Rome was adapting this festival, spiritualizing its signicance as a
reference to Jesus Christ and calling it the Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness.
Attempting to Christianize and incorporate the pagan traditions of antiquity, the church in Rome
adopted this midwinter holiday celebrating the birth of the sun god as one of its own observances,
somewhat changing its signicance, but retaining many customs of the pagan festival. As the Roman
church spread its inuence religiously and militarily, this holiday of December 25 became the most
popular date in Christendom to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A special mass was established
for Christ, hence, the name, Christmass, abbreviated Christmas.

What about the three wise men? First, the Bible never says there were three. It says that they brought three gifts:
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In that time, three men with such precious treasure traveling such a great distance,

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some of it through the land of their countrys enemies, would have been easy prey for enemy soldiers or the many
robbers who prowled the roads. It is therefore almost certain that they would have traveled in a much larger group,
with adequate protection.

Who were those men who took note of the many astronomical phenomena heralding the birth of Christ in Judea, and
then traveled to nd him, arriving when he was about 18 months old? Scripture calls them Magi, and they were
scholarly men from Persia well versed in astronomy, history, and religion. It is most signicant that their ancestors
were those over whom King Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Daniel in what was then called Babylon (Dan. 2:28 and
5:11 says he was appointed master of the magicians [Magi]).

It is very signicant that there were some religious sects in Persia, including Zoroastrianism, that looked forward to a
coming Redeemer, a prophet to be sent by God to save mankind. And that is why they would have been most
interested in learning from Daniel about Judaisms hallmark prophecies of a coming Messiah, especially as these
prophecies related to the celestial motions of the planets, something they studied diligently.

In any case, the striking celestial activity told them of the birth of that promised Redeemer, and they set out to nd
him. Matthew 2:11 tells us that they came to the house, not a manger, and saw the child (the Greek word
paidion), not a newborn baby (the Greek word brephos). As the NIV Study Bible says regarding that verse:
Contrary to tradition, the Magi did not visit Jesus at the manger on the night of his birth as did the shepherds. They
rst came to Jerusalem, apparently thinking that in the capital city of Israel they should be able to nd out where the
king had been born. After King Herod told them he had been born in Bethlehem, they went there and found him as a
child in his house.

That explains why Herod, who had consulted with the Magi as to the time when they saw the star (Matt. 2:7),
determined to kill all the Israeli boys under two years old. He knew that Jesus was no longer an infant, and set two
years as a safe limit to how old he would have been, which we believe was about 18 months.

We believe that the evidence shows that Jesus Christ was born in September, 3 B.C., [2] and that the local
shepherds were the only ones who came to see him at the manger. It is signicant that in that culture, shepherds
were generally considered extremely faithful and trustworthy men, and certainly those particular ones were, because
they immediately acted on what the angel told them, and after they had found the Savior, they spread the word
concerning what the angel had told them. You might want to take a moment, put yourself in their place, and let the
magnitude of their experience sink into your heart.

It is safe to say that the two primary heroes in this scintillating saga were a man and woman (probably in her mid-to-
late teens) who suddenly found themselves thrust into starring roles on the stage of history. Think rst about Mary, a
young Hebrew woman chosen by God to bear His Son. Words fail to adequately describe what it must have been
like for her when the angel of the Lord appeared to her and made his amazing announcement. She fearlessly asked
the angel a very good question, which did not imply doubt, but was simply a request for more information. And when
she got the answer, she uttered one of the most faith-lled statements ever spoken: Behold the handmaid of the
Lord. Be it unto me according to your word. What a woman!

And think about Joseph, who discovered that his beloved bride was pregnant. How heartrending, and what a man of
character he was, rst not to make public their situation, and then to endure the public ridicule he must have gotten
as the father of an illegitimate child. Imagine, as Joseph wrestled with this incredibly weighty issue, how his heart
must have leapt for joy when the angel told him that the woman he had chosen as his wife and the mother of his
children was also the woman God had chosen to be the mother of His Son. And think of his love for her, and his
steadfast discipline not to sexually consummate their union until after she had given birth to Jesus (Matt. 1:25).
Joseph was a mans man, and a true hero of the faith.

No, we are not advocating a worldwide campaign to change the celebration we know as Christmas from December
25 to September 11 (See Endnote 2 above) which has already become a most signicant date here in the USA. But
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we ourselves do at least pause on that latter date to thank God for His Son and to thank the Lord for living and dying
for us.

We do think it is sad that so many people on earth associate the birth of Jesus Christ with a ctitious being called
Santa Claus, who has come to be known as the Giver of good gifts. As we rudely learn at an early age, there is no
Santa Claus. But there most certainly is a loving heavenly Father whose heart of love for all mankind overowed in
the greatest gift ever given, His only begotten Son. Furthermore, Gods Word says that He who did not spare his
own Son, but gave him up for us allwillalong with him, graciously give us all things (Rom. 8:32). The Christmas
season is a golden opportunity to do just what those shepherds of long ago didspread the word about Jesus
Christ. Now thats something to rejoice about!

Endnotes:

1. The Star That Astonished the World, Ernest L. Martin (ASK Publications, Portland OR, 1991)
2. We are convinced by the evidence, both astronomical and otherwise, that Jesus was most probably born on
September 11. As the Last Adam, Jesus Christ was born on the same day that the rst Adam was created, which
was Tishri 1, and in 3 B.C., Tishri 1 fell on what would have been our September 11.

Copyright 2016 Spirit & Truth Fellowship International

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