WHEN WAS THE MESSIAH BORN?

      It is only natural for a person to adhere to conducts and beliefs that are biblically defensible.  Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."  (1 Peter 3:15).                               

     Christmas celebrations are generally observed to honor the supposed date of the birth of the Messiah.  But the facts are that Christ was not born on December 25. 
     "Christmas . . . was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons, rather than the birth ("Christmas", Encyclopedia Americana). 
     How then, did the Romish Church fix on December 25th as Christmas-day?  Why, thus: long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ (The Two Babylons, by Rev. Alexander Hislop, p.93).  
     There is, however, a way of establishing the approximate time of the Messiah's birth.  We have proof that He was not born in December, but in October.  When Jesus was baptized in the fall of AD 27, He was thirty years of age (Luke 3:21-23).  Jesus chose twelve apostles (Mark 3:13-19).  They labored together for three-and- a-half years until He was crucified at the age of thirty-three-and-a-half years at the 
Passover, April AD 31.  Counting back six months to Jesus' thirty-third birthday, you will find that His birth occurred in October.
     Another proof for establishing the time of the Master's birth in October is found in Luke 1:5-36.  The priest Zacharias was serving in the Temple during the course of Abia (Abijah), which was the eighth lot or course out of the twenty-four that occurred during the entire year (1 Chronicles 24:10).  Each course lasted two weeks.  Zacharias ministered during the eighth course, which was the second half of the fourth month and corresponded to the month of July, the month in which his wife Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist.  
     And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.  And in the sixth month (after Elisabeth's conception) the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary (Luke 1:24-27). 
     According to these developments, Jesus was conceived in January.  Nine months later would be October when Jesus was born.  He was not born during the Feast of Tabernacles in October.
     "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world would be taxed" (2:1).
     That was during the days of Herod (1:5) when the proclamation to tax all the world went forth.  He wisely chose Jerusalem to tax the Jews while many thousands were gathered there an in its vicinity for the great Feast of Tabernacles in October. 
     Dr. I.O. Kinnaman, editor of the Bible Archaeological Digest (Apri,May,June 1953) stated that Sir William Flinders Petrie discovered a diary of the rabbi of the synagogue in Bethlehem.  The diary recorded that Jesus was born October 4, 4 BC, as our calendar now stands. 
     "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

     Author John Kiesz is a minister in the Church of God (Seventh Day) living in Canon City, CO.  Scripture quotations were taken from the King James Version.  October 1995.