Was the birth of Jesus as we have been taught?

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm; all is bright round yon virgin mother and child.  Holy infant, so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.”

Giving birth to my knowledge has never been easy, soothing, peaceful and without pain.  Why do we think Mary would have experience birth any differently?  Why do we think Joseph would not have been concerned about their being complications with the birth of his child as daddy’s are today. 

Caesar Augustus, emperor of Rome, decreed that a census be taken and that everyone return to the ancestral village of the head of the household.  Joseph was from Bethlehem which meant they would have to travel approximately ten days walking from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The Bible does not say Mary rode on a donkey, although many have come to believe that was the mode of her transportation.  Do not forget Mary was nine months pregnant.  I would think that the journey included pain, fear and tears. 

They had no reservations in Bethlehem and I doubt if there was an inn in Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was a very small town.  They must have been concerned about where they would stay.  Like most people in that time they would have wanted to stay with relatives.  Joseph had relatives in Bethlehem.  No innkeeper is actually mentioned in the Biblical record of Christ’s birth.  There would have been a problem finding a place to stay, everyone was crowding into Bethlehem for the census and his relatives may not have had any room.

They arrived and Luke tells us there was no room, but he does not tell us that Mary and Joseph were in a barn with sheep’s and goats.  Luke does tell us there was a feeding trough for animals.  Someone may have removed the animals so Mary and Joseph could use the room. 

They were most likely in a room at the back of a relative’s house.   At that time people brought their animals in at night to protect them.  “Away in a manger the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.”  Although this is part of a beautiful song, we cannot be sure that Jesus did not cry.  The Bible does not report this.  I don’t think it was a silent night, but it was a holy night!

Did Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem the night she gave birth?  The Bible does not suggest this. They could have arrived weeks earlier.  God’s Word simply states, “While they were there in Bethlehem, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered,” (Luke 2:6).  Arriving in town well before her due date would make more sense.

We have all seen the pictures of three wise men, Magi, Kings or important men from Parthia in the manger worshipping Jesus.  Don’t let tradition, folklore, and custom become your truth.  These depictions are well intended, but I think they only add confusion to the story. 

The Bible does not state how many wise men there was it only states there were three gifts.  Men assumed there were three men, but no one knows.   There were at least two because the word for Magi used is plural.  Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem that we know from scripture and the wise men, maybe twelve, did end up at a house in Bethlehem, not a manger.  When the wise men arrived Jesus was not a baby, but a child.  The wise men probably did not come until quite a while after the shepherds. 

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopaedia, in an article about who visited Jesus, admits that Matthew and the rest of the New Testament completely omits the number of high-ranking important men that came more than 1,000 miles to worship the true King of all Kings.  According to this reference, not only is there no certain tradition regarding this question, but some Catholic church Fathers speak of three Magi. They are very likely influenced by the number of gifts.  In the Orient, tradition favours twelve wise men.

There are many differences in the telling of the birth of Christ in Matthew and Luke and they really have little in common.  Mark writes nothing of the birth of Jesus and John alluded to it in a different way than Matthew and Luke. 

Jesus wasn't born in winter we know this because Luke chapter 2 verse 8 tells us, “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night."   Was Jesus born in December?  It is not impossible, but probably not so.  December would more likely be the month of conception.

The common practice of shepherds was to keep their flocks in the open fields from April to October, but in the cold and wet winter months they took their flocks back home and sheltered them.  On Dec. 25^th the weather would not have permitted the shepherds to be watching over their flocks in the fields at night.  Some scholars say the writings in Luke lead them to believe Jesus was born in September.

Others say God would not have allowed Jesus to be born on the pagan feast of Saturnalia which is December 25^th.   If we accept the premise that God did cause the birth of Jesus to happen on a Biblical feast day, then which festival would that have been? 

For many years I have heard and I believe that Jesus was really born during the Feast of Tabernacles.  The Feast of Tabernacles, also called Booths or Shelters, comes on the fifteenth of Tishri (September-October), the seventh month according to the Jewish biblical calendar. 

Zachariah the father of John the Baptist was performing his priestly service in the Temple in Jerusalem.  The angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary, “Your relative Elizabeth (wife of Zachariah) has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren, is in her sixth month.” This establishes the fact that John the Baptist is six months older than Jesus.  Zechariah completed his Temple service on the third Sabbath of the Jewish month of Sivan (May-June).  Zechariah then returned home and conceived his son. 

An average gestation term is 40 weeks then go forward to the middle of the first Jewish month of Nisan, which coincides with the Feast of Passover.  Since John was born around the middle of the first Jewish month of Nisan, and he is six months older than Jesus; then the likely date for the birth of Jesus would be the middle of the seventh Jewish month of Tishri (September-October). This is when the Feast of Tabernacles begins. 

This festival celebrates the time when God led His people through the wilderness after delivering them from Egyptian bondage.  When Jesus came, He fulfilled that feast by completing God’s plan of redemption and thus was able to lead God’s people away from the bondage to sin and death.

The Feast of Tabernacles is a mandatory attendance feast, which meant that all Jewish men were required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate it in the Temple. As a result of that there was no room for Mary and Joseph as found in Luke 2:7. 

Other dates claimed to be the dates of Jesus birth are November 18th and March 28th.  Although it is difficult to determine the first time anyone celebrated December 25^th  as Christmas Day, historians are in general agreement that it was sometime during the fourth century.  Christmas was not observed in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, until about 300 years after Christ's death. 

Does it really matter the month that Christ was born?  I think using December 25^th when scholars know that it is not the right date can cause confusion among sceptics.  It would affect the church calendar if December 25^th was not used.  At this point in time the date will never be changed, but we should know the truth.  It does not affect my faith one way or the other which day we celebrate and it should not affect yours.

Jesus told us to celebrate his death in 1^st Corinthians 11:23-26.  “… ‘This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant between God and you, sealed by the shedding of my blood.  Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it’ … you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.”